Tim Yale (also sometimes spelt Yail or Yaill.) Born in Putney, London, in 1945, his first radio work was on Radio Essex where he used the name Graham Johns. He became Tim Yale when he transferred to Radio Caroline South and kept the name as he moved on to Radio Scotland. Following his time at sea he worked in the music business as a record plugger for both Robbins Music and Penny Farthing Records but his present whereabouts are unknown. The Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame has been trying to track him down, so far without success. As always, any further information would be very welcome. (With thanks to George Morris for the photo.)

The Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame needs your

Peter York Born 2nd May 1948 in Stoke on Trent, Peter went to Lawton Hall school in Cheshire. He became a DJ at the Embassy Club in Stoke in 1964 before heading south. For two years he worked at the Top Rank in Southampton and won the Melody Maker Award for South Coast DJ Of the Year. He joined Radio City in 1966. His offshore career was short but, since then, he has been heard on a number of stations, including Radio One and the BBC World Service. A correspondent to The Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame, Paul Kay, writes: “In the mid to late seventies, Peter did the Early Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Birmingham. During his latter days with the station, he also did occasional overnights and late night swing shifts on Wolverhampton's Beacon. In the early eighties, I believe Peter went to work at BBC Radio Oxford.” In June 2007, we heard from Peter's son Richard who reported that Peter is currently the radio mic presenter at Coventry Speedway and Stock Car Stadium and announcer at Birmingham Speedway. Thanks to Paul and Richard for the information. (This photograph dates from the seventies. Does anyone have a picture of Peter from his pirate days?)

Hal Yorke was the studio manager and second in command on Radio 270 at the time of its launch in 1966. Born in York in 1937, his real name is Norman Wingrove and he was an actor before turning to radio. He says: “I never gave up the theatre. Radio 270 was an interesting temporary interlude and I am afraid I was never really a disc-jockey. Radio 270 was in reality just another acting job, albeit I was not too keen for others in the profession to know about it, hence the alias ‘Hal Yorke’. That name was invented by Jane, the Radio 270 secretary, who had also been a professional actress and whom I first met as a fellow member of Stephen Joseph's Theatre in the Round at the Scarborough Library Theatre in 1962 or 1963.” Hal presented the afternoon show on the first Radio 270 programme schedule. His theme tune was Man Of Mystery by The Shadows. After his time with the station Hal moved to Radio Hong Kong to work as a drama producer. He says: “I spent ten years with Radio Hong Kong. The opportunity to produce drama gradually declined under a new Director who came in around 1970 and increasingly I became involved with other activities, particularly talks and outside broadcasting.... From Radio Hong Kong I moved to HK Commercial Radio as special features producer and for about 12 years also represented LBC and IRN (in Hong Kong)... In or about 1979 I was a member of a group of actors that set up Hong Kong's first professional theatre company, Theatreast. For several years we ran what was essentially three-weekly rep.... Virtually all our productions were sell-outs but we eventually had to close with the disappearance of the only suitable home venue. During this period I also continued a certain amount of film and television work. Finally, having become completely disillusioned with the way the broadcasting industry was going, I decided to call it a day and left in 1990 to pursue other interests, eventually setting up my own company to provide various services including web design.” His company is called Kintak Enterprises. There is also a recent photo of Norman on the web-site he designed for the Telecommunications Research Project at the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong. (Many thanks to Hal/Norman for his help and for kindly providing some photos from his personal collection, see here and here. Thanks also to Maggie White for putting us in touch. You can see a picture of Hal with some of his Radio 270 colleagues in Guy Hamilton's photo album.)

Hal Yorke with a station promotion for disc-jockey photographs “taken on location in England”. In fact they were shot on location in the Managing Director's garden. Many thanks to Gerry Zierler for the tape (duration 40 seconds)
Hello pals, it's Hal's show from the early days of Radio 270 in 1966, kindly provided by Harm Koenders of The Offshore Radio Archive (duration 1 minute 15 seconds)

John Yorke Radio London had by far the most stable team of disc-jockeys of all the offshore stations. Paul Kaye, for instance, was with Big L throughout its thirty-two month life. Others stayed for a year or more. However a few came and went very quickly indeed. One of these was John Yorke. He was heard on Radio London for just two weeks in April/May 1967. According to Brian Long's book The London Sound he was 24 years old, came from Brooklyn, New York, and his real name was John Young. He completed just one fortnight stint on the ship but, presumably, was not considered suitable and was not invited to return after his shore leave. His place on the station was taken by a returning Willy Walker who had left the previous year. The Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame has no information about John's later career but, if anyone knows his whereabouts, please get in touch.

