bbmyls2go @ MindSay

". . . but I have MILES TO GO before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep." Robert Frost

Pirate Radio

Tags:

radio

jessie

bbc

558

I've written in the past about my sister who has had a very varied career in radio. A few weeks ago I was googling to find an Irish landscaper who could clean up a cemetery plot and instead a Dublin business posting caught my eye - a former dj/pirate who had a website that talked of both his career and pirate radio in general. http://homepage.eircom.net/~kieranmurray/career.htm

I wrote him and introduced myself and invited him to read the blog I wrote a few years ago about her career complete with some photos. http://bbmyls2go.mindsay.com/its_not_just_a_job_its_an_adventure.mws

Overseas she worked aboard a ship, a literal pirate, that broadcast American rock and roll with an American crew to Europe.

That correspondence sparked my interest and I googled her and the ship, the MV Communicator to see if anything new had been posted in the last couple of years. I found tons of fansites of people called Anoraks, radio groupies. As well as some from people associated with the station in various ways :

http://www.bobleroi.co.uk/ScrapBook/Laser558/Laser558.html

Alas the poor Communicator is being scrapped and all the forums are buzzing about it. But some are now buzzing about my blog as my correspondence was followed by a post I made on a forum about the Communicator. The first link is a forum with fans discussing how the Communicator moved around and finally was "dry-docked" and includes my post, the second is a more recent picture of the ship :

http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/imagelibrary/picture/number1710.asp

http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/imagelibrary/picture/number3715.asp

My sister (air name Jessie), emailed me the other day that she belongs to some newsletters regarding radio and that there have been two mentions of my blog there as well! This is the best, in the last line I even get a good review for my story of her career! (the article is in the Dutch language so this is translated by babelfish at altavista.com) :

"The something older radio auditor knows the name of Jessie Brandon still. These American was of the first female deejays which happened with the Communicator from Florida to make programmes in international wateren for the British coast for laser 558. we write 1984. for that them the necessary experience on the American radio had already gained and moreover an in-depth training communication and radio followed. Full tension underwent them travel which the its straight ' radiopiratenwereldje ' binnenloodste. Beside the vele hours pure radio radio-entertainment which she made looked after by means of laser 558 them in Europe also programmes for among others Capital radio in London and radio Luxembourg. Afterwards she returned to America to continue its radio career. Some years suffered she would be at guest on the annual radio day in Amsterdam but eventually had them still call off. How does she have the radioleven to experience? That is the main question on which have been given answers now a lot of on the blog which its brother has made. A pleasant retrospection is the result."

I then recieved a note from someone wanting to get in touch with her (a fan) and left it to my sister to decide to drop them a hello or not. But I find it fascinating that so many people are still so enamored of Laser 558 and Jessie and the other djs almost 25 years after they did their thing (the station was persecuted by the British authorities and did not remain on the air for a very long time, about a year, I think). I never thought to check Youtube, but indeed there was a BBC newshow that did a segment on the then new radio station and though Jess isn't interviewed, she is on screen several times and there is a lot of the music they were famous for playing in the background. There are lots of great histories and stories and photos of the crew and ship all over the internet and she should probably start a blog of her own with all the sites linked, but if you have any interest in this unique brand of radio, here is the BBC show : (it's about 8 minutes long, but even the intro 45 seconds is pretty cool)

As I mentioned, the MV Communicator which has undergone several rehabs and worked in other parts of Europe in the last 20 years is now forlornly being dismantled. The antennae are gone, the generators, the transmitters, and it is almost history. I'm really curious, since Jessie lived the life, how she feel when she sees something like this next video, a TRIBUTE to Laser 558. I'm just grinning ear to ear with pride watching it, it is so cool that her work had such an impact. She's out of radio now caring for Mom, but who knows, with this little media wave I created by writing one fan, maybe her future includes a return to the air (she'll HATE me for saying that, she LOVES her gardening now!). So here's to Jessie, the MV Communicator, and all the crazy djs who took up life on the high seas in the name of rock and roll !