RADIO ADVENTURES
OF THE
MV COMMUNICATOR
World of Radio Ltd has published a new book, all about the eleven radio stations which have broadcast from the Radio Ship, the MV Communicator. The book is written by Paul Rusling who was part of the team which set up LAser 558 on the ship back in 1983 and 1984. He draws heavilly on conversations with colleagues and others who were involved with the ship over its 21 year career as an offshore radio station. In that time, a total of eleven radio stations have used the ship, to avoid the draconian European bradio regulations.
The First Phase saw LASER 730, LASER 558 and LASER HOT HITS broadcasting from the mouth of the Thames Estuary, with CSI transmitters and a very shaky antenna system. Over five million listeners in the UK tuned in and a similar number on the near continent. She was blockaded by the British Government and eventually her crew mutinied after being starved of supplies by her operators.
After going into port she was sold at auction but the new owner was just as hapless at getting supplies to her, and the ship was mercilessly battered by storms and a run of bad luck. On two occasions she was forcibly boarded during the night, on one occasion by one of her co-owners!
In 1989 the ship was taken to Portugal for refitting, but was detailed for a while by the government after Dutch agents told them that one of her new customers, the Undergound Church, was a front for mercenerary recruitment and other nefarious activities. Her next port of call was the Netherlands where she was made much more welcome and given a succession of licences to broadcast no less than six radio stations:
Holland FM,
Holland Hot Hits
Hot Hits 1224
Veronica Hot Hits
Q Radio and
Q The Beat.
The Communicator's next port of call was a trip back to England and her old home port of Lowestoft where work began equipping her to broadcast from the Irish coast. A last minute change of plans saw her head to the Orkney Islands and a base in Scapa Flow. There she helped launch The Super Station in 2004 but she was soon up for sale again.
During her trip around the European radio waves and various ports she was home to many DJs, radio engineers and various projects. All are detailed in this great new book which spills the beans on the huge amounts of money the ship made for her various owners.
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| Now availabe as HARDBACK or as a SOFTBACK copy |
This is a collection of stories of those eleven radio stations that were heard transmitting from the Communicator at one time or another. The book also examines the background into several other radio projects that had plana to transmit from the ship. It's a story of adventure, intrigue and mystery. The midnight raids, some outright extortion, several takeovers and of course that real lure of pirate radio - The Loot!
Among the questions that this book answers are:-
- Why broadcast from on board a ship?
- What qualifications did DJs need on the ship?
- How did people live on board?
- What did everyone eat and drink?
- What did they do in their leisure time?
- Whose was the ghost who manifested by the transmitter?
Its a fun-filled, action-packed tale of
dramatic events on the High Seas.
dramatic events on the High Seas.
Over 200 pages of swashbuckling excitement!
To get a copy you can either order it at your local bookshop (ISBNs are below) or order via Amazon, or direct from the publishers who can get me to personally sign it and put in whatever dedication you wish. Find it at the WorldofPagesweb site. An excellent idea for a Christmas present perhaps?
of the MV Communicator
by Paul Alexander Rusling.
Published by World of Radio Ltd
ISBN Hardback 978-1-900401-14-2
Softback 978-1-900401-12-8
