Additional information
by Paul Alexander Rusling (Author)
A factual story about the life of a radio broadcasting ship, the MV Communicator which was home to eleven radio stations during her 21 year career. This rivetting tale covers the drama and success of the stations, whose staff included many well-known radio names in the UK and in the Netherlands. During that time she attracted up to ten million listeners with her powerful AM (Medium Wave) transmissions. Her owners made over $15 million during the period, but had to endure a government blockade, threats, takeovers by fraudsters and swindlers, boarding parties and arrests of the ship by the Admiralty Marshall acting for unpaid creditors. After being towed away she caught the attention of convicted mercenaries and the Dutch secret service which resulted in her being raided by the Portuguese Government; just a few of the stages in her fun-filled, action packed voyages. This a thrilling story that will please the thousands of radio aficionados who still relish those buccaneering days. Many of her listeners were oblivious to the drama behind the scenes, hearing only the rock'n'roll music that the Communicator's radio stations churned out around the clock, audible over half of Western Europe. Written by an experienced engineer and broadcaster who advised on equipping the ship, the book brings together the experiences and tales of many of the Communicator's former crewmembers and disc jockey teams. All for those two most powerful elixirs - money and music.
Author Biography
Paul Rusling was a music fan who joined an offshore radio ship, Radio Caroline, as a Disc Jockey in the early 1970s. After obtaining various engineering qualifications he worked for a variety of radio stations across Europe. One of his earliest tasks was equipping the former research ship, the MV Communicator, for high power broadcasting. He has since been involved with several dozen other radio stations including high power stations both private and state controlled. When not engineering or advising radio stations he has written countless newspaper and magazine articles on the subject of music radio and broadcasting politics, management and engineering. He has also published several books on the subject. He lives in East Yorkshire with his wife Anne.
