Joe Duggan (Reporter)
THE Boat Radio crew have celebrated half a million downloads by broadcasting live from a classic fishing boat in Soller.
The floating studio for Boat Radio LIVE was the Bonnie Lass, a Scottish-built vessel from 1949, which travelled around Port de Soller for the six-hour special.
Former BBC radio presenter and producer Mike McDowall set up Boat Radio, broadcast online but via 105.4 fm in Mallorca for the six-hour special, after moving to Soller in 2015.
It has gone from strength to strength, with its podcasts now downloaded 10,000 times a day.
“For 20 years, I’ve wanted to be Ray from Reef Radio – the guy in the 90s Bacardi ads,” Mike told the Olive Press.
“He did a great, laid back radio show on an island somewhere. He was surrounded by colourful characters with fascinating lives. Well – now that’s me!”
Boat Radio is the first radio station aimed at boating owners and enthusiasts from across the globe.
Among its most popular shows, which are recorded around the world, are Matt Rutherford’s weekly broadcast from the Arctic, where he conducts research for NASA, and John Herlig’s fortnightly Postcards From Sea.
Regular Boat Radio interviewee Howard Rice is also conducting a series of voyages in a tiny sailboat called Southern Cross.
During one journey round a stormy Cape Horn, the captain of the only boat he saw came alongside and said, ‘Are you Howard Rice?’ I heard you on Boat Radio.’
After being thrown overboard and surviving four days in the Pacific, Rice was finally washed ashore in a remote part of Chile, where be bumped into Gabriel Coll Guasp – the harbourmaster from Port de Soller.
