NEW RETRO REPAIR TV SHOW RESTORES STUDIO ON BOARD ROSS REVENGE

Studio equipment from our radio ship Ross Revenge was featured in an episode of a new TV show called Retro Electro Workshop on the Yesterday channel on Tuesday 25th July.

The ten-part series about the dying art of repairing electronics is fronted by super-fixer Rob Howard, one of the UK's last remaining full-time repair men of retro-electronic products. In the show he and his team find, fix, restore and revive ‘anything old with a plug on it’.

In this episode Rob goes to sea to restore the vintage broadcast studio on board Ross Revenge. The studio is equipped with a valve mixing desk, record decks and magnetic tape cart machines. The equipment was loaned to Working Title film company for the 2008 Richard Curtis film The Boat That Rocked, which pays homage to the 60s hey-day of Radio Caroline.

Radio Caroline has modern studios both on board Ross Revenge and on land, but the vintage ship studio still gets used occasionally during monthly Radio Caroline North broadcasts. "Presenters sometimes like to access the ship’s well-stocked vinyl library, keeping alive another rare art of placing pick-up arms precisely on vinyl albums while playing jingles and promotions on hand-loaded, continuous reel tape machines," said station manager Peter Moore.

Rob Howard runs the Vintage TV and Wireless Company in Norwich. When money was tight in the 80s he learned his skill by scavenging and fixing discarded electronic gear that he found in skips.

The episode featuring Radio Caroline is available on demand via UK TV Play.

Below: The vintage studio on board Ross Revenge