35 Facts About Radio Caroline

Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly.

Radio Caroline name was used to broadcast from international waters, using five different ships with three different owners, from 1964 to 1990, and via satellite from 1998 to 2013.

Since August 2000, Radio Caroline has broadcast 24 hours a day via the internet and by the occasional restricted service licence.

Radio Caroline can be heard on DAB+ in Aldershot, Birmingham, Cambridge, Brighton, Glasgow, Norwich, London, Portsmouth, Poulton-le-Fylde and Woking.

On 1 January 2016, a second channel was launched called Radio Caroline Flashback, playing pop music from the late 1950s to the early 1980s.

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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.

Fredericia was renamed MV Radio Caroline and anchored off Felixstowe, Suffolk, where it began test transmissions on Friday, 27 March 1964.

MV Radio Caroline sailed from Felixstowe to the Isle of Man, broadcasting as she went.

MV Radio Caroline arrived at her new anchorage on the southern tip of the Bahama Bank, Ramsey Bay, on 6 July 1964, at a position formerly occupied by the Bahama Bank Lightship.

In October 1965, negotiations began for Radio Caroline to take over Radio City, which broadcast from Shivering Sands Army Fort, a Second World War marine fort off the Kent coast.

Two of the remaining four UK-based offshore stations closed, but the two Caroline ships continued with their supply operation moved to Netherlands waters, where unlicensed ship-based broadcasting was not outlawed until 1974.

Six weeks later, the BBC introduced its new national pop station Radio Caroline 1, modelled largely on the successful offshore station Radio Caroline London, and employed many of the ex-pirate DJs.

On 3 March 1968, the radio ships Mi Amigo and Caroline were boarded and seized before the day's broadcasting began.

Radio Caroline lobbied against the Labour Party, for the Conservative Party and for the introduction of licensed commercial radio in the United Kingdom.

Around this time, O'Rahilly decided Radio Caroline should adopt an album format similar to FM progressive rock stations in the US, an audience not catered for in Europe.

The first was a Belgian station called Radio Caroline Atlantis, owned by Belgian businessman Adriaan van Landschoot.

When Radio Caroline Veronica closed in 1974, some presenters moved to Radio Caroline Mi Amigo.

Radio Caroline promoted O'Rahilly's concept of Loving Awareness, a far-eastern philosophy of love and peace.

Radio Caroline continued, moving its headquarters and servicing operation to Spain.

Radio Caroline had greater night-time interference, and it was decided to move Caroline to a new frequency.

On 3 March 1977, Radio Caroline closed, announcing that it would return six days later on 319 metres.

In late 1977, Radio Caroline began sponsored evangelical programmes, and music programmes began at 9pm On 20 October 1978, technical and financial problems put the Mi Amigo off the air.

Radio Caroline began to broadcast from the ship on 19 August 1983, with unwanted mechanical sounds on speech.

Radio Caroline was opposed by some DJs and crew who had worked on the Mi Amigo and the album format stayed along with presenters such as Andy Archer, Samantha Dubois, Grant Benson, Robin Ross and Simon Barrett.

Radio Caroline returned to the air using a makeshift aerial with a less powerful signal.

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Radio Caroline claimed boarding the ship and removal or destruction of equipment was piracy.

Radio Caroline was off the air for most of the 1990s, except for occasional low-power broadcasts of one month.

In 2002, Caroline began on WorldSpace satellite radio, continuing until Worldspace went bankrupt and re-organised its operations in 2008.

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.

On 4 May 2015, Radio Caroline started a 24-hour "Flashback" webstream carrying "oldies" music and jingles.

The station played a wide selection of music from when Radio Caroline started in the 1960s, but included music from the 1970s and 1980s and early 1990s to widen the audience profile.

The station, owned by St Peters Studio and Community Radio Limited, has not only licensed the name from Radio Caroline, but has got technical support and programming from the station, who have their own community radio licences in the south, south east and in East Anglia on 648AM.

However, Dutch Radio Caroline failed to secure a high power AM frequency and the cable network service was discontinued because of lack of funds.

Radio Caroline is broadcast in the Republic of Ireland on channel 927 on the UPC Ireland cable service in the main cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Cappoquin, and the County Waterford towns of Lismore and Tallow.

In Palmerston, Radio Caroline International, based in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, acquired an AM commercial broadcasting licence in 2008, and was seeking wavelengths in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.