Pirate BBC Essex to return to the air this Easter

Back by popular demand, the award-winning Pirate BBC Essex returns to the air this Easter (10-13 April, 2009) for a four-day broadcast. The BBC Essex team will be on board the LV18 which will be moored in Harwich. Legendary DJs Tony Blackburn and Johnnie Walker are just two of the original sixties offshore presenters who will be teaming up with the BBC Essex hosts to celebrate the unique sound of pirate radio.

“In 2007 we told listeners it could be the last time for Pirate BBC Essex,” said BBC Essex Managing Editor Gerald Main. “Ever since, fans from Essex and across the world have been asking us to do it one more time. We’ve been swayed by their wishes and their ship is literally coming in.”

In 2007 and in the first broadcast in 2004, Pirate BBC Essex came from the LV18 half a mile off the Essex coast. This year, the vessel will be moored alongside the Harwich Ha’penny Pier. The vessel’s bridge will be converted into a radio studio from where Pirate BBC Essex will broadcast on 729, 765 and 1530 kHz mediumwave and on bbc.co.uk/essex from 7am (0600 UTC) on 10 April.

“Thousands of sixties pirate radio fans will be able to get within a few feet of the fun and action,” said Pirate BBC Essex creator Steve Scruton. The vessel that hosts the four-day broadcast is a star in its own right as it is featured in the new film The Boat That Rocked, written and directed by Richard Curtis and starring Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans and Kenneth Branagh.
(Source: BBC Norwich Press Office/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)