John Yorke on London After Midnight in the early hours of 4th May 1967. The voice at the end of the clip belongs to Paul Kaye. Apologies for the poor reception but, if anyone can provide a better recording, please get in touch. Many thanks to Harm Koenders of The Offshore Radio Archive for this tape (duration 2 minutes 50 seconds)

Paul Young Born in Edinburgh on 3rd July 1944, Paul came from a theatrical background. His father was an actor and, as a child, Paul appeared in the 1955 movie Geordie. In 1965 he spotted a recruitment advert in a newspaper: disc-jockeys wanted for a new offshore radio station. Paul applied and was snapped up. He was the first DJ to be heard when Radio Scotland launched on New Year's Eve 1965. Paul presented the popular Ceilidh programme of traditional Scottish music, later inherited by Jack McLaughlin. He did not stay with the station for long. He returned to acting and, since his time at sea, has appeared in numerous plays, films and television dramas. He was in such well-known TV programmes as Poirot, Soldier Soldier, The Tales of Para Handy, The Bill, The Crow Road and, in 1999, played a character called ‘Jock MacCall’ on ITV's Coronation Street (unofficial site). A keen angler, he has presented fishing programmes on Scottish television for many years. The first was Hooked on Scotland for the BBC. This was followed by Hooked on Scottish for ITV and recently Hooked for the satellite and cable channel Discovery Home and Leisure. See the production company web site for more details. (Many thanks to Jim Sinclair for providing this photo from an issue of ‘242 Showbeat’ magazine. You can see another here.)

Thanks to Ronnie Thorpe for this Caroline pennant.

Steve Young Born in Penarth, Wales in 1942, Steve's family emigrated to Canada while he was still a lad. He grew up in Medicine Hat, Alberta, and began his radio career working the evening shift at radio station CHAT in 1964. The following year he returned to the UK where he met up with Keith Hampshire who had recently been hired by Radio Caroline. “Keefers” convinced Steve to apply for a position and, after submitting a demo tape, he received a phone call from senior DJ Tom Lodge asking if he would come on board. He joined Radio Caroline South in August 1966. Steve presented the marathon midnight-6am show and, for obvious reasons, his theme tune was In The Midnight Hour by Little Mack & The Boss Sound. He was given the nick-name of “the curly headed kid in the third row” by Rosko. This was not an original name. An American DJ called Pete Tripp had been “the curly headed kid” on WMGM New York some years previously but, original or not, the name stuck. Steve left Caroline shortly before the introduction of the government's anti-pirate legislation. He returned to Canada and worked on a Vancouver station where his tales of the North Sea inspired one of his colleagues to try his luck in Europe: David “Kid” Jensen. Steve went on to work at radio stations in Kelowna, British Columbia, Edmonton, Alberta, and did his last on-air shift at CJVI in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1977. Steve still lives in Victoria where he sometimes comes out of retirement to record commercials, promo spots and soundtracks for film and television. In July 2004 Steve helped to organise a DJ reunion in Vancouver. His report and photos of the event are here. More recently Steve has become one of the team behind Canada's first independent, web-based television channel, ekosTV. The new channel is dedicated to programming about the environment and sustainability of resources. (Many thanks to Steve for getting in touch, updating the above details, providing the photo and for the kind comments: “Sites such as yours bring back so many memories to all of us ‘old-timers’ who, so many years ago, floated about the waters surrounding the British Isles and made our voices, and the music of the day, heard by so many wonderful listeners.” There are more pictures of Steve in Keith Hampshire's photo album.)

Steve Young on Radio Caroline South from local election night, April 1967. Many thanks to Ray Andrews for the air-check (duration 2 minutes 36 seconds)