PART 9 - IT'S SMOOTH SAILING....
At 150O hrs, February 21st, 1971, normal programmes began with Tony Allan introducing the Top Fifty Show. The first No.1 was "Nothing Rhymed" by Gilbert O'Sullivan.

The apparently impossible had been achieved, RNI was back in business.

The programme line-up was:

0600-0900 - Tony Allan

0900-1200 - Martin Kayne

1200-1500 - Dave Rogers

1500 - 1800 - Crispian St.John

1800-2100 - Alan West

2100-2400 - Steve Merricke

Tony Allan & Dave Rogers (Background)

 

Joost de Draaijer (left) & Jan van Veen (right)

To begin with programmes were all in English, but Dutch language shows started on March 6th. These ran during the daytime from 09.00 am to 16.00pm (hours which were soon to be extended) and were hosted by two ex-Veronica DJ's Joost de Draaijer and Jan van Veen, who were later joined by Ferry Maat and Peter Holland. The Dutch side of RNI had its own studios in a house in Hilversum where the programmes were pre-recorded and sent out to the Mebo II on tape.

However, if RNI's future was to be assured it was essential to see to it that this time they had a regular income from commercials. To this end, during test broadcasting, negotiations were conducted with a Dutch music publishing company, Basart NV, with a view to them buying airtime on RNI. Agreement was reached and a new company, Exploitatie Maatschappij Radio Noordzee NV, was set up to back the station. The day to day running of the station was now to be organised from Holland, so in March, RNI was given a new address, Postbus 117, Hilversum, Holland.

Ferry Maat (left) & Peter Holland (right)

Some people were disappointed at the loss of all-day English programmes, but this was inevitable if RNI was to receive the financial backing it needed to continue. As it was, the Dutch programmes during the day also provided the revenue to pay for the English (International) programmes in the evening.

On March 10th, Radio Veronica took Radio Northsea International to court. Veronica claimed that a payment of 1,000,000 Guilders was paid to RNI for them to cease broadcasting, but they were back on the air. RNI counter claimed that they had tried to repay the money as they wished to resume broadcasting.

The Court ruled that no decision could be taken, as all the problems occurred in international waters. Because the radio ship, Mebo II, was controlled by Meister and Bollier they could continue to broadcast.
Of the English DJs, Martin Kayne (pictured right) was the first to leave, as he explains: "Because of an agreement with RNI and Bassart Music N.V. of Holland a tremendous number of Dutch discs had to be played, even in the English Service. Dutch listeners were very pleased, but not so the British listeners who complained that there were not enough UK Chart, and new releases played. This tended to prove that fixed format radio was not suitable for RNI, as more than one country was involved, and there were two sets of charts to work from. I  was married in March 1971 and left RNI at the beginning of May.

Martin Kayne
The reasons for my departure were firstly that I did not fancy being away from my wife for weeks on end, and secondly I could see that RNI was not having a very big impact on British listeners ....... certainly no reasonable replacement for Radio Caroline. What we needed was a daytime pop station to compete with Radio One.... if RNI hadn't wasted its power with S.W. and VHF transmitters (which earned Mebo Ltd. nothing) and replaced them with another MW transmitter, it may then be possible to provide a second station on MW for a continuous day and night English Service, and that really would be SOMETHING!" 
Roger Kirk replaced Martin, but his stay was very short lived, due to seasickness, and his only programme went out on April 29, 1971.

His replacement would last "a little longer". Infact he would go onto become RNI's longest serving DJ. Mike Ross (pictured right) had joined RNI in early September 1970, but hadn't initially been invited back. However, May 6th, saw the first of  many "Mike Ross" shows to be broadcast. However, he was on his first shore leave when one of the most famous incidents in RNI's history, quite literally "blew off"!