In the early years of my listening to shortwave free radio, Radio Orion was one of the regular broadcasters to whom a watch could be set. Those things that I had forgotten which are now more than a hazy memory but will still not come into sharp focus have at times dogged the production of this retrospective, but unless it was all a dream and we aren't really here, I am sure that West and North Kent Radio(WNKR) on 6275 kHz, Ozone Radio in their usual 6280 berth, and Radio Orion ensconced on 6290 kHz nailed down their respective frequencies but in a way that did not clash with each other, usually through scheduling the times they came on air to reflect the others' habits. That is at least how I remember it, but corrections are as ever welcome.
By the time I had entered the fray in 1990 Radio Orion had already been a shortwave fixture for four years. Initially set up in conjunction with Paul Johnson's UK Radio - a further blog post will in part be dedicated to the late 'Paul' - Orion set a precedent for being at the time the only free radio station to broadcast on a daily basis. None of your Sunday-only shenanigans here!
In effect fronted by one Mike Wilson, already known in the West Midlands for his involvement with FM projects, Orion did have several other presenters at their disposal but my initial and most memorable encounters with the station have Mr. Wilson's individual style seared into my mind. And for good reason.
To talk now of a UK-based Radio Orion on shortwave will leave many listeners relatively new to shortwave free radio, and even some of those who aren't, none the wiser or confusing it with an Orion Radio, a Dutch station that could also for a time be heard on channels frequented by hobby pirates. To even bring the name 'Mike Wilson' into a free radio-related conversation would leave many blank faces, but whilst Radio Orion was by 1990 firmly established on 6 MHz and at times elsewhere on shortwave, the man we then knew as Mike Wilson was only getting started on a broadcasting odyssey which would be the cause of controversy, bewilderment, but also veneration amongst free radio listeners; the latter emotion precipitated by both backhanded compliments and those of unabashed appreciation.
It is my understanding that Radio Orion continued under that identification for most if not all of the 1990's, but a less than subtle shift was emerging behind the microphone. Mike Wilson was never one for spinning back-to-back records or being backward at coming forward, but to me what was an obvious change in his personal circumstances precipitated an alteration in broadcasting alias to The Bogus Jobseeker. Now, from what the we can deduce from that sobriquet is that 'Bogus' was in receipt of what at the time in the UK was called Jobseeker's Allowance(JSA) - unemployment benefit by another name given window-dressing by the Tony Blair government.
To receive JSA applicants had to enter into a quasi-contract that paid a meagre 'benefit' in return for the jobseeker committing to applying for x amount of vacant positions per week or fortnight. There are the obvious arguments that such state handouts are not designed to be lived on, instead to be used as a stop-gap before reentering the world of work, but the paltry amount the allowance actually paid the unemployed in my view crossed the line to become a disincentive for many to seek work, rather than a well-aimed boot up the backside to 'get on one's bike'.
To coin oneself as a bogus jobseeker would suggest for all the outward appearances to the Job Centre suggesting the contrary, that there was little interest in finding work and therefore fulfilling the claimant's side of the JSA deal. It can also be argued that Mike Wilson morphing into the Bogus Jobseeker did not represent an actual change in style, insomuch to say that it became more arcane or even abstruse, but a shift from what would otherwise be classed as a bog-standard DJ handle to a controversial and potentially divisive nominal representation of the presenter's chosen lifestyle added a greater mystic and notoriety to already entertaining and often cerebral programmes.
Therein for me lied the rub. Many in society will give short shrift to those who outwardly flaunt a reluctance to work - especially if that is done at what people like to call at 'the taxpayers' expense'. By starkly refashioning himself as a bogus jobseeker Mike Wilson was left wide open to criticism - something he may have relished or underestimated, I cannot say. I think though much of any criticism aimed at 'Bogus' would in fact have been thinly-disguised backhanded compliments, that it seemed preposterous for someone of such intellect and perspicacity to in effect drop out of society.
In ordinary circumstances it would not be appropriate for me or anyone else to comment on the lifestyle and choices of someone we have never met, or even spoken to. We have never walked a mile in their shoes, or in any way have cognizance of what has precipitated their quiddity. This though is more than slightly undermined by naming oneself a bogus jobseeker, the antithesis of hiding one's light under a bushel and an incitement to criticism, whether ultimately deserved or otherwise.
It is perhaps with this is mind or no longer in receipt of JSA - from not being in possession of any of the facts I again cannot say with great certainty - that the previous on-air appellation was watered down simply to Bogusman, to maybe retain a link with the new generation of listeners who had locked on to what were post-Mike Wilson broadcasts. If anything programmes under the presenter's 'third-coming' have gathered apace, becoming more discursive but which continue to generate laugh out loud observational humour from what to most would be mundane, everyday occurrences and scenarios.
Where there might be ambiguity regarding the choice of moniker the quality of programming in both its musical and speech-based elements remains unequivocally constant. From references to the 'Grauniad', a deliberate misspelling of the centre-left UK daily The Guardian, to one-time neighbour Malcolm pottering around his garden, and a musical taste often procured from record shop(remember them?) bargain bins, the Bogusman manages to effortlessly segue from aphorisms to a pertinent music track via an anecdote whilst outwardly suggesting his modus operandi is without coordination or plan. There is undoubtedly an element of genius to the proceedings.
There is much more to be said about the early days of Radio Orion and its other presenters, including on the excellent Pirate Archive website. A timeline of how the station evolved, or simply changed identity would roughly run along the lines of Orion existing until the very early years of the new millennium, by which time Mike Wilson was known on the station as The Bogus Jobseeker(TBJ) and shared programme duties with The Ghoul. Prior to Paul Johnson's untimely death in 2003 TBJ was also heard on UK Radio, predominantly on 6266 kHz. Perhaps brought about by Paul's passing there was then a lull in broadcasts by TBJ before a re-emergence that saw him broadcast eponymously, insomuch that the eponymic name behind the microphone and that of the station were one and the same, something which continued on the retitling as Bogusman.
To be termed a cult figure, legend or similar is subjective, and relates to connecting a set of values and predilections that we as individuals have rather than an 'across the board' popularity, and to some extent through comparisons with those operating in the same field and being known for a level of notoriety that isn't necessarily condoned. There is little doubt that whilst not pursuing such epithets the man we know today as the Bogusman has achieved such status, and although an OFCOM raid in December 2018 put paid to conventional free radio broadcasting, the man himself can still be heard on occasion via the legal Channel 292 facilities, usually on 6070 kHz.
There is though some self-awareness of a take on life that's translated into the station's email address which begins as 'different radio'. Influencing the likes of Subterranean Sounds, Radio Armadillo, and the Xenon Transmitting Company(XTC) the 'difference' between anything Mike Wilson and his 'Bogus' idents have been appended to with what would otherwise be classed as conventional free radio, in other words the relatively formulaic approach pursued by many or most other operators despite 'free' radio theoretically opening up a world of alternatives, is stark but in my view not done for shock value, but as an accurate representation of a man who continues to organically bring humour, intelligence, and unpredictability to a now otherwise moribund genre not simply to play devil's advocate, but to be himself in the one realm of his life that allows him to do this. If free radio is only good for one thing, it is this.
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