Hi, well firstly may I wish you the very best in Season's Greetings Now to tell you that this afternoon I stood just a few feet from the Communicator, it was late afternoon but I managed to get a few pictures, the best of which are on my site http://www.geocities.com/piratealleyuk/ more will be posted shortly, I think these are the first to be published since the ship returned to the UK I like your site a lot, it brings back memories from the seventies when I started
Mark <mark@thunderbaynet.com>
UK - Monday, December 22, 2003 at 01:36:25

listeing to other music than TOP40-uh-junk. I do remember special programmes being aired on 773 kHz, they were very special I think. gr., Hans.
Hans <iimeeltje@hotmail.com>
Utrecht, NL - Tuesday, December 9, 2003 at 19:53:50

Un merveilleux site sur les Radios de mon adolescence. Bravo.
Christophe Debray
Lisieux, France - Tuesday, November 18, 2003 at 15:51:25 (CEST)

Hello , just found your site and very good it is as well I remember the caroline closedowns with the New Riders very well , They played it for me on Caroline the other day - I know its not the same not coming from the NorthSea but its still very good. Roger Day is doing some very good shows amongst others.
I Remember hearing the Mike Hagler jingle of yours on Caroline.
I also remember hearing someone called Norman Barrington Smythe on air in the 1980's - any relation?
Although I didn't hear Seagull as I started to listen to Caroline in 1973 (and Northsea prior to that), it's nice to see that Seagull is back (http://www.radioseagull.nl if you didn't know) They have only started recently and need more presenters - how about sending them some taped programmes ?
PETER CAMERON
UK - Sat, 15 Nov 2003 14:12:21 GMT
[Norman responds]:-When I arrived on the Mi Amigo my name 'Barrington' amused Andy Archer, who thought it sounded very upper-class! He added the name "Smythe" as in a double barrelled name to make it sound even more posh as a joke!
The name stuck and it took about a year for people to forget the Smythe again - and some still remember it!.......

Hello Norman,
This is a great site with memories of the 60s and the great 70s. I'm a fan of offshore radio.
greetings. Rudy de Groot
Hoogezand/Netherlands - Saturday, October 4, 2003 at 08:51:00 (CEST)

Hi just found your site..loved it, so much on it . I`ve been a fan of free radio since becoming a Caroline club member in the early 199 days...and have scrap books of many of the old stations with stickers and replys to my letters. My Firm has just moved to Rochester and was surprised to see the Ross Revenge tied up there What a sad sight, It should be Renovated and Given to English Heritage !As Being the founder of the British Radio Revolution....Must take some more photo`s when the suns out.........
Ron <ronp@fsmail.net>
london, UK - Sunday, September 07, 2003 at 15:36:26 (CEST)

Hello Norman, It is good to see that more and more people who joined a "pirate " station , write their stories and adventures down on the internet. I think for a lot of people who grew up with, caroline, Veronica, RNI and Mi-Amigo. Now we can see the faces behind the radio voices or from the crew on board and the crew of the land studio's. As a younger man i taped records and small pieces of programm's but lost the most of it, glad that i can hear it again by the internet. So Norman , thank you and go on with youre site and i hope you refresh it with "new" material. Kind regards from , J. Kuiper , jjkuiper@chello.nl from the north of the netherlands
J. Kuiper <jjkuiper@chello.nl>
NL - Monday, August 18, 2003 at 23:35:17 (CEST)

HI Norman FAB MATE great site as a radio anorak its a god send i will be back time after time ,i filled up and had tears in eyes at hearing RNI theme in full thanks
andy morris {moggie} <amoggie206@btopenworld.com>
leicester, UK - Wednesday, August 13, 2003 at 07:12:48 (CEST)

