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The boat that really rocked... Yorkshire pirate Radio 270 recalled
As Richard Curtis's new film on pirate radio opens, Sarah Freeman looks back on Yorkshire's own boat that rocked.
The day Yorkshire's first radio station attempted to broadcast from a trawler moored off the East Coast, the Walker Brothers were at number one with The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore.
It was a fitting anthem. Radio 270's entry into the increasingly crowded waters of off-shore and pirate broadcasting had been scheduled for April Fool's Day 1966. However, thick fog, equipment problems and the worst gale in living memory conspired against the radio pioneers determined to break the BBC monopoly.
"It wasn't exactly an auspicious start," says Bob Preedy, an early fan of the station who would go on to chronicle its history. "Within 24 hours, the 10,000 mast was lying on the seafloor and the ship had to make its way back to shore."
Some would have cut their losses, but the plans for Radio 270 – the brainchild of Yorkshire entrepreneurs Don Robinson, Wilf Proudfoot and Leonard Dale – weren't quite dead in the water. Two month's later, after further problems with paperwork and legal wranglings, the station on board the Dutch trawler Oceaan 7 went on air, opening with Frank Sinatra's current number one Strangers in the Night.
For Bob, who borrowed his parent's television aerial to tune his radio into the off-shore station, the DJs of Radio 270, who went on air from 7am to midnight, offered a passport to a world of glamorous possibility in an era when the BBC was geared towards public information and educational programming.
"I grew up in Derbyshire and Radio 270 was the strongest signal around," says Bob, whose book Radio 270 Life on the Oceaan Waves looks back at the station's turbulent 15 months. "I used to listen to it for hours. It's hard to imagine now when there is so much music available at the touch of a button what a culture shock stations like 270 were".
Through the 1950s, the BBC had done its best to ignore the burgeoning rock and roll boom and when they did play a record from the charts the cost in royalties was colossal. Operating outside the law, the offshore stations avoided the restrictions, they could play what they wanted, whenever they wanted.
"It was never as professional as pirate stations like Radio London, which was a slick American-backed operation," says Bob. "But the amateurish feel was part of its charm. The transmitter often broke down, there were unexplained periods of silence, but it remained our station in the North."
The Richard Curtis film The Boat That Rocked, which is due to open today, has caused much nostalgia for the maverick DJs of the 1960s. However, the reality of life on Oceaan 7, the smallest of all the off-shore stations, was one of few home comforts, boardroom battles, continuing technical difficulties and the ever present risk of sea sickness – one DJ was famously overcome live on air while reading out an advertisement for fried bacon.
"The working conditions were pretty grim," says Bob, who now lives in Wetherby. "The boat was a trawler designed to go out to sea and come back in again, it was never designed to be moored of the coast for any length of time. There was a lot off seasickness. It was pretty dismal, but when you listened to it, the DJs managed to create the illusion they were having a great time. There was something quite romantic about it. Wilf Proudfoot, who became joint-managing director of the station, didn't want it to just play pop music, he saw it more as a regional version of what the BBC was already doing. There was a religious programme, there was a gardening spot. It was the forerunner of commercial radio as we know it today. To be honest Wilf was ahead of his time."
Paid 25 a week, the DJs initially spent two weeks on board the ship, one week on shore selling advertising, followed by one week off. Many who viewed it as a stepping stone to better things were prepared to put up with the long hours and the nausea, but as the weeks at sea turned into months tempers began to fray.
During the first and last winter of Radio 270, the weather turned and as waves lapped over the boat and the trawler lurched into the icy waters of the North Sea, three of those on board decided they'd had enough.
"It must have been pretty frightening," adds Bob, who now runs the Wetherby Film Theatre and the town's local radio station. "The three DJs basically issued an ultimatum refusing to go back on board unless either the ship was moved nearer to the calmer waters of Bridlington Bay or there was an agreement that as soon as severe gale warning was issued they were taken back to harbour.
"The story ended up in the national papers and the next day all three were fired accused of exaggerating the dangers and breaking a clause in their contracts not to speak to the Press without management consent."
Countless DJs started their careers making the choppy crossing to Oceaan 7, and for all the tension, many of those who worked on the station left with fond memories.
"The sound was as good as any pop radio around," wrote programme director Noel Miller, who eventually returned to Australia and his family's catering business. "The studio was very basic with two turntables and two tape decks set on a gimbal to keep it level. We had fish feasts beyond belief when trawlers pulled alongside and gave us baskets of seafood in exchange for playing their requests. However, behind the scenes with the British government trying to close us down, clandestine maintenance trips to the shore and tender vessels not much bigger than a dinghy there was real drama in bringing it all together.
"Would I do it again? When can I start?"
In the early days, it seemed like the good times would never end. Advertising revenues for these new commercial stations were going through the roof and the public were tuning in in their millions. However, it wasn't long before off-shore radio became a political hot potato. Despite much opposition, the Government pressed ahead with its Marine Offences Bill, which would take Radio 270 and its sister stations off the air and fearing the axe was about to fall many of its staff, including Paul Burnett, who went on to present shows on Radio One and Classic Gold, fled the sinking ship.
"At the time, the Government said they had to stop the pirate stations because they were causing too much interference with foreign stations," says Bob. "But recently it's emerged that there was a lot of pressure from the BBC which feared if nothing was done about these rogue broadcasters, its monopoly would be broken."
At one minute to midnight on August 14, 1967, just as the summer of love was reaching its peak, 15 months of broadcasting history came to an end. In the intervening years the BBC expanded its output and the kind of commercial radio Wilf Proudfoot dreamed off back in the 1960s became a reality.
However, with the bottom now falling out of advertising and many programmes syndicated between the smaller stations, there are some who just occasionally allow themselves to believe that the spirit of Radio 207 may yet return.
"There's certainly a lot of parallels with the 1960s and radio today," says Bob. "There are no luxuries, most small stations employ a skeleton staff who each do half a dozen jobs. Budgets are tight and you have find new ways of entertaining the audience.
"To be honest, a lot of stations have become pretty safe and radio needs a jolt in the arm. Maybe, just maybe, there's someone out there who will venture out to sea again."
Film Review: The Boat That Rocked
TOP HITS OF 1966
1. These Boots Are Made For Walking: Nancy Sinatra
2. The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore: The Walker Brothers
3. You Don't Have To Say You Love Me: Dusty Springfield
4. Paint It Black: The Rolling Stones
5. Paperback Writer: The Beatles.
6. Sunny Afternoon: The Kinks
7. All Or Nothing: The Small Faces
8. Strangers In The Night: Frank Sinatra
9. Reach Out I'll Be There: The Four Tops
10. Good Vibrations: The Beach Boys.
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