Chris Arundel (GB): In the 1970's I listened to Radio Veronica when I was at school in England. When I heard about the Veronica revival on 1224 I tuned in and after a few days of hearing the old programmes I couldn't resist the temptation any more. I booked a flight to Holland and made my way directly to Hilversum and the Hotel Laapershoek. What a terrific atmosphere there was. A slide show... original programmes being played out... plenty of coffee and beer and chat. I've joined the Vrienden van Veronica - the video of the event by the way is worth getting hold of as it contains some nice clips from the 1970's - just 35fl !

Johnny Lewis (Radio Caroline / Thanet Local Radio in GB): Good luck to Radio Veronica - it's nice to hear all the old stuff again from the 60s and 70s. I was tuned in to 558 the evening of the close down in 1974 and being onboard the Communicator the day Veronica came back on in the 90s. I've always had a very strong bond with Dutch radio.

Per Aralud (Sweden): Your updates on both Veronica 1224 and RNI 1575 are most welcome. The Veronica transmissions on the Internet are a great relief for us living too far from Lopik. I wished they had used a satellite transmission, so that we could listen to these great programs, that was aired some 30 years ago! In my opinion AM transmission are out of date.

Burkhard Nowotny (D): Die Testsendungen (Möwen) auf 1224 kHz waren hier in der Nähe von Bonn nur sehr schwach zu hören. Am Samstag hatte ich im Auto einen schwachen Empfang von Radio Veronica, bin dann nach Siegburg auf einen Berg gefahren. Dort waren weniger Störungen und ich konnte von 11.30 Uhr bis ca. 14.15 Uhr u.a. das Programm mit Oom Bul einigermaßen verstehen. Gibt es eigentlich auch eine QSL-Karte?

Am Sonntag habe ich zu Hause in Sankt Augustin versucht, das Programm zu hören, aber zunächst selbst mit meinem guten Weltempfänger SONY SW 100 nichts empfangen. Dann erinnerte ich mich an meine alte Rahmenpeilantenne - und siehe da: der Empfang ist zwar nicht gut, aber tagsüber versteht man alles. Und so genieße ich meine Erinnerungen an die alten Piratenzeiten 1965, 1966, 1967. Im August 1968 war ich mit Freunden mit dem Fahrrad von Hameln in Belgien und den Niederlanden, auch am Zeedijk 8 in Hilversum. Vom damaligen Besuch habe ich noch viele alte Souveniere und Sticker ("192"). Damals hat Radio Veronica auch einen Musikwunsch für mich gespielt: California Dreaming von den Mamas und Papas. Wir waren danach auf der Insel Ameland treue Hörer; sind am 21.8. (Russen in Prag) mit der Fähre zurück und bis 22.8. abends mit dem Rad nach Hause (Hameln) gefahren.

1973 war ich im Sommer mit der Free Radio Campaign Germany bei den 3 Schiffen, in der Veronica Disco und im neuen Gebäude Lapershook. Das Ende von Radio Veronica im August 1974 habe ich dann in Dokkum miterlebt; wir konnten es damals alle nicht fassen!!! Aber immerhin hat Radio Veronica - aus heutiger Sicht - die Radiolandschaft in den Niederlanden nachhaltig verbessert. Ähnliches war auch in Großbritannien zu beobachten: ich habe 1979 - 1981 über die Regionalisierung des britischen Hörfunks und den Einfluß der Piratensender auf den britischen Rundfunk promoviert. Schließlich habe ich mich damals ja auch sehr stark für Konkurrenz im deutschen Rundfunk eingesetzt und war ab 1985 Geschäftsführer des neuen deutschen Privatfunkverbandes BKS.

Also: Radio Veronica hat auch mein (Berufs-) Leben stark beeinflußt. Übrigens war ich im Februar für die Deutsche Welle in Neuseeland und hatte dort Kontakt mit dem ehemaligen Piratensender Radio Hauraki, der jetzt in Auckland ebenfalls vom Land sendet.

Bob Arnold (UK): A big thanks for bringing the sound of Veronica once again to the airwaves, particularly those of us out of the reception area. Have been avidly listening on the internet, but I did enjoy the luxury of a trip to Clacton and Southend on Sunday to hear Veronica, RNI and Caroline live.

