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Radio Scotland


Radio Scotland

My father and my younger cousin Robert on the "Comet" AKA the pirate radio station Radio Scotland in late Summer 1966  My father and I were running the stores fuel and disc jockeys out to the ship, which was anchored off Troon near the Lady Isle, with the Bonnie Lass.




    Brian Ward TT24
    Nov 27 2008 08:10 PM
    I used to listen to the station on 242m MW.  The station theme tune was the Black Bear. She was Scotland's answer to Radio Caroline. Stuart Henry was on 242  before Lux 208 then Radio 1. I recall that she also broadcast from off Dunbar for some of her short life.when she was closed down in 1967.

    young ronnie
    Nov 27 2008 10:39 PM
    She was originally anchored off the May Island Brian and the "Vanguard" an ex fishing boat about 50ft. skippered by Peter "Boups" Johnstone ran the stores from Dunbar.When she moved to the Clyde and the Vanguard's engine blew up,my father got the job.We weren't very well paid but it was a "change of pace" and as good as a Summer holliday for me as I was only 15 then.Stuart Henry was aboard the ship at the start,but he spewed his ringer up so much they had to take him off and make him shore based. They played some good music on 242.

    quiet waters
    Nov 28 2008 12:06 AM
    never broadcast from a pirate radio but i did broadcast from the ex RNLI locker room and garage on the old quay, its their gift shop now but during the summer of 97 and 98 i did the RSL for Kintyre community Radio which became Argyll FM 106.5, 107.1 & 107.7, i did 6hrs a week of the best music and the most contraversial nonsensical blethering on the west coast, my record was eight and a half hours of non stop live broadcasting and i didn't run out of sh!te to speak about. most presenters were limited to "that was a song by" "this is a song by" and even that was beyond some of them, if your within range try tuning in and you'll hear that these days they are even worse than that. i also held the record for being reported to the broadcasting authority the most times, four, come to think about it, nobody else ever got reported?
    i had the pleasure of interviewing the proclaimers, biffy clyro, sharleen spiteri, james dean bradfield of the manic st preachers among others tho my favourites were dean park and david sneddon, i spent the whole interview just taking the piss out them and to my great pleasure it all went straight over their heads. worst moment was the day that the guy who made the hatchet job documentry about the youth of the town which many might have seen came into the station during my show, i interviewed him on air while his camera crew filmed him interviewing me at the same time, if any of the footage had made the finished program i'd have been tarred and feathered, and surprisingly for a man who edited the program to make the kids look as bad as possible, the whole of my bit ended on the cutting room floor, the scenes with underage drinkers were only made possible because he bought them the drink.
    i only left when the masons among my fellow directors insisted i apologise to a local shopkeeper after i outed him as being an unscrupulous gents outfitter who had nearly ruined my sisters wedding by making a complete balls of all the highland dress outfits male family members had hired from him, his fellow goat sh@ggers demanded i apologise so i told them where to stick their transmitter, i lost my toy, they've lost about £20,000 in lost advertising and accountants fees as i used to do the books and the VAT which they now have to pay for.
    radio is brilliant, better than the VHF, you don't have to stop speaking to listen to someone else speak, i could still show jonathon ross and russell brand a thing or two, this site for example, like me they have plenty time on their hands, i did offer my services to radio 2 seeing they have a free slot on saturday mornings and i told them i'd do it for a tenth of the £800,000 they pay wossy for his radio show, sadly they have declined, the fools!!!!

    johntar tt10
    Nov 28 2008 12:40 AM
    Wan thing in common QW met Sharlene Spiteri up at Andy Bruce and John Dick's Seaward engineers shop in Pollockshaws Road, she was washing her BMW with fairy liquid in the yard, gied her a hand hosing the suds off got tickets to a concert, this was before they hit bigtime so never went.  
    Another coincidence, her father sailed with Bruce Thompson frae Skipness on the tankers that were running the blockade efter Rhodesia went UDI, ever heard the story about when Bruce was in Mombassa?
    Went ashore up to a wee shebeen at the heid of the wharf, more like African seaman's mission but they catered for the basic manly needs and urges, get me?
    Anyway this big Mamma asked Brucie if he fancied a bit of the other, course he was only there for the beer and gied her a knock back,
    She came back with the classic one liner,
    "Ah knows ya loves me white boy Ah sees your trousers move"

    quiet waters
    Nov 28 2008 12:48 AM
    must have been a different north kintyre snake?

    johntar tt10
    Nov 28 2008 12:50 AM
    Yer sharp QW like a sythe blade, least he kept it in his troosers

    quiet waters
    Nov 28 2008 01:07 AM
    noo a days he'd be a wise man but back then? would you ever get the chance again? i have two cousins over there, my mothers oldest sister and her husband neil a brother of charlie mcmillan. i never met neil, only met the aunt once in 72, their daughter the same time, and once when she was over with her husband who was a captain in the army whe n he did his service six months of the year as they all did, before mugabe, the way the spoke about the natives its no wonder they mostly got thrown out, they moved to south africa but don't know what happened tothem when nelson got out? not nice people on my eyes, i was about 14 the last time they visited and told the cousins man to get out our house, i wasn't prepared to listen to him speak about other humans as if they were dumb animals, you'd think they came from the eat end of glasgow the way he spoke about them, seriously, white afrikaaners are not nice people, make the KKK look like they are human, they must have found somewhere to crawl under a rock or they'd have scarpered back to the old country.

    Adoration II
    Nov 28 2008 06:42 AM
    no fear o other 1 keeping it in his trousers john just slidders back out its been afy quiet last 2weeks is he on holiday lol