Hello Hans,
How are you? I just read your latest newsletter. In particular, my eye was caught by the interesting story about the attempt to build an offshore radio station for Suriname.
I have a related anecdote about another attempt to establish a free Radio station by the Suriname resistance, one that takes place a few years later, somewhere in the 2nd half of 1984, I don’t remember the exact date.
Since you’re an historian, I’d like to share that story with you, ‘for information and entertainment’, and perhaps to supplement (with some minor corrections to details) your the newsletter article, but it shows those Suriname broadcasting plans did not end after the earlier debacle, and how that story continued.
First some background on how I totally unexpectedly got involved:
VINTAGE TRANSMITTERS FOR LAND-BASED PIRATE RADIO
As you may or may not know, in those days (’81 – ’86), I was heavily involved with Radio Decibel in Amsterdam, one of the largest and most successful land-based FM pirates of that time.
Same as that other big pirate, Hofstad Radio in The Hague, we too exclusively used the powerful FM transmitters that were known as ‘Harry’s’: pirate nickname for the well-known rock-solid vintage (German) Rohde & Schwartz series of VHF aircraft beacons operating just above the FM band.
Many German transmitters built in the 50s and 60s, now obsolete in the 80s, were scrapped or sold in special dump stores for vintage equipment. They were popular by land-based pirates, who bought them in numbers.
These ‘Harry’s’ were then expertly converted by specialised engineers Ed Bakker and Cees Graafland (pseud. real name: Kreuger) into 1 kW FM transmitters – although usually only a few hundred watts were used effectively, so that Decibels’ neighbours on the Da Costakase could still watch TV…
But that was more than enough for a beautiful signal reaching over 40 km around Amsterdam thanks to the 32m high 4-dipole mast (pic) for anyone to see, high above the (live!) studio at the Da Costakade. Sometimes we also used the smaller 500 watt ‘Henriette’s’, a more compact, later model from Rohde & Schwarz that also worked fine.
I had met Ed Bakker in 1981 at ‘Hofstad Radio’ in The Hague, where I was DJ and Ed often come over from Amsterdam to install and maintain the ‘Harry’s’. (pic).
Through Ed I ended up at Radio Decibel in Amsterdam shortly after, a modern urban station that turned head and shoulders above the rest in terms of R&B/Urban music and ‘big city attitude’. Extremely popular with the youth in and around the capital, from Haarlem to Utrecht and everything between under and above. The 4 years that followed were my most fun years in radio. Legendary.
Incidentally, top-40 oriented fellow Amsterdam pirate ‘Radio Unique’ (we were well-connected, I even sometimes sat in as a DJ ) never used those big Harry’s – as was mentioned in the newsletter article. Unique mostly worked with well-hidden home-made transmitters and had their own team, even though we helped each other out after raids or when there were technical problems, but that’s irrelevant here.
FRITS HIRSCHLAND AND THE SURINAME CONNECTION
During my years working for Dutch record company Phonogram (1978 – 1981), I had worked closely with Frits Hirschland, manager of Kayak, Bolland en Bolland and Earth & Fire, well known Dutch pop bands for which I handled the promotion. But I had also known Frits as a friend from my hometown of Leiden, as I had been in the same class at school with his younger (and early deceased) brother, so that created a bond.
Frits was a well-known and striking figure in the music business, known for his striking stunts to draw attention to his acts. Nothing was too crazy for him. (like he once entered Phonogram’s prestigious office/studio in Hilversum galloping on a horse, just to get attention from management and press.) But around 1982, after the death of his parents, he went through a personal crisis and left the music business.
Frits broke off all contacts and seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth. But months later, he turned out to be based deep in the jungle of Suriname, in a rebel camp, acting as ‘advisor, strategist and right hand’ of ‘The Jungle Commando’, the resistance militia of Ronnie Brunswijk, a rebel former army leader who revolted against the military coup that had taken place in the young republic, the former Dutch colony of Suriname.
RESISTANCE AND JUNGLE – AN ATTRACTIVE OPPORTUNITY
A complete surprise to many, but Frits once confided to me how he always felt a strong urge to do something more meaningful with his life than operating in the superficial music business, which he often saw as one big game, acting accordingly.
Being of Jewish descent, his parents had been badly damaged by the war. Perhaps out of frustration about that war, together with a long time interest and fascination for jungles (that I knew he had), Frits saw an opportunity to commit himself to the resistance struggle he saw in Suriname, and which he linked to the fight against the Germans during the Dutch occupation. His opportunity to make a difference.
Super-intelligent, adventurer, brazen and afraid of nothing and nobody, he arranged arms transports for Brunswijk’s jungle commando with chartered Dakota airplanes from South America, provided publicity and maintained contacts with activists and financiers in the Netherlands and the Surinam government in exile.
As one of the very few who knew Frits really well, I could see and understand how this must have looked like an attractive opportunity to him, but also how he had managed to pull it off and take it this far…
All of the above just serves as background to my first-hand story of how I got involved in all this, and how I was not entirely surprised when I got that strange phone call…
REBEL RADIO – STRAIGHT OUT OF THE JUNGLE
One afternoon (somewhere mid 1984) I got a phone call from a certain Johnny Kamperveen, a Surinamese journalist, whose famous father was one of the 15 intellectuals, executed during the December murders.
