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Ed Laney. In June 1964 radio amateur
Eric Davies was tuning around the dial when he discovered a very distorted signal on the
160 metre band. After listening closely he discovered that it was a new offshore station
testing on a medium wave frequency but also sending out this unwanted harmonic as well.
Eric telephoned the number he heard mentioned, intending to complain about this intrusion
onto the amateur band. His call was answered by one Tom Pepper. Pepper was the boss of
the new station, Radio Invicta, and he offered Eric a job as an engineer. So very soon
after, Eric found himself on Red Sands Fort in the Thames estuary helping to get things
ready for the station's July launch. Once Invicta was on the air, all members of the
team were expected to present programmes, including the engineers. Each used a number of
different aliases in an effort to make it appear a bigger operation than it really was.
Eric was referred to as “six foot three inch Swedish giant Eric Peterson” despite
not being a giant or Swedish and he also presented programmes as Ed Laney. It was a fairly
basic and dangerous existence on the fort in those early days and on one occasion Eric had
to be taken off by lifeboat after a winch fell on his foot. He stayed with the station until
November but, with the seas getting rougher and the finances looking somewhat uncertain,
decided that it was time to move on. He wrote a fascinating article about his time with Radio
Invicta for the December 1999 issue of the Reading
and District Amateur Radio Club journal, from which most of this information and the
photograph have been taken. Sadly Eric has since died. Des Howlett of the Reading and District
Amateur Radio Club wrote in July 2003: “Eric died last year. Very suddenly and causing a lot of
shock to all of us who knew him. He was a fantastic person who would take time to help anyone
who needed it (even though he had 30 or 40 years on most of us). Amongst the Radio
Amateurs of Reading he is sorely missed.” (Thanks to Des Howlett and Chris Catt
for their help. We previously reported that Eric had also broadcast as Tony
Silver. This is incorrect. Our apologies for this error.)
Bob Larkins Born in Tasmania in 1938, Bob had been an actor and
a commercial copywriter, as well as doing some work on station HOFM in Hobart, before coming to Britain in 1962. He worked
at the Mermaid Theatre in London, as did other future Caroline colleagues Gerry Burke and
Nick Bailey. In February 1965 Bob joined the team at Caroline House, working as a
scriptwriter and arranging interviews with the stars. According to his daughter Rachel: “Family legend has it
that he bluffed his way into the job. He had previous experience working at HOFM but not quite as much as he made out but
I guess with his Irish blood he was able to talk his way into a job and almost immediately found himself interviewing
Alfred Hitchcock.” As well as presenting these star interviews, in August 1966 Bob became a newsreader on the South
ship for a few months. With a growing family, he returned to Australia and took a job with the Education Department in
Tasmania, writing copy for departmental publications. He still found time to do voice-over work for local radio
stations and took the occasional acting job, playing a manic boat driver in a film called Save The Lady. He also
wrote a book about
the Australian actor Chips Rafferty. When his marriage broke up he moved to Sydney where he was employed by Channel 10
television and, later, by the ABC. He died of cancer in July 1999. (With many thanks to Rachel Larkins for most
of the above information and to Ken Guy for putting us in touch. The photo is courtesy of Bob's Caroline colleague
Keith Hampshire who writes: “I thought you might like this photo of Bob Larkins
to add to your web site. He was a great guy. May he rest in peace.” Our thanks to Keefers.)
Bob Larkins reading a 12.30pm headline news bulletin from August 1966 on Radio Caroline South. The headline bulletin was
little more than a trailer for the main news bulletin which included greater detail and was broadcast half an hour later.
This clip is taken from the Offshore Echo's
tape Offshore Classics vol.27 and is used with kind permission (duration 58
seconds)
Dominic LeFoe Radio 390's daytime
output was very much aimed at a housewife audience with its title of ‘Eve the woman's
magazine of the air’ but outside these prime time hours the station catered for a wider
audience. In 1966 it launched a unique evening magazine programme for people involved in
industry, farming or commerce. Called The Voice Of Business, it was unlike any other
show on British radio at the time, either offshore or BBC, in that it was totally aimed at a
business audience. It was presented by Dominic LeFoe with help from Brian
Cullingford and the well-known newsreel commentator Leslie Mitchell. Dominic LeFoe was
an actor who had appeared in the trail blazing 1953 TV drama The Quatermass Experiment. He had other jobs in parallel to his stage
career, including that of journalist, parliamentary correspondent, antiques dealer and public
relations consultant. In 1966 he was Director General of the Commonwealth Migration Council.
