Dennis Jason
Belatedly I am dedicating a page to the late Dennis Jason - Dennis was well known locally having run a shop in Lesbourne Road, Reigate selling disco equipment and some free radio memorabilia (tapes, records etc). As well as running a disco and attending our meets, for a while he ran a dead letter drop for our local AM rock station Southern Radio. Dennis participating with the station Southern Radio / South East Sounds sometimes as a DJ and later on the RSL broadcasts of Susy Radio in the nineties and early noughties. On SUSY he presented an excellent oldies programme.
In 1986, like a number of our fellow CM East Surrey group saw him move offshore. He was heard on Radio Caroline from the MV Ross Revenge that May and again later in the year. It is important to remember that Dennis was not only a deejay but an audio technician who would turn his hands to lots of things on the Ross including mast maintenance. He was also an excellent amateur photographer and filmmaker. If you see the shot of the Ross Revenge from high up the original mast it is Dennis’s foot you can see! Dennis also showed up on the MV Communicator. I believe he assisted Ray Anderson after he purchased the MV Communicator.
Dennis later ran a double lazing company which used the Nova name and the 1980s Radio Nova logo! I last bumped into him in our local Waitrose car park and he seemed just his usual self. Sadly, on 9 July 2021 Dennis Jason passed away far too early having suffered from a long term cancer.
Lastly I would like to thank all at www.flickr.com/photos/offshoreradio/ and in particular Hans Knot for use of the photos on this page which were taken by Dennis.
David Andrews on air, in the background Caroline Martins Dad and to the right Les Smith who Dennis describes as a radio anorak. He was also Caroline Movement East Surrey crew. Les regularly attended our meets until he moved away. He also had a small studio at his home where he would make programmes.
This is Ian Thorndale who was at our original meet at the Chequers Pub in Horley. Ian had an involement with Caroline which went back to the late 70s and I would join him and Johnny Lewis on local pub crawls before the CM East Surrey meets started. I discovered that Ian's wife remembered me from Junior School. Ian like Les has moved away from the local area.
Richard Jackson hard at work. Richard made regular appearances at our 80s meets alog with others of the Radio Jackie crew.
Dennis with a photo taken way up the mast. You can see both sets of cross trees. It looks like he is on the fifth painted section of the ships 300' mast.