Radio 270 Augustus 1967, 3 uren.

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Opnames met verbeterde geluidskwaliteit  <aging anorak ears. >

 

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Drie uren Radio 270. Tussen juni 66 en augustus 67 was daar opeens als donderslag bij heldere hemel Radio 270, in internationale wateren voor het graafschap Yorkshire. Wat mij opviel was het “keiharde†signaal op 1115 khz 270 meters middengolf vergeleken met de 50 kw van Big L inclusief hinderlijk off channel fluitje bij Big L. Overdag een vrijwel vlekkeloze ontvan

gst, s avonds zakte dat ook weg onder de sterke legale rivalen op 1115khz. Maar ja, zie de kaart van Nederland en Engeland en Yorkshire en Groningen liggen vrijwel op gelijke hoogte met bijna alleen maar water ertussen. Hetzelfde  echter in iets mindere mate met Radio Scotland.

270 was “cash and carry†radio met veel ‘mom and pop’ commercials veelal live on air gelezen door de deejays, ze hadden geen gebrek aan tekst en brachten de meest uiteenlopende spullen aan de man maar vooral aan de vrouw. Het schip Oceaan 7 was een notedop daarbuiten en werd vaak gered door simpelweg naar land te varen, overigens ook Radio Hauraki New Zealand hanteerde deze methode om tragedies op zee te voorkomen, Hauraki bleef echter gewoon doorzenden als ze weer eens op het Great Barrier Island lagen te schuilen.

 

Hieronder een goed verhaal van Wiki over 270 met bijna alle feiten en data:

 

 

Radio 270

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Radio 270 was a Please login or register to see this link. station serving Please login or register to see this link. and the North East of Please login or register to see this link. from 1966 to 1967. It broadcast from a converted Please login or register to see this link. lugger called Oceaan 7 positioned in international waters off Please login or register to see this link. , Please login or register to see this link. .^{Please login or register to see this link.}

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Radio 270 car window sticker from 1967

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Origins[Please login or register to see this link. ]

In 1965 a group of Yorkshire businessmen formed a consortium to establish an offshore radio station to broadcast to the North East coast from a location off Scarborough. 28 year old Don Robinson, an entertainments promoter, began the venture with Bill Pashby (a fishing boat skipper), Roland Hill (a poultry farmer) and Leonard Dale (owner of the Dale Electrics business at Gristhorpe). These recruited Please login or register to see this link. , owner of a chain of supermarkets and a former Conservative MP. The venture was incorporated within a Please login or register to see this link. named Ellambar Investments Ltd.

In late 1965, Proudfoot addressed a public meeting at a Scarborough hotel in which he invited the public to subscribe for shares in the business. He indicated that the venture was a high risk one and that nobody should expect a commercial return on the money they put in. Around sixty people did subscribe with the largest single shareholding being held by Proudfoot himself. Leonard Dale became Chairman of the company while Proudfoot became its managing director.

Don Robinson and Bill Pashby both initially occupied prominent roles in what soon became known as Radio 270. Robinson prepared the first programme plan for the station which adopted a mixture of light music and lifestyle material. It was intended to provide an "up-market" offering which would compete directly with the BBC's Please login or register to see this link. . Pashby was the station's first "Maritime Director" and it was he that picked out a suitable vessel for use as a broadcasting platform and supervised its fitting out.^{Please login or register to see this link.}

However, the business side of the operation fell increasingly under the control of Wilf Proudfoot. The station's management was run from an office in the Scalby Road, Scarborough headquarters of the Proudfoot supermarket business. The station's office manager was Maggie Lucas, a long standing associate of Proudfoot who had acted as his secretary when he had been the Member of Parliament for Cleveland from 1959 to 1964. Proudfoot became uncomfortable with the planned programming and he engaged the services of Noel Miller as Programme Director. Miller had previous experience of commercial radio in Australia and he adopted a simple style of programming based on a Top 40 format.

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An aerial view of Scarborough: South Bay, with fishing harbour to the left

A planned opening date of 1 April 1966 had to be abandoned when the station's vessel, Oceaan 7, shed its radio mast. However, the station finally opened in June, broadcasting on 1115 Please login or register to see this link. , 269 metres, in the medium wave. This wavelength was used by some existing radio stations in southern and eastern Europe but these were too far away for Radio 270 to cause them any trouble. However, the frequency was close to Please login or register to see this link. on 1133 kHz, resulting in the potential for mutual interference on radios with less precise tuning.

The initial results were highly successful. The station's broadcasts could be received over a large tract of eastern England from Please login or register to see this link. in the north to Please login or register to see this link. in the south, containing as many as 15 million people. It even gained some listeners in the Netherlands. Its continuous pop music format attracted a regular audience which various estimates placed between 1.5 and 4 millions.

