We are indebted to Eric Britton, who writes from New York:
Both ourselves and Jonathan from The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame, have now received additional information both from Eric and from David Palmer in the USA. Paul Rusling in the UK has confirmed that the information from both countries ties-up, and that the Mike Barron who worked in the USA is indeed the man from Radio 270, who sadly, died some years ago. The Hall of Fame contains a more comprehensive bio of Mike and his career after leaving Radio 270.I believe I used to work with the Mike Barron you're referring to. (In fact, I stumbled upon your website in search of him.)
Mike came over to the US for the first time around 1984 and worked at rock/pop WXTQ in Athens, Ohio. After about a year he went back to England, and then returned to WXTQ around 1987. I was 23 years old and working my first paid radio gig when Mike and his personality showed up at my studio door with a box of 5-by-7 index cards, a pipe filled with cherry tobacco, and that personality. I can probably write for hours on the subject. He was, without question, the most memorable person I've ever worked with. I'll leave it at that.
Mike lasted in Athens for about a year and a half, when management let him go. I don't think his brand of radio was truly appreciated in the region. He moved to Florida, and I never heard from him again.
I visited WXTQ this past May, (I now live in New York), and no one knew of his whereabouts. I do know of one person still in Ohio who may be able to give you more detail. I'll try to get in touch with him in the near future and forward your contact information.
I moved back home to New York in 1989 after 7 years in Ohio and taught broadcasting at a high school on Long Island that had a 125 watt FCC-licensed FM station for about 9 years, during which time I worked the occasional part-time gig at stations in the New York metro area. Four years ago I left teaching and now work in computer network support and administration for a global executive search firm located in midtown Manhattan. Returning to radio is often on my mind, even more so lately.
The search has now ended for Larry Tremaine,
the former Programme Director and part-owner/General Manager of Radio
Nordsee International and Caroline.
Larry has been in touch with Paul de Haan, (who originally asked us to include
Larry on the 'missing' list) and Hans Knot, both of whom put him in touch with
the Radio London Missing Persons Bureau! The 'Bureau' has since been assisting
Larry in tracking down some of his long-lost pals.
Hans Knot wrote to Mary:
Larry found a photograph of himself on Soundscapes and is excited that our site is there. I suggested he should visit more sites, so he will do. He loves to be in contact with old radio friends from his period in 1970 on RNI, so could you tell this to your readers? I have started an e-mail interview with him and at the end of this session, I will make a story for Soundscapes in our series on RNI Memories.
Paul de Haan from Groningen, Holland, wrote to Larry:
I was on board Mebo 2 on Aug 7 1970 at the age of 18, (see: www.offshore-radio.de/dehaan.htm) now I'm 49 and a salesman for Aventis Pharma in Holland.
Somewhere in my collection of photos I made on that foggy day, there must be another picture of you behind the mixer in the production studio.
Do you remember that on Aug 7 your father and sister visited the ship, and your Dad fell asleep behind the mixer? Sorry no pictures of that, but I still remember.
Larry says:
Mary, you are one of the people I was told (by Hans) to contact or would be contacting me. I have just discovered the sites dedicated to offshore radio. I am happy to see that someone is carrying on the love of pirate radio. What a thrill it is to see so much news about a time in our lives when we didn't realise life was as great as it was!
It was a great surprise to see photos of the ship and staff. I'm happy to find that so many old friends are keeping the light burning. We do keep in touch with some of the old guys. I had lunch with Mark Wesley and Rob Eden in London in March 2001. We do miss the old days. I spoke to Meister and Boiler a few years ago. I would be very happy to make contact with more old friends.
There are many stories that we can share. Did you know about the time I was lost at sea after we tried, with six Dutch crewmen in a lifeboat, to rescue a small speedboat that broke away from the ship. We could not find it so we spent 6 hours lost!
The big date in my memory is, Election Day 1970, June 18th, when Ronan, Jimmy Houlahan, myself and a cast of thousands changed history and allowed private citizens to own stations for the first time in the history of the UK. That is something we talk about all the time.
