2012 News Archive

  • December 2012

BBC Radio Norfolk - From Hans Knot International report Tom Edwards ex Radio City 299, Thames and Anglia TV has recorded "Coming up next" for BBC Radio Norfolk, which is transmitted New Year’s Eve at 1800 hrs GMT. Recalling the days of "in vision" announcers in the 60s and 70s.

Chris Evans loses pole position - 21.12.12 Chris Evans has failed in his bid to become the anchor to BBC's Formula One TV coverage as the Beeb announced today that it would go to Suzi Perry. Quite what this means for Chris's future is open to debate. In September he announced on his Radio 2 show the need for an "exit strategy" for all his various jobs. Graham comments that Chris allegedly withdrew as it would have affected his radio work. Surely he would have realised that with 20 Grand Prix's that it would have been impossible?

Latest Publications: Here is a round up of various publications. For contact details see reports below or the Other Radio Groups section on this website:

Offshore Echos Magazine Issue 170 obituary to Prince Roy of Sealand, Radio Luxembourg in the 60s, Radio Mercur Story Part 2, Max Lewin Part 2, Martin Fisher interview & The Government File, As usual most material you will find as new!

Tune Into Yesterday Christmas 2012 Issue 67 - Looks at the BBC and German Home Service in March 1944, News from the Archives and Supplement BBC Transcriptions to Australia & NZ 1932 - 1970

Hans Knot December 2012 International Radio Report www.hansknot.com

SAS Interference Issue 87 UK Transmitter Hijacks 1976 & 1977

  • November 2012

SB reports SB reports some interesting background on Michael Fabricant, the vice-chairman of the Conservative party. He has recently been in the news with a proposal to strike an electoral deal with UKIP. He's on record as a radio DJ in his student days, and those times were certainly interesting. He DJ'd as Peter Syrason / Stuvesent on Swingin' Radio England (Brighton) which ran from 1968 intermittently to about 1973. The SRE team also staged a well known hoax offshore radio station, Radio Sovereign, claiming to broadcast off the Sussex coast in December 1970. It was very realistic. Then as a businessman, he got together with Gerry Rudgewick from SRE (aka Mark Stuart, Radio Northsea International) to form the MBI Sound & Light company, which subsequently branched into self-operated presenter's mixer desks which have been sold worldwide. Of note is that Susy Radio's studio 1 mixer is an MBI!

MV Norderney - 19.11.12 the former Radio Veronica ship the Norderney has returned to the Netherlands. The vessel has been towed from Antwerp north to Amsterdam. The vessel will then be moved to Groningen for a complete overhaul and refit. Erik de Zwart from Veronica Ship BV says the ship will act as a platform for radio, TV Internet etc events. Veronica Ship BV has yet to disclose the vessel's ultimate location.

BBC Radio - Radio Reunited. To celebrate 90 years 60 BBC stations including national, local and the WorldService will transmit a three minue tribute at 5.33pm to mark the exact time that the BBC (then the British Broadcasting Company) started transmissions in 1922.

Surrey Anorak's Society - at this month's meet I asked whether the January 2013 meeting on should be on the 1st or the 8th January 8th and we decided on the 8th January.

Hans Knot Novenber 2012 International Radio Report www.hansknot.com

Radio Seagull - back on hi-power on 1395 kHz some improvement to the audio. Of note Andy Sennitt (Ex World Radio & TV Handbook and Radio Nederlands Media Network has joined the team with a two hour show every Tuesday at 1100-1300 CET (1000-1200 GMT UK time).

  • October 2012

625 Line analogue TV - 23.10.12 Today is the final day of 625 line TV in the UK as just after midnight the final 647,500 homes will lose their analogue signal as transmissions from the Brougher Mountain, Divis and Limavady masts in Northern Ireland, along with over 40 local relays will cease. This also brings to a close the PAL format, Ceefax and Nicam stereo in the UK.

sasradiogroup - some changes and additions to the website today. Go look see!

