Applying and explaining the 'YesterCode' ....

Clearly this recital is not attempting to create another standard textbook about broadcasting. Dr Gilder has created one, but this is not an addendum falling within its shadow. Neither is it a biographical account about the lives of three people with a shared interest in broadcasting and journalism.

Purposefully it has steered away from pop culture and academic formatting, although much of its foundational work has been previously published in various scholastic journals. This work is intended to relate a real-life account of lives lived, and events that really did occur and can be documented according to courtroom requirements to prove the validity of their foundational evidence.

This work does follow a timeline, and yet, within that timeline there is an interrelated thread of  chronology; geography and genealogy for the reader to position time; place and people with other contemporary events. The 'Trio' have a name for their textual structuring. They call it the 'YesterCode'. Dr. Gilder explained its basis in an academic paper, and then it was expanded so that it could be applied to this present work with a working practicality.

The 'YesterCode' is based upon the abbreviation 'E+O3X' with the letter 'E' differentiating it from its medical 'step-parent'. The letter 'E' represents the word 'Event', or the subject under consideration. It is the guiding or limiting factor concerning the application of 'O3X' in this book. It keeps the storyline focused and prevents it from straying off course. Without constant reference to an 'Event' it would be difficult to tell this story about that involves the lives of three people, without meandering off course.

The central 'Event' in this book relates to broadcasting, so while there may be many references to journalism and other media topics, this particular rendering of this storyline will constantly pull-back to that one central theme which is further defined by use of the word 'offshore' and the name 'Caroline'.

When used in clinical medicine it is usually written as OX3, and explained as being three times 'O', or orientation three times, or even orientation times three, but its use as the foundation of the YesterCode is unique, and it does not have a medical connection. Therefore the actual Code in use by the 'Trio' has been written in a way to avoid confusion, while retaining a similar sort of meaning.

The medical profession has used the abbreviation 'OX3', with the 'O' representing the word orientation. Its usage can be explained as "orientation times three". Mathematically that can just as logically written as '03X', but in practical terms it often represents the following sequence of questions: "Do you know what time it is?"  This is the time or chronology factor. In sequence of the 'YesterCode', that could be followed by: "Do you know where you are?" This is the location or  place or geography factor. Next question in sequence would be: "Do you know your name?" This is the human identity or person or genealogy factor. Doctors often ask someone who seems to be disoriented or who has been in a coma, three similar basic questions relating to orientation.

To that part of the YesterCode explanation the self-limiting factor governing its use and the application of those questions is always the 'Event'. It is the telling of a series of 'Events' that is the really the foundation of the storyline of this book, more so than 'The Trio' who are the merely the individuals around whom 'Events' occur.

Having the use of this 'YesterCode' helps the 'Trio' to explain a very complex story by employing court room standards that require the application of foundational evidence, and the avoidance of hearsay comments that have no foundation in fact or reality. The reason why the thread of this story seems to meander is because it is being recorded not as a textbook, but as a biographical account as documented by the lives of three individual human beings and how the subject matter relates to them, and not the other way around.

This is a personal story told in hindsight through the lens of those three individuals, and because each person is unrelated by birth, background or geography, there has to be a point in time that brings all three together, and why, over decades, these three individuals have formed a bond that keeps them together in such a way that they can be referred to as a Trio.

However, it would be difficult for three people to write this story from a single perspective, and so a fourth person who is not one of the 'Trio', has assisted with the coordination of the main storyline. That person has been assigned the name of 'Caroline Brooks'.

While 'Caroline Brooks' is primarily one individual, 'Caroline Brooks' also covers the descriptive work of more than one person who has performed editorial work on this story. Consequently, while the input by 'Caroline Brooks' primarily represents the work of one individual, there is more than one individual performing the work of 'Caroline Brooks'.

By way of comparative analogy, the word 'Trio' is used throughout this work both as a name and as a description referring to the combined work of three individual human beings, both as a group, and also in their own individual capacity. 

So how did Caroline Brooks get into this story?

Well the short answer is that she didn't.

I didn't.

Writing elsewhere as Caroline Brooks back in 2020, I explained that when everything shut down due to the pandemic, I went off to mind an equally silent antiques business in Canton, Texas that was owned by my uncle. I explained that: "I stopped off at his house in Scotland, yes there is such a place and it even has its own Post Office."

Check it out!

