OFFSHORE RADIO ENGINEERS OF THE SIXTIES.

The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame was set up to honour the offshore broadcasters who entertained us all those years ago but they couldn't have done it without the technical teams. Occasionally one of the engineers would be mentioned, or even heard, on the air but their names were mainly unknown to us listeners. But not for much longer. We hope to create a definitive list of all the engineers who worked on the offshore stations of the sixties.
 
There are undoubtedly names missing from these pages at the moment, and some mistakes, but, with your help, the information will be updated and corrected. If you were an engineer on an offshore station during the sixties, or worked alongside one, please do get in touch.
 
Some of these guys worked on the generators, some on the transmitters, some were studio operators in the early days of pirate radio before “self-operation” became the norm, when a DJ would have a technician to “drive” the desk and spin the records for him. All of them contributed, usually anonymously, to a radio revolution and deserve our grateful thanks.

Radio Atlanta / Radio Caroline North & South

JOSEF ARCH from Graz, Austria.
GEOFF BROWN
MORRIS BROWN worked on Caroline South in 1967/68. DJ Andy Archer remembers him as “a very nice guy with a taste for expensive brandy!” He passed away in August 2021 and Roger Day commented on Facebook: “I knew him from the electrical shop Henry's in Margate and hospital radio at the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital. Rest in peace my friend.” There are some photos taken by Morris, and some of his memories of working on the Mi Amigo, here.
ARTHUR CARRINGTON was said to have been responsible for fitting out the mv Fredericia, the original Radio Caroline ship, later to become Caroline North. He had previously been involved with the installation of equipment at the Manchester studios of ABC Television and had worked for the BBC, The Marconi Company and the Government. Research by Mervyn Hagger has revealed that Arthur was a camera specialist but he has found no evidence of him knowing about transmitters.
PAUL DALE Based in Caroline House where he was Chief Radio Engineer. His real name was Paul Volino. George Hare, the Caroline North shore liaison man, writes: “Paul was from Graz in Austria. It was Paul who introduced Josef Arch and Manfred Sommer who were also from Graz. After Caroline Paul and I had a business manufacturing TV aerials for mail order. That was in the early 70s. Paul sadly died suddenly in January 1998 and I lost a good friend.”
JOHN H. GILMAN Engineering supervisor, based in Caroline House. Previously with the BBC, he had also worked with Alfred N. Thomas on other offshore projects such as GBOK. He was in charge of engineering on both the Caroline ships up to December 1965. Whereas Thomas was a transmitter expert, Gilman's knowledge was centered on antennas and a number of offshore station aerial masts were built to his designs. He died around 1971.
WILLIAM GLENDINNING now deceased. He designed the suitcase transmitters used by agents during the Second World War. Fiona Glendinning writes “My grandfather worked on the Mi Amigo and, from some of his stories, loved every minute of it. He was probably the oldest crew member they had!” Bill's son John, Fiona's father, was an engineer on Radio 390.
RAY GLENNISTER Engineer on Caroline South, his nickname was “the Voice of Gloom”, according to Carl Mitchell's papers.
BARRY GOLBOURNE Engineer from Cheshire, he worked on both Caroline ships. Died in a car accident on the M56 in Cheshire. Mike Wright says “he left the (north) ship with most of the other UK staff on August 14th 1967 and was killed in a motor accident about a week later. He had planned to emigrate to New Zealand.” There is a photo of Barry here.
TREVOR GRANTHAM Worked on both Caroline ships and Radio 270. There is a picture of him in Alan Turner's photo album. Trevor attended the Caroline North Convention on the Isle Of Man in 2008.

JERRY GROVER was a studio engineer on Caroline North from June 1964 until January 1965. He had previously worked for the BBC. After his time at sea he worked for Piccadilly Radio in Manchester and BBC Radio Manchester. See here.
JAN GUNNARSSON A Swedish engineer on board the mv Fredericia, he had previously worked on Radio Nord, a pirate station that had broadcast off the coast of his home country during 1961/2.
GEORGE HARRIS
BOB HART A Caroline North studio engineer, there are a couple of pictures of him in Alan Turner's photo album.
JACK HAVEY an engineer on Radio Caroline South, he later worked on Radio Scotland. Can anyone provide more information?
FRANK KEMBLE There is a picture of him in Alan Turner's photo album. He was later with Radio 355.
GEOFFREY LEE from Ealing, west London.
MILAN LEGGETT An American engineer from Dallas station KLIF who assisted in the launch of Radio Atlanta. He also played a part in offshore radio history later, when working for a company called Besco in Dallas. He supplied the ex-KCUL transmitter to Radio City which was the cause of a fatal ownership dispute. He died in March 2015.
PAUL LE MARE Studio engineer on the Fredericia, there is a photo of him in Alan Turner's photo album.
W.V. “JOE” NEAL A former BBC engineer, he had worked at the Corporation's transmitter site in Washford, Somerset. He was a colleague of John Gilman's and, when he retired from the BBC at the age of 60, Gilman invited him to join Radio Atlanta / Caroline South. There is a photo of him on this page. He died around 1975. Before his BBC career he had been a radio operator on the RMS Olympic, a sister ship to the Titanic. Thanks to George Saunders for the information.
MARTIN NEWTON A former BBC engineer, Martin mainly worked on the Caroline South ship although he did spend some time on the North. He transferred to Radio London in September 1965. Following the station closure he worked in studio installation but died in 2002. There is a tribute here.
ELEFKTERIOS PAPAS

