Laser558

A couple of weeks before it was reported by Radio Netherlands Media Network a friend of mine Patrick tipped me off that there would be a second pirate radio ship off the British coast. Considering that it had taken years to get Caroline back this was a surprise. Originally known as Laser730 tests would eminate on 729 kHz. The initial tests used a helium balloon to raise the aerial  and were received far and wide.  At my locale near Gatwick it was stronger than Caroline using the 50kW at 30kW or so. Sadly this failed as their was not a corona shield installed near the balloon and the balloon flew off.  With the project at risk of collapsing broadcast engineers rigged a temporary antenna between the ships masts. This put out a much weaker signal but this time some engineers raised shows under the jingle call sign KOPA. 

Why was Laser so successful - Laser558 had a massive impact on the UK radio scene, The BBC had extensive needletime restrtictions Radio 1 could only play 50 to 60% music from discs. They tried to make up on this by live music shows and concerts.  The result of this meant  would be substantial chat on what was supposed to be a music network. Steve Wright (Steve was a keen radio anorak who listened into Laser and introduced the same Laser blasts into his show years later)  introduced the zoo format from the US which went down well with this bosses as they all talked for half the time! The UKs commercial radio network had similar restrictions imposed. The restrIctions were due to action by the musicians union and other trade unions.  They couldn't be Top 40 stations like most of the 60s offshore radios and many had a format like a Radio One and a half. (a mix of Radio1 and 2 format).  Some but not all stations were 24 hours. Jon Myer reported that when Capital launched it was restricted to nine hours of needle time (commercially released music.) At night when there were less listeners they played a lot of pre-recorded session music of varying quality.

A good example was drivng down to Devon and hearing Laser until around  Yeovil. My sister would listen into  Radio One and on a Saturday morning lots of chat and competitions. When my brother-in-law drove he got fed up with it and asked me what else he could listen into. Needless to say I said Laser558 and he stayed with the station always when it was on-air.

Despite not being able to use full power due to aerial restrictions the Laser had a massive service area on 558 kHz. due to the low frequency. A signal (the groundwave) on 500 kHz would travel three times as far as on 1500 kHz giving a considerable increase in servicer area.  Power was up to 18 kW into the aerial.. On my Grundig it would show around 25 out of 55, Caroline on 963 was about 30 or so. (using approx 25/30kW) Caroline on 576  would be around 10 to 15 and they were down on 2/4kW.

A survey in 1985 found that 9% of the population werer regular liseners (5 million odd). In London it was 14% and run the South East 23%. A similar Gallup survey gave Caroline 4 millioin listeners that year.

Along came Laser with no restrictions and "your never more than 60 seconds away from the music".  Laser hit the news headlines and word spread  by word of mouth. They could be heard everywhere. Shops, restaurants and taxis. Mechanics in garages would re-tune the rsadio to Laser. Bad boys! The station had an immediate effect on the charts (what I call the Laser effect) . The best example is Relax by Frankie goes to Hollywood, It had been banned by the Beeb. It had been relased in November 1983 and despite the ban got to number one in January. It then slid down the charts to Number 31 in May 1984. Laser comming on-air played Relax as well as their current record Two Tribes.  The Lasereffect got Relax back up to No2 in July. 

Laserettes - Laser was quite notable for having a number of female DJs on their rosta. On UK radio you were lucky to have one female DJ/presenter on a station. Laser changed all that and at times  three Laserettes could be heard. And not stuffed away on a graveyard shift. On Laser they did primetime daytime shows  back to back a revolution back in the mid 80s.

The success of Laser didn't go down at all well with the commercial opposition. where listeners left in droves. The commercial stations split into two camps. Essex Radio wanted the pirates particularly Laser558 shut down whilst the likes of Invicta realised that for local issues etc they could use that as a weapon to keep listeners. Invicta also tended to recruit ex Caroline DJs and became known as Caroline West in the trade. In the 1970s Radio Orwell employed ex Caroline DJs like Andy Archer and Johnnie Jason who worked on gthe Mi Amigo in the 70s! The Daily Mail in an article on 17th December 1984  stated that they had received a tape of a discussion involving an ILR manager in a plot o seize the ship, disable the transmitters and bring it into harbour. 