This was a part-time post and he was looking around for something else to occupy his time.
A colleague pointed out a personal ad in The Times. Radio 390 was looking for a presenter for
its new business programme. Dominic applied, was interviewed by Managing Director
Ted Allbeury, and was given the job on the spot. The Voice
of Business was recorded on land but Dominic did make a couple of visits out to Radio 390's
fort which he describes as “great fun”. He and his colleagues produced 130 editions
of The Voice of Business. It was broadcast every weekday evening with a weekend omnibus
edition. Although the programme was run without commercial breaks, it covered its costs in an
innovative way. Many of the industrialists interviewed on the programme wanted tape copies of the
show. Radio 390 duplicated them for a fee of £5 a copy. Following a court case in November
1966 the station closed down and the programme's run was abruptly terminated. Believing that
it was outside territorial waters, Radio 390 did resume broadcasts at the end of the year but
the show did not return. Dominic continued his interesting and varied life, running
The Players Theatre company
for thirty years. It provided a home for Victorian music hall in London and played host to BBC
TV's The Good Old Days. (Many thanks to Dominic for his help and to
Richard Winch.)
The start of an edition of The Voice of Business on Radio 390 from November 1966. It is
only a very short clip and the tape ‘wows’ badly. If anyone can provide a better
recording, please
get
in touch. Many thanks to David Sinclair for this tape (duration 26 seconds)
A promotion for an edition of The Voice of Business on Radio 390 from 1966. Recording
kindly contributed by Martyn Webster (duration 14 seconds)
Jerry Leighton Born in London in 1936,
Jerry was brought up in Canada before returning to the UK in 1955. He worked as a fashion
designer, compère, singer, comedian and script writer before joining the mv.Fredericia,
the original Radio Caroline ship off the Essex coast. When Caroline merged with the rival
Radio Atlanta, Jerry stayed on the Fredericia as she sailed north. Along with
Tom Lodge and Alan Turner, the three
remained on the air for a unique long-distance broadcast, as the ship travelled to
her new anchorage off the Isle Of Man. Known as Jerry “Soopa” Leighton, he
presented The Leighton Early Show on Caroline North and was senior disc-jockey. He used a
number of different theme tunes including: Country Line Special by Cyril Davies,
Hallelujah Gathering by the Geoff Love Orchestra and Super-Duper Man by
Jimmy Cross. For a time in 1965 Jerry left the ship to work in Caroline House, London. In
1966 The Beatles toured America and three offshore DJs accompanied them to send back reports.
Kenny Everett went from Radio London, Ron
O'Quinn from “Swinging” Radio England and Jerry went from Caroline.
(You can hear one of Jerry's reports on the Rick Dane
audio clip.) Jerry Leighton left Caroline in 1967 and has dropped from view. He has
not kept in touch with his former colleagues and his current whereabouts are unknown.
Keith Skues's excellent book Pop Went The Pirates
says that after Caroline he ran an antiques business in Southampton with his wife. Another
report claims that he managed the London Playboy Club for a time. But where is he now?
As with all the inductees in The Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame,
any further information
would be very gratefully received. (Many thanks to George Morris for the revised
theme tune details.)
Jerry on The Leighton Early Show on Radio Caroline North, 25th August 1965. Tape
kindly provided by Stuart Russell (duration 1 minute 53 seconds)
Mike Lennox Born in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1940, Mike attended
college in Texas where he completed a course in “basic radio and television microphone technique”. At the
end of his student days, he returned to Canada and became a DJ on a small local station in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba.
From there he moved to a couple of other stations before heading south to Bermuda, where he met up with
Duncan Johnson. Mike came to Britain and worked as a model and acted in various TV
and film commercials. He also had a bit-part in the Peter Cushing film Doctor Who and the Daleks. His
old colleague, Duncan, suggested he should join Radio London and, in November 1965, he did. Known as “The
Marshall”, he took over the Breakfast Show when Dave Cash moved on. His theme tune
was the Herb Albert's Tijuana Brass version of I'm Getting Sentimental Over You. Mike remained a
major member of the Radio London team up until the end, although for a time he left the ship to work for the station
on land. During this period ashore he also found time to appear in another film, playing a disc-jockey in Rita
Tushingham's A Smashing Time. Following the anti-pirate legislation he did work very briefly for
the BBC and appeared in another British film, The Best House In London, but then moved back to Canada. He
is now living in Grande Prairie, Alberta, where he deals in real estate. There are more photos of Mike in
Dave Hawkins' and Willy Walker's photo albums and a recent
one, taken in Australia by his old Radio London colleague Norman St.John,
here.
