THE OFFSHORE CHUNK

RADIO VERONICA

Borkumriff - Radio Veronica's ship up until 1964

The Nordeney - Radio Veronica's ship from 1964 until August 1974

Radio Veronica

Broadcasting mainly from the MV Nordeney, and for a short while renting air time on Radio Caroline when the boat ran aground in Scheveningen, Holland.

Location - off Scheveningen Holland

On 183/192 and later 538 metres medium wave (am)

On air: April 1960 - August 1974

I do not understand a word of Dutch, or to define the language more accurately Flemish.  Listening to Radio Veronica started almost by accident.  My grand parents lived at Holland On Sea, and my father used to motor us down that way quite regularly.  I think at one spot during a trip Radio Caroline on 199 was difficult to pick up.  I tuned in by chance and discovered their Jim Reeves half an hour show.  My father and mother must have found this a welcome change to the cacophony of pop music that I used to listen to.  I found to my delight that although the station broadcast in a foreign language, they spoke fast and played a great deal of pop music into the bargain.

When I got home I tried to tune into this station and found to my delight that it was very entertaining.   A great deal of the announcements on the station I quite easy to understand because the Dutch language is littered with English words.

Two announcers that I can remember were Lex Harding, and Tineke.  Tineke was a female presenter.  What I do remember are hundreds of superb jingles with the name Veronica, and hours or entertaining programmes with lively adverts which were played in five minute bursts once of twice and hour.

I was fortunate to visit Holland in 1995, and took the opportunity to listen to Radio Veronica, legalised on land.  I also saw Veronica TV. 

We are fortunate at present in August 2001 to have Radio Tein FM on 675 am which broadcasts a splendid oldies programme in Dutch.

Veronica for me was as important a broadcaster as Radio Caroline, London or any other UK station.  Its existence must have done much to bolster Ronan O'Rahilly as he started off an offshore scene off the UK in Easter 1964.

They changed frequency in the 70s to 538 and their signal that reached the UK was even better than before.  It cannot be a coincidence that the British authorities chose 538 as a temporary frequency for Capital Radio when it first began.  It was of course later re-located to 194 (Capital of course!)

 

Picture of both Veronica Ships courtesy of the Offshore Radio Site.  Article copyright Wireless Waffle Site.