Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Allan Crawford, initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. Unlicensed by any government for most of its early life, it was a pirate radio station that never became illegal as such due to operating outside any national jurisdiction, although after the Marine, &c., Broadcasting Act 1967 it became illegal for a British subject to associate with it.
The Radio Caroline name was used to broadcast from international waters, using five different ships with three different owners, from 1964 to 1990, and via satellite from 1998 to 2013. Since August 2000, Radio Caroline has also broadcast 24 hours a day via the internet and by the occasional restricted service licence. Currently, the station broadcasts on 648 AM across much of England and DAB radio in certain areas of the UK: these services are part of the Ofcom small-scale DAB+ trials. Caroline can be heard on DAB+ in Aldershot, Birmingham, Cambridge, Brighton, Glasgow, Norwich, London, Portsmouth, Poulton-le-Fylde and Woking on digital radio. Caroline can also be listened to over the internet.
In May 2017, Ofcom awarded the station an AM band community licence to broadcast on 648kHz to Suffolk and north Essex; full-time broadcasting, via a previously redundant BBC World Service frequency and transmitter mast at Orford Ness, commenced on 22 December 2017.
Radio Caroline broadcasts music from the 1960s to contemporary, with an emphasis on album-oriented rock and "new" music from "carefully selected albums". On 1 January 2016, a second channel was launched called Caroline Flashback, playing pop music from the early 1950s to the early 1980s.
1964–1968: MV ''Caroline''
Origins
Radio Caroline was the brainchild of the Irish musician manager and businessman Ronan O'Rahilly, the idea being formulated following O'Rahilly's failure to obtain airplay for the records of one of his contracted artistes, Georgie Fame, on Radio Luxembourg or the BBC Light Programme. At this time it was Radio Luxembourg policy to only promote sponsored programmes funded by major record labels: EMI, Decca, Pye and Philips.Undeterred by this failure, and encouraged by Scandinavian and Dutch radio pirates, in February 1964 O'Rahilly obtained the former Danish passenger ferry which was subsequently taken to the Irish port of Greenore, which was under the ownership of O'Rahilly's father, Aodogán, in order for the vessel to be fitted out as a radio ship.
This was a busy time at Greenore with the work to the Fredericia being carried out in tandem with Allan Crawford's "Project Atlanta", which saw a similar conversion undertaken on the.
Financing
Financial backing for the venture came from six investors, including John Sheffield ; Carl "Johnny" Ross and Jocelyn Stevens of Queen magazine, with which Radio Caroline shared its first office.Origin of name
There are a multiplicity of stories with regard to how the station became known as Radio Caroline.One of these centres around O'Rahilly choosing the name on a trip to the United States, having seen a picture in Life of Caroline Kennedy, along with her brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., innocently playing in the Oval Office of the White House whilst their father, John F Kennedy, looks on. It is said that this activity was reportedly interpreted by O'Rahilly as a playful, jovial disruption of government. One particular image conveying unthreatening joy was the cheeky 4½-year-old Caroline hiding at President John F Kennedy's feet beneath the battered Resolute desk.
Another tenable theory is that the radio station was named after Caroline Maudling, who was known by O'Rahilly at the time, and was the daughter of the British government minister Reginald Maudling.
A further theory is that the name was the choice of Jocelyn Stevens, who had played a prominent role in the planning stages of the offshore station. His editor of Queen, Beatrix Miller, is understood to have defined the profile of the target reader, being: "a twenty something, non intellectual who had left school at 16, and was a ‘good time’ girl called Caroline." Stevens believed that the same profile should be the target audience for the new offshore radio station, so the name Caroline was chosen.
First transmissions
Upon conclusion of her fitting out, the MV Fredericia was renamed MV Caroline with her port of registry changed to Panama.The MV Caroline departed Greenore on March 23, 1964, to a supposed destination in Spain. She passed Land's End on March 25, at which time she altered course and made passage through the English Channel and entered the North Sea where she anchored off Felixstowe, Suffolk.
MV Caroline began test transmissions on 27 March 1964 at 6:00 pm GMT and 10:00 pm, and on 11:55 pm on 201 metres. On 28 March, it began regular broadcasting at noon on with the opening conducted by Simon Dee.
The first programme, which was pre-recorded, was hosted by Chris Moore. Radio Caroline's first musical theme was Jimmy McGriff's "Round Midnight", a jazz standard co-composed by Thelonious Monk. In March 1964, The Fortunes recorded Caroline, which became the station's theme, and Round Midnight was confined to closedown on Radio Caroline North after The World Tomorrow. The station's slogan was Your all-day music station. The Dutch offshore station Radio Veronica was on and Radio Atlanta broadcast on.
