One of radio’s most iconic stations is next year hoping to return to its heartland on the airwaves – in time to celebrate 50 years since the law that abolished the pirates.
Radio Caroline is seeking consent for an AM waveband licence to broadcast across Suffolk and Essex from its ship, the MV Ross Revenge, currently moored on the River Blackwater.
The station – which has been controversial for politicians but loved by fans – originally broadcast from the North Sea off Felixstowe back in the heyday of the swinging sixties.
While it still broadcasts today on the internet and digital, the 1967 Marine Broadcasting Offences Act officially outlawed offshore stations – with BBC Radio One taking over their pop-playing mantle.
Peter Moore, who today runs Radio Caroline, said the station had applied for an AM licence in the latest round being conducted by Ofcom.
He said the team behind the station had first approached Ofcom six years ago.
Mr Moore said: “In view of our famous history and credibility and since MW radio is not great for commercial broadcasters any more, we felt there was no logical reason why we could not take up some of the AM frequency.”
There followed a long series of emails and conversations with the regulator, backed by several MPs in favour of Caroline’s case, before this year Ofcom invited “expressions of interest” for new licences.
Mr Moore said: “When we first broadcast our signal would reach landfall at Essex and then across the flatlands to listeners in Suffolk and then Norfolk.
“We thought it would be fun to go back to 1964 at this time and start broadcasting to our homelands again. It would be a real bit of nostalgia.
“With the 50th anniversary of the act of Parliament that closed the pirate radio stations such as Caroline happening in 2017 I would think it would be a great way to commemorate that anniversary with some of the DJs of the original day – those still living and active – taking part and presenting shows.
“It would be a great way to start the AM broadcasts and it would show that while they tried to stop us in 1967 we still haven’t quit and are still on the radio. It would be a fantastic celebration.”
The station’s vinyl collection still exists and a vinyl studio on the Ross Revenge could be brought back into use with a little refurbishment.
Mr Moore said: “It would be great to recreate some of that. The DJs were mobbed at Harwich as they went back to the ship once and it would be great if we could get the same DJs to recreate that day.”
He said Radio Caroline was now in the hands of Ofcom, which as yet had issued no timetable for its decision.
Ofcom’s website says it has received 11 applications for licences across the country.
Timeline:
1964 Radio Caroline started transmissions on Easter Sunday from a ship near the Cork Anchorage.
1966 MV Mi Amigo, the station’s second ship, drifted in a storm and ran aground on the beach at Frinton-on-Sea.
1967 Pirate radio outlawed as Government passes act of Parliament – the station’s two ships, broadcasting to north and south of the UK, moved to Dutch waters.
1968 Both ships impounded for unpaid debts.
1970 Fresh attempts made to restart the station from the vessel Mebo 2 but the UK Government jammed the signal.
1974 Back on the Mi Amigo – the MV Caroline had been sold for scrap by the company that impounded the ships – the station continued to broadcast pop music.
1980 After breaking anchor for the second time in a year, the Mi Amigo suffered leaks in the engine room and stern and was abandoned.
1983 The Ross Revenge became the new home of Radio Caroline – even riding out the 1987 hurricane on huge seas – but was later attacked and severely damaged and the station was off the air again.
2000s: The internet offered a way back for Radio Caroline via on-line broadcasting – the internet audience, first recorded at 20,000 hours a month is now exceeding 11,000 hours a day.
Radio in the early 1960s was very different to today.
The BBC controlled the airwaves and youngsters desperate to hear the new sounds of the Beatles, Stones, Kinks and other fast emerging bands had nowhere to turn except the pirates on their ships and old war-time forts.
Airplay was heavily restricted on the BBC, too, due to long-standing arrangements in the music industry and the pirates saw an opportunity to take advantage of the changing youth culture, both in terms of the DJs’ presentation and the music they played.
Radio Caroline started transmissions on Easter Sunday 1964 from a ship anchored in international waters off Felixstowe, and within a couple of years was the biggest commercial station in the world.
The station had necessary close links with Felixstowe – with ships regularly setting out from the town’s then-small port to ferry supplies to and from the MV Caroline.
People from the town often took trips out to visit the vessel and meet the young DJs – stuck on board in all weathers and always welcoming new faces to break the monotony of life on board during their broadcasting breaks – and it was the DJs’ link to shore and their homes.
The station was founded by Irish music industry businessman Ronan O’Rahilly and Oliver Smedley and took its name from Caroline Kennedy, daughter of US president John F Kennedy
The station’s wavelength was 199 metres – 199 chosen to rhyme with Caroline – but in reality it broadcast on 197.3 metres medium wave, playing from 6am to 6pm daily under the slogan “Your all-day music station”, because Radio Luxembourg came on the air in English at 6pm and direct competition was avoided.
After the vessel Radio Caroline sailed from Felixstowe to the Isle of Man to broadcast to the north of the country, the MV Mi Amigo took over off Suffolk.
In January 1966, the ship drifted in a storm and ran aground on the beach at Frinton-on-Sea.
Transmissions ceased as the boat entered British territorial waters, and the crew and broadcasting staff were rescued unharmed, but the ship’s hull was damaged and it had to go into dry dock for repair.
Pirate radio was effectively blasted out of the water in 1967 with the passing of the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, which made it an offence to advertise or supply an offshore radio station from the UK.
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