Newsweek – the 79 year old US current affairs magazine, well known in the UK for advertising on Caroline in the 80s, is to become an online-only publication with its last print edition on 31st December 2012. The reasons for the change being cited as a reduction in subscribers from 3 million plus at its peak to 1.5 million today and changes in the advertising market.

Sealand - Prince Roy of Sealand died on October 9th 2012 in a nursing home in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex aged 91 after battling Alzheimers disease. He leaves a widow Joan, son Michael and Daughter Penny. Roy after an interesting career in the British Army during WW2 (by the end of the war was an infantry Major in the First Battalion Royal Fusiliers City of London Regiment) ran various businesses in Ireland and the South-East of England. In 1965 he started Radio Essex (laterly BBMS) on the Knock John fort. At the end of 1966 he was forced to move to the Rough Sands Tower after the Knock John tower was found by a British Court to be inside territorial waters. Rough Sands was seven and a half miles off Felixstowe but, more importantly declared to be outside territorial waters by the courts. On 2nd September 1967 (his wife Joan's birthday) Roy declared independence from the UK and named it the 'Principality of Sealand', bestowing on her the title of Princess. In an 80's television interview he said "I might die young or I might die old, but I will never die of boredom". Obitury on on Sealand website http://www.sealandgov.org/_blog/Sealand_News also reported by Daily Telegraph on 11th October.

    • September 2012

BBC4 – Wednesday 3rd October an evening of programmes dedicated to Kenny Everett including a docu drama from m

Susy Radio 103.4 FM - changes to schedules include Breakfast now starting at 6am and more specialist shows - visit www.susyradio.com or the Facebook page

Latest Publications:

Offshore Echos Magazine Issue 169 with Ronan O'Rahilly interview from 1971, 1960 archive article on Veronica, Radio Mercur Story, Reflections on REM Island & The Government Files.

Tune Into Yesterday Summer 2012 Issue 66 - Political kidnappings in Vienna, Radio Free Europe and two supplements re German Home Service in WW2 and BBC Monitoring report from 1941.

Hans Knot October 2012 International Radio Report www.hansknot.com

05.09.12 Red Sands Fort - Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series champion Gary Hunt and fellow Brit, Blake Aldridge, have dived 60 feet from the Red Sands Fort to publicise and prepare for the penultimate stop of the 2012 Red Bull Diving World Series in Pembrokeshire on Saturday 8th September.http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Video/red-bull-cliff-diving-uk-video-021243253987889

Radio Seagull 1395 / 1602 kHz – the station was forced to close its ‘offshore broadcasts’ one and a half days early. It would appear that in north-westerly force 9-10 winds during the morning of the 1st September the vessel dragged its anchor and drifted onto a nearby sandbank. The vessel being freed on Saturday morning. Full story by Sietse Brouwer on http://www.radioseagull.com/1395AM.html

Latest Publications - Hans Knot September 2012 International Radio Report www.hansknot.com

    • August 2012

Radio Caroline - MV Ross Revenge - the first section of the new mast is now in place ontop of the new base mount. Pictures can be found on www.radiocaroline.co.uk under the heading Ross Cam.

BBC Local Radio - From 17th August until 24th September the BBC is temporarily ceasing to transmit local radio in five areas – BBC Kent, BBC Lincolnshire, BBC Merseyside and BBC Nottingham. The aim of this is to ascertain what cost savings can be achieved and what impact it will have on listeners across the test locations. BBC Kent on 774 and 1602 kHz is carrying a loop message informing listeners of the experiment and advising them to tune into FM or DAB. Graham comments that closing BBC local radio AM tranmsissions has been discussed many times at our meetings including this months. Manx Radio would prefer Lincoln to be shut down as in 1977 the Home Office gave the Manx government a verbal agreement that 1368 kHz would be used exclusively by them only for HMG to break this within months. Manx Radio was prepared to accept Swindon and BBC Radio Sussex on the same channel but BBC Radio Lincolnshire always gave thenm interference.

