Pirate Radio Part 3 Radio Caroline

Part 1 : The birth of Radio 1 and Radio 2

Part 2 : Needle Time

Part 4 : Caroline has competition

Part 5: A sad, sad end

Britain had it’s first pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, in 1964 but the rules of the game had already been set as long ago as the late 1950s in Denmark.

Radio Mercur broadcast from a position between Denmark and Sweden and had begun operations in 1958. However, programs were not produced on the boat but tapes were recorded in a studio in Copenhagen and then taken to the boat to be replayed. It was at that time that the term ‘Pirate Radio’ was probably coined by the Danish press.

Some four years later, in 1962, the Danish and Swedish parliaments passed laws effectively prohibiting anyone from aiding such a venture and the boat was seized by the authorities and broadcasting ended.

This sounds a little harsh but the Danish government did create a radio station under the control of its own broadcasters that had similar programming aimed at young people and their music and they also employed some of the people from Radio Mercur.

After this station there were other attempts to create pirate radio on the continent and these attempts were watched in the UK with some interest.

Radio Caroline
I have already explained how little music was currently being played in Britain by the BBC against the number of potential listeners. A lot of people thought that a floating music station broadcasting from outside the country limits could prove very popular and thus be financially successful.

An Irish man, Ronan O’Rahilly decided to create the first floating station targeted at the UK and anchored a boat off the coast of East Anglia in international waters. The vessel used was renamed ‘Caroline’ after the young daughter of John F Kennedy and began broadcasting on Easter Sunday, 29 March 1964.

The wavelength advertised was 199 metres, chosen because it rhymed with ‘Caroline’, although in reality the station was just a little below that. It ran two 10KW transmitters and broadcast as “Your all-day music station” closing down at 6 pm so as not to interfere with popular (and legal) Radio Luxembourg.

This latter station, broadcasting legally from Europe, had been playing pop music for some years although reception in the UK was poor until the evenings and even then was subject to severe fading. Caroline did, however, extend its broadcasting times later.

It was like a breath of fresh air for the UK listeners and, in a very short space of time, the hopes of Ronan O’Rahilly were realised and the station had an audience of several million listeners. One of whom, I have to say, was me!

Although Radio Caroline was the first pirate radio station, Ronan O’Rahilly was not the only person to have the idea of a floating mobile radio station and competition was, almost literally, floating up on the horizon!

Photo Mr Thinktank

The Boat That Rocked – the film based on Pirate Radio in the 1960s is also worth watching. If you haven’t got it check out the link below (and if you’re still not sure read the reviews at the bottom of the page!)

The Boat That Rocked [DVD] [2009]

There are also various books on pirate radio available and I have included a special large Amazon UK advert below to highlight some of them so please take a look.