Patrick Wall - Connection To Offshore and Citizens' Band (CB) Radio

Connection To Offshore and Citizens' Band (CB) Radio

Patrick Wall was one of a number of Tory MPs associated with Radio 270, an offshore radio station broadcasting off the Yorkshire coast in the 1960s. On 11 May 1967 the station gave Conservative candidates in local elections at Scarborough airtime which the candidates had paid for themselves, and on 14 May it broadcast a programme made by the York University branch of the Monday Club, in which Patrick Wall spoke on Rhodesia. Labour MP Andrew Faulds called (perhaps not entirely seriously) for the results of some municipal elections to be declared invalid because an "illegal broadcast" had been made, and Postmaster-General Edward Short stated that "It is the first time in peacetime that this country has been subjected to a stream of misleading propaganda from outside our territorial waters and I do not think this is a matter for joking". (ref. The Times, 12 and 15 May 1967)

Shortly before the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act became law later that year, Radio 270 carried a broadcast, also sponsored by the University of York Monday Club, attacking the government for closing down the pirate stations. Patrick Wall, Ronald Bell and John Biggs-Davison, all prominent members of the Monday Club, took part. John Biggs-Davison stated that he felt that many Labour supporters would also regret the Act, claiming that "concern for freedom is not confined to one party and a voice of freedom will have been silenced when Radio 270 goes off the air". Patrick Wall said that "I think it is monstrous that private enterprise radio stations are being closed, and even more monstrous that the Government are not setting up an adequate alternative to cater for the amusement that many people want to hear. Indeed, I have had more letters on this subject than on any other in the 13 years I have been MP for Haltemprice". (ref. The Times, 11 August 1967)

Eventually, the Tory party would bring about deregulation of the media (see Broadcasting Act 1990) such as was being called for, but paradoxically some Tory traditionalists would express a distaste for the aftereffects.

From 1976 until its success in 1981 Patrick Wall was also a strong supporter of the campaign for the legalisation of Citizens' Band Radio in the UK, and was one of the most influential members of the House of Commons ad hoc Committee on CB.