The station charged a basic £30 for a 30 second advertising spot. It was very successful in attracting advertising for local businesses and events in the Please login or register to see this link. area. Even Scarborough Borough Council paid for twelve 15 second adverts to announce events in the town's Festival of Norway. However, big-ticket advertising for national businesses proved elusive. The largest single paying advertiser was the Please login or register to see this link. which purchased a nightly 30 minute slot for a fee of around £300 per week. This covered most of Radio 270's payroll. The nightly Please login or register to see this link. contained the preaching of evangelist Please login or register to see this link. .

The second largest advertiser was the Proudfoot supermarket business. This created a complex financial situation in which there were two-way transfer charges between Radio 270 and Proudfoot for reciprocal services rendered.

Oceaan 7[Please login or register to see this link. ]

In 1965, the promoters of Radio 270 identified a Dutch built fishing lugger named Oceaan VII as being suitable for their purposes. This was acquired for £2,500.

The Oceaan VII was built in the Netherlands in 1939 and had spent most of its life operating out of the Belgian port of Please login or register to see this link. . During Please login or register to see this link. it had been commandeered by the German occupation authorities. It was approximately 118 feet long and 160 tonnes in displacement. The vessel was refitted in the east coast port of Please login or register to see this link. before being brought to Scarborough where it was renamed Oceaan 7. The refit involved the addition of 20 tonnes of permanent ballast in the hull in order to give extra stability. The vessel was fitted with a 150 feet high radio mast and a 10 kW RCA BTA 10J1 transmitter. The vessel's main engine was a four cylinder 240 hp diesel. Two newly installed 50 kva Dale Marine generators supplied all electricity needed for operational purposes.

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Oceaan 7 off Scarborough in 1966

There were two studios on board, one for presenting programmes and one for news. Accommodation for crew and broadcasting staff was both confined and spartan. Living quarters consisted of a bunk room with a dining table in the middle. Food was provided from a communal galley. The entire cost of acquiring and fitting out the vessel was £75,000. The crewing was initially planned to be on a one month rotation basis. The ship's entire eight man crew including the captain were switched every month. Broadcasting staff, including Please login or register to see this link. , initially worked on a two week rotation basis.^{Please login or register to see this link.}

The Oceaan 7 was among the smallest of the pirate radio ships at that time. By way of comparison, Please login or register to see this link. broadcast from the 650 tonne Please login or register to see this link. positioned in the Thames estuary. Oceaan 7's initial location off Scarborough allowed its signal to be widely received over the North of England but left the vessel totally exposed to storms in the Please login or register to see this link. .

Oceaan 7 was registered in Honduras in the name of Radio 270's Programme Director Noel Miller (an Australian national). This effectively placed the vessel beyond the reach of the British authorities. Most pirate radio ships were kept supplied from shore by tender. However Oceaan 7's small size allowed it to periodically enter Please login or register to see this link. and Scarborough harbours for re-supply purposes. The visits to harbour were usually carried out in the early hours of the morning in order to avoid disruption to broadcasting and to minimise the chances of intervention by the authorities.

Operations, 1966 to 1967[Please login or register to see this link. ]

Although Radio 270 quickly established itself as a successful local radio station, its affairs soon became complicated. Various factors contributed to this.

Oceaan 7 was very small for the purpose to which it was being put. The cramped living accommodation and lack of privacy on board soon caused tensions among the personnel. It proved difficult to maintain the vessel in position off Scarborough as the winter storms came. In November 1966 one storm was so severe that waves were breaking over the vessel's deck and water entered the living quarters and studio. The station carried on broadcasting through the early part of the storm although the presenters were obviously in fear for their lives. Listeners on-shore (including 270 staff member Paul Burnett) were horrified by what was happening. In the aftermath of the storm, the station went off the air for 8 days while repairs were carried out.

Some of the shareholders became concerned about the degree to which Radio 270's business was being integrated within that of Proudfoot's. Issues relating to the latter's management style were raised.

Conditions of employment and rates of pay were not generous. Consequently, there were a series of disputes with personnel and staff turnover rates became high. Matters came to a head after the November storm when Proudfoot was approached by three disc jockeys (including the 19 year old Andy Kirk) with a demand that Oceaan 7 should move its station to a more sheltered location in Bridlington Bay or put into harbour whenever bad weather threatened. Kirk had previously conveyed his concerns about safety to the local press. Proudfoot summarily dismissed all three of the DJs.^{Please login or register to see this link.}

A number of the shareholders now became restless and two attempts were made to oust Proudfoot from his post of managing director. Both of these attempts failed. Bill Pashby resigned as Maritime Director "...fed up with the continuous sackings of the crew". Proudfoot eventually responded to these concerns by moving Oceaan 7's position to Bridlington Bay while moving to a one week staff rotation for most on-board personnel. The move to Bridlington Bay gave more settled conditions but it worsened reception of Radio 270's signal across large parts of its audience catchment area.

