NEW JERSEY RADIO MUSEUM PRESIDENT APPEARS ON RADIO CAROLINE
Posted by njrm on January 30, 2015
I’m pleased to report that your NJRM President, Rich Phoenix, will be heard as an AlbumZone Programme Presenter at http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk at 9:00 p.m. eastern time on Friday evening, 30 January 2015.
This is the renowned England-based Radio Caroline on which the popular feature film “The Boat that Rocked” also known as “Pirate Radio” was based. Caroline was named by its founders after Caroline Kennedy to represent free radio for the new generation of the mid-’60s when most British radio eschewed the music of the popular “Invasion” groups that dominated the Stateside airwaves of the time.
Caroline was amongst a group of “pirate stations” that set up shipboard radio operations in international waters and aimed and tailored their programming at the British Isles and the Continent. British lawmakers developed legislation meant to sink the “pirates,” Caroline included, but the operators of Caroline and many other such stations resourcefully found their way around the regulations and continued broadcasting for years.
This generation of Caroline consists of many of the original shipboard air personalities from those times, and broadcasts are originated ‘round the clock in full stereo via the internet. Of the many on-line webcasters, Caroline maintains multiple robust streams receivable on many devices via a wide range of internet connections, from dial-up to all broadband services.
Rich Phoenix, NJRM President, has been a fan of free radio for years, and originally signed on years ago with The AlbumZone, an on-line programme supplier/station operated by Johnny Reece from studios in London. AlbumZone has enjoyed a colourful history, originating broadcasts heard via stations in the US, France, Slovakia and Radio Caroline, itself, amongst others.
AlbumZone’s recent history has included live on-line webcasts featuring programme hosts from the UK, Scandinavia and New Jersey with Phoenix, himself, serving as a Programme Host, live from New Jersey. These unique live on-line programmes have been met with great enthusiasm from the four corners of the world.
Phoenix, NJRM President, maintains that these special live broadcasts represent 21st century radio at its logical next incarnation, involving an international audience tuned in simultaneously to multiple internet platforms and servers, including the popular http://www.TuneIn.com which carries countless independent, “free” and government-operated radio stations as diverse as many terrestrial American stations, the BBC, the Voice of Russia (now known as Sputnik Radio) and Radio Caroline itself. TuneIn is accessible via home computers, iPhones and SmartPhones worldwide. AlbumZone also maintains its own website: http://www.albumzone.co.uk by which its archive server can be accessed ‘round the clock and a separate podcast site: http://www.mixcloud.com/thealbumzone
Following Friday’s pioneering Radio Caroline webcast, the broadcast will be available on demand at the Mixcloud website. Happy listening, all – and thanks to AlbumZone and Radio Caroline for your belief in a Yank from New Jersey and the New Jersey Radio Museum!
Rock On!
Rich Phoenix, RMC
NJRM President
The New Jersey Radio Museum 
Rich Phoenix said
For all of you kind friends of the NJ Radio Museum who have dialed up http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk, I must say that you were treated to a couple of hours of a fellow AlbumZone Programme Presenter entertaining you in my stead. As I alluded above, on-line international radio which makes very pleasant listening presents its own logistical challenge, and is often a juggling act. In this case, my producer, friend, AlbumZone Founder and “Guvnah,” Johnny Reece encountered transmission problems between New Jersey and London in our efforts to produce a new and exciting “Flight of the Phoenix” for our mutual listening pleasure. What with the 5-hour time difference between NJ and the UK, we were further hampered in making the deadline for tonight’s webcast. You are being treated to the voice of Johnny Reece, himself, who was my entre to the wonderful world of AlbumZone better than 15 years ago. Johnny is an air personality of exceedingly deep musical knowledge of many genres and has communication skills the likes of which are rarely experienced elsewhere on the web or in terrestrial radio of the 21st century. My first experience in hearing Johnny Reece on the radio pre-dated web radio when the BBC and Merlin Network One in the UK sub-contracted him and AlbumZone to supply programming to the BBC shortwave transmitters girdling the globe. Through the crackling and selective fading which frequently plagues shortwave broadcasting, the voice of Johnny Reece and the AlbumZone rang true for me, a radio aficionado who felt that he had heard it all until that moment some 17 years ago, when a great talent presented himself to this New Jersey-based shortwave listener. They were “live” from London with multiple megawatts of terrestrial radio power – wow! Next step was a transatlantic phone call from our front porch, for it was a warm weather time of year – a lovely New Jersey evening. An immediate friendship was formed, I sent an aircheck of a 1971-vintage Flight of the Phoenix, and was invited to join the remarkable individuals comprising http://www.albumzone.co.uk. That’s where to go if you wish further information on our unique radio enterprise. The AlbumZone podcast may be found at http://www.mixlcoud.com/thealbumzone if you would wish to experience some historic programming of the past few years, including a good sampling of several AlbumZone talents, myself included as well as a selection of several ground-breaking “live” shows that cut through the 5-hour time differential and, via Skype, linked us all in a roundtable music fest and mutual music trivia contest. Radio Caroline is our very latest 21st century affiliate of the AlbumZone. They have been pioneering alternative free radio for over 50 years, now, going back to several incarnations of shipboard, offshore radio. In the meanwhile, enjoy and thanks for listening! … Rock ON! Rich Phoenix, RMC – NJRM President.
Rich Phoenix said
Seems as you’re being treated to a double-shot of AlbumZone talent, tonight. The hour following Johnny Reece is featuring Andy Miles, who has also been part of the AlbumZone combine for years and years, and was heavily responsible in the realisation of our aforementioned, bi-continent “live” shows. Andy has the magic glue in his “Leafy Glade” studios to successfully hold together and blend the diverse elements necessary to criss-cross the globe and give us the aural appearance of sitting ’round a big table in a world-sized room (including proper stereo placement) and try to out-trivia each other with music selections from our favourite groups. If truth be told, AlbumZone is a shared hobby to which all of us dedicate valuable time and a little money in efforts to make this world a better place to listen as Radio Caroline has intoned for years, “In Loving Awareness.” Again, thanks one and all for sampling a little of this wonderful thing that we call The Album Zone through the venerable half-century young Radio Caroline!