Wonderful Radio London
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Wonderful Radio London also known as Big L, was a top 40 offshore commercial station that operated from 16 December 1964 to 14 August 1967, from a ship anchored in the North Sea, three and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England. While the station, like the other offshore radiooperators at the time, was dubbed a pirate radio station, its actual operation took place within the laws of the day and its offices were located in the heart of the West End of London. Its representation in London was by a company specifically formed by a former employee of the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency who had been employed by the Texas venture capital group that owned the station.
The station broadcast from the MV Galaxy, a former World War II United States Navy US Minesweeper originally named USS Density. The majority of programmes were presented live from a studio in the hold. The ship's metal bulkheads presented problems with acoustics and soundproofing that were originally solved by lining the walls with mattresses from the crew's bunk beds, which meant that none of them could sleep during the day.
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[edit] Origin of the Station
Wonderful Radio London 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 in 1964 to start the station while reading The Dallas Morning News. The newspaper carried an account of the start-up of Radio Caroline and Radio Atlanta from two ships which at that time were anchored off the coastline of Southeast England.
Pierson said he was captivated by the fact that these two offshore broadcasting operations were the first and only all-day commercial radio stations serving England. Because Pierson was an entrepreneur, he compared the number of stations then serving the population of Northwest Texas where he lived, with these two stations serving the population of England. As he told his story to Gilder, he concluded that he had an idea that would be worth a lot of money while bringing enjoyment to many people.
Pierson caught the next available "red eye" flight from Love Field in Dallas to England where he investigated the British broadcasting scene for himself. Upon arrival he chartered a small plane and flew out over the North Sea above the two existing radio ships and after taking photographs, he returned to Texas with the idea of creating a station that was bigger and better than either of them.
[edit] Origin of the name
The station was originally devised as a clone of Gordon McLendon's highly successful radio station KLIF in Dallas, Texas. Don Pierson wanted to use recordings from that station and remove the local commercials and retransmit the tape-recorded output with local British commercials from his own ship anchored offshore. In other words KLIF in "Big D" would become KLIF broadcasting to "Big L".
However, the PAMS jingles used by KLIF, which were an unknown concept in the United Kingdom at the time, were not entirely the same as those heard on KLIF, but those on heard over its Dallas competitor which branded that station as "Wonderful KBOX". The KBOX jingles re-sung for Wonderful Radio London by PAMS, then determined the name of the station as far as listeners in the United Kingdom were concerned because what they heard was "Wonderful Radio London" and "Wonderful Big L".
Today the station is still exclusively remembered as "Wonderful Radio London" while "Radio London" is now thought of in terms of either a local BBC station that later came on the air, or any number of commercial radio stations that used the name "London" in their names.
[edit] Broadcasting staff
The disc jockeys included: Chuck Blair; Tony Blackburn; Pete Brady; Tony Brandon; Dave Cash - who also teamed-up to present a very popular Kenny-Cash Show. Ian Damon; Chris Denning; Dave Dennis; Pete Drummond; John Edward; Kenny Everett - co-host of the Kenny-Cash Show and who was ultimately fired for constantly insulting on the air, Garner Ted and Herbert W. Armstrong who were the biggest advertisers on the station. Graham Gill, Bill Hearne, Duncan Johnson, Paul Kaye - who became the main news reader on the station. Lorne King; Mike Lennox; John Peel - see The Perfumed Garden (radio show). Earl Richmond; Mark Roman; John Sedd; Keith Skues; Ed "Stewpot" Stewart; Norman St. John; Tommy Vance - who came to the station late via Radio Caroline South and previously as a boss jock in Los Angeles on KHJ. Richard Warner; Willy Walker; Alan West; Tony Windsor - who began his offshore career with Radio Atlanta. John Yorke.
[edit] Advertising sales
A Ford car dealer in Abilene, Texas who became one of the investors associated with Don Pierson in his offshore project, nominated Philip Birch, a J. Walter Thompson Ford account representative who had relocated from the JWT offices in the USA to their offices in London. Birch became their employee representative responsible for all commercial sales of airtime. Birch, a hard-headed businessman, was largely responsible for the station's commercial success, carefully tailoring the American-style format to give the broadest possible appeal to a British audience.
