Radio Monique

Radio Monique was an offshore radio station broadcasting to the Netherlands and Belgium from the Radio Caroline ship, MV Ross Revenge. Originally intended to broadcast in 1981 from a new radio ship called MV Magda Maria alongside a station to be called Radio Paradijs, this arrangement fell through and Radio Paradijs never did make it to air, except for some test transmissions. On the way over to Europe the ship lost part of its aerial. Shortly after commencing tests, the Dutch navy towed the ship away. On December 1984, Ronan O'Rahilly of Radio Caroline leased the 50 kW transmitter aboard the Ross Revenge to the Dutch businessman Fred Bolland. With that transmitter, Bolland started his station, which he named Radio Monique after his ex-wife. In fact, following antenna problems, the station began test transmissions on 15 December 1984 and commenced full programming at midday the following day on 963 kHz. Radio Caroline had broadcast for over a year from the Ross Revenge but failed to attract enough advertising to be able to continue alone. A special studio was also established in the Gooi, where experienced radio professionals, including Joost den Draayer and Tony Berk, contributed to the programming. Additional content was provided by a live team of disc jockeys. Over the next two years, Radio Monique experienced a high turnover of deejays. The reasons for leaving varied: agreements not kept, poor living conditions on board, salaries not received or too little, or simply a lack of qualities in the deejay concerned. The station's theme tune was an edited version of the Theme from Terrahawks by Richard Harvey. In October 1987 Radio Monique was sold and a month later moved to 819 kHz. This move was necessary because Finland had started up a new 600 kW transmitter on 963 kHz. Nico...