19.08.12 Radio Seagull - At the end of this week the ‘Jenni Baynton’ will anchor in the Waddenzee for a short period. The 1395 kHz transmitter of Radio Seagull currently using 2.5 /1 kW will be replaced by the 15 kW unit running at 10 kW we think from 6 am until 6 pm.

19.08.12 People Just Do Nothing - if you visit the BBC iPlayer watch People Just Do Nothing - a spoof documentary following a Hounslow based pirate radio station.

Radio One - In September new breakfast show will be jingle free and using a new original instrumental theme to let Nick Grimshaw's show stand out.

Professor Sir Bernard Lovell, born August 31st 1913, died August 6th 2012

Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell was born on August 31st 1913 at Oldland Common, Gloucestershire, and educated at Kingswood Grammar School, Bristol. Like many he built crystal sets for receiving and in an interview on the Southgate Radio Club site Lovell Interview he describes how he operated an illegal radio station from his house. The aerial strung between two poles in his garden. This would have been around 1929 when he would have been 15 or 16 years old. His talents led him to being drafted in to help the Air Ministry research the use of radar for detection, navigation and blind bombing and ASV (Air Search Radar) hunting surfaced U-Boats at night

After the war, Lovell obtained an ex-Army mobile radar unit and two trailers of surplus radar equipment for use in his research on cosmic rays and returned to Manchester. Discovering that electric trams in the city were causing interference, he moved the equipment to a field to the south of the city and set up a primitive radar station. Bernard Lovell proposed building Jodrell Bank which eventually cost £670,000 due to constant union disputes and massive rises in cost steel. At one point Bernard facing possible imprisonment for the alleged overspending of public money.

Two months after coming into operation, the radio telescope was the only way of tracking the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 and its carrier rocket a Soviet ICBM, and silenced his critics who had condemned the telescope as a white elephant. In 1960 the telescope was the only device capable of transmitting to the American Pioneer V deep space probe to release it from its carrier rocket – the signals needing to journey 22 million miles to their target. As Director of Jodrell Bank Lovell presided over new and important discoveries including quasars, pulsars and giving accurate measurements of the solar system.

Latest Publications:

Hans Knot August 2012 International Radio Report www.hansknot.com

SAS Interference Issue 86 Susy Radio 103.4 FM launch. It's a bit of a race to get this completed and to the printers! On your marks...

  • July 2012

Broadcast History 23.07.12 - today is the 50th Anniversay of Telstar transmitting pictures across the Atlantic from the USA to Europe. The satellite was launched on 10th July 1962 on top of a Thor - Delta rocket. Telstar was responible for a number of 'firsts' as well as beaming live TV signals across the Atlantic including on 10th July the first satellite phone call, fax transmission, hi speed data plus live and taped television. Signals were received on 6 GHz and broadcast on 4 GHz

BBC Television Centre - the Times (13.07.12) reports that Stanhope is the preferred bidder for the iconic site. Parts of which including the "Big Doughnut" are listed.

SUSY RADIO 103.4 FM - off-air Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th July for some final updates. Expect the audio to return to a higher punchier level

BBC World Service - Bush House The final news bulletin will be broadcast from Bush House on Thursday 12th July at midday. Extensive article in Daily Telegraph 10th July.

SUSY RADIO 103.4 FM - Launch date announced Sunday 15th July at 12 noon Programme Controller, Geoff Rogers says: “We start our full programming schedules on Sunday 15th July and can’t wait to deliver a proper local radio service for the community that we are licensed to serve. We promise listeners an excellent line-up of shows from some first-rate presenters.”

For the latest developments follow on Facebook and Twitter or www.susyradio.com

Latest Publications:

Offshore Echos Magazine Issue 168 with The Carl Mitchell Letters, interview with Ray Anderson, Radio Veronica story 1974-1975, Tom Lodge Obituries & The Government Files.

