THE RADIO NORTHSEA INTERNATIONAL TRIBUTE PAGE 3

The Radio Northsea International Tribute Pages

An in-depth look at the story of Europes most popuar and controversial radio station.

Chapter 3 - Anchors Away!

Carl Mitchell

In the late afternoon of March 23rd, djs aboard the Mebo 2 made an announcement that was to surprise and delight the stations' growing English audience. RNI was moving over to the UK. Whereupon the Mebo raised her anchor and set sail for the English coast, continuing to broadcast as she went. DJ Alan West described the atmosphere on board ship at that time as "Electric". He compared the experience to that of re-living the famous Johnnie Walker speech which described the Radio Caroline ship sailing victoriously up the River Thames towards the nations' capital. In thanking the people of Holland for their help and support, DJ Carl Mitchell said:

"To the people of Great Britain, we can only say - We are on our way!"

At approximately 9:00am the following morning, the Mebo 2 dropped anchor in the Barrow deep, close by the Gunfleet Sands, a distance of just over 9 Km from Clacton-On-Sea, Essex, in a close to the spot formerly occupied by the mv Mi Amigo, home of Radio Caroline. Free Radio had come home.

The crossing from the Dutch coast, had been plain sailing, but there was stormy weather ahead for RNI. It was claimed that her medium-wave transmitter was causing serious interference to communications at the Walton-On-The-Naze coastguard station, which had duly increased, by a factor of ten, the power of their own transmissions on 183 meters in order to reach lightships and Trinity House vessels. At 1:25pm on March 27th, an announcement was made over the air apologising to all concerned, and the medium-wave transmitter was then switched off. Broadcasts continued on short-wave until April 1st, when a breakdown forced the station off the air completely. After a gap of 10 days, RNI was back with a new medium-wave frequency, 1578kHz, 190 meters, and simultaneous transmissions on FM 102 mHz.

With the interference problem seemingly resolved, RNI set about re-building her audience. A revised programme schedule came into being, with German broadcasts being heard between 5:30am and 7:00am and again between 8:00pm and 11:00pm. English broadcasts were made between 7:00am and 8:00pm and 11:00pm until 2:00am.
A controversial idea brought the station press attention when on 29th March 1970, the Sunday Express reported that listeners had been invited to send in do-it-yourself contributions on tape, to be broadcast over the air. This brought a swift, but predictable response from the authorities. A Post Office Official told the newspaper:

"People who take part may find themselves in trouble. There is a risk of being prosecuted,"

Meanwhile, aboard the Mebo 2, the way ahead for RNI generally seemed set fair. But it was not to be.