Välkommen till
Radiohistoriska arkivet
Kontrolltornet i Farsta. Tel: 0736 13 14 89. Mejl: cliq@tele2.se
Audio restoration and digital migration on all sound samples: Audio Lab Stockholm----
Radio Jackie
A tribute to the memory of
the British offshore stations
that closed down in 1967.
Phil Hazleton, Aug. 14 1977

Sweden Calling DXers

was a weekly programme on Radio Sweden International. It was introduced by Arne Skoog in 1948, and through decades hosted by George Wood. Eventually it became the world’s oldest of its kind, later renamed MediaScan with its final broadcast on July 17, 2001.
During the British offshore radio era, SCDXers also had the courage – in spite of what would be assumed a more "appropriate" procedure of a loyal EBU member – to give detailed reports on the developments on this radio scene.
Here’s
an outdraw of these reports through the years 1964-70.


Ingemar Lindqvist

KLIF
The Ken Lock show, January 4th 1961
KLIF
Russ "Weird Beard" Knight show. 1962

KLIF
The Murphy & Harrigan Show.
Tom Murphy and
"Irving Harrigan"
(Ron Chapman). 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
March 3rd 1962

KLIF jingles
1962 - without vinyl noise/click/cracle
WOR-FM
Radio Nord´s Jack Kotschack
interviewed by Barry Farber. 1963
WMCA-New York
B. Mitchell Reed, 1963
Radio Luxembourg
Fragments from an evening in 1963
Radio Luxembourg
Short programme about Del Shannon
Radio Luxembourg
Tony Prince, Simon Dee and Mark Wesley
telling stories
from Radio Caroline
WABC-New York
Dan Ingram´s own recordings
from the Spring of 1965
Radio Caroline
Steve Young show. Summer of 1967.
Received nighttime in Stockholm on
a regular Philips table-top tube radio
Steve Young continues
- the flipside of this 7" tape reel
Radio Caroline
Appeal For Free Radio (1967)
Radio Caroline +2 years!
Graham Webb -among others-
on a 5¾" reel recorded on
Easter Sunday morning of 1966
Radio London
After flipping that 5¾" reel it´s
Mark Roman on May 2nd 1966
Radio Caroline
Carl Conway interviews Paul Anka
followed by Roger Day, who greets
Mr Anka by playing oldie "Diana"
Radio Caroline North
Mike Marriott - The Late Late Show
Casey´s Coast-to-coast
Casey Kasem´s own production
"American Top 40" August 24th 1974

K100 (KIQQ)
Beaver Cleaver (Ken Levine) 1974

"Dit is Radio Mi Amigo"
Miscellaneous various diversities.
Radio Jackie
A tribute to the memory of
the British offshore stations
that closed down in 1967.
Phil Hazleton, Aug. 14 1977
The Story of Pop Radio
A six parts documentary series
from 1983 produced by Noel
Edmunds for the BBC Radio 1
P1
P2
P3
P4
P5
P6

 

-Welcome all Radio Enthusiasts!

On this page I have gathered the un-Swedish parts of my collection of radio recordings. This web (in Swedish) was introduced on March 2006 as a tribute to the wireless wizards who have given me and so many others so much of happy listening.

Radio had always been my great interest and caught me even more when Radio Nord opened on March 8, 1961. Under leadership of Swedish-Finnish businessman Jack S. Kotschack, Radio Nord was operating from the ship MS Bon Jour anchored on international waters in the Stockholm archipelago. They also had offices and studios in central Stockholm and became very popular with their mix of popular music, deejays and news 24 hours a day. Despite politics and religious issues being banned at the station, it was forced to close down when the Swedish government introduced the “lex Radio Nord” in 1962, criminalizing the act of buying commercials at the station. After merely 16 months, Radio Nord closed down at midnight June 30, 1962. After all those years, Radio Nord still plays an important part in Swedish radio history. The Swedish offshore radio legislation later became the blueprint to the British MOA of 1967 and to other governments that were fighting against free radio in most European countries.

Through the years, seeking for Radio Nord recordings, I also came across a few recordings from Nord's mother-station KLIF 1190 AM, Dallas, Texas. I found all my KLIF recordings on quarter-inch tapes in Jack Kotschack's collection from Radio Nord. He had received them personally from Gordon McLendon as sources of inspiration. So if you happen to find the same recordings on other web pages than mine, just as I sometimes do, you'll know where they have got them.
Speaking of Radio Nord, it's peculiar to find that while Radio Nord used the -then- very modern NAB carts (Spotmaster/Fidelipak), KLIF still used noisy crackly vinyl discs for their jingles / commercials.