Hans Knot July 2012 International Radio Report www.hansknot.com

SAS Interference - Issue 85 The story behind the closure of Radio Netherlands Worldwide in its current form

  • June 2012

GMG Radio - has sold off its radio business to Global Radio for £70m. The deal gives Global more than half of the UK commercial radio market includes the Smooth and Real Radio brands. The businesses remain seperate until final approval from Ofcom.

Radio Nord Revival will be on the air one last time to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the closure of Radio Nord on June 30th, 1962. The license runs for two weeks from June 25th and the following frequencies will be utilised:

AM 603 kHz (the original Radio Nord channel) with a maximum of 2.5 kW of power from Sala.

SW 5895 & 6065kHz with 10 kW of power from Sala, one frequency at a time.

FM 102.7 MHz with a maximum of 100 W from Södermalm, Stockholm. There will also be a temporary FM frequency from Sala (?102 MHz) which is awaiting clearance.

Test transmissions will start on the 25th and reception reports can be sent to: Ronny Forslund, Vita Huset, SE-17995 Svartsjö, Sweden or by e-mailinfo@rock.x.se.

QSL cards are available but, please include some form of return postage. E-mail reports will be verified with plain emails.

On June 30th Radio Nord will broadcast live from Kammakargatan 46 in Stockholm where the Radio Nord studios were locatedHTTP://RADIONORDREVIVAL.BLOGSPOT.SE

NEWSFLASH – Susy Radio Test Transmissions commenced at 10:57 today on 103.4 MHz. Reception reports to office@susyradio.com. Tests will last 28 days. Currently running off MP3 player in Mono at full power and sounding a bit bassy. RDS will be added in next three days as chips are re-coded. Audio will switch to stereo soon with improved treble response. UPDATE: Susy now in stereo mode but still bassy and audio lower than Radio 2. Now online at:http://www.susyradio.com/listen-live/

Radio Netherlands Worldwide - the English Service is closing at the end of this month as a result of steep budget cuts imposed by the Dutch government and a change in role for the broadcaster. On 29th June the station will broadcast a radio show looking back at the past decades of Radio Netherlands Worldwide. Have you got a memory to share? Please let us know, at the usual address, letters@rnw.nl, or post a comment on the website. The last programme will go out on some extra SW frequencies on 29 June, increasing your opportunities to listen to the show. Here are the details:

0200 UTC - 6165 and 11640 kHz from Bonaire, aimed at North America (East). That's late on Thursday evening 28 June, local time!

0300 UTC - 11640 kHz from Bonaire, aimed at North America (Central and West). That's late on Thursday evening 28 June, local time!

RNW is putting in a lot of effort to see if they can add some more transmitters aimed at other parts of the world.

Website changes www.rnw.nl From 1st July 2012 there will no longer be a daily review of the Dutch papers. Coverage of Dutch news stories will also cease. And, since RNW's English webstream will end on 29 June, there will be no more Listening Guide. The website will continue to provide articles online relating to our new brief: promoting free speech in areas where people are not free to gather information or to form and express independent opinions. Please keep checking the website for updates on the final day. There may be a surprise or two...

Guardian Media Group 14.06.12 The Times reports that GMG has offers for up to £50m from rivals for Smooth FM. Global Radio and UTV have expressed an interest in buying Smooth FM as well as a possible management buyout. Graham reports that the sale is due to financial pressures at The Guardian as GMG attempts to trim costs and increase revenues. GMG lost £45m in the last financial year.

Susy Radio June 8th Ofcom carried out testing and compliance checking on the Susy Radio transmitter, RDS unit and aerial system. Chief Engineer John Stockley and Susy Radio Ltd Chairman Neil Munday report that the site has passed inspection. Test transmissions are expected to commence shortly.