Underwriting the basic expenses of the station was the half-hour strip religious commentary program called The World Tomorrow and presented by either Herbert W. Armstrong or his son Garner Ted Armstrong. It was claimed that all other advertising contributed towards the return on investment by the Texas consortium that owned the radio ship venture.
The British authorities would not allow the registration of a British sales company called "Radio London" and so it was registered as "Radlon (Sales) Ltd." which was the name plugged on the air for advertising sales. The investors behind the project were based in Texas and they used a series of totally different names for interlocking companies outside of the UK and USA that represented their ownership in order to disguise primarlily for tax reasons, their financial interests.
After the closure of Big L Birch achieved success in his own right when he was later awarded a UK license for the Independent Local Radio station, Piccadilly Radio in Manchester during 1973.
[edit] Station name
The original name of the station was to have been Radio KLIF London, since the ship station was to have used recorded programs made for station KLIF in Dallas. When it was decided that the sound should be live instead of recorded, Don Pierson hired Ben Toney as station manager and program director with Philip Birch to be in charge of the sale of airtime. Birch wanted to call the station Radio Galaxy, a name similar to one used by Ford for its Galaxie automobile division. As a compromise the minesweeper was renamed MV Galaxy while the station became Radio London. However, the PAMS jingles caused a further defacto refinement of the name so that it was known as Wonderful Radio London and Big L, following the example of KLIF in Dallas which called its hometown Big D.
[edit] Transmitter power
The station's RCA Ampliphase Italian manufactured transmitter was rated at 50,000 watts (50 kW), although it initially operated at just 17,000 watts. By contrast Radio Caroline, its main rival, operated with a LTV-Continental Electronics (CEMCO) 10 kW transmitter. In 1966 Caroline South upgraded to a 50 kW CEMCO transmitter and for a time Wonderful Radio London pretended to retaliate by claiming a new output of 75 kW, although it had never upgraded its original transmitter.
[edit] Station close-down
At midnight on August 14, 1967, a new law called the Marine & Etc., Broadcasting (Offences), Act came into effect within the United Kingdom. The intention and effect of this statute was to create a criminal offence for any person who supplied music, commentary, advertising, fuel, food, water or any other assistance except for life-saving purposes, to any ship, offshore structure such as a former WWII fort, or flying platform such as an aircraft used for purposes of broadcasting without a licence granted by the regulatory authority for broadcasting in the UK.
Because Radio London had always been run along strictly commercial lines, its management decided not to defy the law and to close before the Act came into effect.
It was decided to close at 3 PM on August 14, 1967. The timing was chosen partly because it would guarantee the station a large audience for its final show, and also to enable the broadcasting staff on board the MV Galaxy to return to shore and board a train that would take them to London. Consequently a one hour pre-recorded show was broadcast from 2 PM to 3 PM to allow time for the staff to get ready to leave the ship.
"Their Final Hour", as the program was called, celebrated recorded greetings of farewell and remembrance from many of the big recording stars of the day. Included were the voices of Mick Jagger; Dusty Springfield and Ringo Starr and following his voice the last record played was "A Day in the Life" by The Beatles. Philip Birch, manager advertising sales at the London office followed with his own last words and he was followed by Paul Kaye's final announcement: "Big L time is three o'clock, and Radio London... is now... closing down." The station's theme tune, the "PAMS Sonowaltz", popularly called called "Big Lil" was the last piece of music heard before the transmitter was turned off just after 3 PM.
Just after Radio London closed down, Robbie Dale on Radio Caroline South broadcast a brief tribute to the station, thanked all of its staff and DJs, and held a minute's silence.
Most of the offshore stations had already left the air. Radio Scotland and Radio 270 continued until the last minute and closed at midnight. Radio Caroline South announced that both it and sister station Radio Caroline North would continue. Their owner Ronan O'Rahilly saw them as defending the principle of free broadcasting rather than as being mere business assets. (Caroline's offshore broadcasts were to continue on and off until 1990, after which the station pursued legal means of broadcasting.)
The MV Galaxy sailed to West Germany, where Erwin Meister and Edwin Bollier later attempted to buy it for what was to become Radio Nordsee International. When this deal fell through Meister and Bollier set about finding another ship. In 1974 the Galaxy, with its 212 foot mast still erect, was sunk in Kiel harbour as an artificial reef. By 1986 concerns about pollution from the ship's corroding oil tanks led to its being raised and broken up.
