SWEET CAROLINE
Douglas Mcpherson celebrates the pioneering radio station’s sixtieth birthday.
THE BBC wasn’t ready for the music of the Sixties. When Beatlemania broke out in 1963, you would have been lucky to hear the Fab Four’s records played by Britain’s only official radio broadcaster.
Although the “Light Programme” played rock and pop, it added up to three hours a week’s worth, mixed in with the records of older stars like Bing Crosby, whose songs were aimed more at parents.
Teens tuned in to Radio Luxembourg, Britain’s first commercial station, which was broadcast from across the Channel to evade licensing restrictions.
But you could only pick it up after dark, and reception varied with the weather.
Everything changed in March 1964, when Radio Caroline began broadcasting from a ship anchored in international waters off the Essex coast.
The first record aired was the Rolling Stones’s “Not Fade Away” – a dig at Radio Luxembourg’s reception, which often did fade away.
Radio Caroline was created by Ronan O’rahilly, a twenty-five-year-old who ran a London nightclub called the Scene, where bands such as the Rolling Stones played.
When Ronan tried to get a record by Georgie Fame played on Radio Luxembourg, he found that it was a closed shop.
The shows were sponsored by major record labels and discs by outsiders weren’t welcome.
His answer was to set up his own radio station!
“He epitomised the spirit of the Sixties,” DJ Johnnie Walker, who came to fame on Radio Caroline, said of Ronan.
The station took its name from President Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline.
When Ronan saw a picture of the child dancing in the White House, he felt her carefree frolicking in such surroundings mirrored his station’s youthful exuberance.
Radio Caroline launched a new era of young DJS who cracked silly jokes and introduced endless listener competitions.
Among them was Tony Blackburn, who, at twentyone, was Britain’s youngest broadcaster at the time.
Within a month, Radio Caroline had competition from Radio Atlanta, but the companies merged, giving birth to Caroline North and Caroline South.
Between them, they reached 25 million people.
Although Radio Caroline operated legally from outside Britain’s territorial waters, the government was determined to shut it down.
In 1967, the Marine &c. Broadcasting (Offences) Act made it illegal for British companies to advertise on Radio Caroline, which cut off its funding.
That same year, BBC Radio 1 launched, copying Radio Caroline’s format.
Ronan continued broadcasting from the ship, but after a year the money ran out and Radio Caroline was towed ashore.
It did return to the air in various forms at different points in the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties.
It’s still broadcasting from dry land, as a legal digital station today.
But during Radio Caroline’s initial three years at sea, it really did change the sound of British radio.