Rene Burcksen (USA): And so I am finding myself listening to Radio Veronica today. Its like I have never done anything else. Except that it has been 25 years ago that I listened to them last and that I am picking them up on my pc! However, forget about the aches and pains that come with an extra 25 years of age and that way to modern pc and you have instant youth with Veronica 1224! How sweat life can be for ten days. Fantastisch. Groeten uit Washington, DC

Harm en Harry (NL): Thanks for setting up this site! Hartelijke groeten, Harm en Harry.

Luc Masuy (B): I have been able to listen to Veronica 1224 between 08:10 and 08:30 this morning on my car radio in Namur (60 km south of Brussels, Belgium). There was no intrerference from adjacent stations and the signal was medium (not weak at all).

There was an old "Goeie Morgen" show without jingles and commercials, but with a mix of Ela Fitzgerald, dutch songs, a Stones record and a Beatles song. Pretty strange mix I was not used to, when I listened to Veronica on the early 70's.

Johan Meezen (NL): Reception is good here in the nort east part from Holland. Only in the evening signals are begin to fade and also some QRM/QRN is comming on the signal, in the morning hours the reception is at his best. To tape from it is no problem. My receiver is a RACALL RA-17 with a self made window indoor antenne. On several transistor radios without the antenna it's not possible to hear them.

Maggy Renders (B): Very weak signal in Brussels, almost not to hear!

Martin van der Ven (D): Here in Meppen (Northwest Germany, near the Dutch border) we receive quite a good signal but not as strong as the one that came from the MV Communicator. If I´m using my "loop frame" aerial, there´s a very strong signal without any interference. So I´m looking forward to the things to come!

Robert Magniez (F): Here in North France on the coast, I can well receive the test coming from the Lopik transmitter on 1224 Khz. Today I noticed at 12h CET different records, some interrupted with blank, and no annoument or identification. Signal quality is medium with a few distorsion and little interference from the station on 1215 Khz (Virgin). Unfortunally this 's not offshore and free, just nostalgia... (Speaking of nostalgia, I can tune to RNI with very good signal at home and also in my car, but the signal from the ex-Caroline ship is extremely poor and impossible to pick in a car). Tests on 1224 were on all the afternoom with seagulls starting at 13h07 CET. Then I could heard this all the afternoon and night. But at around 21H CET the signal started to be very jammed by foreigned (spanish/italien) stations. This morning (August 19th), tuning at 7h, seagulls are (still ?) on 1224 Khz. Signal seems to be stronger.

Chris Arundel (GB): Reception report from East Coast of England, near Hull. 10 hrs UTC Wednesday 18 August. I am picking up continuous music on 1224kHz. Signal strength fair ... not as strong a Q radio. It will be an easy listen with a loop antenna. Interference from virgin 1215 not a problem.

Danny van Tricht (B): Test transmissions of Radio Veronica are received good here about 30km southeast of Antwerp. Receiving on a longwire signal 9! Looking forward to the weekend! Greetings Danny Van Tricht ON4VT

After yesterday´s press report there can be given free some more info on the special programmes which will be aired next to the old programmetapes on Veronica 1224 kHz (between 21st and 31st of August). Also some changes have been made to yesterday´s scedule.

Before giving more info on that something about the test transmissions. Several people have asked us when the test will take place tomorrow. Truly we don't know. Somewhere in the afternoon when the lines between Lopik transmistter site and Hilversum will be tested. So tune your tranny on 1224 and take a listen yourself.

And now some tips on the special programming:

Sunday 22nd 19-21 Hans van Velzen and Jose van Groningen (both former technicians on the MV Norderney and former newsreader Freek Simon will tell about their time on the radioship.

Monday 23rd 19-21 Ad Bouman and Hans Knot will present 'The singing deejays' rare recordings of the songs recorded by several offshore radio deejays. It will shock themselves by hearing it back on the radio, we can tell.

Tuesday 24th 19-21 Juul Geleick and Marcel Overstegen will present Hits from the Sea. Marcel did present this programme in 1966 and became famous as Dutch singer Boudewijn de Groot.

Definitief heeft Will Luikinga afgehaakt. Eerder meldden we dat hij momenteel in Spanje vertoefd., Het zou te duur worden voor slechts twee uur aan programma's naar Nederland terug te keren. Wat betreft Rob Out kan worden gemeld dat er nog een poging zal worden ondernomen hem alsnog naar de studio in Hilversum te komen.

