"Pirate" Radio 270 on film. TPTV

[dave walsh]

Talking Pictures TV [CH 82 F View] is currently running a repeat of yesterdays "Footage Detectives" program [also at 5pm]. It's fronted by Noel [of TPTV] and Mike Read. Viewers send in vintage films to be digitised and broadcast along with the existing vast stock that Noel had rescued and preserved over the years. Often it can be identified and dated by those familiar with the location or occasion. The first item today involves Radio 270 off-shore during stormy conditions near Scarborough, in the sixties. Can't say I ever heard this one but given the interest in the Radio Caroline increased power thread still running on here, I thought I'd give it it a mention. If you've missed the repeat there is a new "catch up" service available!

Dave W

[paulsherwin]

I listened to 270. For some reason it was the strongest signal in Stoke as a kid, despite the distance.

[Sideband]

I knew of it but never heard it in this neck of the woods. Apparently very popular.

[paulsherwin]

Their intended service area was Yorkshire, Teeside and Tyneside, though as I said the signal did travel surprisingly well.

[HamishBoxer]

Certainly remember 270 in the Doncaster area.

[Half a Mullard]

I remember it well. It was our 'local' pirate station, often moored in Bridlington Bay although it was based in Scarborough. The transmitter was only 10kw compared with Radio London which I believe was 50kw. Even so, a very good signal. The station was only on air for about 15 months but made a great impact. I've collected some off air recordings including the final hour before close down. My favourite DJ was a guy called Pete 'Boots' Bowman. Wonder what happened to him.

[Station X]

Google "pirate radio hall of fame" you'll find him there.

[Half a Mullard]

Got it! Looks a very interesting site. Thanks Graham

[KeithsTV]

A work colleague of mine managed to record most of the final day of Radio 270 on August 13th 1967 from 1am to midnight with short gaps where he had to "turn" the tape over or put a new tape on the recorder. Several years ago I digitised these recordings plus several other recordings from Radio 270. There's about 80 hours of recordings in total! Took me ages to copy to the PC.

Keith

[Junk Box Nick]

There is a very interesting book Radio 270: Life on the Oceaan Waves written in 2002 by Bob Preedy who managed to interview many of those involved, including chairman Leonard Dale.

The 270 vessel Oceaan 7 was lined up as a replacement home for Radio Caroline after the original Caroline ships were seized in March 1968 but the plan got out and was thwarted.

The transmitter eventually ended up in the King David, home of the short-lived Capital Radio which broadcast off the Dutch coast in 1970. (The King David is possibly the only ship ever registered in Liechtenstein - and with complete approval of the authorities!)

I listened a little to 270 but I was mainly a Caroline South listener. In my bit of the midlands all the pirates were weak in the daytime. There seemed to be little to pick between them at night but (quoted) transmitter powers, whilst possible from the installed equipment, were as much about attracting advertisers as anything. Whether they ran at full power is another question and they were often backed off at night in an effort to avoid (too many) complaints from legitimate users of the channel – at least in the earlier days.

[paulsherwin]

None of the SE pirates were really listenable in the northern end of Stoke. Caroline North was just about usable but 270 was definitely the best, despite the Pennines being in the way.

[Junk Box Nick]

Caroline was a better daytime signal in the mid 1970s on 963kHz (IIRC – they announced 319m of course!) and were anchored out in the Knock Deep. Came in okay in the dip down the road at Shelton where I was living at the time.

I’ve not looked at a map but perhaps the land path to the Potteries was shorter from Scarborough, or perhaps the ground was more favourable with the Pennines being regularly soaked with rain.

Interestingly, using a similar portable set to that I had in the 1960s I find that in the daytime today’s 4kW erp from Caroline at Orfordness is on a par with that from the Mi Amigo off Frinton using 50kW on 1187kHz - though of course 648kHz is far more favourable to ground wave. However, it is a very easy listen with a small inductively coupled loop alongside and even better now R Wales on 657 has gone. (648 is easily received without assistance on the Hacker Sovereign.)

[2000 type]

I saw the original transmission of the Radio 270 item and was surprised but delighted to see a good friend of mine from the 1960s, Paul Kramer. He was one of the later DJs on the station and appears at the end of the film where they are all on the deck. A tall guy with distinctive black hair.

He also worked for Caroline South and produced a film on the early days of Caroline. This can be found at the East Anglia Film Archive: https://eafa.org.uk/work/?id=2365.

Tragically, he was killed in a hit-and-run incident on Putney Bridge in 1968 so it was a bit of a shock to see him in the Radio 270 film.

[dave walsh]

The death of your friend Paul is a sad example of what I meant [in p1*]. Often film can be identified and dated. In this case you have direct personal knowledge to add as well.

One of my favourite r to r recordings is Dylan's Positively 4th Street fading in and out before I got a chance to hear a better example. I listened to it all the time as a teenager. It was somehow enhanced by the difficulty of managing to do that. It wasn't Luxemburg and there was just one pirate station I could receive [very occasionally] from Bury but I can't recall what it was. I used to play that track over and over again. It was actually easier to pick up a [legal New York SW wave broadcaster on Saturday mornings. Effectively I knew the US Top Twenty before it reached the NME or other music papers

I think the eclectic Dylan recalls the pirates and Radio Luxemburg from his visits to the UK in the sixties. His song Key West is creating a storm on Tour at present. I've a recording from last year.

"I heard all about it, he was goin down slow
I heard it all, the wireless radio

I'm searching for love, for inspiration
On that pirate radio station

Coming out of Luxemburg and Budapest
Radio signals as clear as can be
I'm so deeply in love that I can hardly see"

Dave W

[2000 type]

In 1964 when Caroline started - shortly followed by Radio London (Big Lil) which was the dominant station covering London - I was 18 and the whole thing was hugely exciting. The off-shore stations drove the huge expansion of the pop music and youth industry leading to the Swinging Sixties and the so-called British Invasion of the US music scene which was amusing as much of it was British re-works of originally US material (e.g the Beatles early material and first album).

There was a definite feeling that if people were prepared to put up with the difficulties, inconvenience and sea-sickness to play music for us then the whole thing was important. The fact that it seriously worried government to the extent of jamming in contravention of their own WT Act was a matter of some satisfaction.

Your mention of receiving US medium wave stations brought back memories of listening from home in south London to WNEW, WABC and other east coast 50kW stations on an ex-Navy B28 (Marconi CR100) after midnight when much of the european stations shut down. I still have their QSL cards in response to a report. Not something you can do now!
AFN and VoA Munich on medium wave were also good sources of original US versions of music that just didn't get played here.