Radio
Adventures
of the
MV Communicator
Its over thirty years ago that I wrote the book "Lid off Laser 558", a story about we set up one of Europe's most successful radio stations, on board a ship!
The book was a great success, just like the radio station, Laser 558, which attracted over five million listeners in the UK and a similar number on the continent. Although very successful, the station was short lived, thanks to a totally inept New York based management who tried to control the station from the Big Apple.
They spent a fortune entertaining prospective advertisers on a series of junkets to Las Vegas but starved the poor DJs out on the ship of food, wages and even water. Eventually the crew mutinied and in true pirate fashion took the ship into port, where I was waiting with a writ!
The ship was sold for a pittance to pay her outstanding bills and her next owner put her back to sea as Laser Hot Hits. he was even less successful and soon she was languishing back in harbour again. Her next owner was Fred Bolland who had run the very successful Radio Monique. He took her to Portugal for a refit as a four station radio giant, but the Dutch secret service got very scared about one of his customers - a fundamental religious organisation called the Underground Church. By spooking the Dutch government's cabinet, the BVD (Dutch sceret police) got permission to take immediate action and mounted an armed raid on the Radio Caroline ship, that crippled the organisation. They also persuaded the Portuguese to stop the Communicator leaving harbour.
A few years later the ship was taken to Holland, given a licence and successfully broadcast with a new high popwer Medium Wave transmitter on 1224AM. Holland FM, Veronica Hit Radio and Q The Beat are just three of the stations that broadcast from the ship. She broadcast legally in Holland for around eight years during which time she made a fortune for her operators.
In 2003 she was sold to a British company and taken to Scotland, the Orkney Islands to be exact, and launched a local radio station from there called the Super Station.
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Now availabe as HARDBACK
or as a SOFTBACK copy |
This is a collection of stories of those eleven radio stations that were heard transmitting from the Communicator at one time or another. They are all "from the horse's mouth" , either the owners, the engineers, the DJs, the suppliers and, in many cases, my own. I also examine the background into the many other projects that planned to transmit from her. The midnight raids, the extortion, the takeovers and of course that other big lure of pirate radio - The Loot!
Among the questions answered are:-
- Why was it on board a ship?
- What qualifications did DJs need to join the ship?
- How did they live and spend their time on board?
- What did they eat and drink ?
- What did they do for recreation?
- Who was the ghost who appeared in the transmitter room?
A fun-filled, action-packed tale of
dramatic events on the High Seas.
Over 200 pages of swashbuckling excitement!
To get a copy you can either order it at your local bookshop (ISBNs are below) or order via Amazon, or direct from the publishers who can get me to personally sign it and put in whatever dedication you wish. Find it at the
WorldofPages web site. An excellent idea for a Christmas present perhaps?
Radio Adventures
of the MV Communicator
by Paul Alexander Rusling.
Published by World of Radio Ltd
ISBN Hardback 978-1-900401-14-2
Softback 978-1-900401-12-8
