The electrical installation dispute, part 2 ....

Einar Zeth Olov Sjöström, was born in 1938 and became known as SMØXBI Seth Sjoestroem during his amateur radio transmissions. On Radio Caroline he became known as Ove Sjöström [shown left] where he was a Panel Operator aboard the mv Caroline (ex-Fredericia) which originally dropped anchor off Essex, England, and he stayed with the ship when it later moved off Ramsay, Isle of Man. Previously he had worked on board the mv Bon Jour off Sweden when it served as a radio ship for Radio Nord. When Nord closed down, Sjöström went to work in Liberia and then he returned to work on the mv Caroline.

There is a lot of controversy concerning the time that Sjöström was with Radio Caroline. According to Sjöström, after Radio Nord closed down he had discussions with Allan James Crawford about a similar job on the ship then renamed as mv Magda Maria, and which in 1962 was anchored off Brightlingsea, Essex. This was after the incident in which the revived Swedish station called Radio Mercur aboard the ship Lucky Star, had been boarded.

That news event scared-off the John Delaney Organization who supplied the theatrical business with goods and services, and they were Crawford's primary financial backer. Crawford then lost his mortgage on the THV Satellite from which Crawford had been planning a station called either Radio Atalanta or Radio Atlanta. That ship was docked at Cowes in the Isle of Wight.

In 1962 the mv Magda Maria was anchored off Essex, and its Texan representative Bill Weaver was staying at the Mayfair Hotel in London where he was looking for a buyer. Among those he talked to was Allan Crawford. According to Sjöström, he was also talking to Crawford about a job on board the mv Magda Maria (ex-Bon Jour) in a similar capacity to the one he held for Radio Nord. Whatever really transpired, it led to Sjöström holding a grudge against Crawford and taking a job in Liberia. [See the various poorly translated documents from Swedish to English that are on file at http://www.bobleroi.co.uk/ScrapBook/CarolineRollCall/Ove%20Sj%F6st%F6m%20.pdf - which will be referred to later as 'Bobleroi-Sjöström'.]

Ove Sjöström offers his own explanation on the link cited above, as to how he came to be working on board the mv Caroline (ex-Fredericia). We have nothing at the present time to refer to as an authentic source of verification for that information. By this we mean an independent and non-hearsay documented account.

On board the mv Caroline, Sjöström was always shown as a 'Panel Operator', and not as a qualified radio transmitter engineer. (See the picture top-left.) A Panel Operator sat in a room in which the turntables and tape recorders were located. Facing a glass window, Sjöström could see the announcer in the adjoining room. During the first few months in the life of Radio Caroline, the announcer gave the introductions and visually signaled through the window to Sjöström who then played the record or tape.

Radio Caroline began test broadcasts from the mv Caroline (ex-Fredericia) on March 27, 1964 from a position off the coast of Essex.

On July 2, 1964, a formal announcement was issued jointly by two public relations agencies: Eric White Associates for Radio Atlanta, and Leslie Perrin Associates for Radio Caroline - who employed David Block. The context of their press release confirmed that Radio Atlanta would immediately become the home of Radio Caroline South and remain on station off the Essex coastline, while the original Radio Caroline would become Radio Caroline North and sail to take up anchorage off Ramsay, Isle of Man.

Supposedly, prior to this time the two ship stations had been independent operations, when in reality Radio Caroline had been spun-off Radio Atlanta, and that behind both ventures was a common hand manipulating all events. For a variety of reasons, a 'mastermind' could not be shown in public which would have confirmed parts of the real story that British authorities already knew. The reason is simple: the entity that the 'mastermind' represented, held huge UK governmental contracts that this entity would be in danger of losing!

However, in 1964, there never was a company called 'Radio Caroline', and neither was there any solid evidence to show the connecting dots to the person who was ultimately manipulating all events. There were many tell-tale signs, and from an early stage a lot of the ambiguity had already been deciphered by persons such as the Director General of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and by the General Post Office.

The GPO issued all British broadcasting licences on behalf of the British Crown corporation sole, and the Crown holds the right to sovereignty in the British Isles. Its powers are administered by its civil servants and Privy Councilors. (The Crown should not be confused with the Queen as an individual, because she 'merely' represents the public 'face' of the Crown corporation sole.)

In theory, Radio Atlanta and Radio Caroline had been two separate organizations, but that apparent separation was an illusion. To conceal the obfuscated fact that Atlanta and Caroline were one operation, with Caroline being introduced to effectively allow Atlanta to succeed, a 'common hand' had taken hold of Atlanta, and then this same 'common hand' had created Caroline. This is the 'mastermind' I referred to earlier.

Because the original Atlanta operation had Australian Allan James Crawford as its figurehead, he was promoted in the press by the Australian Public Relations firm of Eric White and Associates. When the 'common hand' then created Radio Caroline, it was necessary to also name a titular corresponding head of its operations. Thus, Leslie Perrin and Associates who employed David Block, were employed to begin promoting the name of Ronan O'Rahilly as the managing director of Radio Caroline.

The problem with all of this PR promotion was that there was no such company as Radio Atlanta, nor was there a Radio Caroline company. So neither Crawford nor O'Rahilly could manage directors - because there were no directors to manage! What did exist was a version of the original blueprint used to create commercial television operations in the United Kingdom.

The only TV company, apart from the BBC, which was licensed by the Crown via the GPO to broadcast in the United Kingdom, was a State chartered operation called the Independent Television Authority. ITA was primarily the result of the same 'mastermind' that was behind the Atlanta-Caroline model for promotional commercial radio broadcasting.

ITA controlled all transmitters and it broadcast its own test cards and accompanying sounds. But ITA sold-off its entire airtime by regions, so that it effectively became what the USA radio and television broadcasters called a sponsored broadcaster. But whereas in the USA, the stations controlled their own transmitters under federal license, and except where networks of relayed programming had been created, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission set a legal limit on the number of radio and television stations any single person or company could own. In the UK, the ITA station owned everything except for the BBC stations.

However, ITA then leased off its entire broadcast day by region to program contractors, and they in turn created income by selling advertising time to other entities. Because the public mainly saw the names of these sponsored program contractors, the public began associating these names and logos with the transmissions and went so far as to refer to them as "ITV" or "Independent TeleVision". But "ITV" as a station concept would not arrive in the British Isles until decades after ITA had gone on the air.

So the mystical Crawford and especially O'Rahilly were hailed by the joint PR release as twin 'Managing Directors" of an entity that did not exist.

What had been created in August 1963, was a British program contractor called Project Atlanta Limited, and as late as February 1964, an Irish program contractor called Planet Productions Limited, that was not registered in the UK. Registration for a foreign company was required by UK law if that company was doing business in the UK. This would later become a problem for the phantom 'Radio Caroline'.

Coupled with the press announcement and the renaming of Atlanta and the movement of the original Caroline to the Isle of Man, was the additional sleight of hand by creating an entity called 'Caroline House' in the heart of the wealthy Mayfair district of London. At this phantom location, Crawford and O'Rahilly supposedly managed the operations of Radio Caroline South and North.

But when a major problem came up in September 1964 relating to the physical operation of Radio Caroline North on board the mv Caroline, the solution did not come from a phantom Radio Caroline company, instead it came from elements that had been associated with Radio Atlanta!

​This is where controversy begins to expose the total fraud perpetrated in order to conceal the real 'mastermind' and true purpose of Radio Caroline.

This is what we will begin to deal with in part 3 of this story tomorrow.

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