Category: LV18

Ship specific posts

Easter Report

The following was sent to the Harwich & Manningtree Standard for the 5th April 2024 edition.

Radio Mi Amigo was broadcast from historic light vessel LV18 in Harwich Harbour over Easter Weekend, with fans flocking to Harwich to help mark the 60th anniversary of offshore broadcasting. Radio Caroline started the radio revolution in 1964 just off the coast of Harwich, and were soon joined by other ships. The guest DJs, on board the LV18, for the weekend included Keith ‘Cardboard Shoes’ Skues and Roger ‘Twiggy’ Day who were both on Radio Caroline, and other ships, in the mid 1960s.

Radio Mi Amigo was also supported by visiting DJs Stephen ‘Foz’ Foster, Garry Lee, Olly Kinvig, Paul Windsor, Chris Cooper, Rick Marks, Dave Kent and Duke Anthony. Duke had arrived in Harwich to help put the studio together but ended up in the studio chair hosting several shows!

One highlight of the weekend was when Keith Skues and Roger Day shared the studio to talk about their lives afloat sixty years ago, before they headed to the Electric Palace as guests of BBC Essex presenters Steve Scruton and Ian Wyatt. The proceeds of that show will be donated to the LV18 Restoration Fund, along with a donation from the Electric Palace Trust from film revenue over the Easter Weekend’s 1960s film festival.

BBC Essex was broadcast live from the LV18 on Easter Saturday, with Steve Scruton interviewing the DJs, fans who had gathered on the quayside and members of the public.

The Pharos Trust, which owns and operates the LV18, also hosted a visit by three member of the Tendring District Council Economic Development team, which has been working with the Trust on a community radio project over the past six months.

It is hoped that the ship will re-open to the public by the end of May, once the immediate restoration work and clean-up have been completed. A further live radio weekend is being planned for August.

The Pharos Trust thanks everyone who helped put together the wonderful weekend in the LV18’s floating studio and would especially like to thank those who helped raise money for the continuing Restoration Fund.

LV18 Mi Amigo

Show Archives

We are currently building a new facility on this site, selecting shows from our archives and presenting them for your enjoyment.

Please remember that any comments, and track selection, are the responsibility of the presenter!

https://www.lv18radio.uk/archive-shows/

Harwich LV18 Mi Amigo

Easter 2024 Schedule

RADIO MI AMIGO – EASTER SCHEDULE (2024)

Please note that the schedule may need to change due to DJ availability.

GOOD FRIDAY 29th MARCH

(Easter programmes begin at 07:00am)

07:00-09:00 Olly Kinvig – Rock’n’Roll Breakfast

09:00 Danny Lawrence

10:00 Pete Nightingale

11:00 Gordon Bathgate

12:00-14:00 Duke Anthony

14:00-16:00 Paul Windsor

16:00 Chris Morgan

17:00 Rick Marks

18:00 Chris Cooper

19:00-22:00 Garry Lee – The Stonehenge Disco

22:00 Chris Morgan

23:00 Chris Morgan

SATURDAY 30th MARCH

00:00-03:00 Dave Kent

03:00-06:00 Paul Windsor

06:00 The Reverend Rabbit

07:00-10:00 Olly Kinvig – Rock’n’Roll Breakfast

10:00 Pete Nightingale

11:00 Chris Morgan

12:00-14:00 Keith Skues

14:00-16:00 Duke Anthony

16:00 Jeff Martin

17:00-19:00 Paul Windsor

19:00 Chris Morgan

20:00 Pete Magnetic

21:00-00:00 Dave Kent

SUNDAY 31st MARCH

00.00 Jim Fourniadis

01:00 Robin Dee

CLOCKS GO FORWARD 1 HOUR

03:00-06:00 Chris & Rick Double Header

06:00 The Reverend Rabbit

07:00-10:00 Olly Kinvig – Rock’n’Roll Breakfast

10:00 Chris Morgan

11:00-14:00 Stephen Foster

14:00-16:00 Keith Skues

16:00 Jeff Martin

17:00 Pete Nightingale

18:00 Paul Windsor

19:00 Jim Fourniadis

20:00 Jeff Fitzgerald

21:00-00:00 Garry Lee – The Stonehenge Disco

MONDAY 1st APRIL

00.00-03:00 Paul Windsor

03:00-06:00 Chris & Rick Double Header

06:00 Chris Morgan

07:00-10:00 Olly Kinvig – Rock’n’Roll Breakfast

10:00 Gordon Bathgate

11:00 Pete Nightingale

12:00 Roger ‘Twiggy’ Day

13:00-15:00 Rick Marks

15:00 Garry Lee

16:00 Paul Windsor

17:00 Robin Dee

18:00 Chris Morgan

19:00-21:00 Paul Windsor

21:00-00:00 Garry Lee – The Stonehenge Disco

At Midnight all shows will continue from our Overnight Service

Please note that the schedule may need to change due to DJ availability.

LV18

Visiting the LV18

Please note that because of our recent fire the ship is not open to visitors at the moment. Sadly this means that if you come to Harwich then it won’t be possible for you to walk aboard. We hope to re-open the ship to visitors later in the year and will put an announcement on here and on our social channels when we have definite information.

Harwich LV18 Mi Amigo

Christmas 2023 Launch

Our launch weekend (Christmas 2023) is now over but we continue to broadcast via our stream 24/7 with a mix of pre-recorded original programming from a large number of DJs.

Currently that mix is semi-random but will shortly settle into a set pattern – watch this space! We are also planning more live events throughout 2024 and beyond.

