Radio Caroline is an icon of the pirate radio days when you could listen to POP music on the radio. Alright, the reception was not brilliant on medium wave, but boy did we love it!
I remember listening to Radio Caroline on 199 with a tranny radio. If reception was bad you could stand it next to a mains power socket and the cables would act as an aerial and bring up the volume and less fading no end. At night it was difficult to receive with the interference from European stations so you just re-tuned to Radio Luxemburg.
There were two Radio Caroline stations...Radio Caroline North and Radio Caroline South. Caroline North was just off the the coast of Liverpool and Caroline South was close to London just off the coast in the North Sea.
In August 1967 the BBC launched Radio 1 and a law was passed to shut down the pirate stations. At midnight on that day Radio Caroline played 'We shall overcome' to fight the government and stay on the air. They eventually had to shut down.
Commercial radio was great back in 1967, but look at it now...what a mess! Hundreds of commercial radio stations playing one song followed by 10 minutes of crap talk and another 10 minutes of advertisments. Bring back the pirates...they got it right!
For the next month the Radio Caroline North ship is in Liverpool broadcasting live on the internet and FM.
Happy Birthday Radio Caroline...we shall overcome!
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