"The living conditions on the Radio 270 ship were not pleasant. It was extremely cramped. To add to their discomfort, some of the DJs were prone to sea-sickness. Paul Burnett even endured the ultimate indignity of throwing up live on air (while reading a commercial for Proudfoot bacon). There was a high turnover of disc-jockeys and a certain amount of technical trouble, both of which upset the investors. On a couple of occasions Wilf Proudfoot had to contend with stormy shareholders meetings. However he survived their attempts to oust him." - from the history of Radio 270^{Please login or register to see this link.}

By early 1967, Radio 270's affairs seemed to be stabilising and it was reported that the station was breaking-even financially.^{Please login or register to see this link.}

Close down[Please login or register to see this link. ]

The pirate radio stations attracted opposition from within the British political establishment. It was claimed that their broadcasts interfered with emergency service communications, and this led to enactment of the Please login or register to see this link. of 1967, which took effect at midnight on 14 August of that year. This Act prohibited the management, funding, support or supply of pirate radio ships from the British mainland.

The pirate stations campaigned against the Act during the early months of 1967. Radio 270 was prominent in this campaign and its contributions to the campaign took on an overtly political dimension. A group of Conservative MPs and activists became involved with Radio 270. These included the MP for Please login or register to see this link. , Please login or register to see this link. . The station gave airtime to a number of political causes including a broadcast by Wall in which he advocated British recognition of the white minority UDI regime in Please login or register to see this link. . Radio 270 broadcast advertisements supporting Please login or register to see this link. party candidates in the Scarborough municipal elections of 1967. Please login or register to see this link. , then Chairman of the Please login or register to see this link. Conservative Society, made regular half hour current affairs broadcasts. Proctor went on to have a controversial career as a Conservative MP and prominent member of the Please login or register to see this link. .

This appeared to harden the Labour government's resolve to deal with the pirates. Please login or register to see this link. Please login or register to see this link. stated about Radio 270 that "It is the first time in peacetime that this country has been subjected to a stream of misleading propaganda from outside our territorial waters and I do not think this is a matter for joking".^{Please login or register to see this link.}

As 14 August approached, it was initially suggested that Radio 270 could continue broadcasting but with Oceaan 7 being supplied from the Netherlands and the station's management being shifted to that country. However, it was soon realised that this was not a viable option. DJ Vince "Rusty" Allen closed the station at one minute to midnight on 14 August 1967.^{Please login or register to see this link. Please login or register to see this link.}

Aftermath[Please login or register to see this link. ]

On 15 August Oceaan 7 sailed up the coast to Whitby. It was laid up there whilst a buyer was sought. It was advertised for sale via Tuckley and Co, a local estate agent with a reputation for amusing property ads. Various enquiries were received from prospective buyers including one from the operators of Please login or register to see this link. , whose own ships had been seized by creditors. However, none of these enquiries resulted in a sale. The transmitter and other broadcasting equipment from Radio 270 were placed in storage and in 1970 found their way to the Dutch-based pirate Please login or register to see this link. (which had no connection to Please login or register to see this link. ). Oceaan 7 was scrapped in 1969.

The proceeds from the disposal of the vessel and its equipment raised a total of around £12,500. By the time creditors had been paid off there was no cash available to allow a significant return of capital to the Radio 270 shareholders. As far as is known, none of the shareholders ever achieved a direct financial return on their investment.

Wilf Proudfoot stood as the Conservative candidate in the marginal Please login or register to see this link. constituency of Please login or register to see this link. , where he ousted the sitting Labour MP Please login or register to see this link. by a majority of only 59 votes.^{Please login or register to see this link.} The closure of the pirate radio stations is believed to have been a key issue in a number of marginal seats. Proudfoot himself lost his seat in the Please login or register to see this link. . Thereafter he spent some time in the USA where he trained as a hypnotist in Los Angeles. He later established the Proudfoot School of Clinical Hypnotism and Psychotherapy based in Scarborough.^{Please login or register to see this link.}

Don Robinson continued his career as an events promoter and entrepreneur. He is credited with having saved Please login or register to see this link. ('The Tigers') from extinction in 1982 when he bought the club out of receivership. As club Chairman from 1982 to 1989 he presided over a revival in the club's financial and football fortunes that saw it enjoy a series of league promotions.^{Please login or register to see this link.} The newly promoted Hull City narrowly retained its Please login or register to see this link. status in the 2008/09 football season.

Many former Radio 270 staff, such as Please login or register to see this link. , Please login or register to see this link. , Please login or register to see this link. and Mark Wesley went on to enjoy distinguished careers in mainstream broadcasting. The station's office manager, Maggie Lucas, went on to become secretary to the Chairman of the Please login or register to see this link. . Although Radio 270's life was brief, it had a significant impact on North East England and many tributes