PHIL PERKINS Formerly of Radio Invicta and Radio City, Phil was also an engineer on Caroline North. He is pictured in Nick Bailey's photo album. Phil now lives in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
A.D PERSON There is a picture of him in the Caroline South transmitter hold here.
PETE (or PIET?) POSTHUMUS A BBC engineer who liked to take on other freelance jobs. He helped both Radio Caroline and Radio London on occasions. He died on 8th September 2019.
JAN(?) RASTERHOFF Chief marine engineer on the Fredericia, he can be seen in one of Alan Turner's photos. His name appears in this accounts ledger from 1964.
BOB READ American engineer, occasional DJ and newsreader from Kansas who worked on Caroline North in 1966/67, Bob arrived around the same time as Mike Wright, see below, which led to the two of them being known collectively as “Read and Wright”. Newsreader Nick Bailey says of Bob: “I rather took to him as he had a love of travel and would spend his spare time studying the BEA timetable to work out where he would fly to on his week off. A man after my own heart.” The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame heard from Bob in July 2012. He wrote: “I was 18 at the time, had bought a one-way ticket to London from Kansas and Paul Dale hired me the day I arrived with a suitcase and 18 quid - and he bought me a slap-up breakfast after he gave me 20 more quid, a ticket to the IoM, and advised me to go easy on the Heineken whilst on board. I started in radio at age 14 at the local daytime-only station in Kansas and gradually worked my way up to major markets, at the same time going to university. I lived in the UK from 1981 until 2003 when I moved to Asia.” Bob has worked as a telecommunications consultant all over the world. A keen radio ‘ham’, he has a website about the use of kite and balloon antennae. There is a photo of him in Nick Bailey's photo album and Bob has kindly sent this picture, taken on a shore-leave from Caroline. (Thanks to Bob for getting in touch.)
DON RICHARDSON An American, living on Guernsey, he was an engineer on Caroline South after the Marine Offences Act while his wife, Nan, ran the Amsterdam office. They later emigrated to Australia, then to Honolulu, Hawaii. Don died about 1995. Nan then returned to the Channel Islands, settling on Jersey, where she died in 2001. (Thanks to Kate Nicholls and Hans Knot for the information.)
JIM RICHMAN was an apprentice transmission engineer on board the Fredericia, the Radio Caroline North ship, from October 1965 to March 1966. He says: “I was an apprentice under the watchful eye of Geoff Brown. I was working as a dogsbody really but the experience was none-the-less exciting.” Jim also presented some shows under the name of ‘Jim Gordon’ (not this Jim Gordon, he was a bit later). He says: “my on-air appearances were rare but I did the occasional news read and fill-in. I also went under the name of ‘Jim Richards’.” Jim hosted a weekly show on Hospital Radio Lion at the Royal Surrey County Hospital for many years and has also been heard on Radio Jackie, BBC Radio Medway, Hayes FM and many other stations. He is now self-employed with his own music business and is a freelance radio presenter.
JOHN ROBERTS Originally an engineer on Caroline North but when the south ship ran aground he was sent to Zaandam to help with the refit. He also spent time on the mv Cheeta II when that ship was borrowed temporarily by Caroline South. John later worked for Radio London and Radio England/Britain Radio. He now lives in Australia. In 2007 he wrote to radio historian Svenn Martinsen: “I am retired at age 77 in Tolga on the Atherton Tablelands. For ten years I ran a small FM station with MOR format, transmitters in Mareeba and Atherton. With the low power and the strict laws here it meant not much in the way of money so as age progressed I had to offload somehow. I sold to Vision FM a USA based religious broadcaster.” Some of John's photos from his offshore days are on Flickr.
“TOPMASTER” SALLON an engineer on Radio Caroline South. Can anyone provide more information?
GEORGE SAUNDERS Worked on the mv Mi Amigo for both Radio Atlanta and Caroline South, as well as the temporary home on mv Cheeta II. He was also sent up to the Caroline North ship when they had transmitter problems. This turned out to be because the electrical power generation had been mismatched when the transmitters had been installed. Ove Sjöström had been trying to keep the station on the air by cannibalising the two transmitters to keep one working. George fired him. George was also on board the Mi Amigo when she was washed ashore. See his memories of that night here. Now retired he has kindly contributed to this page. There is a photo of George at Radio Caroline's 45th birthday party here. He also attended the Offshore 50 reunion in August 2017.
TERRY SAUNDERS studio engineer on Radio Atlanta and Caroline South. Bryan Vaughan tells us “Terry was an Australian with whom I had worked on Radio 2CH Sydney before we both left for the UK at separate times. Terry panelled some of the recorded shows done at 47 Dean Street and also on board the Mi Amigo in the early days. He returned to Sydney not long after and worked for the ABC for very many years”. He left Caroline in the autumn of 1964 and his place on board was taken by Patrick Starling.
FRANK SELLEN Engineer on Caroline South, now living in New Zealand.
OVE SJÖSTRÖM Chief Engineer on Caroline North during 1964/5, he had previously worked on the Swedish offshore station, Radio Nord. According to George Saunders, he fired Ove for claiming to be a transmitter engineer without the necessary expertise. Sjöström has disputed this. He died on 23rd December 2022 at the County Hospital in Kalmar, Sweden, aged 84.
MANFRED SOMMER An Austrian engineer, he worked for Radio Caroline from 1965 until the closedown in 1968. He spent a short time on the South ship but was mainly on the North where he was chief engineer. He has very kindly allowed us to publish the scrapbook he had kept from his time working on Caroline.
PATRICK STARLING initially worked in Caroline House but when Terry Saunders left to go home to Australia, Patrick went out to Caroline South where he was frequently referred to on air as “The Child Scientist”, a nickname given to him by DJ Doug Kerr. He later worked for Radio England/Britain Radio although returned to Caroline briefly in 1967. There are some pictures of him in Colin Nicol's photo album. Patrick attended the Radio Academy's Celebration Of Offshore Radio in 2007 and the Offshore 50 reunion in August 2017.
SHERIDON STREET Worked on both Radio Caroline ships as an engineer and also presented a few shows (as ‘Keith Street’) due to a staff shortage. He very kindly supplied some photos from his time on Caroline which can be found scattered throughout The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame. He now lives in Thailand.