  • May 2012 SUSY RADIO PRESS RELEASE Ofcom Confirms Frequency Clearance of 103.4FM dated 30.05.12

Geoff Rogers reports "We are very pleased to confirm that at long last, we have been given frequency clearance for 103.4FM by Ofcom. This means that though we will now miss the planned date for launch of 1st June, we have a clearer roadmap leading to our launch.

  • April 2012 Following an inspection by Ofcom to ensure our equipment is of the right specification (lead time approx 2 weeks from this date), we will start a month of tests, around the end of the second week of June. Assuming all these are successful, we plan to launch in mid-July – official dates to be confirmed as soon as is possible.

We appreciate that this is frustrating to everyone, but at least now we see a clear path to our launch before too much more time elapses."

Next Meeting - Tuesday 5th June and meet some Susy people as well as the SAS

RON ONIONS, OBE has died on 27th May 2012 aged 82. Ron was a local news journalist who moved from local press to the BBC Tonight programme with Cliff Mitchelmore. He covered the Aberfan disaster in October 1966. Ron became BBC's New York news organiser covering major events as Apollo 11 moon landing and assasinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. He left the BBC to be in charge of the newsroom at Capital Radio and became head of LBC in 1974 to re-launch the station. Ron was also the brains behind the creation of IRN. After LBC he became Jazz FM's first programme controller.

Susy Radio - sometimes it can be a bit confusing following the updates via the Susy website or on theFacebook entries. Please remember that being associated with the project we can only report on official news or refer you to the website susyradio.com.

Best Of British Magazine - the May issue contains a double page article on Thames Forts 'Defense of the Realm'

The Heart Network has further expanded displacing Cornwall’s Atlantic FM over the May Bank Holiday weekend. Following the pattern set with other ‘takeovers’ this was preceeded by a two week transition period and the closure of Atlantic on Sunday evening. Heart switching on at 8am on Monday morning with Victoria Leigh (ex Atlantic FM). Atlantic Broadcasting Ltd sold the station in March this year. The office is used to run the commercial selling team and the station continues local news, travel and information. (radiotoday.co.uk)

Uncool Radio - on the way in to the 1st May meet Roger Day announced on his BBC show he would be launching internet based Uncool Radio. Roger says this is in partly due to a conversation with Francis Rossi discussing how artists like the Quo and Sir Cliff are ignored by many radio stations. Roger commenting there should be a station that wouldn't be afraid to play such acts. Francis said this was a brilliant idea and let's be honest that is what inspired Ronan to set up Caroline in the first place to play music nobody else was providing. More info at http://www.rogerday.co.uk/index.php

Hans Knot kindly sent us his latest International Radio Report. www.hansknot.com Of note:

The Radio Day 2012 will take place on Saturday 17th November 2012, in Hotel Casa 400 in Amsterdam, Eerste Ringdijkstraat 4. All further info on www.radioday.nl

Red Sands Radio - returns again this summer on a new frequency of 87.9 MHz. Red Sands Radio enters its' 6th year with support from Kent County and the Local Council plus sponsors and advertisers. Red Sands Radio launches on Saturday 30th June 2012 from Whitstable, Kent. www.redsandsradio.com

MV Ross Revenge - Radio Caroline on their websiste advise the base grillage for the new mast is complete and that Radio Structures Ltd have completed the new mast. They are hopeful that it will be installed shortly - subject to weather conditions. The SAS wish to add their thanks to Radio Structures Ltd. and Lockyer Motors of Orpington for their donation of the mast. Further info and pictures can be found on the woodleynet site or at www.radiocaroline.co.uk under the heading Ross Cam.

Digital Television - April 18th saw the launch of high definition TV services from the Reigate transmitter.

Publications - Tune Into Yesterday Issue 65 Spring 2012. Inner Sanctum Mysteries, Women & Work at the BBC 1923-1939 plus Supplements on Destruction of Berlin radio towers 1948 and News from the Archives. To contact see ORCA details on Other Radio Groups. See Other Radio Group

  • March 2012

Tom Lodge, one of Radio Caroline's first Disc Jockeys, has died at his home in California after a long illness.

