Radio Caroline is the name of various broadcasting ventures situated in several different countries, from ships that were anchored in both territorial or international waters. The name originated with fashion and society magazine editor Beatrix Miller as early as December 1961 but the first attempt to use it for radio broadcasting only began in 1964. While some people involved with this first usage had also associated themselves with other radio broadcasting ventures of the same name, the original commercial operation was financially and legally unrelated to those that followed after 1967.
Chronology
The station first took to the air during March 1964 from a former Danish passenger ferry called M.V. Fredricia and renamed "Caroline". The ship was anchored 3 Miles off the coast of Harwich, Essex, England just outside British territorial waters. Shortly after this Radio Caroline was joined by a second ship, the M.V. Mi Amigo. That ship, a converted coaster, broadcast as Radio Atlanta. Both stations continued to operate independently for several months but the sales operations were soon merged under Caroline brand name.
The M.V. Caroline then moved to an anchorage off the coast of the Isle of Man and broadcast as Radio Caroline North while the M.V. Mi Amigo remained off the coast of Essex broadcasting as Radio Caroline South . The British government classified both operations as pirate radio stations.
The two radio ships remained under independent ownership but shared a common sales organization for most of their lives. In 1966 the British government introduced a law that made the existing arrangement unprofitable, even with some new investment. Eventually, after the new law came into effect after 14 August 1967, the two Radio Caroline ships entered into a phase of financial instability and were eventually towed away to the Netherlands in March 1968 to secure collection of unpaid bills for servicing. At that time the Motor Vessel Caroline (Radio Caroline North) was scrapped.
Following a period of several years of inactivity Radio Caroline broadcast very briefly from the radio ship Mebo2, home of another offshore station Radio Northsea International, during the 1970 British General election campaign.. The vessel that was used as Radio Caroline South (1964-1967) was later rescued from the scrapyard and it eventually came into the possession of a new group who's primary intention was to return Caroline to the airwaves. That ship, The M.V. MiAmigo, eventually sank during a storm in 1980.
This article is about the various uses of the name Radio Caroline by the originators. Currently a British company owns the worldwide copyright of the name of Radio Caroline for British licensed operations mainly transmitted via Eurobird 1 satellite at 28°E including Sky Digital channel 0199, and over the Internet. This company also licenses other stations around the world to use the Radio Caroline call sign.
1964-1968
Radio Caroline Origins
The name "Radio Caroline" was the extension of a magazine publishing stylesheet name that was in use during 1962. The origin of the name "Caroline" in this context is with Beatrix Miller, editor of the British society The Queen magazine owned by publisher Jocelyn Stevens. Radio Caroline was conceived as a means of challenging the Pilkington Report findings on behalf of over 100 commercial radio stations registered in Britain and seeking licenses to broadcast. The method chosen was to extend the magazine brand name "Caroline" to the airwaves and the original intention was for a limited offshore activity in the hope that the Pilkington Committee findings would be reversed and land based licenses issued. Financial backing for this venture came from the younger set of the British Establishment and seasoned investors within British industry and finance in the City of London. The original home of Radio Caroline shared space in the editorial offices of Queen magazine.
The idea of Radio Caroline originated from plans drawn up in Dallas, Texas by radio maverick Gordon McLendon and his financial backer and personal friend Clint Murchison. These plans came into the possession of Alan Crawford who intended to start a radio station onboard a vessel owned by McLendon/Murchison which they had previously used as a radio ship operation called Radio Nord broadcasting to Stockholm, Sweden. While Crawford was looking for investors in Britain he exposed these plans to Ronan O'Rahilly who in turn shared them with associates of Joceyln Stevens.
Radio Caroline began test broadcasts the day before commencing full time transmissions at 12 noon on Saturday 28 March 1964 from the ex-passenger ferry MV Fredericia , anchored in international waters three miles (5 km) off the coast of Harwich, Essex, England.
Years later O'Rahilly began to spin a tale that has been often repeated and much embellished with each telling, but which is contradicted by documented evidence that he alone had created Radio Caroline and that he named it after Caroline Kennedy, daughter of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. O'Rahilly claimed that when he flew to Dallas, Texas to buy the transmitters for the radio station, he was reading a copy of Look magazine. That issue contained a now-famous photo essay about the president and his son John Jr., who was playing with him in the Oval Office. However, O'Rahilly stated that the essay pictured Kennedy's daughter Caroline and that this had inspired him to name both the ship and station after her. After O'Rahilly's claims were re-examined it became obvious that his story about the origins of Radio Caroline were fiction and probably intended to redirect attention away from the actual origins of the station. (See Beatrix Miller.)
Original transmissions
Radio Caroline's original theme tune was Jimmy McGriff's "Round Midnight" (a jazz standard composed by Thelonious Monk which was an LP track on I've Got a Woman , Sue ILP 907 1962 UK; Sue 1012 USA). During March 1964, Birmingham band The Fortunes recorded the song "Caroline" on Decca F11809, and this later became the station's theme song, with "Round Midnight" confined to close down on Radio Caroline North after the The World Tomorrow programme.
The original Radio Caroline (MV Caroline) announced a wavelength of "199" metres, which rhymed with "Caroline". In reality the station was on 197.3 metres (1520 kHz) at the high end of the medium wave band. The Dutch offshore station Radio Veronica was on 192 metres (1562 kHz) and when Radio Caroline was joined by Radio Atlanta which became Radio Caroline South, it chose 201 metres (1495 kHz).
The original transmitter power of the MV Caroline was almost 20 kW, and this was achieved by linking two 10-kW Continental Electronics transmitters together. Broadcasting hours were initially limited from 6 am to 6 pm daily under the slogan "Your all-day music station", because Radio Luxembourg came on the air in the English language at 6 pm and direct competition was avoided. Later after its first close-down of the day the station decided to return to the airwaves after 8 pm and it continued until just after midnight. In this way Caroline saved its fuel by avoiding direct competition with the most popular television programmes. The use of radio sets at work was an uncommon practice and most commuters used public transport. Consequently most of its pop music programmes were aimed at housewives and later in the day they were targeted towards children arriving home from school. Because of the lack of daytime music radio competition during the first six months of transmission, Radio Caroline soon commanded a daytime audience of several million listeners at a time when all-day pop music broadcast in English was unknown in Europe.
For more on the history of offshore broadcasting before Caroline, see the article Pirate radio.
Creation of Radio Caroline North and South
When the original Radio Caroline merged its sales operations with those of Radio Atlanta, the second station was rebranded as Radio Caroline South while remaining in independent (from the original Caroline) ownership. When Wonderful Radio London arrived off the coast of England, there was an attempt to merge the sales operation of this station with the Caroline organization before Wonderful Radio London commenced transmissions. However, these talks came to nothing. Another attempt was made to bring Radio City within the Caroline branding, but this attempt eventually ended in disaster (see Oliver Smedley and Reg Calvert.
Radio Caroline North (MV Caroline) anchored off the Isle of Man and Radio Caroline South (MV Mi Amigo) anchored off South East England became a network for sales purposes, although the programming remained independent of each other. The two ship stations were thus able to cover most of the British Isles and the western-most parts of continental northern Europe.
The first programme heard on Caroline was presented by Chris Moore . DJs who went on to become nationally famous included Tony Blackburn, Roger Day, Simon Dee, Tony Prince, Spangles Muldoon, Keith Skues, Johnnie Walker, Robbie Dale, Dave Lee Travis and Andy Archer. There were also a number of DJs from the USA and Commonwealth countries, such as Graham Webb, Tom Lodge, Emperor Rosko, Steve Young, Keith Hampshire, Colin Nicol
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