I am the one that came up with the idea to record 'Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Wilson' and we had major rock stars in the studio. It may have been the first 'We Are The World'! I may have the only copy in the world - we made three of them!
I grew up and still live in Beverly Hills, CA. 90210.... just like the TV show! We own a large chain of art galleries with our main gallery in Beverly Hills. We sell Chagall, Dali, Picasso, Rembrandt, as well as being the largest dealer in Disney animation CELS.
Our gallery is Carol Lawrence Galleries Ltd. and our web address is www.art90210.com, e-mail larry@art90210.com
Thanks for keeping the pirates alive, Larry "Tremaine" Steinman.
Remember loveable Larry, the geeter with the heater....the boss of the hot sauce......time to rock the big tick tock on Caroline's tall tower and power clock?......love those days!
So do all our Radio London website visitors, Larry! Thanks so very much for getting in touch!
Some news for you. Last Tuesday I caught up and had lunch with Graham Webb. It was the first time I had seen him in 30 years. Both he and his family are well. We had a wonderful time reliving the old Radio and TV days and swapping stories. His business interests now include a Community FM Radio Station and a Funeral Home in Country Queensland. I guess that's about as diverse as it can get. He has had a back run of luck over the last 10 years or so but Graham is a winner and will see it through. (For the full story, read Graham's page.) Now we know where each other live we will most certainly catch up more often. Graham sends his best wishes to all.
During my last visit to London, in September, I was fortunate to catch up with Mike Ahern. I saw Mike in Australia just on 20 years ago. Sadly our get together was interrupted by the news that was unfolding in New York. Mike is doing some work for a Radio Station here in Australia (via satellite) and is hoping for some more work in the UK in the not-too-distant future. It was wonderful for both of us to revisit the old radio days.
I hope that, God willing, I will be able to get back to the UK next year as there are so many others including yourselves that I would like catch up with.
Lots of us are looking forward to meeting up with you too, Norm!
Two messages arrived from Amsterdam during this past week (October 21st/27th
2001) concerning another Big L jock from Oz, Graham
Gill.
Both Herbert Visser and Ex-Veronica man,
Tom Mulder, kindly sent contact details
for Graham. Tom was the first to get in touch, having met Graham on a tram.
Shortly afterwards, I heard from Herbert and told him Tom had already been in
touch. Herbert replied:
I intend to send Graham copies of the letters he wrote to me while aboard the Galaxy, which I am anticipating will make him laugh a lot! In correspondence he used to spell his name 'Graeme', so I'll report back when I've checked up on that.Ha ha! Yeah, that doesn't surprise me at all, since Tom's a big freak when it comes to trams. But then, I also met Graham while on a tram here in Amsterdam a few years ago. I work for Strengholt, the Dutch company that rented airtime on the MEBO II for RNI's Dutch service in the early 1970's, and I was wearing my new Radio Northsea sweatshirt.
A person asked my name and told me that he used to work for that station years before. I asked his name, he said : "Graham Gill," and then I said: "Then you also worked for Big L and Radio Caroline," which he confirmed.
Next time you speak to him, say hello on behalf of me ... or actually... please do to both Tom and Graham.
You mentioned lately that Graham Gill was seen on the tram in Amsterdam by Klaas Vaak aka Tom Mulder and Herb the Fish. Last Tuesday he was seen in the little harbour of Harlingen. There are the Caroline studios for the cable transmissions which will start in January. Graham recorded a programme for the opening day and it was the first time since 1975 he presented a Caroline programme.
Great site. Brought tears to my eyes.
I missed the name of Dennis "The Menace" Straney on your missing list. Great DJ, dry and funny. And I'm sure I didn't see Paul (Burnett) anywhere. Pourquoi pas?
I'm still in Holland, I'm retired from real work, and working in movies and TV now and then. If there are any questions I can answer let me know.