Hi Norman, I'd like to mention a programme I found by chance here in Spain a few weeks ago on the national station RNE Radio 3. The programme, called "Islas de Robinson", includes a lot of lost classics from the late 60s and early 70s, plus some very interesting new music. I've taken the liberty of jotting down a few tracks: Oh Candy - Cheap Trick (1977) Shake Some Action - The Flamin'Groovies (1976) Until You Carne Along - Golden Smog (1998) Remembering Pt 1 - Thin Lizzy (1971) Grass - Pretty Things (1970) Autopsy - Fairport Convention (1971) Rock N' Roll Woman - Buffalo Springfield (1967) Have You Ever Wondered Why? - Tyrone Davis (1969) Camarillo Brillo - Frank Zappa & The Mothers (1973) Straight Shooter - The Reigning Sound (2002) I Remember Caroline - Honeybus (1969) Sing a Song for You - Tim Buckley (1969) When I Touch You - Spirit (1970) Déja vu - C.S.N & Y. (1970) Six o'dock - Loving Spoonful (1968) Blue Butterfly - Cloud Eleven (2002) What's Happening? - The Byrds (1966) Any resemblance to the type of music played on the Mi Amigo in the 70s must be purely coincidental! The programme is on Sat & Sun from 2000-2100 CET (1900-2000 UK) and you can listen in via the Internet at: http://www.rne.es/r3/escuchar.htm The presenter, Luis, mentioned that the show is a pilot for this summer only. So I would imagine any words of encouragement from international listeners would be well received. E-mail: "islasderobinson AT hotmail DOT com" RNE Radio 3 broadcasts on FM in Spain and via Satellite to Europe and America. See http://www.rne.es/emisoras/ for details. Best regards and thanks for a great website.
Steve
UK - Thursday, July 24, 2003 at 21:11:44 (CEST)
[The presenter of the above show responds]:- Hello Norman; this is Luis de Benito writing from Spain. I'm just writing to give you thanks for publishing Steve Pragnell's email telling about my radio show in your visitor's book....It is really a honour for me...

Steve told me about yor site and about Radio Caroline's one... They are both great... I really admire your labour (and the great moments that you have surely enjoyed)...

... I´m 30 years old actually and I have been listening to the Radio since I was a child... I really love Radio, despite it is not living very good times, at least here in Spain...Anyway, I´m afraid nothing is living good times actually... Terrible and very boring times¡¡¡... That's why I'm trying to spread the word about good songs in the National Spanish Radio... I love Radio and I love good Songs, so now that I have the chance, I'm going to try my best to do something that can bring some beauty and nice love feelings to this world... I know it sounds difficult and even pretentious but If nobody tries it....

The problems is that people, apart from many other things, seems to have forgotten about how important communication is and about how important music is also... Many radio DJ's don't appreciate how lucky and privileged they are to have their radio spaces, and they play anything without any care, without passion....

Sorry for writing so long and excuse me for my English writing, but I'm very very happy to find that there still exist people like you or Steve around the world... Your support is very important for me, I really appreciate it.

Thank you very much

Best wishes from Madrid,

Luis dB--- "ISLAS DE ROBINSON".............

Found you via Ben Freedman. Inventive site, great, emotional fun to explore. Nice to hear "New Riders" in decent quality. Marked you on 'Favourites' 'cos I'm enjoying the content. You are doing good work, and its good work. Thank You.
Don Stevens <anubis@tutankh.fsnet.co.uk>
London, UK - Sunday, July 20, 2003 at 03:13:34 (CEST)

A rich resource of all thing jingle and offshore radio - related ! Great work Norman and thanks for your help in tracking down those hard-to-find items. Speaking of which, does anyone have a decent copy of the last half hour of Radio England ? I know it was a shambles and all that, but I really would like to get hold of a decent recording. I KNOW that there are some out there! I've managed to cobble some of it together from various sources, but I really would like a decent copy of the whole thing. Thanks
Martyn Webster <martynw@madasafish.com>
London, UK - Wednesday, July 09, 2003 at 23:15:56 (CEST)

