[Music] Radio Caroline 60th Anniversary

[Lyndhurst 14]

Caroline is celebrating its 60th Anniversary this Thursday. For my money it's still the best radio station out there. It now gets a much wider audience thanks to the Internet and it's now legit but it still holds true to its main principle of providing great music for its listeners with minimal chat, and the chat they do is informed and interesting. I remember listening to it in the 60s when it kicked off and liking the fact that it was a rebel kicking against the status quo.

 

[Official Old Man]

I'm a Caroline fanatic. Visiting the boat, moored in the River Blackwater, is my top priority this summer.
I was 9 when they started but my Mum had it on in the kitchen every day and it got me hooked on music and being a DJ.
Problem with 60 years is that most DJ's from that era are long gone. Expect Johnnie Walker & Tony Blackburn to mention it a lot.
Sadly Ronan O'Rahilly Caroline founder, died in 2020 aged 80.
For those asking what this is all about, watch 'The Boat That Rocked'.
There's also tons on youtube.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

I'm a Caroline fanatic. Visiting the boat, moored in the River Blackwater, is my top priority this summer.
I was 9 when they started but my Mum had it on in the kitchen every day and it got me hooked on music and being a DJ.
Problem with 60 years is that most DJ's from that era are long gone. Expect Johnnie Walker & Tony Blackburn to mention it a lot.
Sadly Ronan O'Rahilly Caroline founder, died in 2020 aged 80.
For those asking what this is all about, watch 'The Boat That Rocked'.
There's also tons on youtube.

Same here. What stations like Caroline did was to force the BBC to actually cater for other listeners who at that time were not happy with the BBC's output.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

My Dad told me off for listening to Pirate radio on my little transistor. He told me I could get arrested for it.
I told him it was the broadcasters not the listeners who were breaking the law!


All the best DJs started out on Caroline before the BBC got their act together and gave us teenagers Radio 1 in November 67.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Just been listening to the legend that is Tony Blackburn picking his favourite songs on R2 - the pirates changed music radio in this country thank goodness.

 

[Ghost of Killer Reeves]

Enjoyed listening in the 70s. Not your typical output, mostly album tracks. I found the introduction of the ‘loving awareness’/spiritual message a hard listen.

 

[Robinjakarta]

Ah. The days of pirate radio. There were reasons why the swinging sixties were called that, and pirate radio was very much one of them. With John Peel's Perfumed Garden in particular turning me more towards Radio London, Radio Caroline was a trailblazer like nothing from before.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Took a leaky ferry across to NDSM in Amsterdam a few years back. Stumbled across the Radio Veronica ship in a distant corner of the port. Went onboard because there was nobody around to say I couldn't, epecially not the couple of carpenters who were only too happy to explain they were helping transform the ship into a party boat. Maybe it's still there?

 

[Is it PotG?]

Might watch the light-hearted tribute movie that came out a few years back.

 

[Flounce]

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Used to love the pirate radio adverts for impossibly exotic products like Lois jeans ('Lois Lois Lois, voor girls en boys') and Stimorol gum ('Stiromol gum, Stimorol gum, Stimorol chewing gum'). Oh and the Irish Lottery

 

[Thunder Bolt]

 

[FamilyGuy]

Enjoyed listening in the 70s. Not your typical output, mostly album tracks. I found the introduction of the ‘loving awareness’/spiritual message a hard listen.

Then you'll enjoy "Radio Caroline Flashback" on the internet - NOT mostly album tracks and very scant mention of "Loving Awareness" (whats so silly about Peace, Love and Understanding? )

 

[DavePage]

What ever happened to Stimorol gum?

 

[Skuller]

My Dad told me off for listening to Pirate radio on my little transistor. He told me I could get arrested for it.
I told him it was the broadcasters not the listeners who were breaking the law!


All the best DJs started out on Caroline before the BBC got their act together and gave us teenagers Radio 1 in November 67.

Yup, my Dad told me and my brothers not to listen to it or we’d be arrested. In Seaford we got better reception from Radio London (same system: boat in the Thames estuary). The BBC were so late catching-up, with minimal transmission of pop music on the Light programme. While we’re at it, you need to be my age to know how to unravel “Batchelor, K.E.Y.N.S.H.A.M, and untold wealth”.

 

[maltaseagull]

Did one of the pirate ships sail around britain or something?
I seem to remember one going past Brighton in 64/65 ish.

Or did I dream it?

 

[albionalba]

Is anyone else addicted to the unique valve radio smell as I always associate it with listening to Radio Caroline and others?....you could buy them for pennies around then as the flood of transistor radios appeared...

 

[Questions]

Caroline is celebrating its 60th Anniversary this Thursday. For my money it's still the best radio station out there. It now gets a much wider audience thanks to the Internet and it's now legit but it still holds true to its main principle of providing great music for its listeners with minimal chat, and the chat they do is informed and interesting. I remember listening to it in the 60s when it kicked off and liking the fact that it was a rebel kicking against the status quo.

Oh god … Status Quo….. cutting edge.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Did one of the pirate ships sail around britain or something?
I seem to remember one going past Brighton in 64/65 ish.

Or did I dream it?

Caroline sailed along the Channel to moor off the Isle of Man. Radio London took over the southern broadcasts.

Radio Caroline North History

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Yup, my Dad told me and my brothers not to listen to it or we’d be arrested. In Seaford we got better reception from Radio London (same system: boat in the Thames estuary). The BBC were so late catching-up, with minimal transmission of pop music on the Light programme. While we’re at it, you need to be my age to know how to unravel “Batchelor, K.E.Y.N.S.H.A.M, and untold wealth”.

Good old Horace. My aunty did win the pools, winning enough to have the hall and stairs recarpeted. Not quite life changing money but it was in the hundreds.