PART 2 - R.N.I. GETS ON THE AIR

Mebo II

The following is adapted from the ‘R.N.I. Souvenir Book’ and other sources and initially published in the RNI Fan Club magazine.

After refitting in Rotterdam was completed, on January 22, 1970, the then most modern and most brightly painted radio ship in offshore history, the Mebo II departed for Scheveningen. The same evening she left Scheveningen and dropped anchor off the health resort of Noordwijk – outside the three mile limit in lat 52 21.1N, long 04 18.5E. Now began a really tough time for the team of technicians on board.

Alan West remembers that day well: "Opening day came soon enough, everyone was on board, Edwin Bollier, Erwin Meister, Managing Director Urs Emmeneger (that’s what he called himself anyway), Bollier’s secretary Eva Pfister, Robbie Vincent reporting for the London Evening Standard, Rodney Collins doing something for Record Mirror, German disc jockeys Horst Rener and Hannibal, looking surprisingly like an elephant at times, English disc jockeys Roger Day, Andy Archer, Carl Mitchell and myself. Scores of other serfs were in attendance at this chaotic Royal occasion, and the whole bloody thing looked like a farce straight off the West End stage. Engineers and disc jockeys, executives and reporters, crew and photographers ran back and forth like crazed beings possessed.

Both studios were in use that night, Horst Reiner in the bigger studio, and Roger Day in the smaller side studio, and neither knowing what was happening around them or what was going to happen next. They couldn’t hear each other, and consequently they were often talking over each other’s records and over each other! I was running back and forth telling them what was next, and by the end of that one hour programme my legs were telling me not to run the 4 minute mile tonight kid! We all took our turn to say hello and play a few records. And in the corner of the small studio sat Boiler smiling benignly amid all this confusion watching his tape and not really understanding what the hell all the panic was about. Perhaps an omen of what was to come".

We had thousands of tapes by such people as Jose Feliciano saying such things as "This is J.F. saying good luck to R.N.I.", & "Hi this is Fred Coffin of the Undertakers saying ‘ello, ‘ello, ‘ello to all the groovers and movers on that there radio ship". All in all it was quite ridiculous and quite an impossible task to arrange the opening programme in such a short space of time. I can recall Roger Day battling with Horst Reiner as to who was to speak first, Roger speaking in English and Horst in German; it was not till our bilingual Managing-Director arrived in the studios that some arrangement was made. Ten minutes to go and both studios are crammed full to capacity, cameras clicking and conversations taking place in every language from Icelandic to Swahili. Six o’clock and Horst Reiner officially opens the station, with Roger Day doing the honours in English, both were at their wits end as to what to say next, but fair do’s, I think that any one of us would have been in exactly the same predicament. The whole evenings programmes were quite a shambles, I can remember at one point in my programme having about twenty people in the studio with me, at times I felt as though I was a sardine! I can recall with amusement asking Alan West to get rid of some of the people in the studio putting a deep voice on and saying "Right you lot, let’s ‘ave yer outta ‘ere". I couldn’t have done better even if I had been a drill sergeant!"

RNI HQ In Zurich & The mailman cometh

The arrival of the station attracted its' share of media attention, extensive reportage in most newspapers across Europe, and a British