Tom has had a varied career. Broadcasting wise he first joined the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. In the UK he met Ronan O’Rahilly, Ronan having heard his complaints at the music emanating from a radio in a bar. Finding out about his broadcast experience Tom was offered a postion on the original Caroline ship in April ’64. Tom remained with the ship when it moved to the Irish Sea as Caroline North. In October ’65 he became Programme Director of the South ship to revitalise the station and bring back listeners and revenues lured away by Radio London. Tom left the station after changes brought by Philip Soloman. He spent a brief time on Radio One before returning to Canada.

Offshore Echo's Magazine Issue 167 March 2012 now available. With articles on The Carl Mitchell Letters, Ian Damon at Euroradio 2010, Part 2 of MV Olga Patricia History, Radio Veronica story Part 12, Obituries, reprint of Newscaster No 3 and The Government Files - contact details see other radio groupshttp://offshoreechos.com

Radio Seagull The station has announced that from Sunday April 1st 2012 that they will be on-air daily from 7 am untill 7 pm on 1395 kHz AM with just 1kW from the MV Jenni Baynton and will continue to use 1602 kHz from 7 pm until 7 am. Radio Seagull broadcasts 24 hours per day in stereo via their website.

Graham comments that it would be logical to run 1395 from 10pm at night until 7pm the next day so we wonder if they are hiring out this airtime to gain revenues.

MediaNetwork Andy Sennit is taking early retirement from Radio Nederland Worldwide at the end of April. Andy also reports that due to a new RNW mandate effective from 1 January 2013, RNW will no longer provide coverage of international media news. Beforehand Andy will write a series of articles reflecting on the changes in international broadcasting since he started appearing on the Media Network radio show in 1981, and looking ahead to the coming decade. The articles will be published on the RNW English website.

If you have any memories of RNW or other international broadcasters that you would like to share, please contact Andy at MediaNetwork@rnw.nl and he'll try to include them in the articles. The weblog site http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork contains over 15,000 media news items published since October 2003. It will remain online as a searchable archive. To prevent spam, it will no longer be possible to add comments, but nearly 14,000 comments already received will still be available.

County Sound 1566MW re-brands to "Eagle Extra" - Ofcom has approved format changes to the station, which is sister to Guildford's Eage 96.4FM. The station has already tweaked its playlist, removing tracks from the 1950s and generally restricting to the 1965-1975 era. The station aims to produce "extra community programming in the evenings and at weekends" (Radio Today). Current community programming essentially consists of recorded interviews randomly inserted in between music tracks, and local news sourced from The Eagle.

SB comments: The station broadcasts to Surrey and North-East Hampshire, but recent audience figures show a listenership of only 7,000 and a 0.5% audience share. Reasons for these figures could be the prevalence of automated programming and reception problems in the evening (darkness brings sky-wave interference from other stations, a common problem with AM radio). It is thus difficult to understand the logic of focussing on evening programming when radio listening is off-peak and reception will be for a limited area of Surrey.

Publications - SAS Interference Issue 84 SW Pirate Activity plus logs Irish AM pirates & Midlands FM bandscan, Powerline Technology issues www.ban-plt.co.uk

Tug Boat 'Challenge' after some work by the sas Prince Michael of Sealand believes she was involved with placing the Rough Sands Fort. Later the home of Radio Essex /BBMS.