ALFRED N. THOMAS Engineering consultant to Radio Atlanta, he had previously worked for the BBC. At the time of his retirement from the Corporation he was the senior person responsible for BBC transmitters. During WWII he was in charge for the ‘H’ transmitter network (later used for the Third Programme) and he was also acclaimed for his work on the first BBC television transmission from a plane flying over London. He consulted for Veronica/CNBC and went out to the ship to look at their transmitter problems. He also worked on the Voice of Slough and GBOK projects. George Hare tells us he was known as “Ant” or “Auntie” because of his initials. He died in 1994, aged 94.
CARL THOMSON Worked on both Caroline ships during the sixties and was on board the Mi Amigo the night she was washed up on Frinton beach. Carl has provided some wonderful photos from his time at sea. Some are scattered throughout The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame, others collected in this photo album. Carl attended the Radio Academy's Celebration Of Offshore Radio in 2007 and the Offshore 50 reunion in August 2017. Some of the information on this page has been taken from an article he wrote for Monitor magazine in 1984. There is an interviw with Carl here.
DAVID ‘NOD’ TURNER From the Isle of Man, he was a studio engineer on Caroline North. His son Juan Turner now owns Energy FM, a commercial station on the island.
? ULLERMEIER or ULLAMAYER A Hungarian engineer, can anyone provide his first name or correct spelling of his surname?
TONY VISSCHER Chief generator engineer on Radio Atlanta and Caroline South.
TED WALTERS Joined the mv Mi Amigo while she was being fitted out at Greenore. He left Radio Caroline South in 1966 to join Radio England/Britain Radio. Now deceased.
RODNEY WARRENER from Manchester, he was an engineer on Caroline North.
MIKE WRIGHT An Irish engineer on Radio Caroline North from 1966 until the station closed down in March 1968. See his fantastic photo album. Mike also features in Nick Bailey's photo album. He worked for RTÉ, the Irish state broadcaster, for many years but has now retired.
 
As well as the above names, some Caroline DJs featured elsewhere in The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame such as Paul Noble, Alan Turner and Bryan Vaughan began their offshore careers working on the technical team before moving to the other side of the microphone.