ALAN WEST
ALAN WEST was born in Kingston, Surrey, in 1947, Alan was a civil servant with a secret ambition. He wanted to be a pirate disc-jockey. He left the civil service to work in a record shop where he was fortunate to meet Caroline DJ Errol Bruce. Errol put him in touch with the booker for the Hammersmith Palais and Alan embarked on a career as a club DJ. After ten months at the Top Rank in Sunderland, he sent out some demo tapes and was offered a position with Radio London, to replace Chris Denning.

Starting one's radio career as an inexperienced broadcaster with the market leader was, in retrospect, a bit risky and Alan's stay with Radio London was brief, just three months.
After just two stints on board they parted company and Alan transferred to “Swinging” Radio England / Britain Radio. Within a month he was on the move again - this time to Radio 390. His stay with 390 was similarly short-lived and ended when he fell out with Programme Controller Peter James. Fortunately his next job was to prove considerably more successful. He joined Radio 270, where he broadcast under the name of Ross Randell, “your five foot bundle of joy.” He stayed with 270 until its close-down in August 1967.

He then worked for BBC Radio Leicester before returning to sea during the seventies with Radio Northsea International. Alan first learned of Radio Northsea International when he saw an advert by them inviting applications for D.J.s in one of the main music papers of the day. Although, Alan thought, like most people of the time, thought the days of offshore radio were over, he never-the-less applied, stating an interest in news as well as music. He was subsequently interviewed at the London office of Beacon Records (which turned out to be R.N.I.’s secret London address) and was hired. He, like Andy Archer, was one of the original team which launched R.N.I. Unlike Andy, when R.N.I. relaunched in 1971, Alan was invited back, as assistant to Senior DJ Steve Merrick. By the summer of 1971, Alan had married Elaine and both he and Steve wanted to spend less time on the Mebo II. Both requested that they be allowed to pre-record their programmes in R.N.I.’s Bussum studios. The request was turned down and both men were sacked.

Alan had a short spell on Radio Brighton and then became a consultant advising potential radio companies on how to apply for licences. In 1972/73 wrote two books on UFO's. Subsequently he has been heard on a number of stations including Radios Orwell, Hallam, Hereward and Wiltshire, ABC Tramore in Ireland and the Voice of Peace, an offshore station which broadcast to Israel, where he was known as Rob Scott. His real name is Alan Fossey and in 2000 he was Project Manager for a south London community radio group called Solo.net. In April 2004, Alan successfully ran an RSL in North Wales. A stint on the Internet radio station "Offshore Music Radio" followed, was cut short, when in January 2006, Alan was sentenced to 36 months in prison for downloading indecent pictures of children.

Alan West’s voice launched our first RNI re-creation at 6 a.m. on Tuesday August 3, 1999 and it was very fitting that such a well-known ‘name’ kicked-off our inaugural tribute to one of the greatest of the ‘offshore stations’.

Reflecting back on his pirate days Alan says: "My memories of those days are very clear .... like the time that Andy Archer and I threw a bucket of ice cold water over a slumbering Dave Gregory & the time I got drunk and woke up next morning at the foot of the radio mast. I had apparently tried to climb it the previous evening in a violent storm. I learned most of what I know about life and living from RNI".