If you want more info you can call me between 19.30 and 21 hours English time: ++31 50 5714974

Last Friday evening a testtransmission took place with a power of 1 kW on 1224 kHz. While transmitting during the period of 21 up till 31st of August there will be a power of 5 kW. The results of the test were very good.The transmitter is at the Lopiksite (Utrecht) and transmission could be followed in Leeuwarden in the North till Genk in Belgium. Next testtransmission (listen to the sound of birds) on 1224 kHz will be next Wednesday afternoon. A time is not sceduled yet by the Nozema.

On Friday evening Jelle Boonstra will relive the historuy of the Veronica jingle. Next to complete packages used from jingle companies also many artists recorded jingles for the station. So tune in!!

If you want more special info you can reach me by e mail or by phone during the eveninghours (20 - 21.30 English time):  ++31 50 5714974

It now seems quite certain, that the Radio Veronica revival programmes will take place on 1224 kHz, the frequency that normally is used by QRadio broadcasting the MV Communicator.

On Friday afternoon there were test programmes on 1224 kHz by the Dutch Nozema. They were using the QRadio standby transmitter at Lopik airing the sound of the sea with waves and seagulls, provided by ex-Veronica technician Adje Bouman....

Yesterday evening a good gesture was done by the people of Caroline Nederland. They have a website at Infothuis (Casema the Haque) which is not used. They've offered the Veronica group the use ot the website for real audiosignal during the period of the RSL.

Last Friday we heard unofficially that the decision the Commissariaat for the media will take tomorrow will be a happy one. So for 90% it's certain we can use the 1224 kHz (and not the 1242 as some magazines took last week). QRadio will then be off the air on this frequency during the period of transmissions. The transmitter which can be used, has an outgoing power of 6 kW.

The forthcoming week a definitive scedule of the progamming will be made (live as well repeat of old programmes) and somewhere next week this scedule will be sent to you. Another decission has been taken during last week and that's that all the live programming will come from the Hotel Laapershoek, where the former Veronica building was established. So no programmes from the Norderney.

On August 31st 1974, Radio Veronica director Bull Verwey sent the following letter to some good friends and relatives. It´s a very nice memory which now should be free for the public:

It seems that there are problems, like it used to be in the sixties and seventies, between the authorities and Veronica (the RSL return of the offshore people who were once transmitting as Radio Veronica).

Of course it was then possible to get a wider reception. Next there was the third authority, the RDR, responsible for the frequencies. After long talks the RDR refused to give permission to use the 585 kHz last week. This due to the fact the 585 kHz has been given away by the ITU to Austria. Then people of the RDR gave the idea to the initiators to have a talk with Peter Jansen of QRadio. These station has also a spare 5 kW transmitter and maybe this would be an idea to use. Talks were held at Hilversum with Peter Jansen and a new licence has been asked with the Commissariaat yesterday for use of the 1224 kHz. Of course this licence has been asked on the name of QRadio for relaying the Veronicaprogrammes. So, in this way the Veronicaproduced programmes will be sold to QRadio at a low rate and then retransmitted by QRadio. The Veronica programmes will then be transmitted by themselves on two low power transmitters for Utrecht and Leeuwarden and, if a licence is given, be retransmitted by QRadio. This is possible as Q radio is not on the air with normal programming at the moment, due to financial problems. They want to make a restart in September.

Also the people behind the project are allready working hard to get the old programmes ready. A part of the programmes have been stored during the last two year on DAT and while Minidisc is quiing up quicker and starting at the push of the button, the tapes are beeing rerecorded on MiniDisc. Another part of the old programmes is still on the original tapes and will be retransmitted using the old Veronica reel to reel recorders, which were stored through the past 25 years.

As we mentioned last week Radio Veronica, the former Offshore radiostation, will be on the air between August 21st and 31st to look back at the fact that the station had to close down 25 years ago. On the programming side of this RSLbroadcast, which will have a power of 5 kw and can be heard during daytime in the easternparts of England, can be mentioned that 75% of the programming will be old programmetapes. These studiotapes were kept in the archieves of Ad Bouman, Juul Geleick (both former Veroniceemployees) and Jelle Boonstra and Hans Knot. We don’t want to run the tapes in an chronolocigal way. So for instant you can listen between 7 in the morning and 9 in the morning to a programme from January 1971 while between 9 and 10 a programme from August 1966 will be played (and so on).  

There will be live programming. Probably between 12 and 14 hrs Dutch time there will be daily two hour live programming, while also between 20 and 22 hours live programming of special shows is sceduled. During daytime news is sceduled 2 minutes to the hour. In this section old news as well a new news will be brought. Next to new newreaders also former newsreaders like Cees Man in’t Veldt and Arend Langenberg can be heard.

