Part Three: Here come the Laserettes.

At the start of October 1984 the first commercials started running on Laser. These were not for the big multinational brands that had been expected but for an American ski-ing magazine, an obscure fire extinguisher manufacturer and a record. However after massive expenditure and a summer of advert-free broadcasting, it did seem that the owner was at last beginning to see a return on his investment. Later advertisers included some better-known names including Rolling Stone and Ritz magazines, the USA Today newspaper, Contiki holidays and Bose audio equipment. A new DJ arrived on board that month: Dave Chaney.

Dave Chaney on Laser-558 just after 11am on 7th November 1984. This clip is taken from a recording shared on the Internet Radiocafé forum, now known as the Radiotrefpunt (radio meeting point), by Vincent (duration 2 minutes 45 seconds).

At sea, the calm sunny weather gave way to winter storms. In November force 9-10 winds caused problems with the aerial and Laser was silenced a couple of times. At the start of December MMI, Laser's sales company, published the station's first audience figures. According to the research company MRIB, an amazing five million people had listened at some time during the month of October. For a station which had started without any advance publicity only a few months earlier, this was no mean achievement. The format of non-stop hits was working and the newcomer was already beginning to challenge the established stations.

Ric Harris on the Breakfast Show, with Jessie Brandon on news, 7th November 1984. This clip is also taken from a recording shared on the Internet Radiocafé forum by Vincent. Our thanks to him for this and the above clip (duration 3 minutes 7 seconds).

Some broadcast outlets in the home counties began to fight back. One way to counteract Laser was to poach its talent. Jessie Brandon, one of Laser's biggest stars, was offered a job by London's Capital Radio. Her last show from the Communcator was on 26th November. Unfortunately work permit problems delayed her start at Capital and, when she was finally granted one, it was only for six months. When it expired she moved to Radio Nova in Dublin.

A hungover Jessie Brandon from her final programme on Laser-558 on the evening of 26th November 1984. This clip is taken from a recording posted on The Offshore Radio Club Forum by Hans Hendriks. Our thanks to him (duration 3 minutes 20 seconds).
Charlie Wolf late on 12th December. Apologies for the late night interference. This clip is taken from a recording shared on the Internet Radiocafé forum by Vincent (duration 3 minutes 35 seconds).

Another local operation, Essex Radio, was run by Eddie Blackwell. As a former airtime sales executive for the sixties offshore station Radio London, you might have thought he would have been supportive of Laser but that was definitely not the case. He felt that it was stealing his listeners. Blackwell invited Paul Rusling to lunch. Rusling had been involved with the launch of Laser but his services had since been dispensed with. By all accounts, the conversation was tentative with each trying to sound the other out. Rusling was not aware that Blackwell had arranged to have the encounter recorded by the Essex Radio engineers. But what Blackwell didn't know was that these same engineers had also been doing work for Laser on the side. They forwarded a copy of the recording to the boss of MMI, Roy Lindau. An edited version was sent out to the press. It sounded like Eddie Blackwell was planning to take over the Laser ship. He denied this.

There are some clips from Laser's Christmas and New Year output here. The outspoken Charlie Wolf briefly left the station on 27th December, fired over something he had said on air, but the management relented and four days later he was back from his “exile”, as he called it.
 
In January 1985 Laser decided to stop broadcasting news bulletins. It was too much work for the on-board team, especially when there were only four of them to cover 20 hours of output.
 
There were a number of technical problems during that winter. On the 22nd December a fuel shortage forced them to shorten broadcasting hours for a few days and generator trouble caused breaks in transmission.
 
On the night of 6th January a force 9 blizzard hit the Knock Deep Channel. The Caroline ship Ross Revenge lost her anchor, and briefly drifted, before being able to steam back and drop a spare. The Communicator also suffered and was silenced by the loss of part of the aerial. The DJs managed to return to the air at lunchtime on the 10th but on the 14th a fierce blizzard severely damaged the front aerial mast and, again, the station was silenced.
 
Laser returned on the 18th but on considerably reduced power. A temporary wire aerial had been rigged and, while repairs continued on the damaged mast, programmes limped on with occasional breaks and appalling reception. It was 31st January before the station was able to return to full power.
 
Disc-jockeys Dave Chaney and Holly Michaels left during January. Meanwhile on land there was a new boss. After failing to find sufficient advertising Roy Lindau was replaced by his senior salesman John Moss. Laser had attracted millions of listeners but Lindau had failed to turn this success into dollars. And looking after the UK end of the operation now was John Catlett.
 
On Friday 8th February a severe storm forced the station off the air for a short time and it was off again between the 10th and 14th February when the ship lost her anchor and drifted. The spare was dropped and no damage done.

Three new DJs arrived on board the Communicator that month, all women. Chris Carson was first, debuting on 3rd February. Erin Kelly and Liz West both arrived on the 14th. Female disc-jockeys were something of a rarity on British radio in the eighties so the trio made Laser stand out even more from the competition. They referred to themselves “the Laserettes”. Unfortunately they had arrived at a difficult time as aerial problems continued. On the plus side, the station had attracted some new advertisers including Dickie Dirts clothes shop, Virgin Airlines and Terrapin computer games.

Back after a break in transmission, Chris Carson on Laser-558 on the evening of 14th February 1985. This is an edited version of a recording available from www.azanorak.com. Our thanks to Ray Robinson (duration 3 minutes 30 seconds)
28th February. Laser has been experiencing technical difficulties. Erin Kelly is delighted to announce “we're back” but soon has to report “we're going off air for a little bit”. This clip is taken from a recording made on the ship by Mark Stuart. Many thanks to him. More of his tapes are here (duration 3 minutes 48 seconds).

Many thanks to Radio Adventures of the mv Communicator and The Lid Off Laser 558, both by Paul Rusling, Laser 558: All Europe Radio by Hans Knot, Monitor magazine and Offshore Echos.
 
Press cuttings from 1984 here and following pages.
 
Back to part two.
 
To be continued.