Hi I'm Johnny Lewis, (Some
people might also remember me as Steven Bishop, or Johnny Moss) living
in Sandwich Kent now. My radio career started in 1977 when I got involved
in boat trips to the then Radio Caroline ship Mi Amigo, which was anchored,
off the Essex coast. I was a Broadcaster and engineer on the ship till
it sank in March 1980. Shortly after that I went to Israel to work on
the Voice of Peace, a radio station broadcasting to the Middle East from
a ship moored off Tel Aviv. From early 1981 till Mid 1984 I worked on
the likes of Sunshine Radio, Radio Nova, South Coast Radio and ABC Radio
in Eire, I'll tell you more about them at a later date on this site. In
1984 it was back to the North Sea once again to help on The Communicator,
which became home to Laser 558, then it was back to Radio
Caroline. In 1987 I thought it was time to come ashore and work on
ILR firstly at Radio Wyvern in Hereford and Worcester and then to Kent
and Invicta Radio. Since 1998 i've been working for TLR/kmfm in East Kent. I can also still be heard on Radio Caroline on Wednesdays from 2 till 5pm.
The
Mi Amigo in Late 1978 had big problems with her generators and in October
went off air, and was off till Easter 1979. In the time the Ship was off
air it was abandoned once and nearly sank on more than 1 occasion in the
bad storms of the winter of 78/79.
Radio
Caroline had a very good year in 1979 and survived some very bad storms
in the winter of 1979 and early 1980. Finally in a Bad North Easterly
Storm 10 in Late March 1980 The Mi Amigos Anchor chain parted, the ship
drifted onto a sand bank off the Essex coast and Sank. The sheerness lifeboat
rescued all the crew and Wilson the budgie.
The
mast on The Mi Amigo stayed up until the late summer of 1985. In fact
going out to the New Radio Caroline ship Ross Revenge we used to go past
the mast. Gave you a strange feeling.