In the meantime permission is granted by ‘de Reclame Code Commissie’(The Authority responsible for advertising on radio and television) to play the old commercials in the programmes. This due to the fact it are old documents which are broadcasts.

Several former Veronicadeejays have already given permission to take part in the liveprogramming. Sceduled are allready Joost den Draaier, Tineke, Lex Harding, Bart van Leeuwen, Chiel Montagne, Eddie Becker, Jan van Veen, Krijn Torringa. Next week talks will take place with Tom Mulder, Rob Out, Tom Collins and Anuska.

Famous Dutch singer Boudewijn de Groot, who was once a deejay on Veronica in 1966, will be asked to do a programme too. Will Luikinga, who is currently working in Spain, has also promised to do a show. Next week Robbie Dale will be phoned to come over from Canary Islands where he nowadays runs an hotel. After he left Caroline in 1968 he was a deejay for two years on Veronica.

Nothing is sure yet about the use of the 585 kHz as the RDR, which is responsible for the frequencies in Holland, stated that the 585 is not officially given to the Netherlands. On Monday a meeting is sceduled with the RDR in Groningen to solve the problem. The transmitter will be on the air from the Lopik-site in Utrecht, so during daytime the station can be heard all over the Netherlands, a part of Belgium and on the East coast of England.

It is not sure which programmes will be on the air during nighttime. We think of non stop music between midnight and seven in the morning but it could be that the live programming which is aired during daytime hours can be repeated in the night.

Of course former technicians of Veronica will take part in the programming: Sietse Gardeniers, Juul Geleick, Ad Bouman, Dick Bol, Jos ten Hooge and Jurg van Beem have allready stated to take part in the union. The programmes will be made with the old Veronica equipment, which has been stored all those years and is now in perfect condition after a long check-up. Of course a back up of modern equipment will be there if the old one gives problems.

Hotel Laapershoek at the Utrechtseweg in Hilversum will be the location of the studio. This building is the former Veronicabuilding. It’s possible for the listeners to take a look at the radioactivity in the Hotel during days of transmissions. In the Laaperszaal will be space enough and a bar will be opened for consumption. Also sale-stands with Veronica memorabilia will be in the room.

During the eveninghours between eight and ten Dutch time special programming is sceduled with each day another item. Sceduled are ‘The Adje Bouman Top Ten’, a special about the special programmes Veronica transmitted on the Stones and Beatles, a special about the Veronica jingles’, a special about the work of the technicians as well as the people who worked on the ship the Norderney.

Of course Veronica was not the only offshore radiostation in the sixties and seventies and therefore a short history on offshore radio will be transmitted in the special section on 25 and 26 of August between eight and ten in the evening. Production and presentation will be done by Offshore specialist Hans Knot and Ad Bouman.

One evening the special will run all those mistery songs which were done by the former Veronicadeejays, some of them really became big hits. Former Dutch artists, who did jingleproductions for the stations in the seventies, will go back into the studio the next week to sing a special jingleset for this 10 days of broadcasts.

There is one programme which will not be repeated: Veronica very last hour. This has two reasons: First of all the original studiotapes has been lost and secondly the final hour of this time will be a happy one.

During the period from August 22nd and August 31st there will be a special licence radiostation on the air from Holland. Dutch Radio Authority (Commissariaat voor de Media) has given this licence to a group of persons formerly working for the offshore radio station Veronica, which was on the air between april 1960 and august 1974.

With this special licence station they will remember the good old days. A mainpart of the programming will consists of old programme tapes, so all more than 25 years old. Today talks are held with the HMG (Holland Media Group) to get permission to use the name Radio Veronica. When the offshore station stopped in 1974 they got a legal licence to work as a public broadcaster from December 1975 onward. A couple of years ago The Veronica Omroep Organisatie (Veronica Broadcasting Organisation) got commercial again and is now a part of the HMG Group, which has also RTl4 and RTL5 as stations.

The organisers want to turn the commercials backwards in the progrmmes if the products are still on the market. If not they want to transmit them as they were produced more than 25 years ago.

Plans are to built two studios on two locations. One is at the Hotel Laapershoek at the Utrechtseweg in Hilversum, where formerly the old Veronica studios were situated. The other location is onboard the MV Norderney, the former Veronica transmittingvessel, which is still in Leeuwarden harbour and is nowadays used as a party vessel.

As frequency the Dutch Radio Authority has given away the 585 kHz medium wave.