History - Laser 558

SHIP FOR SALE

On 1st February, Kolk offered the Communicator and all the equipment on board for sale for $80,000. Money was raised by Yorkie the station's main engineer, but this was stopped by Kolk when he realised the station could go on with little or no extra funding. Yorkie was given control of the ship and all the American crew were dismissed. The deejays also wanted to leave the station as they had been on board for seven weeks, two were allowed shore leave.

On 2nd February, work started on erecting a tee aerial system. Work continued over the next four days, to allow lower power broadcasts of about 15kw. On the 13th, tests with the tee aerial started and the signal just about reached East London. On 18th February, it was decided that the low power tee aerial tests were a waste of time, and the station should close while two one hundred foot towers were erected.

From just after 14:00 on the 19th, American deejay Blake Williams was joined by an Englishman called Johnny. Reception reports were asked for, to be sent to MMI, 341 Madison Avenue, New York 10017, USA. The information was also given out in Dutch and German. Before the station closed at 16:03, with Communication Breakdown, DJ Johnny said "back in ten days to a couple of weeks, maybe not on 729, but keep tuning around this area of the medium wave".

The 4th March, saw the transmitter switched on at 12:45 to expel any condensation in the transmitter room. It was intended to feed the transmitter into a dummy load, but this was not the case. During the broadcasts the English deejay previously known as Johnny revealed "It's John Lewis with you on 729khz in the medium wave". He was followed by Blake Williams, who continued until the transmitter was switched off at 19:04. This was the final broadcast on 729khz.

NEW MASTS SEIZED

New masts, that were secretly being built on land, were delivered to Chalk Wharf, Queensborough on 13th March. But the police had been watching the Laser group for over a week and seized the masts and arrested American David Irvine and the wharfs owner.

David Irvine appeared in Sheerness court on 13th April. Irvine, a qualified marine engineer, had been hired by Laser to sort out their technical difficulties. Mr. Gary Patten, from the Department of Public Prosecutions said that some of Laser's early broadcasts had interfered with reception of BBC Radio 4 in London and there was a danger that signals could interfere with distress channels. He added "the defendant was in charge of the project in the UK and had been paid 3750 dollars by a Panamanian company. The masts were being welded together at Queensborough and 10,000 was paid to the contractors as anticipated costs of labour and materials".

For the defense, Mr. Gregory Treverton-Jones said Irvine, a graduate of the US coastguard Academy was a man of good character and would not have undertaken the job if he had realised it was against the law. He said "Mr Irvine realised the British Government did not aprove of what the ship was doing, but he made inquiries before he came over in December and was told there were no illegalities involved provided the ship remained outside the 12 mile limit. He has fallen foul of a fairly elaborately drafted criminal law. He was bought over to be master of the ship and sort out certain difficulties the ship was experiencing with its original mast. The mast it had was not sufficiently efficient to enable broadcasts to be made. He designed and was supervising the construction of new masts for the ship and it was that work he was doing Queensborough which was in breach of criminal law". Irvine admitted agreeing to furnish another ship with equipment, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that broadcasts were to be made while it was on the high seas. He was fined 500 Pounds and ordered to pay 50 Pounds costs. This was later quashed due to an error in wording on the DPP's original summons.

The main anchor chain on the Communicator snapped on 1st April, during a storm. The vessels on-board anchor was dropped and drifting was arrested. Another source was found for the new masts and these were built on board, being completed by 5th May.

LASER 558

The following day, 6th May, a carrier signal was heard from 12:01 on 558khz and continued for several hours. The next day, test tones and continuous were aired and ran through until after midnight. A strong signal, estimated at around 5kw was reported throughout Europe. These tests continued on and off until the 10th and then nothing was heard until the 16th May when non-stop music tests restarted and continued until the 23rd.

Listeners tuning in to Laser on Thursday 24th May 1984, were surprised to hear that Laser 558 had officially launched at 05:00 that morning. First on air was Rick Harris, followed at 10:00 by David Lee Stone and then Jessie Brandon and Steve Masters.

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