It was known to many that there was a lot of sympathy amongst ILR and BBC staff for the pirates.  Many provided illicit support which would have got them fired if it had come out. For examnple the tuning coil for Laser on 558 kHz was designed and installed by Andy Gemmel Smith who was Andy Anderson on 70s pirate Radio Atlantis from the MV Jeanine.  A well known IBA engineer would take a long holiday from the site at Saffron Green (LBC AM on 1152 kHz and Capital 1548). His holiday was spent on the MV Ross Revenge! His employers found out and he had to stop or lose his job.  In contrast one ILR station MD wanted to illegally seize the ship Communicator and bring it into port.  He was annoyed that some of his staff were behind the scenes working for Laser558.

Of course the pirates as well as luring listeners in also worked to the interest of the legal stations. This way they could pressure the authorites to ease the oppresive  needletime restrictions and this eventually happened. Did ILR management passively support the pirates in this case? Well I have asked the question to the likes of Broadcast Consultant Paul Rusling. Needless to say no-one wants to answer that. I'll leave you to read between the lines.

Interference allegations - there was one specific allegation of interference on 20th February 1985 by the emergency services and the coastguard contacted the MV Communicator saying that pop music was being heard on an emergency frequency.  Laser558 immediaetly stopped broadcasting but the music remained! So they contacted the Ross Revenge who switched off both transmitters. The interference was still there, It later transpired this was a fault at a BBC transmitter. 

After regular transmissions started members of Londons's Irish community claimed that Laser was causing interference to their reception of RTE Radio 1 on the next door channel of 567 kHz which was from Tullamore, Ireland. 

Now this needs some explaining as technically no interference was occuring!

London listeners to RTE were on the fringe of the stations tertiary service area.  All stations on AM have three defined sercvice areas: 

The primary reception area was the Republic of Ireland, the secondary area  covered Cornwall, Devon etc, West Wales and areas like Mersyside where there was a substantial Irish immigrant population, the tertiary area extended right up up to London. London was on the edge of thia area.  Interference should not happen in primary service area, the secondary area is what it says reception can be good in daytime but  not guaranteed at nightime, the tertiary area  even for legit stations is not meant to be of listenable quality.  Lasers audio was boosted by up to date audio processing and this was causing the 'issue' with splatter on the adjacent channel of 567 kHz . The station said they woukd install new filters to cure this  but in reality all that was needed was some adjustments to the settings on the audio processor. 

Once Laser left the air Caroline took the frequency over and claims of listeners having reception issues were no longer repeated in the press. Caroline used a 10kW transmitter in 1985 but the sound was not as processed as Lasers and hence less splatter.  This  wasn't the end of the story since in 1990 the IBA allocated Spectrum Radio the channel with an initial 300 watts from Lots Road. Needless to say London's Irish community  were appalled at the move since Spectrum was far stronger locally then Laser/Caroline moored from off the Essex coast.  In fact Spectrum was forced to carry relays of  various Irish sports so that they could continue to be heard by the Irish community in London.  Legally as an authorsied British broadcaster Spectrum weren't causing interference as the IBA knew and at no point did the Irish authorities appear to complain. Under EBU rules up to 2kW could be allocated by the IBA. In fact the Lots Road site closed on in May 1994  and was replaced by Crystal Palace with 1kW.  RTE on 567 kHz continued until 24th March 2008. 

Meanwhile a precursor to this happened in 1973! Capital Radio then broadcast on 557 kHz (539 metres) from Lots Road there were complaints that RTE1 on 566kHz 530 metres  was no longer receivable in London . Needles to say the IBA ignored such complaints stating that 557 kHz was a temporary frequency. Regular broadcasts started on 16th October 1973 and  in 1975 the station moved to 194 metres 1546 kHz. The Lots Road  site gave excellent propogation  539 tests started in January 73 and affected reception to the then quarter of a million Irish people living in London. 

Sadly the IBA and the government sought to close down the station and launched what Charlie Wolf called "Euoseige".  on 9th August 1985 the Dioptric Surveyor arrived in the Knock Deep  to heep an eye on the MV Communicator and the Ross Revenge.  This 99 foot long vessel was too smal and in the autumn was replaced by  sister ship of the Communicator the MV Gardline Tracker. As well as putting out a surveillance ship they investigated the organisation as the DTI was sure a lot of the  Laser oranistion was based in the UK. This cost £50,000 per month half of which was paid by the IBA. Eventually this took its toll.  The generators were gving increasing trouble and fuel stocks were running low. On the breakfast show  of 6th November a meesage to the office was repeated every 15 minutes. and the station wa forced to leave the air for the final time and the ship escorted by the Gardline Tracker which assisted in getting the Communicators engines going sailed into Harwich harbour.