Laser 558 in International Waters -1984

The MV Communicator in happier times off the south-east coast of the U.K.

[@chrismassey1960]

The best radio. Still today. No one can touch this. No one.

[@nygelmiller5293]

To Chris Massey - no-one can match LAZER. In the 80's! But Radio City , in the 60's, from a sea fort in the River Thames estuary was amazing! They used to play a show when we came home from school, one day featuring THE BEATLES, the NEXT day THE STONES! They catered for rivalry between those band's fans!

[@nygelmiller5293]

What a fantastically thought out idea this radio station was!

[@martinkirby2003]

Great video. Even today I really miss Laser. I also used to stay up late to listen to Charlie Wolf.

[@andrewbashford9786]

No records were played on Laser all music was put onto cartridges like what was seen on the video and played that way . The lady interviewed was Jesse Brandon who later on worked on Londons Capital Radio 📻

[@17REM]

Great clip and brought back some good memories.Lets not forget why these stations flourished-great music and fun d.j's-and the competition,was shit.

[@chefblanc]

classic,, loved it listening to it in the loft playing with my model railway.. so much better than the brain washing nowadays

[@mobiledjdisco]

I remember Laser 558 very well in 1984, i switched from listening to Radio 1 to Laser 558 & loved it at the time especially the fact that there wasn't much chit chat between tracks, just record after record but soon got fed with the repeated monotonous playlist!!

[@19tig60]

just great memories. happy days.

[@PolarM45M]

thay were the good old days i miss working on the communicator and miss you all regards paul

[@leftymuller]

awesome thanks for the upload

[@philt5782]

I sooo miss Laser. Listened to it all the time. Wish there was something like this on now. Radio today is crap. Are you listening HEART

[@lauraduffy7751]

Listen to bbc6 music!! Fantastic

[@retunerman]

I agree, summer of '84 for me. Love to hear that Jeffrey Osborne track on the clip too. A real Laser tune. This clip is fantastic, thanks for uplaoding it.

[@nygelmiller5293]

To T V Heaven. I agree with you about Geoffrey Osborne!

[@Unnimonster]

This brings back some great memories, I was about 17 & training to be a carpenter when it all started, we had Laser on all day, my mate who ran a local pirate station told me about it, so I got to listen from day one. Later on I got to meet some of the DJ's. Bloody good times!

[@peanutzinuk]

Erin was the best announcer on the ship. her timing was good, and easy MOR style was good. Being from Pittsburgh, Pa, the "Laser Sound" was good to hear again when Caroline went.

[@rjjcms1]

More or less non-stop playing of a broad sweep of new and current music without an excess of talk and prattle in between made Laser 558 more or less the soundtrack of summer/early autumn '84 for me.

[@nygelmiller5293]

Now they're on the internet, Caroline and Northsea International ALSO today are free of excessive talk. Truly music for in the background at hairdressers or to wash the car by! DEEJAYENPS

[@MrMarkg9]

Cherry, Charlie,and the ducks ;)

[@mw01908]

@Lee71England Me too. I used to stay up late listening to Charlie Wolf but usually ended up asleep by 11. But I was only 12!

[@andreradio]

Wow great video !!!! have you also movies from my laser heros, Charlie Wolfe, Tommy Rivers and Erin Kelly and the lazerettes ????? If you have thes persons on video pse post them here and i will great full thank you for doing it ! Yours Aye Andre

[@stevewebb7882]

A good station to tune into if you wanted to hear all the hits of the day on rotation with fast moving presentation. For a broad range of music, I prefered Radio Caroline which happily is still with us today. The excitment of the era with 'Eurosiege 85' was great, particulary the response from DJ Charlie Wolfe aboard the Communicator and the way he used to goad the crew of the dti survey vessel.

[@krismilo3403]

Id love to see the tech pics!

[@rostovron]

whatever happened to both jessie brandon and hollie michaels. they were great broadcasters.

[@elliotspencer2648]

Laser 558 was my favourite radio station back in the 80's.radio in 2021 is boring processed crap!!!.

[@lauraduffy7751]

Listen to bbc6 music. Fantastic

[@gavaccess]

SOmeone has mentioned Caroline having OPTIMOD processing - certainly when I visited the ship when it was in Mistley it certainly had an optimod processor on it!! still have some great pics of the ship and alot of technical pics!

[@nygelmiller5293]

To Gavaccess. What does Optimod MEAN?

[@lovelifeloveboat]

@@nygelmiller5293 Optimod was a type of compressor / processor that was commonly used to compress voice and speech for AM transmission

[@lovelifeloveboat]

@@nygelmiller5293 The company are caller Orban these days

[@stevewebb7882]

@@nygelmiller5293 The Orban Optimod is a sound compressor/processor which increases the sound density, 'punch' and 'loudness of the transmitted signal. It increases the range of the transmission to a certain extent as it makes the signal sound louder at the receiver. It also tends to even out studio sound level errors, bringing everything up to the same sound level. Orban is an American company specialising in such equipment, Orban is not the only company though, others make sound processors or software to achieve the same result.

[@nygelmiller5293]

To Gavaccess. Thank you for replying! However, I will need you to explain what an Optimod Processor IS!

[@deeplyfloating]

Non stop laser waves: the American overdrive charged the beats with a unique panache... And yes - modern commercial radio is almost as bad as waffly radio 1. Go for Smash Hits online stream for "non-stop, feel-good pop"...and imagine the hissy longwave genome!

[@old65rocker]

You are probably right lonegroover, by the beebs ban it drew attention to the fact it was a controversial recording. Was it started by Mike Reid refusing to play it on his prog?

[@nygelmiller5293]

A fun setup, run by fun people. What a pity there have always been nasty people (officials) what try to spoil things.

[@rjjcms1]

Although I like Fleetwood Mac by and large and play Rumours and tracks from the Peter Green early era through to Tusk,etc.

[@old65rocker]

Was this station responsible for Relax being the great hit that it was, BBC banned Relax as I recall.

[@rjjcms1]

And not having a ratings-scared "safe" music policy was another big draw.

[@anon7299]

laser was a good station but caroline was better with optimod processing caroline was the true pirate.

[@nygelmiller5293]

Can someone please explain what options processing means!

[@nygelmiller5293]

Although, with its sensational paint job, Radio Northsea was so beautiful, actually Lazer's ship was perhaps even more beautiful. Just the sort of long and simple design that would be right for this sort of thing! Didn't really get to see if the studio could match R.N.I's , which was long, and had extensive continuous record racks all along the wall!

[@xtraspecial4677]

Nah laser was better , Caroline appealed to a different market