Johnny said “he got my number from Frits Hirschland, who had said he should meet with me. In secret, it was about an important case and Frits had said that I could help him with something…” Curious and knowing Frits, I agreed and we met shortly after in an Amsterdam cafe.
During that meeting I was first thoroughly tested and questioned by Kamperveen: he wanted to know exactly who he was dealing with, whether I could be trusted, what I thought about the situation in Suriname and what my relationship was with Hirschland. He looked imposing, almost threatening and demanded absolute secrecy about what he was going to ask: “whether I could get him a powerful medium wave transmitter for Ronnie Brunswijk’s jungle commando…”
A transmitter needed to broadcast news and propaganda straight from Brunswijks’ Jungle Commando to the people of Suriname. Set up from a secret location in the jungle (actually in Guyana, just across the border with Suriname, which was also Brunswijk’s well-known escape route) A transmitter strong enough to be received in Paramaribo. (No radio ship or earlier attempts were ever mentioned, and I wasn’t aware of that earlier story either).
THE DECIBEL CONNECTION
The dots were not hard to connect: Frits Hirschland knew all about my involvement with Decibel Radio, had actually visited there occasionally and was always impressed by how we in Amsterdam worked openly with those powerful transmitters. As Brunswijk’s PR guy, it made sense that he had sent Kamperveen (an active member of the Suriname resistance) to me.
I told Kamperveen that I myself was only using, not trading transmitters, but that I could try and put him in touch with reliable contacts who could possibly help him find one.
I approached Decibel buddy, engineer Cees Graafland, who -with Ed Bakker- was one of the best transmitter engineers who frequently visited those dump stores in Groningen and Germany that sold transmitters. As expected, Cees soon found a MW transmitter, I think it had a price tag of 3000 guilders.
After I had informed Kamperveen, Cees and I were invited to a ‘super secret’ meeting in a large mysterious villa with a hidden driveway that could be reached from the Overtoom, but located out of sight from the busy street: ‘Villa Betty’, apparently owned by an eccentric real estate magnate.
MEETING CHIN A SEN
We parked in front of this impressive villa that almost looked like a castle, and were guided into its basement. There, to my great surprise (or rather, bewilderment) we found, besides Johnny Kamperveen, a whole committee of Suriname gentlemen dressed in suits and raincoats. One of them, apparently the leader, stepped towards me with his hand outstretched and introduced himself: ‘I’m Henk Chin A Sen…’
In a flash, I realized: wow, I just shook the hand of Surinam’s’ ex-president. He and the other gentlemen turned out to be all members of what they called ‘the Suriname government in exile’, that had fled to the Netherlands after the military coup by army leader Bouterse.
I had trouble keeping a straight face, being fully aware of the bizarre situation we were in: how Cees and I, two Amsterdam radio pirates, were secretly meeting with the entire former Suriname government, discussing transmitters for freedom fighters in the Suriname jungle…
And how probably, somewhere far away in that jungle, my old pal Frits Hirschland was rolling over the floor laughing at the mere thought of what he had sent my way.
Anyway, the transmitter was OK’d and bought, and after approval by the entire committee (apparently everyone had to agree) the meeting was mainly about who would install the thing.
Cees, the one who would sell the transmitter and the only technician in the room, ‘had to come to Surinam – of course. Was that included in the price? And otherwise: ‘a unique opportunity for an adventurous journey and to do something good for the still young republic…’
When the somewhat intimidating looking Johnny further insisted on this, Cees, who started looking pale, promised ‘that he would seriously think about it ‘ and ‘let them know, but that he couldn’t decide so quickly there on the spot’.
Furthermore, there was some discussion about how the transmitter should be transported, ‘but that was mainly something for Johnny and Frits’, I brought up quickly, after which Cees and I left, still with straight faces, but once in the car, laughing all the way to the Decibel studio for a strong cup of coffee.
RESISTANCE FALLING APART
During all these dealings, Kamperveen nor any of the others involved in this story ever mentioned offshore radio stations, ships, previous attempts or Steph Willemse. Also, Ed Bakker, who we saw regularly in those days, never mentioned it. And I never asked, not knowing anything about that either, until I read the story in the newsletter.
After reading, I called Ed Bakker (we are still in touch) to see what he remembered of that period. He confirmed the newsletter story about Stef Willemse, the Suriname radio ship and his involvement as being accurate, commemorating ‘that he had lost another 800 guilders because of dealing with them and also that Olthof wanted commission’ 😉
Cees never went to Suriname, the transmitter was shipped, but as far as I know, it never went into operation (at least not by Brunswijk). Most likely it ended up somewhere at a local station in Paramaribo.
Not long after our encounter with the Suriname resistance, the situation around the Jungle Commando quickly became unstable; Bouterse strengthened his power. Chin A Sens’ power decreased, while Brunswijk and Bouterse eventually teamed up again and got involved in drug trafficking.
Hirschland had left Suriname before all that happened and moved into an apartment in London, our contact faded. I spoke to him a few more times in Amsterdam, just before his death, but that was years after the Surinam adventure, about which he did not want to say much at the time.
Lion Keezer (2025)