Continuing:"My uncle Tom Haler gave me the keys and a pile of books and a couple of movies to watch and pass the time."

I will skip over my book review of Raymond Chandler's 'The Big Sleep' because it has nothing to do with this editing job. I did explain that "my uncle is also a private investigator who had fun dressing up as Bogart when he came down to open up his large antiques showroom." Then I said wrote that "he loaded me up with a bunch of books about the 1960s and pirate radio ships ...." and that it "gave me the idea of writing a book about all this to pass away the time."

Typical of the kind of person mentioned earlier who does not read, study, or comment upon factual information, someone has resurrected my earlier comments prior to the serialization of this book, and tried to focus upon my claim that I would write a book "to pass away the time."

Well more information has come to light as part of this research project and I have received a new assignment which I have already explained. So the book "I" am working on now is this book, and if you are confused as to my part, just read the earlier explanation again.

It has already been explained the person who is primarily identified as 'Caroline Brooks' is a real person who is also attached to one of the 'Trio'. This may raise the question by those who are not dealing with the facts now being uncovered, as to whether I have an uncle who is a private investigator whose home is near Scotland, Texas, and whether he has or had an antiques wholesaling import busines in Canton, Texas?

But if I stray away from my delegated job of helping to produce this biographical account of the 'Trio', well, maybe the primary 'Caroline Brooks' won't be primary for much longer because 'E+O3X' is not applicable to the narrative. The narrative and its narrator are merely the means to deliver the message about 'The Trio' and their relationship to the title of this work to which the 'YesterCode' has been applied.

This is not a dry biographical story about three people who relate to  one aspect of broadcasting development in the United Kingdom that is based upon a foundation of proven facts already known and accepted. This is a story of intrigue that has to begin by debunking that known and accepted foundation, because that known and accepted foundation is totally untrue. Before explaining what is true in relation to the story of these three individuals who embarked upon an unplanned investigation stretching over decades into the true origins of 'Radio Caroline', it is necessary to debunk the mythology already in place within the minds of millions.

This process is best explained by two comedy albums.

One album was released in 1974 by a surrealistic troupe known as 'Firesign Theatre'. It has the apropos title 'Everything you know is wrong', which certainly describes the foundational information in wide circulation about the subject of 'Radio Caroline' and its beginnings. The other album was recorded in 1979 by comedian Steve Martin. It contains a very brief skit which lasts less than three minutes in total, but with the real punch line being contained in less than half that time.

In three steps, Steve Martin told each member of his audience that they could be a millionaire and never pay taxes. The first step involves getting a million dollars. Upon that first step he never elaborates. It is a statement. A directive to get a million dollars. The second and third steps involve detailed explanations about dealing with the non-payment of taxes on a million dollars.

When Steve Martin's comedy routine is applied to 'Radio Caroline' in 1964, Ronan O'Rahilly is substituted for Steve Martin.

Ronan O'Rahilly has told his listeners over and over again that he came to London, England in 1961 as a school drop-out from Ireland with £100 in his pocket, which in some accounts he borrowed from a bank.

His story about 'Radio Caroline' then takes off two years later which is after he has bought a ship; been to the USA and bought two transmitters; outfitted a radio studio on board that ship with new equipment also bought in the USA; hired a ship's crew; hired disc jockeys, and provided for the means to supply them, and a whole lot more.

Then Ronan O'Rahilly relates how he was inspired to do all of this by wanting to make a record for Georgie Fame and get it played on a radio station. However, Georgie Fame had already recorded an LP for EMI who had already released it on the market, months before 'Radio Caroline' ever made a test broadcast.

Yet the media, including the British Broadcasting Corporation, have accepted the tales spun by Ronan O'Rahilly as fact. It is as if Steve Martin's command to get a million dollars is a matter of being told to get a million dollars and that getting a million dollars is not a problem. What is a problem is dealing with the tax liability of having a million dollars. That is a real cause for concern.

Such is the accepted rendition of the 'Ronan O'Rahilly Story' as told by the BBC and mainstream media. Wikipedia is even worse. Its account is totally ridiculous, and it would be hilarious except that this same version of 'Everything you know is wrong', is now taught as fact at university level!

Now you know all I can tell you, unless the storyline of the 'Trio' begins to intrude into the storyline that I was alluding to back in April 2020. If it does, then I may tell you more!

Now back to this story.