Dave Foster

Radio Caroline Tribute

Sadly our great friend and Caroline stalwart Dave Foster died on Sunday 25th August 2024.

Dave joined Radio Caroline in April 1987 aboard the Ross Revenge and made an immediate impression with both his colleagues and listeners. His positive, can-do attitude to all things made him extremely popular and his infectious laugh could be heard throughout the ship.

Chris Pearson remembers that Fozzie’ often spoke about one of his first memories of life onboard when as the nervous new boy, he was sat eating with the crew in the Messroom, when the booming voice of Peter Chicago rang down the table with a request for “the new boy to pass the tabasco please”. This is now part of most mealtimes to this day when we’re live on the ship!

Kevin Turner was a colleague on that first trip to the ship and recalls, “Dave joined us in April 1987 and as the new boy inherited the prestigious 1-5am slot!

“One of his tasks was to wake me to do the breakfast show, which meant bringing me a cuppa in my cabin at 4.30am. If he hadn't seen me by about 4.45 he would wake me again.

“On a bad day, of which I'm ashamed to say there might have been a few, his final task would be to slam open the cabin door with the words "it's 5 o'clock and your first one's on. I'm off to bed".

Dave also volunteered in his first few days to be the one to sit and broadcast the religious programmes from the Ross, a thankless, but vital task as it was a good source of income for the station. It involved sitting at the back of the ship broadcasting hours of pre-recorded shows from the Overdrive studio which was prone to bouncing around in the rough seas. Having volunteered once, Dave became the go to man for the religious shows as he wasn’t exactly swamped with offers to take over from him!

It’s a measure of him and his absolute dedication to Caroline that he did it all without a complaint.

 Dave’s next involvement with Caroline came when the station left the North Sea and started broadcasting from the Maidstone studios via satellite in 1999. As part of a small but very dedicated team, Dave helped keep the Caroline dream alive when many assumed the station would simply fade into the ether.

Dave at the Netley Victoria Club, Southampton 2006

Rob Ashard was a Caroline colleague from the time who recalls, “A consistent best friend for 25 years. I’d known Vince (as I know him) from around 87 when I first visited Dart Radio (hospital Radio in Dartford where I also met Chris Pearson). But we really became good mates from my joining Caroline 25 years ago at Maidstone Studios. We even tried for an RSL (restricted service licence broadcast) called ROCKiT FM in Gravesend, but it never got off the ground. We went to Holland for the start of the Dutch Radio Caroline. Just lots of fun stuff along the way. Lots of techy stuff In Maidstone and on the ship. He was a huge personality with an absolute heart of gold. I will miss him hugely.

Dave remained part of the Caroline family and was at the forefront when we started our Caroline North broadcasts from the Ross Revenge with Manx Radio in September 2015. A small team of DJ’s ventured out to the Ross Revenge in the Blackwater Estuary in Essex to recreate the heady days of Radio Caroline North with the shows being broadcast by both Radio Caroline and Manx Radio’s 1368am service.

One of his colleagues from those early days and up until recently, is Johnny Lewis who says, “Dave said to me as we got onboard that first time in 2015, “we can get you back into your old cabin if you like”. I said "great lad".

"Dave then spent time clearing Christmas decorations from the top bunk so that I could sleep in my original space. When it came to climbing in though, it wasn’t as easy as it used to be and Dave had to help by pushing me up. “Not sure this is such a good idea after all mate”, he said and I replied, "not unless you’re there every time I need to get up in the night.”

Nick Jackson met Dave for the first time in Tilbury during a special broadcast weekend from the Ross Revenge. “Although we never served at sea together, in the world of Caroline you somehow just knew everyone already.

“We became friends instantly. After that first meeting on the Ross we would catch up in London where we both worked at the time. In his role as control room engineer he gave me a tour of the BBC World Service at Bush House. I returned the favour by showing him Absolute Radio where, to his great amusement, despite wearing a BBC fleece and BBC security pass, he proudly signed in as Dave Foster from Radio Caroline! ‘Fozzie’ stories could fill a book, I’m sure many of these will be told in the weeks ahead.

“What an amazing guy he was. It won’t be the same on the ship without hearing his voice echoing around the corridors. This one’s going to hurt for a long time to come. Dave, you will never be forgotten.”

For the past few years, Dave’s involvement with the Caroline North broadcasts went way beyond doing the shows onboard.

He was responsible for putting the team of DJs together, sorting logistics and timings to get everyone there and safely off again. He also bought all the food to take aboard and, along with Andrew Austin & others, cooking in the ship’s galley… including the now infamous Fozzie “gut-buster breakfasts”. He was also the one (along with Johnny Lewis, Rob Ashard & others), who would take care of getting the station on-air.

Dave was also no stranger to the odd slip of the tongue on-air especially when it came to reading listener names and locations from e-mails!

Dave was born in Dartford and started his broadcasting career with Dart Radio, a local hospital radio station in the town. It was there that he first met and worked with Chris Pearson who says, “Dave was one of those people who could turn two tin cans, a piece of wet string and an old battery into a fully-functioning outside broadcast radio station. "Doing so would involve a few choice words being yelled out by him as he got the bits to fit together, a trait which continued on the Ross Revenge over the past few years as well. I have to say though that Dave’s idea of “I’ve made you a smaller breakfast as requested” and mine, differ somewhat!.

” Dave has been such a huge part of the Caroline family for so long that, at the moment, it’s hard for us to imagine the station and the ship without his enthusiasm and that laugh ringing around the Ross Revenge. The show will go on and Dave Foster will never be forgotten. A fitting Beatles lyric to our great friend to finish…,

Though I know I'll never lose affection

For people and things that went before

I know I'll often stop and think about them

In my life, I love you more