Radio Caroline

Radio Caroline was a prominent Pirate Radio station and Europe's first all-day English language pop music station.

In the early post-WW2 years, broadcast media in the UK was a state monopoly franchised to the BBC. In the early 1960’s UK govt allowed commercial TV but commercial radio was still illegal.

During the roaring beatnik 1960’s the BBC only broadcast one hour of rock music per week.

This monopoly was finally broken on Easter Sunday 1964 when the first English language offshore pirate radio station started up, Radio Caroline. They offered all-day rock music, which had been hitherto unavailable to the British public. Soon several more pirate radio stations started up.

After three years, on 14th August 1967, the UK govt enacted the “Marine Offences Act” which forced most of the pirates to close down, except for Radio Caroline who continued intermittently for several years, until the 1990's.

But the genie was out of the bottle. The UK govt was forced to allow commercial radio broadcasting free of government ownership, and even the BBC started a 24 hour rock channel (Radio-1), and hired many of the DJs from the pirates.

Radio Caroline went onshore and returned to the air in 2004 using legal means including Internet streaming and Satellite channels (Astra and Woldstar), as well as some short range RF relays e.g. in Latvia and the French Riviera.

External links

• Official website
• A detailed history of the post-war revolution in British radio