If anyone's got any photos of me from the good old days I would appreciate copies. When I left Scarborough in 1967 I left all my belongings there, including all my snaps, and never got them back.
Chris and Mary will be happy to put anyone who has photos in touch with Mike.
Dennis Straney is duly added to the list. Paul Burnett's
not on there because he's not missing! He's on Classic Gold: http://www.classicgold.co.uk/Presenters/presenters.html.
Paul also appeared in a chicken suit, as a guest on Dave
Lee Travis's 'This Is Your Life' reminiscing about his role as 'Rubber
Chicken' on their single Convoy GB!
Well done to Jonathan and The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame on instigating another successful offshore reunion.Dear Mary & Chris,
Here's another reunion story for you. Thanks to the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame website a couple of us "old sea dogs" have managed to re-connect, 35 years after we worked together on Radio Caroline. Gordy Cruse and I worked together briefly on Caroline South before he transferred to Caroline North and I left the Mi Amigo to return to Canada.
After finding out via the PRHOF that Gordy lived here in Victoria and actually works just a few blocks from where I live, I had planned to give him a call. But he beat me to it and got in touch with me today. (Friday, Jan 18th, 2002) It was amazing!! He has been driving past my house on his way to and from work for the last 15-20 years, and never knew that we even lived in the same city. Anyway, we're getting together for coffee on Monday and will be sharing lots of stories from the olden days.
I'm looking forward to seeing him and will let you know what remembrances come out of our meeting, I'm sure there'll be some good yarns to pass along.
All the best,
Steve YoungPS Keefers sent me copies of airchecks of your show from Big L 2001, it was great to listen to you and to hear all those old tunes and jingles from way back when.
Andy Cadier, wearing his Editor's hat for Off the Record Short Wave Magazine, has had an enquiry from David Porter of Merlin Communications, who wishes to get in touch with engineer Russell Tollerfield, and so would we. Russell drew the short straw to always be remembered as the man with the unhappy duty of switching off the Radio London transmitter on August 14th 1967.
Any positive sightings? Please let us know and we'll pass on a message.As I was completing the site update, I received a knee-mail headed 'I've "found" Jerry Leighton'! It read:
While browsing through your website I saw that you were searching for Jerry Leighton from Radio Caroline.
Jerry (or "Dad" as I call him) is my father. So it didn't take me long to find him for you. He is still married to Brenda and they have two daughters, Susannah (myself) I'm 27, and Louisa is 25.
If you'd like to contact Jerry I know he'll be really happy to hear from you! I hope this is good news for you and I'd also like to hear from you.
Su West (nee Leighton)
It was very nice of Su to get in touch and everyone in the Big L family will be delighted to hear that Jerry has been discovered, as nobody had been able to find him since 1967! I shall, of course, be contacting Jerry and will report back as soon as I have more news.
Jerry was, of course, the man who represented Radio Caroline on the Beatles' 1966 US tour, when Ron O'Quinn represented Radio England (photos on the George Harrison tribute page) and Kenny Everett represented Radio London. Caroline also sold Jerry 'Soopa' Leighton T-shirts
Jerry's Reply - May 2002
Dear Mary,On the very day when I had just reported to Willy Walker that we hadn't heard from Marshall Mike Lennox for years, and he seemed to have vanished without trace, who should come moseying on in but....
Hi Mary,
For some strange reason I had some time on my hands on this Friday afternoon and thought I would indulge in some nostalgia by surfing the web for Big L memories and to see what new info had been added since I last did this.(At least a year ago). I haven't had time to go through your site yet, but I did notice your query for my email address and thought that I would send the same now.
I've had a great afternoon looking through countless photo's and stories and find it quite surprising that many of the guys have become old geezers (of course I haven't looked in a mirror for decades). I'll spend more time over the weekend looking at your site... see what's new in the world of modern day Big L.
Certainly quite an impressive home page and I can recognize the amount of work required. I hope you are able to continue.
I'll close now, but will be in contact again soon.
Best regards, The Marshall