By Peter Trollope From the Liverpool Echo. 1st April 1980 They Seek Them Here, They Seek Them There. The secret is to be one step ahead A cold wind whipped along the furrows of a ploughed field. Through the gathering gloom, it was hard to see the tower blocks on the Cantril Farm Estate. Rick crouched over a car battery, flicked on a switch and Radio Jackie North was on the air again. Over on the Wirral behind closed curtains, in a flat in a multi storey block, among a pile of records and debris and coiled wire, plugs and valves, MAR, Merseyland Alternative Radio swung into action. These are the voices of free Radio on Merseyside as their home produced jingles will tell you. There are two pirate Radio stations operating on our own doorstep. It sounds romantic but it really isn't. " It's a hard life, and you've got to be really dedicated to keep on going", says Rick, who's long curly hair cascades down his shoulders. He's in his 30's and he isn't really called Rick and neither is John from MAR really called John. They seek the cloak and dagger of anonymity because if the cloak and dagger world they live in Both face heavy fines and imprisonment for operating their respective Radio stations. Both know the penalties involved, but they see themselves as martyrs to the cause. Radio Jackie North has been operating for some years now and during that time Rick has had to "work with my head over my shoulder all the time, looking for the Gestapo", he says. It's his friendly endearment for the men from the Post Office Radio Interference section who go out regularly trying to pinpoint the transmitters and that's why today Rick was in a field. "Tomorrow I'll move on somewhere else", he says. The secret is to always be one step ahead all the time. John agrees "It's the only way. We came on the air last October, and since then we have had detector vans around, but they've never been able to trace us". He's in his 20'sand has a daytime job and spends all devoted to MAR. " Some people may think we're crazy. We aren't. We believe in what we are doing, and believe it to be right. Why should there be a monopoly on Radio stations. People think that the commercial stations are free, but that's not the case. Both Jackie North and MAR are well organised. They have back-up teams, some keeping watch while others keep on the technical side. They profess a pioneering spirit. Mar plays mostly pop, while Jackie North always plays rock. The quality is nowhere near perfect. The scouse accents stand out loud and clear, as you move along the Radio dial. At times the records come over scratched and they sound very crackly. We try our best but obviously we don't have the facilities of the local legal Radio stations, still it's half the fun some of the time says Rick who has often had to run across fields and down back alley ways to avoid getting caught. When you talk to them, you can't help noticing their eyes. Their tired eyes sink back into their sockets. " I suppose it's because we don't get much sleep", says John. Every night of the week he is busy preparing tapes, letters, jingles and everything for the station which broadcasts from Saturday morning to Sunday night. Rick interrupts, "I used to broadcast every day, but it became impossible after a while and I was becoming a complete wreck. Now I operate at weekends only and it makes it harder for them to detect us. People ask me why do I bother, and I tell them it is because if I didn't then perhaps no one else would. There is no other station in the land like mine. No one plays continuous rock music. It's crazy really. If you go to America nearly every city has twenty or more Radio stations, and yet here, you're luck if you find two, so I'm providing an alternative. " Rick first got involved with pirate Radio after being inspired by Radio Caroline in the 1960's. "After Caroline went, I thought I'd like to have a go, and so I managed to learn how to build transmitters and things went from there. Rick based Radio Jackie North around the Cantril Farm area and has safe houses he operates from and where the mailing address is. MAR can be found in the Wirral. "We' re still looking for a better location site than we have at present. It makes detection more difficult if we keep moving. At times we both feel a bit like the resistance fighters of the war with a Gestapo prowling around in a van trying to track us down. That's how it is, you know, and all because you are doing something alot of other people like. I mean, if we were all political then I could understand it, but we would never dream of being that. Our one dream is that one day the government will relent and we can run our own stations properly." In the past, Rick has been fined for operating his Radio station and had his equipment confiscated. He knows that if he's caught again he could go straight to prison for four months. "It makes me mad. I could probably go out and mug a few old ladies and they would pat me on the back and send me home, but because it's on the airwaves, I am threatened with prison. and john nods in agreement and says, " you see, in theory we could apply for a licence and run a Radio station, but we would never get the