In the beginning there was Oil ....

As you will now know, if you have been following this Blog, the beginning of our recital has moved back in time quite dramatically. On the other hand we need to point out that our Mission Statement (accessed by the 'Introduction' button above), has not changed.

Our new beginning occurs in the Nineteenth Century. That is long before anyone ever dreamed about creating any form of offshore broadcasting station. In fact, that is a time period before radio broadcasting even existed. But oil existed, and it was waiting for someone to begin to commercially exploit its use to advance the Human Race into this Modern Age, and without the exploitation of oil, this Modern Age would not exist.

In the Nineteenth Century homes and businesses were illuminated at night by candles and lanterns fed with whale oil. Then came kerosene derived from oil and it replaced whale oil. But after Edison developed electric lighting, oil became the source of power to run the generators that made electric lighting possible.

Automobiles for personal and freight transportation replaced horses pulling wagons, and all of it was thanks to oil. The invention of aircraft using oil derivatives soon followed, and then the floodgates opened up as the Twentieth Century took hold of life on Earth.

In addition to the basic use of oil to power motors to transport us by land, sea and air, and in addition to all of the audio and video benefits derived from electric-driven media, and in addition to the benefits of lighting and heating because of oil, here is a random sampling of what we all owe to oil. We have simplified this list by adding illustrations:

Source:
https://www.ranken-energy.com/index.php/products-made-from-petroleum/#:~:text=After%20crude%20oil%20is%20removed,%2C%20lubricating%20oils%2C%20and%20asphalt.

While we mentioned inventions of Edison and others working in the same field of discovery, we did not devote any time referring to the means of propagating Edison phonographic renditions: radio broadcasting. But all of that is due to the discovery of oil and its exploitation.

One man, John D. Rockefeller became the wealthiest man on Earth when he grabbed everything he could relating to oil and bundled it all up in gigantic Trust called the Standard Oil Company of Ohio.

Then came Ida Tarbell.

It was Ida Tarbell who unmasked the sinister side of the monopoly that Rockefeller had built, and with Rockefeller's wealth came political power, which is why we will be following the development of the Trusts that sprang up as the Nineteen Century was drawing to a close. Because that kind of financial political power makes a mockery out of the concept of "one man one vote" and democratic government.

In the United Kingdom the Crown ruled as before, and as it does today.

In the USA the founding documents are supposed to reflect the will of 'The People', and not the will of the few. But unfortunately that system has never worked, and most of the blame can be laid at the feet of the one substance that makes our lives livable.

That substance is oil, and oil is money.

Money is power to buy the cooperation of 'The People' of the USA, whether by overt or covert means.

This is what we will be unmasking in a story that will embrace the Sixties and offshore broadcasting.

It is not the story that someone else has told you because what will come as a shock to most people in the UK, is that they owe their modern-day existence, and dependence upon oil, to men who hailed from Texas in the United States of America. They began the process of exploration and extraction of oil in Europe.