Pirate Radio Part 4

Part 1 : The birth of Radio 1 and Radio 2

Part 2 : Needle Time

Part 3 : Radio Caroline

Part 5 : A sad, sad end

As I said last week, Radio Caroline began broadcasting on 29 March 1964 and news of its arrival on the airwaves travelled fast. In a very short space of time a sizeable audience had assembled all of whom were enjoying the chance to listen to the music they wanted.

In radio broadcasting there is a direct link between the size of the audience and the amount of advertising revenue and so the future looked rosy for Radio Caroline. However, Ronan O’Rahilly, the station’s founder, was not the only person to realise the revenue potential and away in America a ship was being fitted with a radio transmitter at the request of Australian music publisher Alan Crawford.

Radio Atlanta
Although competing for the same audience, the two founders, Crawford and O’Rahilly knew of each others plans and were both united in their efforts to bring a pop music radio service to the British Isles.

Located in a similar area of sea, on 9th May 1964, Radio Atlanta, as the new station was known, began test transmissions using the same frequency that Radio Caroline used but after Caroline had closed down for the evening.

Signal strength was good and a few days later broadcasting proper began on a frequency of 201 meters, very close to the frequency Caroline used.

Radios in those days did not have digital frequency readouts but very inaccurate dials and it was only possible to tune approximately to a frequency. Many people set the dial to around 200 metres and accepted whatever station they found there and, in this way, an audience, myself included, became regular listeners to either of the stations.

Opposition
The record companies were afraid that if people could listen to records on the radio then they would not buy the records in the shops thus affecting the record companies profits.

For that reason, as I have said, the number of times a record could be played by the BBC was limited but now they faced the prospect of their records being played time and again in a way that was outside their control. Frightened, they begged the government to take action.

The government was on the side of the record companies but found themselves rather at at loss to know what to do. The ships were not British ships and neither were they in British waters so clearly British law did not apply.

Some threatening noises were made and some small steps taken but it seemed that little could be done and so the government hesitated.

Thus things were looking good for the pirates; there were now two music stations, both on boats in the North Sea and broadcasting music throughout the whole of the day. However, once again, on the horizon another venture was in preparation and about to come fruition.

This venture, and not involving a boat this time, was to put the whole future of pirate radio in jeopardy and directly lead to the passing of legislation that would put an end pirate radio once and for all.

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.