[edit] Further history
When his second radio ship venture closed and the vessel returned to Miami, Florida, in 1967, Don Pierson attempted to restart Wonderful Radio London from her. His plan was to interest other investors in restarting Wonderful Radio London from off the coast of New York. When that attempt failed, he began a further venture involving yet another ship which would restart Wonderful Radio London off the coast of San Diego, California. That venture also failed to commence operation.
In 1982 Don Pierson helped to promote a syndicated Wonderful Radio London Show, which was first aired over KVMX, a local station he owned in Eastland, Texas. Pierson actively promoted the show at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. When Ben Toney, the original station manager and program director of the original offshore Wonderful Radio London station became involved, the show was aired on KXOL in Fort Worth, Texas and as a daily show aired over 250,000 watt XERF in Mexico. Further plans were made to extend the early morning airtime of XERF into Wonderful Radio London as a full service station and to also send a new ship across to the UK as Wonderful Radio London International' (WRLI), in the hopes of replicating Don Pierson's success of the 1960s. However, these further plans failed to materialize beyond their successful syndication stage.
Don Pierson died in 1996.
[edit] Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio
As a result of the success of his Wonderful Radio London venture, Don Pierson also created Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio on board another ship in 1965. However, these stations did not get on the air until 1966 when their offshore radio vessel anchored close to Big L on board the MV Galaxy. The twin stations were not commercially successful due to both technical problems and mismanagement by the London company representing them. Radio England was replaced by Dutch station Radio Dolfijn in November 1966. In early 1967 Britain Radio was replaced by Radio 355 and Dolfijn by Radio Twee Twee Zeven (227). Both stations closed well before the MOA came into effect.
[edit] Trivia
- Wonderful Radio London is explicitly referred to (and some of its jingles used) on The Who's album The Who Sell Out.
- Wonderful Radio London also features in The Who film Quadrophenia.
- The station is also featured in the 1966 film Dateline Diamonds, which includes a few external shots of the Galaxy as well as a fanciful studio re-creation of its interior.
[edit] See also
- See Radio London for other stations that have used this name or its variations in whole or in part. Several stations are listed.
[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 - This work draws contains reprinted work from 'The History of Pirate Radio in Britain and the End of BBC Monopoly in Radio Broadcasting in the United Kingdom' by Eric Gilder, North Texas State University, 1982. "London My Hometown" is the second chapter of 'Mass Media Moments' and it tells the Don Pierson story from his perspective and from original and exclusive archives. This chapter began as a audio-visual symposium during 2000 called "Infinite Londons" that was sponsored in Romania by the British Council. The expanded proceedings of that symposium were subsequently published in book format and it included "London My Hometown" that was later reprinted as the second chapter in Mass Media Moments.
- The Wonderful Radio London Story, by Elliot, Chris. - Ray Anderson doing business as East Anglian Productions, Frinton-on-Sea, United Kingdom. 1997 ISBN 1-901854-00-0 - This work was derived without permission from the archives claimed by Eric Gilder and Associates (see note above.) However, the publisher was declared insolvent under UK law and it was subsequently learned that neither the printer, graphics designer or its claimed author had been paid. The connection between this work and Gilder originated with Wonderful Radio London International (WRLI) in 1984, when Chris Elliot became a part of that project. Elliot recorded the Wonderful Radio London top 40 shows in the UK and they were subsequently relayed once a week over KVMX and KXOL in Texas, and daily over XERF in Mexico. When the WRLI venture came to an end Elliot retained files on loan from the Gilder archives of Don Pierson, and Elliot subsequently arranged for their publication under his name in two publications prior to the publication of this book. Although the book contains many interesting photographs and hitherto unknown information, it is not a documented work and no specific credits are given to original works. Where source material was not available to the author from the limited files that he had access to, incorrect conjecture has entered into the narrative.
[edit] External links
- Wonderful Radio London in the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame - Contains many audio, visual and text biographical stories relating to personal involved in the 1964-1967 venture.
- Wonderful Radio London story by Eric Gilder - Contains an in-depth sequence of events relating to the history of the Don Pierson archives and publications that have drawn upon them.
- Studio Anorak tribute to Wonderful Radio London - Contains many "Where Are They Now?" biographical stories about personal involved with the station.
