We broadcast from Harlingen, a small harbour-town in the northern part of the Netherlands, where the sound of the sea and of seagulls is heard every day.
We also feel a strong relationship to the 'Radio Seagull' which broadcast from the MV Mi Amigo in 1973 and 1974.
Irish entrepreneur Ronan O'Rahilly approached Hugh Nolan and Barry Everitt (ex Radio Geronimo, 1970) and they helped launch Radio Seagull in 1973, along with Andy Archer, Bob Noakes, Norman Barrington, Tony Allan, Elija, Robin and Mike... with a mix of rock, jazz, classical and world music. There is more information on the Radio Seagull history website.
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During those days the ship, which also housed the radio station 'Radio Mi Amigo', was anchored four miles off the Dutch coast. Radio Seagull's original format included Progressive Rock, World, Jazz, Classical and Alternative music.
The original Radio Seagull eventually mutated into Radio Caroline. It is therefore perhaps ironic that the team behind Radio Caroline Netherlands (which was distributed via the internet and Dutch Cable TV) launched today's Radio Seagull in August 2003.
Elija's comments about the 1973/74 Radio Seagull:
"My opinion of Seagull is the closest to a perfect radio station I have ever heard. The discussions and presentation of the programmes were human and intelligent. There was a real feeling of warmth and compassion. People talked about issues in a calm manner to people rather than shouting at them, which is mostly what they do today (no communication between listener and broadcaster/DJ). There was real feedback from the listeners, which was frequent and created real debate and thought. I was there all that period and it is nice to get some kind of acknowledgement of my existence after all these years, this is mostly thanks to Tony Allan."
JENNI BAYNTON - DAVE FRANCIS
THE HOME OF RADIO SEAGULL IS THE FORMER TRINITY HOUSE LIGHT VESSEL NUMBER EIGHT, NOWADAYS BETTER KNOWN ALS JENNI BAYNTON. THERE IS A STORY BEHIND THE REASON WHY THE SHIP WAS RENAMED AND FUNNY ENOUGH THE REASON TO CALL THE SHIP AFTER JENNI WAS NOT JENNI HERSELF, BUT A MAN CALLED DAVE FRANCIS
When Radio Seagull was in her first years struggling to survive a very loyal and devoted member of the crew was Dave Francis. Dave was from Hoddesdon UK and used to work for Thames Water until he retired early. He got involved in offshore radio in the sixties when Radio Caroline anchored off the Isle of Man. He never became the DJ he might have wanted to be deep in his heart, but he did contribute to the offshore station in many ways.
I was there in 1997 or 1998 when Dave proposed to Jenni Baynton on the Radio Caroline ship Ross Revenge, at that time moored at Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey. Sadly after some time, Jenni was diagnosed cancer and passed away July 15th 2000.
On Jenni’s tribute page Dave wrote:
"As many of Jenni's friends now know, not only did she have a wonderful way with words, she had an unbelievable effect on myself. I still have the first draft of Jenni's story of becoming part of the Caroline family and there are the corrections she made on this. This did take some time as I was playing with a white Sooty bear glove puppet and, no, I am not going to tell you what I was doing with Sooty but she got her own back on me later on for, as I pulled back the covers on our bed, I found the Sooty bear now wearing a large pair of industrial gloves!
She was a very unique lady.
Love from Dave Francis"