I recall that Easter weekend in 1964 when Radio Caroline arrived very well. Comedian and award-winning radio host D.L. At the same time, Allan Crawford's Project Atlanta was equipping the MV Mi Amigo at Greenore, where the two competed to be the first on air. Two days later, Mi Amigo was towed to IJmuiden and seized because of unpaid bills. Radio Caroline broadcast appeals for help, giving the ship's position as .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}5141N 135E / 51.683N 1.583E / 51.683; 1.583. BBC Radio 6 Music celebrates its 20th birthday with record listening figures. Watch Live TV Listen to Live Radio. With Face-to-Face recruitment being suspended at the end of March, RAJAR introduced a Tracking Panel to evaluate radio listening during our time in Lockdown. However, in October 1987 a massive storm hit southern England, causing deaths and severe damage. Gradually Caroline is fighting its way back and I'm sure that once advertising is coming in, there will be no need for listener donations. I am taking a career break from my profession as a Sollicitor and in 2001 was fortunate to be allowed to run the news service from the Mi Amigo RSL from the LV18 where I met Bart Serlier among many others. Radio Caroline began to broadcast from the ship on 19 August 1983, with unwanted mechanical sounds on speech. The medium wave frequency was 235 metres (1278kHz) and programmes were sent through ISDN landline to Maidstone and via the internet and broadcast on satellite. I never had the idea to buy any of the singles they promoted, as these got so much airplay and therefore entered the charts. On 1 October 1989, Radio Caroline restarted broadcasting from the Ross Revenge using makeshift equipment and low power, to retain the 558kHz frequency. The poster itself,. Reception area: North of England, Midlands, Ireland, Scotland and North Wales. , updated In the evenings on 963, some alternative music programmes were tried, including the reggae "Jamming 963", and in 1986 and early 1987, a progressive and indie rock programme called Caroline Overdrive hosted by Tom Anderson, Fergie McNeal, Andy Johnson, Stevie Lane, Mark Matthews, Kevin Turner, Peter Phillips, Mick Williams (a.k.a. "Other Radio" currently has a weekly listenership of 3.8m adults a week. Her story illustrates how uniquely dangerous government regards an independent voice transmitted over unrestricted airwaves and to what ends it will go to silence it."[42]. A rudimentary news service, consisting of headlines on the half hour at peak listening times, was started on 12th September 1983, while the famous Caroline Bell was re-introduced on 16th September. 'He said that's the name for my radio station,' he added. Some of these 28-day Restricted Service Licence (RSL) broadcasts took place from the Ross Revenge during the 1990s, with the ship anchored off Clacton, in London's Canary Wharf, Southend Pier and off the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. Wonder where he is now? It gets good listening figures as it is the safe, middle England choice for people who have never listened to or refuse to listen to Radio 4, 6music, (or Radio 3, although I'm not a fan myself) or . Ronan O'Rahilly passed away April 20 at the age of 79. Smedley's men occupied the fort until 22 June. Important information on how the survey works and who and what we measure. As its popularity began to blossom, the British Government looked at ways to curtail the station's influence. Radio Caroline was begun by Irish musician manager and businessman Ronan O'Rahilly, after he failed to obtain airplay on Radio Luxembourg for Georgie Fame's records because the station was committed to sponsored programmes promoting major record labels: EMI, Decca, Pye and Philips. In a sign of Radio Caroline's enormous influence on popular culture, the BBC launched Radio 1 in September 1967 in an effort to respond to its success, as well as that of the rival Radio London. [18], On 3 March 1968, the radio ships Mi Amigo and Caroline were boarded and seized before the day's broadcasting began. The Government argued that the pirate operation was a danger because of the possibility of the radio frequency interfering with emergency shipping channels. Engineer Peter Chicago had hidden transmitter parts during the raid and retuned one 5kW transmitter, previously used on short-wave, to 558kHz. ", And then a small packet of Caroline's past was brought back by Mary Payne, director of the Radio London company which does a lot of work, including maintaining an excellent site on the history of Radio London together with her husband Chris. In June 1990, Spectrum Radio, a new multi-ethnic