The Marshall talking to the “guys and gals, little ones and kittens” on
Radio London from Sunday evening 23rd July 1967. Tape courtesy of
Ray Andrews (duration 2 minutes
41 seconds)
Bob Le Roi was born in Canterbury, Kent, in May 1949. He first got
involved with offshore radio while still at school. Radio City's station manager Eric K Martin asked him to help
out by making “tender tapes”. These were pre-recorded programmes which were played on air while the
supply tender was visiting the station. Everybody was needed to help unload the boat and haul everything up the tower
so the DJ had to abandon his live programme and play a tape instead. In March 1965 Bob was invited out to the Radio City
fort to present his first live shows. Aged 15, he was the youngest DJ on offshore radio at the time. His first theme
tune was by Valerie Mountain & The Eagles from their Some People EP, later replaced by the George Martin
Orchestra's All Quite on the Mersey Front. During the seventies Bob provided some taped programmes for Radio
Caroline. He has since been heard on BBC local radio and a number of commercial stations, including Invicta Radio,
Southern Radio, Channel Travel Radio and Medway FM, where he was also Programme Director. He has taken part in some
of the Radio London restricted service re-creations and similar ones for Radio Northsea. He has also been heard
on a daily programme in Malta on Calypso FM. For more details see www.bobleroi.co.uk. In May 2004 Bob organised a reunion to mark the fortieth anniversary of Radio
Sutch and Radio City. There are pictures on his site. (Many thanks to Bob for the information, the photo and the recording.)
a short clip of Bob Le Roi on Radio City from 1965. Tape courtesy of the man himself
(duration 45 seconds)
Tom Lodge was destined to work in broadcasting. His
grand-father, Sir Oliver Lodge, was one of the pioneers of wireless telegraphy. Tom was born in Forest
Green, Surrey, in 1936 but his family moved to America when he was four. He came back to the UK for his
schooling but, on his 18th birthday, sailed to Canada where he worked as a cowboy. He spent two years on an
expedition into the frozen wastes of the Canadian Arctic, an experience he later wrote about in his book Beyond
the Great Slave Lake. He joined CBC, the Canadian state broadcaster, and after working for them in Canada
was posted to London. A chance meeting with Radio Caroline's founder Ronan O'Rahilly in a pub led to
Tom joining the new station off the coast of East Anglia in 1964, just after the first broadcast. When the ship
sailed to the Isle Of Man to become Radio Caroline North, it was Jerry Leighton,
Alan Turner and Tom who kept broadcasting during the journey. (You can
hear some of Tom on this historic broadcast on the Alan Turner audio clip.)
Tom stayed on the North ship through most of 1965 but transferred to the South ship when Ronan O'Rahilly
bought out his partner towards the end of the year. He was aboard the south ship, the mv.Mi Amigo, on the night in
January 1966 when she lost her anchor and was washed up on the beach. He presented the Breakfast Show on
both ships and was senior DJ / Programme Controller. He used two different versions of the same tune for his
theme: Rinky Dink by both the Johnny Howard Band and by Sounds Incorporated, as well as the latter
group's I'm Coming Through. After leaving Caroline Tom worked briefly for the BBC before returning
to Canada where he worked in radio for a time, became Head of Communications at the University of Ontario, farmed
jojoba nuts in Costa Rica, wrote a second book Success Without Goals, set up the International Breatherapy
Association, managed his son's pop group, The Corndogs, and worked with a Californian project called Radio
One Earth. In 1995 he moved back to the UK and was heard on Caroline's low powered “restricted service”
broadcasts in Clacton, London and Kent. Tom has now returned to America where he operates the
UmiSatsang.org web-site. Tom features in some of
the pictures in Keith Hampshire's photo album and he has also very kindly provided
some fantastic photographs and items of memorabilia from his own collection. See Tom Lodge's
photo album. Tom has written a book about his time at sea, part of which he has allowed us to include on
The Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame. See The Radio Caroline Story.
