Radio Caroline 60th Anniversary

[ruffrecords]

Tomorrow is the 60th anniversary of the start of the first UK pirate radio station, Radio Caroline.

Cheers

Ian

 

[cyrano]

Even when Caroline was in English, I've always believed this was a Dutch station. Maybe they were registered somehow in the UK?

 

[ruffrecords]

Even when Caroline was in English, I've always believed this was a Dutch station. Maybe they were registered somehow in the UK?

No it's British but one of its founders was Irish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Caroline

Cheers

Ian

 

[Brian Roth]

Nerd alert! When Radio Caroline became operational, I was already a DX listener on medium and short wave. Alas, Caroline was on 1520 kHz.....same as Top-40, 50 kW KOMA radio in Okla. City <g>.

Ian....now you're making me go down a rabbit hole. Weren't there one or more pirates operating from some sort of WW2 era offshore structures?

/Edit In addition to a DXer, I was also a fan of anything British...an Anglophile at a young age. USA imported UK TV shows which I loved. "Danger Man" was "Secret Agent" here in the colonies, and this episode was about a pirate radio station located on an de-commissioned offshore WW2 facility.



Other UK shows I recall and loved ....The Avengers, The Prisoner, and....."Now for something completely different, the Larch..." <g>

Bri

 

[ruffrecords]

HI Bri, yes you are right there were several. Radio London (my personal favourite) operated from a ship on the North Sea just like Caroline. Radio Essex operated from some WW2 fort a few miles off the coast (they are still there). By 1967 there were 10 pirate radio stations. They were all us tenagers listend too in those days.

Cheers

Ian

 

[cyrano]

No it's British but one of its founders was Irish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Caroline

Cheers

Ian

Of course, Ian. Got it mixed up with Mi Amigo. The history of these "pirate" stations is confusing as they seem to like rebranding...

 

[ijvanl]

Of course, Ian. Got it mixed up with Mi Amigo. The history of these "pirate" stations is confusing as they seem to like rebranding...

Mi Amigo broadcasted under the Caroline name for a little while from the Netherlands, didn't it?

 

[ruffrecords]

Mi Amigo broadcasted under the Caroline name for a little while from the Netherlands, didn't it?

Both seems to be still going:

https://www.radiomiamigo.international/english/index.html

Cheers

Ian

 

[cyrano]

Mi Amigo broadcasted under the Caroline name for a little while from the Netherlands, didn't it?

I think so. They lasted a long time and changed names and ships a lot. It's just that I remembered a studio in Amsterdam or Hilversum. Can't remember it's name. There's a lot of studio's in the Netherlands...

Later on, "pirate" radio's in The Netherlands and Belgium became legal. Limited to 100W FM stereo, so regional broadcasting. And evolved over the years into national commercial channels. There's still a few regional ones around over here.

My involvement was limited to radio Atlantis and Radio z' alternatives in Brussels.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_z’Alternatives_Bruxelles

Atlantis turned from a sea pirate into a big, well financed national channel, which obviously wasn't permitted. That lasted 'till 1980 or so.

 

[user 133392]

The wife and I listen to Radio Caroline streams on the net and I occasionally tune in remotely for an OTA aircheck using the U of Twente SDR http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

The US stream is lower bandwidth and programmed differently than the UK stream.

 

[cyrano]

I confused Caroline With Veronica...

Interesting documentary from the Dutch TV about pirate radio (Veronica and Mi Amigo):



Unfortunately mostly in Dutch.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Weren't they operating in international waters to avoid government regulation. Thus the "pirate" nickname.

JR

 

[ruffrecords]

Weren't they operating in international waters to avoid government regulation. Thus the "pirate" nickname.

JR

Yes, in the UK that meant they had to be more than 3 miles offshore.

Cheers

Ian