Hi Norman,,Just thought id comment on the fantastic web site youve created.Ive spent hours looking over it and still havent seen everything.Im an amatuer DJ myself, with a little studio set up in my attic,currently working in the NHS (not good!!) and would truly love to get into radio,however living in Cornwall im rather stuck as we have only got two local stations (the south west still thinks its 1958 !!!!!!), so have you any tips?.Im a big fan off jingles too, in my opinion radio stations seem to shy away from decent packages these days in favour of making their own,but nothing beats a good old PAMS classic. Thanks for the website, bye for now, Stuart Busby.
Stuart Busby <BUZZ@epsb.freeserve.co.uk>
Cornwall, UK - Friday, June 27, 2003 at 16:42:35 (CEST)

As a big offshore-fan I am happy to find Norman Barringtons website. Since years I'm search "On my way back home" (Caroline ID) and now I found it on normans Audio. Thanks a lot!
K. Peter Puth <puthde@t-online.de>
Offenbach, D Germany - Tuesday, June 10, 2003 at 11:28:33 (CEST)

Hi Norman, may I say what a wonderful web-site you have, it really brings back some great memories, especially the early 1970's when I was a keen listener to the Dutch offshore radio stations. I remember being thrilled to hear you read my letter out one evening when you were doing a show on Radio Mi Amigo, just before Radio Seagull's evening broadcasts in late 1973. You even sent me a QSL card of the Mi Amigo! At the time, 1973, I was involved with land-based pirate broadcasting. I used to broadcast on 1535KHz AM, as "The sound Of Southend", I started off with just 5 Watts of power fed to a horizontal 65 foot antenna, and by 1975 I had increased power to over 250 Watts, with a Hi-Fi audio bandwidth of 20 KHz... This didn't impress the Home Office and Post Office monitoring guys, and I was raided in July 1975 and fined at Southend Magistrates Court for un-licensed broadcasting... I was just 18 years old at the time!..It seems like only last week though. Since then after behaving myself for a few years at a local hospital radio station, and gaining a healthy respect for good music and playing album tracks on a 2 hour show on Sunday evening's, I then set-up a legal offshore radio group in 1992. The radio group called, "Searock" was to broadcast from the longest pier in the world here in Southend-on-sea, it's 1.33 miles-long and has a good coverage area extending along the Essex and Kent coasts, as well as extending into East London. The station group had around 25 members and we broadcast on RSL temporary licenses. The Station was split into 2 services, Sunshine FM during the day, from 7am until 7pm, and Radio Searock between 7pm and 7am. The searock service was totally wild and played anything that was on an album, from Frank Zappa to Jasper Carrot! We got very addicted to playing the late Vivian Stanshall, who was in the Bonzo Dog band, and was a native Southender. We broadcast on 100.5MHz VHF with an official power granted to us of 10 Watts, but we added a few zeros to this and broadcast well over 100Watts ERP. We were heard well over 35 miles away, and got a huge following. After several arguments with the daytime crew, the 2 radio groups went separate ways, Searock eventually re-surfaced after 1996 as "Supanova Radio" again this was located on-board the pier-head on Southend pier, and used a very much higher mast and power on a clear channel, 107.4MHz. I was station manager and transmitter engineer on Supanova in 1997 and after we were granted a tiny 15 Watt RSL license, I hired a 300 Watt VHF stereo Transmitter for the broadcasts. The signal took-off like a rocket!...We even got reception reports from western Belgium! During Supanova's broadcasts we suffered a storm force 11 gale, and we lost part of the roof of our small studio and had to continue broadcasting with a bucket under the roof to catch the rainfall, it was also a bit worrying one night on Radio Searock in October 1993 when a massive bolt of lightning struck the pier about 50 feet away from the anntena mast, followed the night after when the tide rose to the highest spring tide in the 20th century, it was actually higher than the pier deck by 2 inches for over an hour and we had to put our feet in plastic bags to keep our feet dry!..Hee hee! Finally, thanks for the Tony Blackburn theme, Beefeaters, It's really great to hear it in full! Once again, thanks for a really fantastic web-site Norman, it's the best web-site on the subject of offshore broadcasting. I look forward to hearing from you soon.Best wishes, Steve
Steve Leggett <go_anywhere_trousers@yahoo.com>
Southend-on-sea, Essex UK - Friday, April 04, 2003 at 12:27:16 (CEST)

