Why Rusling is a blind man leading the blind

Scottg is impatient. He wants me to hurry up and get past GBOK so that he can start reading about Radio Atlanta and Radio Caroline. I suppose if he has turned to page 29 (softback) in his copy of Rusling's 'The Radio Caroline Bible' and started to read "The first steps of Radio Caroline" just above a picure of Allan James Crawford, he has read the following at the bottom of the page:
"The BBC were very aware of developments in radio. They deployed two of their retired engineers to other offshore ventures to observe. These 'advisors' took on consultancy roles for Radio Veronica and for two embryonic projects set to broadcast to the UK, GBOK and GBLN."

If Scottg actually paid for his copy of Rusling's rubbish he should demand his money back without delay.

We bought our copy in order to perform this review of its contents, so we view it as a 'tool of the trade' to examine it for accuracy (it fails miserably), and for plagiarism (it excels in that)! But because Paul Rusling is not at all well versed in the history of offshore broadcasting, no matter what he claims, even when he steals his source material, he still manages to present a mixed-up and pathetic account of the subject. But then, Rusling admits that he does no research and that he hates studying books, so what should a reader expect of an author with such poor credentials?

Paul Rusling is a leader of the blind and he is taking them into that proverbial ditch. Not only that, they are paying him to mislead them! Now that is the mark of a 'good' con-man!

So what should Scottg expect to learn about this same period of time that is true, and which, to the very best of our knowledge, is accurate? We are always willing to stand corrected once proof is presented. That is why we are taking this so slowly and documenting everything.

That being the case, let us take another look at Rusling's words and ask some basic questions about the opening lines of page 28 (that end conclude with the quotation above):
"The first tentative steps to set up what was to become Radio Caroline were taken in early 1960 when New Zealand born music publisher Allan Crawford decided to leave the Australian Southern Music Group and set up his own music publishing business, Merit Music in London."

Well we begin by correcting the year when the story of Allan James Crawford took a turn in a different direction.

Next we correct the birth place of Allan James Crawford. He was born in Australia which is not a part of New Zealand.

Finally, Southern Music was a United States company with a very long and prestigious history that set up a branch in Australia. Then it set up a branch in London, England, and when its very famous founder died, Crawford fell out with his widow who had took over control of the company. It was then and for that reason that Crawford decided to start one of several businesses of his own.

Now since this is the opening paragraph to the beginning of Rusling's account of how Radio Caroline began, it is no wonder that at the bottom of the page his last paragraph is just as bad:
"The BBC were very aware of developments in radio. They deployed two of their retired engineers to other offshore ventures to observe. These 'advisors' took on consultancy roles for Radio Veronica and for two embryonic projects set to broadcast to the UK, GBOK and GBLN."

Since the BBC is an arm of the Crown corporation sole, and was at that time the product of the Crown's General Post Office (GPO), exactly who might have been aware of developments in radio at the BBC? Rusling does not say.

But Rusling does go on to claim that someone at the BBC: ".... deployed two of their retired engineers to other offshore ventures to observe."

Let's begin by looking at that word "deployed". It is a word often used by the military for sending troops on a mission, in which case the troops would not be retired military, but still serving in the military. Rusling's use of this word is a contradiction in itself because Rusling is claiming something that could not happen. Therefore, how could someone at the BBC order two of their retired engineers to do anything at all?

Well Rusling contradicts himself yet again by claiming that these two retired engineers are now working for the BBC as "advisors", and "advisors" to the BBC in that sort of capacity do not do so as unpaid volunteers.

But these individuals, says Rusling, are "double-dipping", because they "took on consultancy roles for Radio Veronica and for two embryonic projects set up to broadcast to the UK, GBOK and GBLN."

That is a mouthful.

So is Rusling saying that these two retired BBC engineers were rehired as BBC "advisers", who also began working for Radio Veronica; GBOK and GBOK?  Three more entities? They were busy old men (assuming they had retired at normal retirement age. That amounts to 4 sources of simultaneous income. Or is Rusling saying the GBOK and GBLN were part of Radio Veronica, which would mean 2 sources of income (BBC and Veronica.)

Or, what does Rusling mean?

Well he is the teacher so he should know what he means, but his readers will have great difficulty in trying to discover what is going on in his head. As I previously claimed, if you are following Rusling you are by now in the ditch with him. In other words Rusling has not the slightest clue what he is writing about, because what he has written is gibberish.

This is why it is so difficult to tell this story.

If readers had no idea of what Radio Caroline was, that would make the job of informing them a lot easier. But even when Rusling opens up the story about Radio Caroline, he does not know who Allan Crawford, is, where he was born or who he worked for. Then, when he concludes this same page he manages to contradict himself twice with a single paragraph.

For this and a multitude of related reasons I am going to take this recital very, very slowly and that means that Scottg won't get a quick overview because that is impossible. If I did, I end up spending more time in correcting what Rusling thinks that he knows, than telling in telling you what he does not know.

The solution?

Short and to the point blogs.

You may get more than one update per day, but from now on they are going to be concise and limited to specific points and very focused.