Radio Caroline

Radio Caroline is an English radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. Unlicensed by any government for most of its early life, it was considered a pirate radio station.

Radio Caroline began test broadcasts during the evening of Good Friday, 27 March 1964, and commenced regular programming at noon the following day, on 28 March, Easter Saturday. It broadcast from a former Danish ferry, the Fredericia (named after a Danish town, Fredericia), renamed MV Caroline and anchored three miles (5 km) off the coast of Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, just outside British territorial waters. In April 1964, Radio Atlanta began broadcasting from the MV Mi Amigo, a former coaster anchored off Harwich, Essex.

Both stations operated independently for several months but underwent a merger of the companies' sales operations. The Caroline moved to an anchorage off Ramsey, Isle of Man and broadcast as Radio Caroline North while the MV Mi Amigo remained off the coast of Essex broadcasting as Radio Caroline South. The British government considered both operations to be pirate radio stations.

Both ships remained under independent ownership until December 1965, when the owners of Radio Caroline North bought Radio Caroline South. In 1966 the British Postmaster General, Tony Benn, introduced a Bill to Parliament that outlawed unlicensed offshore broadcasting. This Bill became the Marine Offences Act and was enacted on 14 August 1967. The two Radio Caroline ships continued to broadcast with operations controlled from the Netherlands. In March 1968, both ships were towed to the Netherlands, because of unpaid bills, by the Wijsmuller tug company.

On Saturday 13 June 1970, Radio Northsea International (RNI) broadcasting from the MV Mebo II from an anchorage off the Essex coast rebranded itself as Radio Caroline International, with permission from Ronan O'Rahilly. This was during the last few days of the British general election campaign. Many of RNI's early DJs were ex-Caroline North or South. Caroline jingles were played, as well as political messages designed to encourage listeners to vote Conservative. Medium Wave transmissions of RNI from the Mebo II while off the British coast were subject to jamming by the British Labour government, and the jamming continued while the station operated as Radio Caroline, even after the General Election, which the Conservatives won. As a result, the station reverted to its original name of RNI one week later on Saturday 20 June, and moved back across the North Sea to an anchorage off of Scheveningen on the Dutch coast. The jamming then finally ceased.

The Mi Amigo was auctioned in 1972 and sold for 20,000 Dutch Guilders, while the Fredericia was scrapped. Mi Amigo was bought by a pirate radio enthusiast with the intention of turning it into an offshore radio museum, before being reacquired by Radio Caroline and anchored off the Netherlands coast close to the RNI and Radio Veronica ships. Radio Caroline began intermittently broadcasting, re-launched in 1973 as Radio Seagull, and resumed full-time broadcasting in February 1974. Dutch legislation, enacted in September 1974, closed most of the pirates and Caroline became an LP-based rock station. It moved to the English coast and regained a sizable audience in the UK and Europe. During this period most of the station's advertising revenue came from the sale of airtime to Dutch-language stations which time-shared its airtime. After several years of neglect and damage from grounding incidents, the Mi Amigo sank during severe storm in March 1980.

In 1981, Radio Caroline acquired and began converting the former Icelandic trawler Ross Revenge into a radio ship, using it for broadcasts from August 1983. Once again, a partnership with a Dutch-language station proved fruitful. On 19 August 1989, the ship was raided and silenced by British and Netherlands authorities. Broadcasts resumed on 1 October of that year and continued on low/moderate power until fuel for the generator ran out on 6 November 1990. Although no longer broadcasting, the ship remained at sea with a skeleton crew until it finally ran aground on the Goodwin Sands in storms in November 1991. The ship was salvaged and continues to be used for special broadcasts.

Radio Caroline currently broadcasts 24 hours a day via the Eutelsat 28A satellite at 28.5°E, via the Internet and by occasional Restricted Service Licence. Radio Caroline broadcasts music from the 1960s to contemporary, with an emphasis on album-oriented rock (AOR). The company also licenses other stations around the world to use the Radio Caroline name.