DJ – Mike Baker “Captain Blue” “James Rackocy” ” Terry Martin” “Bernard Antony”
Years of involvement : 1968-1972 |
| Home Location: Brentwood, Essex |
| Types of involvement: DJ & high quality master jingles
Alias: Captain Blue, James Rackocy, Terry Martin, Bernard Antony, Denny Tewson (Radio Kaleidoscope II) The last soundtrack was produced by Pat Edison 1976 .. |
| Comment / History:- |
| Mike’s very first radio DJ broadcasts were made from Radio Kaleidoscope in 1968, he was an instant hit becoming Radio Kaleidoscopes top DJ, his lively shows and masterful jingles certainly maintained the audience’s attention. The first pre-recorded taped shows he sent to Radio Kaleidoscope in 1968 were so good compared to our own efforts that they went straight to air..Twice!
Digital audio techniques did not exist in the late 1960’s, a DJ or his sound engineer would have to hand edit 1000’s of feet of analogue magnetic tapes by cutting and splicing many small sections of tape together prior to mixing. A professional 1 hour tape could take as long as a day to prepare, Mike meticulously hand edited and mixed all of his own shows/tapes, they were absolutely brilliant, vibrant, full of life and instantly raised the stations broadcasting standards. Soon most of the Radio Kaleidoscope jingles were being produced by Mike. Mike was constantly in touch with Radio Kaleidoscope via GPO Land-Line telephone, letters and personal meetings, as neither the Internet nor mobile phones existed in those early days a lot of our regular communications were conducted on the Radio Amateur bands typically 160-Meter Top Band, providing technical reports and contacts with other radio communities. Mike’s own official radio Amateur call-sign was G3UQL. Radio Kaleidoscope owned a few transmitters, Mike would occasional borrow one of the these units to support Radio Kaleidoscope activities from the Brentwood areas. He was definitely hooked..! During his time on Radio Kaleidoscope Mike used a variety of alias DJ names that always received many telephone requests and lots of fan mail letters. Bernard Antony – Captain Blue – James Rakocy – Terry Martin You can still hear some of Mike’s early broadcasts and jingle sets in the Audio section of this website After Radio Kaleidoscope Mike later went on to many other professional radio projects including: Amatuer Radio Morse Code (CW) Broadcast Tapes Beacon 303 Radio Capital Radio Chiltern Radio Classic Gold Eurostar Heart FM Hospital Radio (Shenfield) Lantern FM More than 40 PANs Radio Kaleidoscope I Saga 105.7 FM Smooth Radio 105.7 Supergold 100.7 UBN WABC Wolverhampton Radio Sadly Mike is no longer with us having passed away on 23Dec13. A member of the Radio Kaleidoscope team attended Mikes funeral at Warley, his superb efforts and radio professionalism will be missed by all of us .. Thank you Mike… RIP
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1923937 http://radiotoday.co.uk/2013/12/midlands-radio-presenter-mike-baker-dies/ http://www.beacon-radio-memories.co.uk/DJ_mike_baker.htm
 Mike Baker age 21yrs – FRA meeting room Rayleigh (Courtesy Lynn Strang)  Mike Baker RHS wearing his infamous DJ coat, note the bootlace tie, we all used to wear these trendy ties back then LoL – The person on the LHS we think is Peter (sound engineer) from the then Shenfield Radio Hospital Studio’s – Source WikiTree – 1968
 Letter to Steve T from Mike Baker whilst using the DJ name James Rakocy (1971)  Letter from Mike Baker, security concerns that the Radio Kaleidoscope Master Jingles should be kept in-house – In return Mike was provided prime time on-air slots – 1969  Mike Baker taped shows delivered to Radio Kaleidoscope – 1969  Mike Baker Xmas 1969 broadcast preparations  Mike Baker Xmas 1969 broadcast preparations – Part2
Listen and see Mike Baker Baker on Beacon Radio – 1976 plus other clips below http://andywalmsley.blogspot.com/2011/11/down-your-local-beacon-radio.html?m=1 https://soundcloud.com/transdiffusion/beacon-radio-303-launch-12-april-1976 https://soundcloud.com/andywcr/mike-baker-talks-beacon-radio https://audioboo.fm/boos/706677-beacon-303-launch-medley https://audioboo.fm/boos/1815710-mike-baker-tribute
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Mike Baker Morse Tapes & Pirate Radio During Mikes early years Mike also produced slow morse practice tapes interspersed with pirate radio jungles and stories for Radio enthusiasts. The extracts below are from a tape Mike supplied to Brian G3VMP 16-Aug-1968 (Courtesy Chris & Brian) |
| The next part of the tape refers to:—
– The GPO Radio Tracking Services. – GPO green tracking vans – Mr Stanley Smith, GPO engineer – The word “Crunch”, this was a term used in 1968 when a Pirate Radio station had been detected and closed down by the GPO |
| CW Test
Test your own skills with the Mike Baker slow morse tape 12-wpm (CW) including read-backs, all of the recovered text is Pirate Radio related.
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