Knapp, Errol Bruce

Knapp, Errol Bruce – 27th October 1942 – 11th August 2016

Errol Bruce Knapp (EBK) had a lifelong interest in radio, acting as a DJ on one of England’s infamous offshore “Pirate” radio stations. He became interested in UFOs and launched the long-running UFOUpDatesList.Com email list. See also the current UFO UpDates Facebook Group.

ABOVE: Errol “Bosscat” Bruce on Swinging Radio England in 1966. Photo by Peter Ward kindly provided by Jonathan Shirley.

“Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O’Rahilly and Allan Crawford, initially to circumvent the record companies’ control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC‘s radio broadcasting monopoly.[1] Unlicensed by any government for most of its early life, it was a pirate radio station that never became illegal as such due to operating outside any national jurisdiction, although after the Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 it became illegal for a British subject to associate with it.

The Radio Caroline name was used to broadcast from international waters, using five different ships with three different owners, from 1964 to 1990, and via satellite from 1998 to 2013.”  WIKIPEDIA

 

“As a child Errol was fascinated with audio, playing around with tape recorders, and got his first experience of broadcasting at a young age. The army base where he grew up had a forces radio station. The Station Manager wanted to launch a weekly kids’ request show and thought a youngster should present it. Errol became the regular host. He was educated at the British Army Apprentice School in Harrogate where he was a drum major and later joined the Royal Signal Corps. While in the army he continued to work in forces broadcasting, as well as forming a skiffle group.
 
Discharged in 1963, Errol moved to London where he worked for the Automobile Association. One day in 1964 he was listening to Radio Caroline when he heard Simon Dee advertising a vacancy for a DJ. That night Errol put a demo together on his home tape recorder but, rather than posting it, decided to drop it into Caroline House himself. The next morning he went round to Chesterfield Gardens. He was invited to come in while someone listened to his tape. As he was sitting in the office, the telephone rang. There was an emergency out on the ship. The only person who knew how to operate the studio panel was being rushed ashore with suspected appendicitis. (Could it be the incident mentioned in this article?) Caroline South desperately needed a replacement panel operator. Errol was asked if he knew how to run a Gates desk. He lied and said he did and, before he knew it, he was on his way to the mv Mi Amigo. In this interview he says he was taken out to the ship by helicopter. If that was the case, it truly was an emergency. The Caroline staff were normally transported by boat.

Errol Bruce Knapp – Pirate Radio – The Real Story (Playlist) Spectrum by Spectrum Radio Network

“Errol Bruce Knapp was interviewed by Tom weeks before our 1st show began, so I guess you could say this was Spectrum’s 1st show. Errol spoke about his early days as a Radio DJ from doing a kids show to working on Radio Caroline on a ship pumping out outlawed tunes to 28 million listeners. From what Errol says the movie of about Pirate Radio got only 2 things right, they played music and it was on a ship. The real story was much more interesting. Errol went on later to do his own radio show on UFOs. It was a fascinating look into the early days of Radio to what it has become today.”