Samantha Dubois

Samantha Dubois (real name Ellen Kraal, born in Holland) was a radio presenter on Radio Caroline during the 1970's and again in 1984.

She was born in Holland but learned to speak English from time spent growing up in New Zealand, this gave her a unique and instantly recognisable accent. She joined Radio Caroline originally as the girlfriend of Peter Chicago, and at first she helped out with the cooking on the radio ship Mi Amigo

She was first heard on the air in March 1973, calling herself 'Ellen', her real name. In 1974, she began working as a regular broadcaster on mainly late night/early morning shows, using the name 'Samantha Dubois', although later she just called herself 'Samantha'. Her countless intervals on board dated from 6th March to 10th May 1974, from 16th December 1975 to September 1976, a short period during the month of March 1977, and finally from 21st September to 17th October 1978. According to tabulations from the late Buster Pearson of Monitor magazine, she was on the air for a total of 792 hours.

On the 12th January 1977, she was fined by a Dutch court for her involvement with the station. Despite this, she returned to Radio Caroline in the March of that year. [[1]]

After she left Radio Caroline in October 1978, she got married and moved to New Zealand. She did, however, return to the station in 1984, from the 14th September to the 10th November, during which she added another 147 hours 'live on the air' from the radio ship Ross Revenge

After leaving Radio Caroline for the last time, she returned to New Zealand, where she sadly died on the 2nd October 1992.

Samantha Dubois began broadcasting on Radio Caroline at a time when there were still very few female broadcasters, and there is no doubt that she laid the groundwork for others to follow, such as Caroline Martin, who presented on Radio Caroline in the 1980's. She remains much admired by her former colleagues and more importantly her listeners. Due to the late night/early morning nature of many of her programmes, the number of recordings of her broadcasts are limited. However, recordings have begun to emerge in the last few years. A CD entitled 'The Late Samantha Dubois' is now available from offshore radio websites.

References

[[2]] Samantha Dubois charged by Dutch court with working on radio Caroline in January 1977