Swinging Radio England
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Swinging Radio England ("SRE") was a top 40 commercial pirate radio station with studios and transmitter located in the hold of the MV Olga Patricia, renamed MV Laissez Faire, a former US built World War II merchant ship. The station broadcast from its ship-based anchorage three and a half miles off Southeast England from 3 May 1966 until 13 November 1966. It shared the cargo hold of the vessel with Britain Radio, which was billed as being the Hallmark of Quality by playing a format of easy listening music.
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[edit] Origin of the station
Swinging Radio England was the brainchild of Don Pierson who lived in Eastland, Texas, USA. According to an interview conducted by Dr. Eric Gilder with Don Pierson which was published by Sibiu University Press in Romania during 2001, Don Pierson got the idea to start Swinging Radio England following the success of his earlier venture called Wonderful Radio London.
The unique format of SRE was built around a hybrid collection of sounds and formats. Like those of Radio London, its jingles were made by PAMS in Dallas, Texas as part of a package originally made for WABC, New York. Series 27, better know as "The Jet Set".Its rapid fire bannerline news format, at 15 minutes past the hour was borrowed from WFUN in Miami, Florida. and it's music format had the top hits of the day on high rotation. SRE had boss jocks, the most famous US station using Boss Jocks was KHJ, in LA, California.
[edit] Station transmitters
Swinging Radio England broadcast using a 50kW Continental Electronics transmitter adjoining another 50kW CE transmitter in the hold of the MV Laissez Faire. Each station's signal was radiated on a different frequency via two cage antennas strung from a central mast rising from the hold of the ship. Unfortunately the technical concept of two high power radio stations broadcasting from a single mast on board ship were ahead of their time and the technology seldom worked as intended and consequently both stations had difficulty in maintaining their 24-hour schedules.
(In the 1970s and 1980s Radio Caroline succeeded in radiating two frequencies from a single mast using much cheaper equipment, thanks to the technical expertise of engineer Peter Chicago.)
[edit] Studios
Both stations shared adjoining studios built into a manufactured building that had been lowered into the hold of the ship, with the good music station enjoying the use of an automated broadcasting system. However, this seems to have been an unintentional result from swapping frequencies. Originally Britain Radio was on 227m (1322 kHz) with Swinging Radio England on 355m (845 kHz). Vatican Radio claimed that the 355m transmitter was interfering with its service, so it was decided to swap frequencies so Radio England (which was expected to be the more commercially lucrative station) could remain on full power while Britain Radio could use reduced power at night to avoid causing interference.
The two stations swapped frequencies merely by changing studios. This mean that the large carousel unit intended for SRE's fast and frequent Top 40 jingles ended up with the more sedate Britain Radio.
[edit] Management
Ownership of the venture resided with investors in North and West Texas. These investors formed loyalties to various factions and this caused tremendous infighting within the organization when the venture quickly turned into a failure.
Advertising sales were assigned by the investors under exclusive employment contract to a small British company called Peir Vick, Ltd., with offices at 32 Curzon Street in the Mayfair district of London, England. Peir Vick, Ltd., was formed by Texan William E. Vick who had been hired by the Texas investors to set up the British advertising sales arm to mirror the activities of Radlon (Sales), Ltd., which managed the offshore station Wonderful Radio London just across the road. (Wonderful Radio London had some of the same Texas investors behind it.) However, unlike the Radlon operation which was managed by a former J. Walter Thompson advertising executive, William E. Vick lacked any background in either broadcasting or advertising and as a result he sub-contracted all advertising sales to a British firm called Radiovision Broadcasts International, Ltd. This firm was a subsidiary of Pearl & Dean whose reputation had been established by selling space on British cinema screens. Vick assigned another contract for the publicity of the station to the London public relations firm of Peter Rendall and Associates.
These two sub-contracts essentially removed the power of daily management from Peir Vick, Ltd., and thus from the Texas investors who lost direct control of their broadcasting ship operation. This move proved to be a fatal flaw from which the venture never recovered. Advertising sales remained flat and below a break-even level and public relations turned into an expensive nightmare. When Peir Vick, Ltd., eventually went bankrupt and the public relations firm was not paid, the firm of Peter Rendall and Associates turned to the British press and created a nightmare of bad publicity for the venture. The negative press was aimed intentionally and specifically at Don Pierson, even though he had lost control of the venture due to the actions of William E. Vick and the Texas investors who continued to back him.
In the end when all was lost, the Texas investors once more returned to Don Pierson with a new contract and asked him to help them to rescue some of their lost investment. This proved to be too little, too late and as a result the entire project ended in major lawsuit brought by the unpaid transmitter manufacturer, and another suit brought by William E. Vick for loss of personal income.
[edit] Noteworthy events
The station was launched in 1966 at the London Hilton hotel during what was billed by the press as "The Party of the Year". This star-studded affair was hyped on the radio and in the press so that fans showed up to "watch the stars arrive". This event was then followed up by a nationwide tour called "Swinging 66" featuring the Small Faces and other pop groups of the 1960s.
During the station's test transmissions its jingles were played individually. This proved to be a mistake; several of the other pirate stations in the southeast re-recorded the jingles and replaced the SRE IDs with their own, inserting them into their programmes before SRE began its scheduled programming. This genuine piece of piracy naturally did not go down well with SRE's management.
Everything on SRE was "BOSS"; a fast paced on-air sound was the hallmark of the station. Echo was used for dramatic effect. The news was delivered with jingles, and the concluding weather forecast was orchestrated by a musical countdown in the background. At the top of each hour listeners were told with dynamic and musical effect that "This is “SRE-Swinging Radio England. Broadcasting 4 1/2 miles off the Frinton Essex Coast on 227 metres, 24 hours a day, in excess of 50,000 watts of power, SRE, first and foremost is BOSS!"
Swinging Radio England gave British listeners an idea of how real US radio sounded, but it has been argued that the undiluted American sound was too brash for British listeners' tastes.
A major sponsor of the SRE sister station Britain Radio, was Herbert W. Armstrong's The World Tomorrow programme which also featured his son Garner Ted Armstrong - this programme was also heard on most of the other pirate stations of the 60s.
SRE left the airwaves to be followed by a series of three Dutch language stations occupying the same wavelength during the short time that the transmitters remained on the air between 1966 and 1967.
[edit] Trivia
Footnote: the British radio broadcasting careers of Roger Day and Johnnie Walker began on SRE. US Broadcasters Larry Dean, and Ron O'Quinn and Rick Randell were also heard.
[edit] References
- Mass Media Moments in the United Kingdom, the USSR and the USA, by Gilder, Eric. - "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu Press, Romania. 2003 ISBN 973-651-596-6
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Olga Patricia story and the offshore stations that were transmitted from this ship which was later renamed Laissez Faire.
- The story of Swinging Radio England
- 40th Anniversary of Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio held in London during June, 2006.
