My wife told me that around 1977, when Blackburn was presenting a disco in Manchester, near Oxford Rd, in front of everyone on the stage, he fondled the breast of a girl standing next to him.
I remember the start of Caroline and the wonderful times we had relaxing in the park in Stratford upon Avon having a come down after the all-nighters at the Gaff club in Banbury Oxfordshire. Brilliant time of my life
Loved the pirate stations, carried my transistor radio everywhere and tried to listen to them but here in Northern Ireland you had to have the right atmospheric pressure to listen to most of the stations but still much better than the boring BBC
Hi. Thanks for watching. This is the RU-vid info. Âme caline (2023 Remastered Version) Raymond Lefèvre, Le Grand Orchestre de Raymond Lefèvre Content found during: 55:51 - 57:28
I would had thought libertarian Margaret Thatcher would had been a little more tolerant to Caroline/Laser than what we witnessed with high socialist Wilson and his Marine Etc. Broadcasting Act 1967. Eurosiege 85 and this proves she was no better than Wilson, and in a time of rapidly expanding British commercial radio that would eventually end Radio 1's hegemony....which begs the question - was Thatcher's hand forced here?
Ironically, this was broadcast the day after Reg Calvert, the owner of Radio City, was shot dead by Major Oliver Smedley in a dispute over ownership of a transmitter Smedley had supplied. That was the catalyst that led to the passing of the Marine Etc. Broadcasting Offences act, which put most of the pirates off the air. It wasn't the end, of course, as witness RNI, Laser 558 and the numerous comebacks by Radio Caroline.
I was a Radio Caroline fan and still am to this day, I did tune over to London for John Peel's Perfumed Garden if I remembered but I don't recall listening to Radio England at all which is a shame, wish I had. Interestingly, after the England ship ceased broadcasting their transmitters were taken off and sold to an outfit in Swaziland southern Africa and apparently are still in use.
I can't quite remember now but I think it was about a week after they went off the air in 1968 that I learned that the ships had been towed away and Caroline was finished, but I do clearly remember a deep sense of loss. Of course they were to return and in my opinion the '70s Caroline was fantastic, the album format, the crazy road shows, I loved every bit of it. I went out to visit the Mi Amigo in the late '70s and was in a bit of a state by then, noisy generator parked on the aft deck but the RCA Ampliphase transmitter sounding so good. I'd moved to South Africa by 1980 when the phone rang and I got the news that the ship had finally lost the battle and sunk, much sadness of course but having seen the ship it wasn't really a surprise. I missed out on the whole Ross Revenge chapter apart from 1 week in 1984 when I made a couple of hours of recordings which I still have to this day. Of course today we can listen in crystal clear stereo all around the world, such determination to continue, truly remarkable, and long may it continue.
Indeed. I was 14 at the time and we'd just moved to live not far from Derby, where reception of both Caroline ships was fairly good, a big improvement on our previous location in east Manchester where the North ship was so-so and the South ship was almost zero. anyway, I had my old Bush valve radio at my bedside and every morning I would lean out and switch it on to listen to Caroline, sometimes tuning between the two to find the best music. One morning I switched on and as I went to the bathroom I thought the radio was taking a long time to warm up.... When I got back to it I found there was no signal, so I tuned to where the other ship should be and still nothing! All the other stuff was where it should be so I realised the radio was working but something bad must have happened to take both ships off. We didn't know how bad until I read the paper a few days later.
Cardboard shoes is a name that rings a bell from my time as a volunteer button pusher and knob twiddler at BFBS Malta, 68-70 time. He had a very popular show recorded in UK and sent round the world to BFBS Stations. Unlike him, my Sarf Yorksheer accent was deemed unpalatable for airways consumption hence my control room contribution which I enjoyed immensely. Thanks for the many happy hours you have given to millions around the world.
Naming Caroline after the Kennedy daughter is a myth. The name finds it roots in the magazine type run by Jocelyn Stevens, a major Caroline money backer whom you failed to mention. He ran the up market magazine Queen. Caroline was the type of readership as defined by Clement Freud. Caroline the offshore station took on that name
Her verhaal van dit zendschip is niet compleet: Er was een tweede station aanwezig met de naam Britse Radio. Deze zond easy listening muziek uit. Wat het verhaal hierachter is weet ik niet. Toen het voor swinging radio england afgelopen was, heeft men nog een poging ondernomen via Nederland . in het begin noemde men het station radio dolfijn, maar dit had geen een succes. Na de doorstart met Radio 227 werd het wel wat serieuzer. Heel wat Nederlandse jocks hebben hun carrière begonnen op 227. Financiële problemen zorgden echter voor het opdoeken van radio 227. Dat men gestopt is voor het aankomende verbod van uitzendingen offshore klopt niet helemaal The story of this radio ship is not complete: There was a second station on board called British Radio. This broadcast easy listening music. I don't know what the story behind this is. When it was over for Swinging Radio England, another attempt was made via the Netherlands. In the beginning the station was called radio dolphin, but this was not a success. After the restart with Radio 227, things became a bit more serious. Many Dutch jocks started their careers at 227. However, financial problems led to the closure of radio 227. The fact that people stopped because of the upcoming ban on offshore broadcasts is not entirely correct
The precursor to all this however was “Radio Luxembourg,” sometime in the 1950-60. I remember it well, I just can’t date it. Broadcasting from the aforementioned country, it needed a constant hand on the control knob to get a worthwhile reception. It was’t exactly “pop music,” we were after though. Mother being Scottish with an Irish grandmother and living in England with my Father being English she longed to hear the music of those countries. “Luxembourg” provided that, in, I think two one hour programmes a week. Likewise we faced the challenge of getting a good reception of B.B.C. Scotland’s serial “The McFlannels, in far distant Northamptonshire.