community radio station in London, was officially allocated 558kHz. Just after midnight GMT on 20 March 1980, the Mi Amigo foundered in a storm after losing its anchor and drifting. Radio Caroline's first musical theme was Jimmy McGriff's "Round Midnight", a jazz standard co-composed by Thelonious Monk. Since August 2000, Radio Caroline has also broadcast 24 hours a day via the internet and by the occasional restricted service licence. BBC Radio 4 had 10.48m listeners with 6.62m tuning in for The Today programme (Mon-Sat). O'Rahilly promised financial backing if van Dam could return the ship to broadcasting condition. Caroline coming in to pick up her pilot. [6] Because of the Christmas holidays, no solicitors were available to issue a writ and the ship lay in Amsterdam harbour until O'Rahilly arranged for it to be towed back to sea. How radio is measured in other European countries and throughout the rest of the World. ", Finally, here is Mark Reynolds writing in from Buckinghamshire and thanking all the people who tried to keep the memory of Radio Caroline alive over the years: "I did learn about offshore radio in late 1966 and followed the stations from that point on. Caroline launched the programme in 2015 with a new team in London who have now taken the programme onto London DAB digital radio in the UK. Ken Bruce has also confirmed that he's moving. The crew (Caroline Martin, Rico and one other) was rescued by an RAF helicopter. Several years later some of the seized items were returned to the station. Backed by wealthy investors which included Jocelyn Stevens of the popular Queen Magazine, the station was bizarrely named after Caroline Kennedy the daughter of assassinated US President John F Kennedy. Radio Monique was popular throughout Benelux. Legal status unclear due to a need to conceal actual legal ownership. In the late 1990's and later on I helped them with the promotion team when they were busy trying to convince as much as possible cable networks to put their signal on their networks. BBC Radio 5 Live posted a reach of 5.89m listeners. In March 1968, the very existence of Radio Caroline was threatened when both the MV Caroline and Mi Amigo were boarded and seized before being towed to Amsterdam by a salvage company to secure unpaid bills owed to a Dutch firm. Reception at that hour was far more difficult than during daytime and so I did my utmost to get the best reception possible. Bubblegum Lemonade released "Caroline's Radio" in 2010 which was a nostalgic look back at listening to Radio Caroline. [64] On 24 November 2021 a new transmitter was installed with an effective radiated power of 4kW. Nowadays, Radio Caroline has to resort to other sources. The 'amateurs' were said to be reaching 39million listeners with 15million in the South of England and the rest in the North. Radio Caroline's first programme, on 28 March 1964, was presented by Chris Moore. According to the latest Nielsen Audio Today report, more than two-thirds of the weekly radio audience works full time and tunes in when they're away from home. From its two vantage points, Radio Caroline's presenters who included future BBC stalwart Tony Blackburn and Tory MP Roger Gale regaled Britons with pop songs which they could only hear on conventional stations for a few hours a week. At one minute past midnight on 1 October 2001, Caroline returned on 1503kHz from the LV (Light Vessel) 18 in Harwich harbour. However, in July 1964, the owners of the two stations opted to merge the operations. There are very few restrictions placed on Caroline's licence, allowing them to broadcast virtually what they like within the law. Radio Caroline first began broadcasting in March 1964 from a 702-ton former Danish passenger ferry, the Fredericia, in international waters off the coast of Felixstowe. BBC Radio 2 has the best radio audience figures in the UK, with a reach of almost 14.58 million per week. That autumn various tests, consisting of continuous music, were made on 259 metres. Caroline Hepker. This memory has never left me and I can remember it made us all late for school, though as my mother was also my teacher at primary school, it didn't matter so much for me! [6] The TV operation was later found to be a publicity stunt.