Radio Caroline with Emperor Rosko this Monday

[Condor7]

While I appreciate this will be lost on younger members of this forum, those of us of a certain age may well be interested.

Radio Caroline was a major influence on the UK broadcasting scene back in the 60's and has a long and rich history. They were the only pirate radio station to defy the Marine Offences act back in 1967. What surprises most people is that they have continued to broadcast more or less continually ever since. Following shipwreck in 1990 they became a legal land based station broadcasting via satellite for a while before becoming an internet only station in the mid 90's, but still maintaining their boat The Ross Revenge from which they would do temporary broadcasts as well.

Since then they have expanded and now broadcast on DAB in eight cities in the UK and have just been granted a medium wave licence for the Sussex and Essex area.

This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the Marine Offences act and the station is marking it with four days of special programming which will include a link up with Manx radio on the Isle of Man on 1638mw who will be relaying the full four days on their medium wave frequency which covers the Isle of Man and most of the North West of England.

One of the most interesting events, to those of us who remember, is the return to the station of The Emperor Rosko on Monday morning for a one off special show.

Full details can be found at www.radiocaroline.co.uk

 

[DaleCooper]

This looks suspiciously like advertising however I'll respond with:

I preferred Radio North Sea International.

 

[Blindtraveler]

As a radio enthusiast, all be it a few generations apart from the embrio waterborn service this is interesting and I shall enjoy it very much so thanks.

 

[Condor7]

This looks suspiciously like advertising however I'll respond with:

I preferred Radio North Sea International.

Yes a good station, and for me in my youth it was mainly Radio 270 or Radio Scarborough as it was also known. Radio Caroline was hard to pick up where I lived apart from a brief period of a few years when the signal was strong enough. So it was only during the 90's that I became aware that they were still broadcasting.

I would like to make it clear that I am a long standing member and contributor of this forum, next to railways I am also a radio fan, but I am in no way connected with the station, I was just using my knowledge of the modern history of the station to hopefully provide an interesting post, and would not have mentioned it apart from the fact I thought some on here would find the news of the special 4 days broadcast and Rosko's returning to the station to be of interest

 

[flymo]

When I was back in UK a couple of weeks ago, Tony Blackburn on Radio 2 mentioned something about the anniversary of Radio Caroline which, whilst being a bit before my time being born in '66, in my opinion did a lot to open up the radio airwaves to a whole new generation and deliver a different more diverse selection of music to a wider audience.

Long may it live. I still remember the old Radio One (when it was in English) was first 247m then 275 and 285m on the medium flavour. Now it is all KH/z and things. Yuck......

 

[AM9]

When I was back in UK a couple of weeks ago, Tony Blackburn on Radio 2 mentioned something about the anniversary of Radio Caroline which, whilst being a bit before my time being born in '66, in my opinion did a lot to open up the radio airwaves to a whole new generation and deliver a different more diverse selection of music to a wider audience.

Long may it live. I still remember the old Radio One (when it was in English) was first 247m then 275 and 285m on the medium flavour. Now it is all KH/z and things. Yuck......

I remember it starting up in early '64, but it was (Wonderful) Radio London later that year that really got the audience, and as BBC Radio 1's style was more like RL and took on more DJs from RL than any other it was probably the real driver for expansion beyond the Light Programme's very limited needle time.
Caroline carried on campaigning after the MBA came into force but I suspect that it was RL's popularity and the sore in the government's side that was Radio Nordsee International that eventually convinced both sides in the 1970 General Election to give in on Commercial Radio. I don't think that Ronan O'Rahilly's last minute intervention really changed much.
Neverthe less, all credit to Caroline for showing that commercial radio could work and (eventually) convincing the music industry that the future of broadcasting and their sales didn't include needle time.

 

[Ploughman]

I think Johnnie Walker is doing a show about His time with Caroline sometime this week.

I also used to have RNI on when I could pick it up over in Southport.
Was one of the DJs Daffy Donny Alan?

 

[Busaholic]

There's an interesting new book on the pirate radio stations written by Keith Skues, who was a senior DJ on Radio Caroline (by senior, he had other responsibilities too) with loads of photos, many of which have never appeared in print before. If anyone would like further details, I'll be happy to post them on here. I was fortunate enough to hear Caroline's first broadcast at Easter 1964 and even more fortunate to be in Somerset for its last broadcast before the Act came in in 1967, so was able to pick up and tape record the last half hour from the ship anchored off the Isle of Man.

 

[EM2]

A friend of mine who is a freelance studio engineer and producer is responsible for rigging up the studio for this link-up.

 

[PeterY]

I used to listen to radio Luxenburg. 208 medium wave if I remember rightly.

 

[DaleCooper]

I used to listen to radio Luxenburg. 208 medium wave if I remember rightly.

You do.

 

[Bevan Price]

For a while, they also ran a Radio Caroline North, with a boat based in the Irish Sea. "Daffy" Don Allen was the only "North" DJ I remember at the moment.

The Carolines and "Big L" Radio London were the best in my opinion, but quite a lot of others existed by 1966, sometimes with "troubles" between each other, which probably helped to provoke the "Marine Offences Bill / Law"

RNI (Radio Noordsee (North Sea) International, located off the Dutch coast suevived on Medium Wave for several years after the others had stopped, and at times played some pretty good rock music (English language was used in the evenings.)

 

[AM9]

For a while, they also ran a Radio Caroline North, with a boat based in the Irish Sea. "Daffy" Don Allen was the only "North" DJ I remember at the moment.

The Carolines and "Big L" Radio London were the best in my opinion, but quite a lot of others existed by 1966, sometimes with "troubles" between each other, which probably helped to provoke the "Marine Offences Bill / Law"

RNI (Radio Noordsee (North Sea) International, located off the Dutch coast suevived on Medium Wave for several years after the others had stopped, and at times played some pretty good rock music (English language was used in the evenings.)

Even RNI had a 'high seas incident' when another boat arrived and tried to board. They were broadcasting for help saying that the other boat was spraying the aerials with seawater.

 

[Ploughman]

The J Walker Doc is on R2 at 22.00