chance. The BBC and the commercial stations have the franchise and that's it. Why shouldn't people be allowed to have more choice? It' supposed to be a free country isn't it? The Post office take a different viewpoint . Anyone who operates a Radio station in the way they do is breaking the law under the 1949 Wireless and Telegraphy act. As with people who use Citizens Band, we are requested by the Home Office to find and locate the Radio stations so they can be prosecuted. I can't go into details of our methods of tracking them, but we do use detector vans and I cannot go into the pro's and cons of tracking Radio stations. If it's the law, then it's the law" says a Post Office spokeswoman. "Actually I think they quite like us. We sometime do dedications to them", says John smiling for the first time before they both left to go back on the air again. (Liverpool Echo 1st April 1980)   (From Pirate Radio Listeners Club Newsletter 1/6/1980) By: Phil My involvement with RJN started about 1978 when after tuning in for the first time to a station playing all the music i was into myself i wrote to the station and offered my help in any way other than providing money :) My offer was accepted with great speed and a meeting in a public house was set up for the following week. What was wanted was premesis to transmit or to relay a signal from. At the time I was living at a girlfriends flat on Princess Avenue in Liverpool (Top Floor of a large victorian building) What transpired was the rigging up of an aerial from the roof of our house and across the Avenue to a derelict house across the way. The actual event was a bizaar event with a fearless 'Rick Dane' climbing out of windows and hanging off window ledges in an attempt to throw a tennis ball with string attached over the roof of our 3 story building in order to set up the antenna. The best part was the attempts to trail 300m of fine wire across a wide boulavarde and hoist it up out of the way of traffic before a bus dragged the whole lot into the city center. Towerdene Now that was freakie....We were broadcasting form a block of flats where I used to live as a kid. Here I was 5 years down the line and back to hanging out in the woods around the block and on the Pricenct every weekend. That was too much. RJN was never a smooth run ship, Everything was last minute but it always came together on time and maybe that was all to the good as without the madness and anachy behind the scenes it wouldent have been half as memerable as it is. We were a mixed bunch at the time I was with the station, Bordom, Cass, Bass, Mush, Jimmy the boss. The names say it all. Where are you all now I wonder??? I must at this point mention ' M.A.R. (on 266 this is M.A.R. Merseyland Alternative Radio) The Enemy? Who we had a tendency to listen to more than R.J.N on broardcast days. M.A.R was our rival though they didnt actualy play much that we did. They were a bit more wide in there playlist and had a selection of DJ's. Also they always seemed to be having a better time than we were. But the grass always looks greener...... They had the incessent barking dog in the background everytime the mic was opened, pointing to the fact that they were nearer the ground than we were in our 22 story stronghold. If we ever saw the GPO coming up the service road to the block we just did an Elvis and 'Left the building' usualy passing the GPO inspectors on the way out of the lift or in the carpark as they tried to spy out the aerial, We always had a smile and a wave for them. This brings us to a confession I've lived with for too long, as the aerial was always anchored to a convinient tree in the wood that stood to the side of the flats. Every tree we used as an anchor eventualy died. The copse which was only small but had been part of a larger plantation before the estate had been built, was dotted with white leafless and barkless trees, The only saving grace here is the fact that most of the dead trees where sycamores and not the beech or lime that made up the wood. Tree climbing at 3am in the morning to fix the ariel was never a good prospect but Eric would be up there in the tops swaying around and trying not to attract attention in his white trousers. The trek over to Erics house from the studio at the end of a broadcast day would see Eric Carrying the TX (It was too important for anyone else to carry, though I did on one occasion get to carry the sacred item mysrelf) any other equipment was shared out between whoever else was there. The radio would be re tuned from 217m over to 266m to listen to MAR for the treck. Without fail Eric would always say 'Whatare you listening to that rubbish for' and then complain about battery wastage, Even if it was a personal radio we were using. Another vivid image of Eric is of him racing across Mab lane field on his bike, Trying to get to the studio with the next 2 hour tape for the day. This event was usualy timed to the limit and always led to a red faced Eric puffing and panting bursting through the door tape in hand with only seconds to spare. I could go on for days here.....But more memories will come in time. and hopefully in some sort of coherent order. Page 2 >>> |