@@bobmeade3499 ..yes it was - in its first iteration in the states - in the early 60s...by the mid/late 60s it became Secret Agent, with Johnny Rivers singing the theme...in one of the Danger Man episodes ca 1962/63 McGoohan gets out of a jam when what eventually became the Carter Arms AR7 survival rifle was smuggled to him inside a loaf of French bread....years late when I bought one I realized how idiotic the script was...there ain't no loaf big enough to conceal that rifle...but it made for a good story at the time because no onein the general populace had ever seen one either....cracking good shows of my yute'...
For AM transmissions there is a very long antenna necessary. So in this case the mast is not grounded, the mast is the antenna. If the transmitter is switched on, noone should touch it. RF can cause serious burns, even death. The transmitter onboard the ship shown in this video got probably an output power of 20 to 30 kW. A modern one made in these days which the size of the one here in the video reach easily the 100kW mark.
Canada here. I never heard Radio Caroline, but certainly knew of it. Back in the 80's my mother would listen to CJRN & CJRT, from St. Catherine's Ontario. In the mornings there was a call in show (there was rarely a defined topic, a rarity all by it's self) hosted by "John Micheals". Not his real name. He quite openly said he had hosted shows on Radio Caroline, which must have been in it's early days, as I recall he had related he had been on England's Olympic diving team shortly after WWII. And weirdly one semi-regular caller was a former U-Boat Captain.
Oh, my. I knew the ship was in the Blackwater, because my sons both sail there. But the memories! I listened to Caroline on headphones, using a crystal set! Living in Felixstowe, I was only about 4 miles from the ship and could see her from my bedroom window. That was in the early sixties. What wasn't mentioned was that later the British authorities used powerful transmitters to try to blanket pirate radio broadcasting with a warbling jamming signal. That, I think, was in the late sixties while I was at College. Excellent item. Thank you!
Surely the Dutch raid was in breach of international law, or "The law of the Sea", or some such? Then again, if you're a 'pirate' broadcaster, operating from international waters for the more~or~less express purpose of circumventing (though, as stated by another commenter, not _breaking_ ) the law, what're you going to do when The Babylon show up? Call the authorities?! I'd imagine that theoretically they might, at the least, have had a civil case, but no doubt to take on the Dutch government they would have needed deep pockets, with victory far from being a foregone conclusion.
As a kid during the 80s in Belgium there were pirate radio stations on the FM band which were local and often could only be received in a radius of ten kilometres. Police was shutting them down frequently and they would find new equipment and start again. I remember one called delta radio and another called Pantera radio. They would broadcast local artists as well international. Often without taking through the song to allow recording. Which must have pissed off the record companies a lot. I had my Akai radio cassette player ready on record.
A lot (or little!) could be said about R.N.I.'s brief tests on 192 metres way back in 1972. Note the 'bleeding through' of R.N.I.s Dutch service on 220 metres. The service lasted less than one day. But has subsequently created a lot of discussion over the years.
Implying the broadcast equipment was in some way hidden is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in ages. It’s not difficult to find a medium wave transmitter aerial! Obviously made for an unsophisticated American audience.
This whole series is like that. Garbage writing and false mystery spoiling what are often interesting stories. The whole "mystery electronics intro" and the title "abandoned engineering" - and then they tell you it's open to the public as an attraction!
I was another listener , all day every day . I had just become a trucker in the early 80's , and found it quite by chance . Never left until it went off air for a refit at a dutch yard if i remember correctly some point in the 90's ! . Converted many of my friends too . I've got no idea how much power the transmitters put out , but i can say i only ever lost the signal at Port Talbot , in Wales . Fortunately i only travel over that way once a week , just west of Swansea . Otherwise i had pretty much National coverage . Who remembers the 15 , 49 lotto ad's ?
I don't remember the lotto ads, but I do remember the Caroline Cash Casino from the '60s. They used a 50Kw RCA transmitter in the '80s but don't know if they were able to run it at full power, they were always a big signal into London though.
The whole 'Abandoned Engineering' TV series is the same. They don't care about accuracy and it's often twisted to make it look like some big mysterious secret. Shame interesting stuff is ruined by cheap TV.
