h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I notice that my guide entry seems to be the only one in the Peer Review list with 'remove' beside it. So should I take it out and re-submit it. I also see that the note on the entry that says 'Currently in Peer Review' is not there today. Can someone explain,please. Pamela.

Part of the problem is solved. 'Currently in peer review' is back on. According to the top of the page I was not logged in.I know I was, as I posted. I refreshed the page and its now. I would still like to know about the 'remove' bit. Pamela

The word 'Remove' is there so that you can remove the entry from PR if you decide to. Every h2g2 Researcher is able to do that to their own entries but not to anyone else's, therefore we can all see 'Remove' next to our own entries but not next to those written by anyone else. It's a site feature. The only people who can see 'Remove' next to all entries are the Italics.

I've had a look through the entry now, and it's a subject which is dear to my heart since I used to listen first to Caroline, and then to Big L whenever I was off school sick, and during the holidays It seemed like so much longer than three years at the time.

Is there are reason for setting the entry within a table?

"If it had not happened it is possible that commercial radio may not be in existence here today"
I don't think that's true - commercial radio may have been later in coming to the UK, and some stations might have had a different flavour, but it certainly would have arrived.

"Although the station traditionally celebrates at Easter"
'Although the station traditionally celebrates its birthday at Easter'

"All except one- Caroline continued"
Do you mean 'All except one - Caroline - closed down'?

I'm not sure that the title accurately reflects the subject matter of the entry. Perhaps something along the lines of 'The UK Pirate Radio Revolution of the 1960s'?

Was Classic FM the first national commercial station, or was it the first *FM* national station? Something at the back of my mind is suggesting to me that Virgin AM was broadcasting nationally before Classic, but I stand to be corrected on that.

If the entry is going to deal mainly with the effect that the pirates had on UK radio, it would be worthwhile covering the Marine Offences Act a bit more, looking into what led up to its passing (was it the politicians, the BBC, or both who were the prime mover in getting the pirates off the air?), and researching how and why the BBC recruited so many former pirate DJs instead of hiring and training new talent, and any tales that go along with that. I heard for instance, that on their first day at the BBC, the DJs all wore suits because that's what they thought everyone wore at Broadcasting House, but when they got there they found that all the BBC engineers they were to be working with had all shown up in their 'hippest' clothes because that's what they thought the pirate DJs would be wearing


Scout

Hi Gosho. I was 17 in 1967 .As I was in Wales reception of most of the pirates was not good but I could hear Caroline South and Big L in the evenings.


I put the entry within a Table because my Intenet T.V. box has a problem with Classic Goo being very narrow, especially when I had pictures in it originally. I have taken the Table out now. Hope it looks O.K to everyone.


I'm not sure about 'celebrates its birthday' Would 'celebrates its opening' be better.


I got the station dates from http://www.mediauk.com/article/8 They say, Classic FM 7 September 1992 .Virgin Radio 30 April 1993. I don't think all transmitters opened at the same time, so they may have come on air later in some areas. I will try to check on that.


I will think about the other points you've mentioned and may make a few more changes. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, I won't be able to put much more on this entry as it is getting very slow. I have tried to put the links to sites that continue the main points I have mentioned. Is it possibe to continue this entry onto another page if I cannot put any more here


Pamela.

Ah, you're six years older than me then

'Celebrates its opening' is fine. That sentence just needed some kind of... anchor.

If your box is getting slow because of the amount of text, there'd be no problem with putting more on a second page - the two can easily be joined together if and when the entry is picked by a Scout and then edited

I know someone who did an Entry on Dragonball Z via digibox, and chopped it up into six parts. I haven't seen the article since, but we all agreed in PR it was a legitimate way to submit a longer article. Just be sure to mention that the two parts are part of the same article. A possible drawback to doing this is that the italics may require a Scout to use up two picks.

I agree with Goshogoshogosh about the title. I am an American, so I didn't get what was going on as the government here isn't directly involved in producing domestic radio. There are of lots of radio stations in the Los Angeles market, so it's odd to me to read that your Government would be so proprietary over a much larger territory. I presume that the radio was viewed as if it had some proposed military value, or that the Queen was assumed to own all bandwidth as a legal fiction? If so, then the idea of pirate radio is very interesting indeed!

Referring to the table caption problem mentioned in posting 20, I have prepared an entry A2496062 which may help to explain things.

Hi Sea Change,

The problems with pirate radio were not so much the Queen or the State owned the bandwidth, it was more the commercial aspect. Britain conformed to international frequency allocations as much as anyone else, probably more so, but it was the use of a broadcast medium for commercial purposes that abhorrent to the BBC and the Government. An attitude that still lingers to this day.