Radio Caroline's transmission output, in the region of 20kW, was achieved by linking two 10kW Continental Electronics transmitters. Broadcasting hours were 6am to 6pm to avoid competition from Radio Luxembourg, which began transmissions at 6pm. The station returned at 8pm and continued until after midnight to avoid competition with popular television programmes. Most of Radio Caroline's pop music programmes were targeted at housewives, and some later programming was aimed at children. Without serious competition, Radio Caroline gained a regular daytime audience of some 7 million.
Merger with Radio Atlanta
On 2 July 1964, Radio Atlanta and Radio Caroline's companies, Project Atlanta and Planet Productions, announced the stations were to merge, with Crawford and O'Rahilly as joint managing directors. Radio Atlanta closed at 8p.m. BST that day. It was renamed Radio Caroline South and MV Mi Amigo remained off Frinton-on-Sea, while MV Caroline broadcast as Radio Caroline North.Following the consolidation between the two companies, Caroline weighed anchor and sailed from Felixstowe en-route to the Isle of Man, broadcasting as she went. The only broadcast staff on board were Tom Lodge and Jerry Leighton. Caroline took up station at her new anchorage on the southern tip of the Bahama Bank, Ramsey Bay, on 6 July 1964, at a position formerly occupied by the Bahama Bank Lightship. The two Caroline stations were now able to cover most of the British Isles.
Whilst the two Caroline stations transmitted separately, some programmes were pre-recorded on land and broadcast simultaneously from both ships. In October 1965, O'Rahilly bought Crawford's interest in the Mi Amigo and engaged Tom Lodge from Radio Caroline North to make programme changes and regain the audience from Radio London. Lodge hired new DJs and introduced free-form programming.
When the US-backed Radio London arrived off the coast of England, there was an unsuccessful attempt to merge its sales operation with that of Caroline before Radio London started transmissions. The new station introduced British audiences to slick American-style top 40 radio with electronic jingles produced by Dallas-based PAMS, and was an immediate success.
Broadcasting personnel
Radio Caroline's first programme, on 28 March 1964, was presented by Chris Moore. Presenters Tony Blackburn, Roger Gale, Ray Teret, Simon Dee, Tony Prince, Spangles Muldoon, Keith Skues, Johnnie Walker, Robbie Dale, Dave Lee Travis, Tommy Vance, Tom Edwards, Bob Stewart and Andy Archer became well known. Some DJs from the United States and Commonwealth countries, such as Graham Webb, Emperor Rosko and Keith Hampshire were also heard. DJ Jack Spector, of the WMCA "Good Guys" in New York, regularly recorded for Radio Caroline. Syndicated shows from the US and recorded religious programmes were also broadcast. BBC Radio 2 newsreader Colin Berry started his career reading the news on Radio Caroline South.In May 1965 Rick Wild, lead vocalist with The Overlanders, spent a week on board presenting mainstream pop and country music, and mid-September 1965, the crew and DJs on Mi Amigo were joined for the weekend by 1960s pop singer Sylvan Whittingham, who visited the ship to promote her single "We Don't Belong". Whittingham was unable to leave on the tender when a storm arose, and so spent the time helping present programmes, make jingles, and close the station at night.
''Mi Amigo'' runs aground
On 20 January 1966, the Mi Amigo lost its anchor in a storm, drifted and ran aground on the beach at Frinton-on-Sea. The crew and broadcasting staff were rescued unharmed, but the ship's hull was damaged and repairs were carried out at Zaandam, Netherlands.Between 31 January and 1 May, Radio Caroline South broadcast from the vessel Cheeta II, owned by Britt Wadner of Swedish offshore station Radio Syd, which was off the air because of pack ice in the Baltic Sea. The Cheeta II was equipped for FM broadcasting, so it was fitted with the 10 kW transmitter from the Mi Amigo, feeding a makeshift antenna. Whilst the resulting signal was low-powered, it did ensure that Caroline South's advertising revenue would continue.
On 18 April the Mi Amigo returned to its Frinton-on-Sea anchorage with a redesigned antenna and a new 50 kW transmitter and attempted to resume broadcasting, nominally on 259 metres to enable the same jingles as Radio Caroline North on 1169 kHz to be used, but actually 253 metres. Initially the transmitter was found to be too powerful for the antenna insulators, however by 27 April the Mi Amigo was fully operational.
Radio Caroline South's 259 metres signal was now near those of Radio London on 266 m and the BBC's Light Programme on 247 m. Radio Caroline North subsequently moved to 257 m but also called it 259.