Thanks NormanI've been looking for this for 34 years!I remember hearing Robbie Dale use many of these on his 11pm show on RadioVeronica back in 1969. I managed to record some of them off-air when theheterodynes and other interference allowed. Reception on 192m so far fromthe coast was rarely good and usually poor.The last few of cuts in this montage (with the interspersed 'Fun') andclucking sound as if they come from Fun Vibrations but I have never comeacross a Fun Vibrations demo with these on. What series are they from?How about putting the full version of these on your site (especially theperky little tune right at the end)?What memories they bring back!!
Martin Crumpton <martin@crumpton77.freeserve.co.uk>
UK - Monday, March 24, 2003 at 23:30:58 (MET)

Hello Norman,Excellent site! Thank´s a lot.Harald
Harald Urbig <HaraldUrbig@t-online.de>
NRW, Germany - Sunday, March 16, 2003 at 19:22:31 (MET)

Hi Norman. Great site - I really enjoy reading other people's memories of offshore radio. I certainly treasure the time that I had, listening to all those great stations.If your visitors enjoy vintage valve radio receivers, then they are also welcome to visit my websitewww.mikesradio.freeservers.comBest wishesMike
Mike Horne <mike@jhorne62.freeserve.co.uk>
Leeds, UK - Wednesday, March 12, 2003 at 23:39:25 (MET)

saw mike hagler last week in amsterdam, it's hagler with 1 g by the way. wanted to know how you were. also were did the black and white pictures come from and is it possible to get copies? peaceelija
elija <Vcornelia@aol.com>
whitstable, UK - Tuesday, March 04, 2003 at 10:50:48 (MET)

A nice site Norman - we had contacts before via the internet. Have fun with everything - made myself a new radio club
Tommie D <jackyv@chello.nl>
NL, NL - Friday, February 28, 2003 at 18:50:16 (MET)

Great site - brings back many memories. Veronica was my favourite - I even went to night school in Hull to learn Dutch! Sent a penpal request in to Andy Archer on Caroline in March 1974 for Dutch penpals. The friends I made became friends for life - we are regular visitors to Holland and they come here too.
Colin <hill@hill.karoo.co.uk>
Hull, UK - Monday, February 17, 2003 at 00:15:01 (MET)

great site --looking for complete recording of horst reiner theme by spotnicks ,in the mood any leads are welcome thanks!!
george <george715@msn.comseattle>
renton, wa usa - Thursday, February 06, 2003 at 05:26:11 (MET)

Hi there. Well. it is nice to see al of this together putted on one page. Great job.I am in to the total picture of free radio. we our selves broadcast very regularly on short wave.And yes. We are free, I was interviewed last year by the Dutch national radio 1 (VPRO) and I did say and the aired it aswel. Who does own the airwaves. No one. Just set up a few basic rules so it won't get a mess and give it free to the people.
Alfred (Alfa Lima International)
Netherlands - Wednesday, January 08, 2003 at 22:40:23 (MET)

Hi Norman,Great to see the site is as good as ever.As I write (03/01/03), I am waiting for the launch of Radio Caroline @ 28.5 degrees east. Could this be the big time "The Lady" has been waiting for all these years?
Alan Jarvie <alan_jarvie@btopenworld.com>
East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire UK - Friday, January 03, 2003 at 22:18:28 (MET)

Hi Norman,Great website, I used to listen to the pirates in the 70's Caroline, Northsea, Veronica, Atlantis, Mi Amigo, Seagull, Jackie, Kaelidescope and of course Caroline continued after then and it's great with the internet keeping it all alive. Guys like you inspired me to want to be a DJ though it never really happened and I became a musician.Just wanted to say thanks for the memories, and if you can give me any airplay that would be great, you can check out my music @ http://www.mp3.com/stevencrayn Regards Steven CraynPS Does anyone have a copy of the Radio Seagull interview with Alice Cooper 1973/4?
Steven Crayn <stevencrayn@yahoo.com>
UK - Friday, January 03, 2003 at 01:54:40 (MET)