I never realised - then - the British offshore radio era, even if Radio London and Caroline, and later Radio Northsea International, were quite clearly receivable, at least late evenings in the Stockholm area where I live. Instead I was stuck on "The Station of The Stars" on 208 through a large part of the sixties - just as my classmates at school.
Anyhow, thanks to friends in Sweden I can share some recordings from Radio Caroline and Radio London with a sound quality I've never heard on recordings from English sources. Perhaps this is because we had to do more efforts to hear these stations, and the conditions could vary a lot.

I try to keep a somewhat chronological track of time, and the next recording is a favourite from 1965 with a good example of fun American high tempo radio with PAMS jingles and the true legend Dan Ingram on "seventy-seven" WABC, New York.

Here's what I consider to be one of my most exciting recordings. It's recorded in Stockholm in night-time in the summer of 1967: The Steve Young show, broadcasting from what had been Radio Nord's ship MS Bon Jour, now serving Radio Caroline and renamed MV Mi Amigo. Steve Young was a Caroline deejay from August of 1966 but left on August 1967 due to the MOA.

More British offshorers - Radio Caroline celebrated their Second Anniversary, but they did it on board the former Swedish offshore radio ship Cheeta 2, owned by Radio Syd, because the MV Mi Amigo had gone aground in January 1966. So from February till May they used the Radio Syd ship. Here's Graham Webb on his best celebration mood amongst his even more festivity mooded mates onboard. On the table to the left there are further recordings of Radio Caroline - all received and recorded in the Stockholm area - but unfortunately no details about time and date.

Let´s go forward some years, and from offshore ships to glorious Hollywood, California. From 1974 I have two different recordings. The first with the legendary Casey Kasem. As he should, he's presenting the "American Top 40" out of Billboards "Hot 100". From that same year we can also hear "Beaver Cleaver" (Ken Levine) on K100.

I think I can speak for many radio enthusiasts in Sweden : through decades we felt that the radio situation in most other countries were much happier than in Sweden. If we really wanted to enjoy radio the way we wanted, we always had to go abroad. Often we found ourselves divided in either the US radio fans, or the British radio fans. Consequently some of us went to the US and some others - like me - went to England. But to me, it wasn't until I was 27 that I went on my first trip to England in 1976, and I really had been eagerly longing for it!

Even if I didn´t go for sun and warmth, I happened to go to Bognor Regis on the south coast, staying on B&B accommodation with a family there for two weeks.
My intention was to study the new Independent Local Radio stations that had been running for 2 years then. Prior to my journey I had very little means to get any clues to these stations, so it wasn't until I was there I experienced that Bognor really wasn´t the best place to be. The nearest ILR station was in Portsmouth; Radio Victory, but they happened to have the sad reputation of lack in audience appreciation and the station would ten years later be closed because of such difficulties.
On-air studio of Radio Victory in 1976
 
My visit at Radio Victory still remains as a dear memory to me even if thirty years has passed. I've heard lots of programmes that has thrilled me more, but to me it's one of my most precious radio souvenirs, the recording I made while sitting in a park in Portsmouth, using a Blaupunkt transistor radio and a regular Philips portable cassette recorder. In those days there were few portable recorders offering any good quality standard - if you didn't want to spend a full years salary on it! I worked as a tape recorder technician specialised on ReVox service, so I had good practice of making adjustments and improvements. So, here's an astonishing, thirty years old cassette, recorded June 22 1976. Also, here are some Radio Victory jingles from "the station that saved you from the BBC" - but lost its franchise from the Independent Broadcasting Authority!

Me and my favourite radio station during its golden years
 

My favourite radio station for many years was London's Capital Radio, above all because of Kenny Everett. Also, I loved their high level of sound quality in those days. I've never before, or after, heard pop radio with that top quality sound. The Capital Radio jingles were productions of a kind of it's own. I went to London on all my summer holidays from 1977 to 1988. Since then I have been to London only twice, and I have been disappointed on both occasions. Capital has lost all they had - it's just a greyish kind of programme outlet now.