  • February 2012

Tug Boat 'Challenge' 28/2/12 Tony reports this is the last steam tug involved in the building of the Maunsell Towers and "This to my mind makes her a bit of Pirate Radio History" She is open to the public on Saturday Morning and is located at the Harbour End of Boundary Road Portslade. Shoreham Docks West Sussex. The team involved are seeking £1m to replace her Steam Boiler, and have her back in Sea going condition at some point. www.stchallenge.org

Manx Radio has entered into a consultation period with staff to identify potential savings. The new structure could see paid on-air presenters reduced from five to just one with the majority of programmes to be presented on a freelance basis. Two news editors will be replaced by one post and a journalist will retire and not be replaced. MD Anthony Pugh said: “It is very regretful that the company could be losing some talented and loyal individuals… our main objective has to be to maintain the award winning services of Manx Radio for our listeners without further burdening the Manx tax payer.”

BBC - 28/2/12 A BBC commissioned report by independent consultant John Myers recommends efficiency savings of £11m by sharing management functions to protect front line programming. It also recommends focusing more on older listeners.

MV Ross Revenge Not only does the weather affect the SAS meet it also means that work on the new tower on board the Ross Revenge has proceeded slowly. The new base mount and base of the mast is now inplace with the rest scheduled for a later date. Thanks to Radio Structures Ltd. and Lockyer Motors of Orpington for their donation of the mast and assistance in preparing and building the new one. More info and pictures acan be found on the woodleynet site or on www.radiocaroline.co.uk under the heading Ross Cam.

    • January2012

John de Mol (Jr.) 22/01/12 The Daily Telegraph reports that Dutch private equity firm Cyrte Investments is trying to gain control of Endemol the television production company. If successful it would see Endemol back in the hands of John De Mol, its founder. It is thought that Cyrte executives would push through John De Mol's agenda including linking with his other business Talpa Media. The BBC have bought Talpa devised talent show The Voice which has been a big hit in the USA. Johnl's father John de Mol (Sr) being involved with running the Dutch service of offshore Radio Nordsee.

Susy Radio - 24/1/12 Programme Director Geoff Rogers advises that 103.4 MHz, the frequency issued by Ofcom, is currently in the process of gaining international clearance and that the station "feel pretty confident of approval". Test transmissions are due to start in the spring. In a Press Release Geoff comments; “The frequency allocated is a great choice and will allow us to provide excellent reception to our service area. It’s also located roughly between two of the bigger local radio stations on the FM dial and will be very easy to find. This is a very positive step forward”. Susy Radio is a community radio station for Redhill, Reigate, Horley and North Crawley and has been allocated a five year license.

County Sound 1566 MW - SB reports that sadly, the only weekday presenter for County Sound departed in December. This Guilford-based Surrey station is well-known for its wide selection of oldies, felt by many to be superior to the "Gold" chain which has a quite restricted playlist. Dave Johns presented the morning show from 07.00-12.00 every day, entertaining with competitions, interviews, jokes- in all, a very 'live' station. We wish him all the very best. His departure now makes the station essentially a jukebox, with inserts for news and voice-tracks. Unfortunately, there is no information on the County Sound website regarding the change of format or where Dave is going to. SB comments that this over-simplistic format was not the government's intention when independent local radio was originally envisaged. The case for Community radio stations becomes ever stronger.

New Years Honors List 2011. Ex Radio Caroline, Radio Scotland and Radio 270 DJ and Conservative MP Roger Gale becomes a Knights Bachelor for public and politcial service.

Publications - The latest English edition (No 166) of Offshore Echos Magazine is available. Artciles on Carl Mitchell, '242 is Calling You', Radio Veronica Story, Dick Verheul (ex Radio Mi Amigo and Radio Monique, Government Files).

We are saddened to pass on the news that the French Edition has ceased publication as Jean Claude Dumenil has ceased producing the French edition for personnel reasons and regretably no-one has been able to replace him. Jean Claude has produced this since 1995 and on behalf of the SAS we pass on our thanks for his tireless work. The English edition continues subscription £22 per annum (4 issues). See info on the website re OEM and visit us at a meeting to see a copy.#

Radio Listeners Guide 2012 edition published. Details of BBC national, Regional and Local services, UK commercial and community radio, plus Irish National and commercial ations. See website http://www,radioguide.co.uk for details