In 1970 John Kenning was working as a DJ in a Dutch discotheque. One evening Radio Northsea International's Larry Tremaine (alias The Geator With The Heater) and
Andy Archer came into the club and the three men got talking. By the end of the evening John had been offered a position on RNI. He says: “I believe Roger Day had
been fired (and they had a vacancy to fill). Larry Tremaine was the Programme Director who gave me the job.”
The next day John met Andy on the harbour-front in Scheveningen. He has a couple of faded photos. He says: “These two, never previously published photos, feature Andy Archer, (engineer) Peter
Chicago and me waiting for the tender to ferry the three of us out to the Mebo II. We are waiting on the quay on the shore in Scheveningen. The photos were lost in my loft and only discovered recently. They would have been
stored there since 1971 and absolutely no one has seen them from that day to this.” It looks like they were taken at a fun fair rifle range.
Unfortunately John did not go on to enjoy a long career as an RNI DJ. In fact he didn't get to present a single show. Seasickness intervened. He remembers: “I caught the tender from the quay in Scheveningen to the radio ship,
Mebo II, anchored around four miles out. The tender to the ship tackled the motion of the North Sea with a pitch and dip (from bow to aft). However, once on board, the actual radio ship rolled from one side to the other. The result
was an absolute disaster on my digestive system. I begged Larry Tremaine to let me go. He looked surprised as he'd only just given me the job. The tender ferried me back to shore. It was a terrible journey; I've never been so ill in
my life. I'll never forget it.” We can only imagine John's mixture of disappointment and relief when he got back to dry land.
We are very grateful to John for his photos but they have not worn well. They have become discoloured and faded over the years. We have used an AI program to polish them up. It has colourised them and made things a bit clearer, although
also made some subtle changes.
|