Many thanks to all the DJs who have contributed to our programming.

Our schedule for our launch weekend is below:

XMAS EVE : Live Launch event

Midday – Live Launch – Garry Lee
1pm Paul Windsor
2pm Gordon Bathgate
3pm Neon Nancy
5pm Olly Kinvig
7pm Garry Lee’s Stonehenge Disco

XMAS DAY

Midnight Kev Ellis
1am Jim Fourniadis
2am Tim Rice
5am Rick Marks
7am Chris Cooper
8am Olly Kinvig
10am Jeff Martin
Midday Paul Windsor
1pm Rick Marks
2pm Neon Nancy
4pm The Radio East Boys (40 years reunion)
5pm Kevin Matthews
6pm Chris Morgan
7pm Garry Lee’s Stonehenge Disco
10pm Chris B & Friends

BOXING DAY

Midnight – 2am Chris Morgan

Press Release (December 2023):

RADIO PIRATES ARE BACK IN HARWICH

Radio Mi Amigo, from the historic Lightvessel LV18 on Harwich Quay, is returning to the air on Christmas Eve and will continue on a permanent basis through the New Year. The station will be bringing the sounds and spirit of the original radio pirates back to their roots of Harwich.

Returning to the floating newly-installed studios are Garry Lee, Neon Nancy, Chris Cooper and the Reverend Rabbit as well as many new DJs who are broadcasting in support of the Pharos Trust charity, which owns the LV18.

Tony O’Neil, Chairman of the Pharos Trust, said he was excited to bring a nostalgic ‘retro’ sound to Harwich once again and appreciated all who were giving their time and expertise towards the project.

The Pharos Trust, Registered UK charity No. 1090325

Tony O’Neil, Trustee and Station Manager,

tonylv18@gmail.com Tel: 07446 171 320

LV18

Winter project part 2

A few days after originally posting our project news, the plans have expanded considerably and we’re now intending to route new multi-links for audio, video and power to parts of the ship that haven’t had this connectivity before.

In practice this will enable us to have a live feed from below decks or even the helideck without running extra cabling, just a little patching should do it!

Of course this will mean more work, so, if you are good with a soldering iron and don’t mind a bit of cold & wet, get in touch about volunteering. Hot tea or coffee provided!

Harwich LV18 Mi Amigo

Winter projects

Now that the LV18 is back in Harwich Harbour, we are subject to the usual ravages of the tides, wind and inclement temperatures. So, on any particular day all is fine, the next maybe not so. In the winter the not-so’s easily outweigh the fine days!

However, we’re a hardy bunch of volunteers so a little sea motion won’t necessarily put us off, especially if the work is inside the warm radio room!

There are various ship projects this winter but the most relevant for the radio broadcasts is that a new balanced feed network is being built that will provide (hopefully) better quality audio around the ship. The system is designed to be adaptable and bidirectional with stereo paths throughout. This is not a small project by any means! Wer’re also taking the opportunity to tidy up other parts of the ship’s myriad of cabling with a view to more flexibility and the potential to put adhoc audio feeds in. We’re warming up the soldering iron this weekend to start putting terminations on the cables!

This work will, later in January, temporarily remove the current link from the studio to the streaming server but shouldn’t interfere with the streaming of prerecorded shows. No doubt we’ll mark the conclusion of this project with a live broadcast, on the stream of course.

I must pass on our thanks to Phil and Ian of Transplan who have helped us with this project.

We’ll post news of our FM broadcast and any other special events as and when they are confirmed.

Harwich LV18

LV18 Site rebuilt

Our sister website, www.lv18.org has been completely rebuilt during March 2018 and now has much more content! Don’t forget that you can visit the ship 11-4 daily, details on lv18.org

Harwich LV18 Mi Amigo

Easter Shows

We have two days of special radio shows this weekend on Radio Mi Amigo from the LV18’s studio.

LISTEN HERE : https://www.lv18radio.uk/listen-online/

SATURDAY 31ST MARCH 2018

2.00PM Brian Anderson (Memories of 1974)
3.00PM The Mi Amigo Oldies Show
5.00PM Garry Lee’s Stonehenge Disco
Featuring 3 hours of album tracks – Past, present & future!
9.00PM Brendan Day’s 1968 Show
Midnight Another chance to hear some recent Radio Mi Amigo programmes from our archives.

SUNDAY 1ST APRIL

MIDDAY Garry Lee’s Stonehenge Disco
2.00PM Barry Jamm’s Glam Rock Special
3.00PM Happy Hour with Ian Riches

THE DUTCH ZONE
4.00PM Roland Visser’s Power Hour
5.00PM Jan Berg
6.00PM Rene Van Den Abeelen – Musiek Therapie

EVENING SCHEDULE
7.00PM Tim Rice
8.00PM The New Releases Show
Hour 1 – The latest rock & metal releases
Hour 2 – The lastest Indie / Alternative / Cross-over releases
Hour 3 – The latest Psych / Space rock & Underground.
11.00PM The Reverend Rabbit Show
MIDNIGHT – Close

Harwich LV18

RIP Mystery Man

Paul aka Mystery Man, a longtime volunteer aboard the LV18, passed away this week.

Garry wrote:

“This week i lost my dearest friend in the world to that loathsome disease cancer. Paul (aka the Mystery Man or Mystery for short), was one of the kindest fellows i’ve ever met & the sort of person that would do anything for anyone. Not many people like this come along in a whole lifetime. He was a long term crew member of the Radioship LV18 and a true gent to everyone. R.I.P. ol’ friend, it was an absolute pleasure to know you.”