[24]. RAJAR reserves the right to publish complaints along with their outcome on this page. And that means that people's work schedules are significant drivers of the hourly flow of listening throughout the day. Radio Caroline's transmission output was almost 20kW, achieved by linking two 10kW Continental Electronics transmitters. DJs Chris Cary, broadcasting as Spangles Muldoon (who was also station manager), Andy Archer, Paul Alexander, Steve England, Johnny Jason and Peter Chicago (real name Peter Murtha)[25] manned the station. While 6 Music saw a 3.1 per cent dip in its quarter-on-quarter listening figures - pulling in 2.6million listeners - the station is still the UK's number one digital radio station. From December 1984 the Ross Revenge broadcast Radio Monique, recorded and live Dutch-language programmes of a Dutch music radio production company using the 50kW transmitter during daytime. In March 1964, The Fortunes recorded Caroline, which became the station's theme. The station had some success but stopped broadcasting due to lack of funding. The Mi Amigo returned to its Frinton-on-Sea anchorage with a redesigned antenna and a new 50kW transmitter and attempted to resume broadcasting on 18 April, nominally on 259 metres to enable the same jingles as Radio Caroline North on 1169kHz to be used, but actually 252 metres. Lincoln - Jaz Shelley and Alexis Markowski both put up big double-doubles to lead four Huskers in double figures, as the Nebraska women's basketball team rolled to an 80-64 win over Northwestern in front of more than 6,000 fans at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Sunday afternoon. After a short test on 773kHz in late 1975, in May 1976, Radio Caroline began a daytime service on 1562kHz (192 m) using a 10kW transmitter, while its overnight service continued to share the 50kW transmitter with Radio Mi Amigo's daytime programming on 1187kHz (253 metres, announced as 259). Hughley is partnering with Janssen to empower Black communities with information and encourage better self-advocacy for their health. Now I don't know Peter Moore personally, so cannot comment on the type of person he is, but I do know that he has done a lot for Caroline over the past few years and I'm sure without him it would still be nowhere to be heard. Janssen Launches Health Equity Campaign in Partnership with Award-Winning Radio Host D.L. Huskers Close Out Cats, 80-64. Menu. RNI operated on medium wave, short wave and FM. Eventually, Caroline left 558kHz and moved to 819kHz. In December 2010, Chatham and Aylesford MP Tracey Crouch presented an Early Day Motion to the House of Commons calling for Ofcom to allow Radio Caroline to broadcast as a licensed medium wave station to its "traditional heartland of the south east". Over the following months, Caroline's signal quality improved as transmitting valves were donated and programming returned to normal. Throughout most of the 1970s, Radio Caroline could be heard only at night, calling itself "Europe's first and only album station". On 1 January 2016, a second channel was launched called Caroline Flashback, playing pop music from the late 1950s to the early 1980s. Much improvement to the lay-out of the ship was planned but basically the studios would have remained. Part of the proceeds helps keep us on the air. In 2002, Caroline began on WorldSpace satellite radio, continuing until Worldspace went bankrupt and re-organised its operations in 2008. Global's Highest Radio Reach EVER!!! In 2011 Radio Caroline joined Radioplayer UK, an internet service formed by the BBC, Global Radio and the Guardian Media Group that supplies a live feed of UK radio stations to across the world.[57]. Here they produced programmes for Dutch-speaking holidaymakers, mostly Europop, Top 40, MOR and Dutch language popular music presented by Belgian, Dutch and occasionally English DJs with frequent commercials. RAJAR figures for Q3 2022, 27 June - 18 September 2022. Links would have been to the 603 and the 1242 kHz transmitters as before, but programmes would have taken on a slightly different slant. Just as I was about to go to school one morning, my mother called me and my brother into my parents' bedroom to watch the M.V. Due to generator trouble, the two services could no longer be broadcast simultaneously and Radio Caroline again broadcast at night with both stations using the 50kW transmitter and Radio Caroline began to receive more mail from the continent. (Anderson): It's not a very good occasion really, we have to hurry this because the lifeboat is standing by. 2hrs of the best current and classic rock, you just have to check Dave`s programme out, live and always full of those special suprises. Between 31 January and 1 May, Radio Caroline South broadcast from the vessel Cheeta II, owned by Britt Wadner of Swedish offshore station Radio Syd, which was off the air because of pack ice in the Baltic Sea. To accommodate the second aerial, a second short mast, just in front of the bridge, was employed as the other end of the aerial fixed to the main mast.