Radio was seen as a military weapon. The BBC was used to transmit coded messages to the various resistance movements in Europe during WWII. These broadcast were started with the opening bars of Beethoven's fifth symphony. duh, duh duher. Which also just happens to me the Morse code for the letter V. V for Victory. Annoyed the Nazis' no end.

The BBC were also able to develop a reputation for truth and accuracy to counteract the propaganda of Dr Goebbels. Because of this, the BBC was listened to all over the World by people who where reasonably confident that were not being fed bullshit. If there was any really bad news, it tended to be suppressed rather than try and tart it up with spin. A good principle of Psychological Warfare. This was used to good effect during the Cold war.

I am sure, that in the event of a national emergency similar to WWII, the Government would again have greater control over the BBC than in peacetime.

Donald

There is a girl, she really is fine, so fine! I know one day, she's gonna be mine, be mine - her name is Caroliy-, Caroliy-i-yi-yine!

Broken link in the 'Timeline' link.

Hello I have E.Mailed mediauk.com about the 'Timeline' link. I'm waiting for a reply. for letting me know it wasn't working. Pamela.

Hello Sea change. Donald is right that the commercial aspect was the main problem. However ,during World War 2 Lord Haw-Haw's nazi propaganda broadcasts from the Radio Luxembourg transmitter gave the British Government a different reason to be against that station.

The BBC is run by an independent Board of Governors,but they are answerable to the Home Secetary ,especially in reporting political matters, as recent events here have shown. They now have a new chairman of the board, Michael Grade.
I have changed the title to 'The Offshore Radio Revolution in Britain 1964-2004' but it is still just The Radio Revolution on the Conversations. Technically the 'pirates' were not illegal until 1967 as they were outside the three-mile limit and the law against them (The Marine Offences Act) did not exist until then.
FPamela.

Hello. I've changed the title again, but now I've got a small problem with it in Alabaster. The dates have split into two lines. Is there anything I can do about this Pamela.

It wasn't clear to me from reading this that the pirates were profit-making companies. I thought from reading it that they were playing the music they did simply because you couldn't hear it anywhere else. It's a simple mistake for a Unitedstatian to make, because here a certain portion of the airwaves and the cables in the United States are deliberately left aside for this, both in TV and radio. (Interestingly, it hasn't been profitable for anyone here to sue for satellite space yet).

Would the BBC or the government have objected if they didn't have commercials? My high school (years 10 through 13 out of 13 of standard education here) had its own tiny TV station. Would this be not kosher?

I know that there are some regional semi-commercial TV stations in the UK. Is there any such similar thing on radio nowadays, or does the Beeb still control all radio?

There *were* entirely commercial regional TV stations that combined into a national network called ITV (which gets more viewers than BBC1, despite the fact that no-one I know watches it...) but a process that began in the 1980s saw them start to take over and merge with one another until we were left with two in England, and they've just merged into one behemoth.

So much for regional diversity

The 'Timeline' link is now working. Pamela

Hi Sea Change. The pirate ships were large.The m.v Galaxy, (Radio London ) had been an American minesweeper. The Frederica,(Radio Caroline North) was a Danish passenger ferry of 702 tons.To maintain them and pay the crew and DJs the owners had to run them as a business. Ronan O'Rahilly was fortunate that is father was a successful businessman who provided money for the first ship, but other owners had to form companies to pay for them.
The BBC is funded by the Television licence which has just gone up to £121.00s a year.(around $222.00). This is paid by all owners of Television sets except those over 75 years old who now get a free licence.
Although they have their own managers etc.the local non-commercial stations are still all part of the BBC.

Scotland ,Wales and Northern Ireland now have Regional BBC stations which cover each area. The Republic of Ireland has always had it's own different system.

The commercial stations are all owned seperately but there have been some take-overs and larger areas of the country are now covered by the same companies, who network some programmes. These stations have been regulated by The Radio Authority which changed to Offcom The Office of Communications at the end of 2003. How this will change things remains to be seen.
We do have Hospital and Student radio. These can only be heard inside the buildings they serve.
There is a good short explaination of Radio in the UK on http://www.mediauk.com/article/11 but it is a few years old and some of the information has changed.

I hope this has helped to explain our rather complicated system. Pamela.

I think it would be interesting background and clarify just how 'electric' the stations seemed, if you were to mention the ship sizes and the tax avoidance thing.

I am taking this entry out of Peer Review for a day or two. I want to add to it, but it has got too slow so I have taken off the bottem section and put it on another entry. I will submit them both as soon as I have made the changes. Is there any special way of submitting a continued entry ,or do I just submit both pages the usual way. Pamela.

AFAIK, you gotta put them back in from scratch. The only exception is if they are already accepted into the Edited Guide, in which case you can go to the Update Forum where there's no incubation.