Radio show hijacked by pirate Tony

Veteran DJ Tony Blackburn hijacked The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 in a stunt celebrating the 60th anniversary of the UK’s first pirate radio station.

Radio Caroline was a British radio station that began regular broadcasting on March 28 1964 from a ship anchored off the coast of Felixstowe in Suffolk.

In the 1960s, Blackburn, 81, who presents Sounds Of The 60s and Tony Blackburn’s Golden Hour on Radio 2, worked on the pirate radio stations Radio Caroline and Radio London.

Blackburn took over Ball’s Radio 2 show yesterday morning and played Caroline by The Fortunes, which he used to play as a DJ on Radio Caroline. He said: “The pirates are back. Zoe Ball has been locked out of the studio. I’m here. Anarchy once again.

“We are pirates. We’re pirate Radio 2 and here we go. For the next hour, I’m gonna play you proper music.”

Later on, Blackburn said he and fellow radio presenter Johnnie Walker had been “thinking about” hijacking the radio station for a while. He said: “Unfortunately, Johnnie Walker has overslept and he’s having a lie-in.”

Blackburn laughed at Radio 5 Live’s 30-year celebrations.

He said: “We are here, at last, after 60 years. I understand Radio 5 Live is celebrating 30 years.

“We laugh at them. We actually laugh at Radio 5 celebrating 30 years for goodness sake. Unbelievable.”

Blackburn added: “I started on Radio Caroline in July actually, 1964.

“Everybody remembers Radio Caroline, I particularly loved ‘Big L’ Radio London and that was a bigger ship and we had our own cabins and everything, but we all got on well out there. It was three years. I just thought it was wonderful.”

Pirate stations beamed music from ships outside British territorial waters and became popular as they reflected changing attitudes towards music at a time when the BBC ruled the waves.

They were unlicensed and did not observe copyright law and in August 1967, a new Act of Parliament called the Marine & Broadcasting (Offences) Act was passed in a bid to silence these offshore radio stations.

In the aftermath of that, Blackburn became the first DJ on BBC Radio 1 when it launched in September 1967.

TAKEOVER: Veteran DJ Tony Blackburn with presenter Zoe Ball.