On my vacations in London I didn't miss the opportunity to make recordings of the Kenny Everett show. Much can be, and has been said about his tremendous personality! his jingles! his voice artistry! his "Captain Kremmen" adventures! his humour! his "Bee Bop Bonanza" music mixes. I also found friends here in Sweden who were as impressed and inspired as I was on Kenny Everett. We also tried to get aquainted with persons living in London - of course with a motive behind to persuade them to make recordings for us, but this always failed. All of the recordings below are made either by me or by my friends here in Sweden. Sometimes it was very unlucky. In fact it happened me at least twice that the week when I was in London, Kenny Everett was on holiday too, and I could only bring me home a recording of someone sitting-in for Kenny Everett.

The 1977 recording is a mono - the others are in stereo. The "mixture" is a collection of jingles and favourite samples from Capital Radio and the Kenny Everett shows. Edited partly by me and by Thomas Bergstam
Kenny Everett Memory Module
77-03-19
78-06-09
78-08-26
79-02-17
80-06-14
80-06-21
84-06-09
mixture

 

 

Side A + B xxxxxxxxxx+xhhxxxxThere are more diskipoos here>xxx--xx

 

Radio London
Tony Blackburn imitating the
sound of that offshore legend
Kenny Everett often mentioned Tony Blackburn in completely confusing connections. So I think that Tony deserves some extra space.
Capital Gold
Tony Blackburn show
Here's another recording of Tony Blackburn from May 14, 2003, on Capital Gold 1548 kHz.

BBC Radio 2
Kenny Everett´s first
on Radio 2, October 3 1981

For seven years Kenny Everett had been an important icon on Capital Radio, but in 1981 he moved back to the BBC, where he eventually was sacked -for the second time- in 1983, after making a joke about the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

His first appearence on BBC Radio 2 occurred on October 3 1981.

BBC Radio 2
Kenny Everett show
June 19, 1982
BBC Radio 2
Kenny Everett show
September 4, 1982

BBC Radio 2
Kenny Everett show
October 9, 1982
Kenny Everett´s space comedy character Captain Kremmen, a radio and television series where he impersonated the voices of his space staff members: dr. Heinrich von Gitfinger and Kremmens lovely assistant Lady Carla. Also starring, the Kenny Everett voices of: Oliver Sudden, Tim Bucktoo, Gordon Heaven, Lord `Elpus, Claudia Reyesout and Rosie Cheeks
Captain Kremmen
Some episodes from
the radio version of this
space comedy series

BBC Radio 4
Kenny Everett at the Beeb, part 1

BBC Radio 4
Kenny Everett at the Beeb, part 2

"Kenny Everett at The Beeb" - a four parts series on BBC Radio 4.

BBC Radio 4
Kenny Everett at the Beeb, part 3
BBC Radio 4
Kenny Everett at the Beeb, part 4
 

  Capital Radio
December 25th, 2004

Capital Radio celebrated Kenny Everett (December 25, 1944 - April 4, 1995) on what could have been his 60th Birthday. Two hours covering selected parts from his shows on Capital Radio.

Elvis is dead
The first bulletin covering the
breaking news on Capital Radio
On my visit to London this year I happened to have my recorder on when this breaking news was read for the first time by Capital Radio and LBC - August 16, 1977 at 11pm.

Capital Radio
Richard Skinner, August 10, 1988

Capital Radio had a cleaner sound than any other pop radio I´ve heard. British radio seem to have left the high audio standards they still had in 1988 when these two almost simultaneous recordings were made of Richard Skinner and Ken Bruce
BBC Radio 2
Ken Bruce, August 10, 1988
Invicta Radio
Sarah Whatsername, August 1988
Girl´s voices can be thrilling, as on this 1988 recording of Sarah Whatsername on Invicta Radio in Kent.
   
  On July 1978 I attended the pirate radio conference "Zeesenders 20" in Noordwijk, Holland. Nils Thalin gave a lecture on the Radio Nord subject and I participated as engineer for the sound samples. Here's an (edited version) recording of Nils' lecture and the lectures on the subjects of Radio Mercur (Poul Dane) and Radio Syd (Hasse Hansson)..
Nils Thalin and Thomas Schulin at the Flashback 67
pirate radio conference in London, 1977.
 
     
  An incident during the conference was that the carrier from Radio Caroline disappeared and remained so for 36 hours. In between the lectures, this incident was vividly discussed among the anorak people with rumours and fears of what had happened. There were also many deejays and others among us with experiences of life on board the MV Mi Amigo. By a coincidence I started my tape recorder the moment they went back on 319m at 8 p.m. (July 30th). The next morning when I awoke at 8.15 Radio Mi Amigo was back too.
One of the images Thomas Schulin brought home
after a boat trip to MV Mi Amigo on August 1979.
Wanna see some more?