The book is also available to buy, either in printed form or as an
audio book read by Tom himself.
Tom was interviewed over the phone on the Radio Caroline satellite service on Easter Sunday 2004. He discussed his time on
the ships, his memories of the station and his book. The interview was so well received that he was asked to provide
regular programmes. He did this for a few years with the help of his son Tom Lodge Junior but, by now 70 years old, he
bowed out at Easter 2007.
Tom Lodge on the Radio Caroline North Breakfast Show, 12th July 1965. Tape courtesy
of Ray Andrews (duration 2 minutes 10
seconds)
Adrian Love Born in York on 3rd August 1944, Adrian was the son of
band leader Geoff Love. After finishing his education his first job was working in a tailor's shop but he did not
stay long. He then joined the music business, dealing with artist management and music publishing. He also played bass in
various jazz bands and a symphony orchestra before applying for a job with Radio City in 1966. Despite his lack of
broadcasting experience, the station gave him a chance and Adrian ended up presenting the Breakfast Show from the
“tower of power.” When City closed down he moved to the BBC Light Programme, then the World Service and, for
a while, ran the United Biscuits Network, a factory radio station which employed a number of former pirate DJs.
London's LBC launched in 1973 and, shortly afterwards, Adrian joined to present a phone-in show. From there
he moved to Capital Radio. He was later heard on BBC Radios One and Two, British Forces Broadcasting, County Sound,
Jazz FM, Classic FM and BBC Southern Counties Radio. In 1998 he was involved in a serious car accident and, although he
survived the crash, his health was never the same again and he died in March 1999. There is an obituary on the
BBC web-site. In 2007
he was inducted into the Radio Academy Hall
of Fame. (Thanks to James Pringle for some of the information above. This photo dates from Adrian's time
with Capital Radio. Does anyone have a picture - or more audio - from his pirate past?)
a short extract from an Adrian Love news bulletin on Radio City, December 1966, kindly
provided by Harm Koenders of The Offshore Radio Archive (duration 51 seconds)
Mick Luvzit is the DJ who got married
live on air. Born on 24th February 1944 in Portage La Prairie, Mantitoba, Canada, he was a
talented musician, winning a violin competition at the age of 14. He worked for a number of
Canadian radio stations, including CKY, CHWO, CHIC, CHUM and CFGM before heading for the UK. He
initially joined Caroline South in June 1966 before moving to the North ship. He was welcomed
by the listeners and received over a thousand fan letters in his first week on air. His theme
was Tune Up by Junior Walker and the All Stars. While working on Caroline North he met
Janet, the sister of a fellow Caroline DJ “Ugli” Ray Teret.
They began dating and there was talk of marriage. Always looking for a way to promote the station,
Mick suggested that they should capitalise on the romantic idea of being married at sea by a
ship's captain and tie the knot on board the mv.Fredericia. The wedding took place on 20th
September 1966, performed by the Caroline captain Martin Gips and with a commentary on Caroline
North from news-chief Graham Webb. (For more about the
wedding, see this article and Mick's photo album.)
Sadly the marriage was not to last and they divorced during the seventies. Steve
Young brought us up to date during 2000: “Mick Luvzit is living in Vancouver. He broadcasts for a
Christian radio station located just across the border in Washington State. They built a studio
for him in his home and he works from there.” In February 2001 Mick himself contacted
The Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame to say: “I'm busy putting
together my studio here in my home so I can do some radio shows for the UK and Ireland.” In
December 2001 the first of these took place when Mick guested on Kenny Tosh's programme on
Belfast's CityBeat FM. This was followed by a live show on CityBeat in August 2002 when Mick
was visiting the UK for a DJ reunion. There are pictures of the reunion on the
Offshore Radio Guide and
Radio London web sites.
Mick also helped to organise another DJ reunion in Vancouver in July 2004. There are photos
here. (This photo shows Mick singing his song ‘Long Time Between Lovers’
at a Caroline Night Out at the Wimbledon Palais in 1966. Many thanks to Mick for supplying it.)
Mick Luvzit from his 3-6pm show on Radio Caroline North, 2nd June 1967. The tape
has kindly been provided by Steve Kirby (duration 3 minutes 2 seconds)
