On 27th March 1964 Radio Caroline began broadcasting from a converted Danish passenger ferry the M.V. Fredericia, renamed 'Caroline'. The ship was anchored off Felixstowe, this was the beginning of the era of British offshore pirate radio which was to last until 1991, when Radio Caroline's last ship the Ross Revenge left the high seas . The arrival of Radio Caroline was reported in the Daily Herald on 8th April 1964 (5M file), they closed for the first time in 1968; Roger “Twiggy” Day talks to Ben Cree about his time on Radio Caroline:
In November 1966 Radio England closed down and Roger returned to disco work, working for, of all people, boxer Billy Walker at a new club he'd opened at Forest Gate. Then one day he dropped into the Radio Caroline offices and asked them for a job. "They were really a bit short of people, because it was coming up to the Marine Offences Bill, and most of their big name people were leaving to try and get themselves in with the BBC. So there I was, and I joined Caroline South about a month before the Bill came in." On board at that time were DJs Robbie Dale, Johnnie Walker, Steve Young, Keith Hampshire and Mike Ahern. When the Bill came along Roger, along with Robbie and Johnnie decided to stay put. "We had a choice - we could have left. They said we can't guarantee anything, but if you stay on we would appreciate it. I felt very strongly on the subject and still do. It was suppression of freedom and so I thought you've got to take a risk now and then, and they might clap us in jail - but it's something I believe in so it's worth taking a risk. Besides I thought someone's got to do it, or the listeners will be without a station that they love, and they did love Caroline - more so after we carried on. So I stayed and it proved to be the best thing I ever did because we all got on well together and had a really fantastic time."
Fantastic or not, the story of the final demise of the two Caroline ships was to come. Roger was on board at the time. What were his recollections of that fateful morning? "It was sad - oh so sad. It's very hard to explain the feeling. But the tug came alongside and I was up to do my breakfast show - I started at 5.30 am. It was a Sunday morning and I heard this boat alongside. I was worried because we had heard a rumour that students from the University of Essex were going to capture a DJ for a Rag Week stunt - so we were on our guard. So I went up on deck and there was this big tug from Wijsmullers, which was the company that tendered us. I saw one of the Dutch crew and asked what they were doing here because they often called in for a chat if they were passing, and he said 'They have come to tow you off to Japan'. So I just laughed and went off to the washroom, then went and collected my records and went to the studio.
The Captain then came in and said, “Off with the transmitter”. I hadn’t actually started broadcasting yet- we played continuous music for half an hour to warm up the transmitter. So I was waiting to go on, and I said, “Well can I say anything?” and “Why are we going off?” To this he replied that we were going to Amsterdam for repairs, and that I had two hours to clear all my stuff out of the studio. So then we realized that we were going in- and so we threw masses of documents over the side in case the wrong people got them. These were documents referring to “paid” records – because we had been existing on “paid plays” and we felt it would be wrong if people knew which companies had been supporting us illegally- so we got rid of all the stuff and threw it over the side. I woke Johnnie up to tell him that we were being towed in. At first he thought I was joking, but when we passed one of the lightships he knew I wasn’t. We just mooched around all day – we didn’t know what to do. There was a depressed feeling about the whole thing, because although they told us we would be back in three weeks- we all knew that it was the end. And that was before we knew that the Caroline North ship had been seized as well.
What made Roger and the other DJs have this feeling? “It was literally just a feeling, because we knew that once we were in port there would be lots of hassles- you know like the British Government could have put pressure on the Dutch government to stop us going out again – that sort of thing. We all had these feelings and it was very sad – a few tears were wept I don’t mind admitting. The thing that annoyed me most was that we weren’t allowed to say anything to the listeners. I thought that for the tremendous loyalty they’d shown us, we weren’t allowed to give something back- and I mean they wouldn’t know it wasn’t our fault.
Roger Day talking to Ben Cree for Deejay and Radio MonthlySkyport Radio was one of the first land-based Short Wave pirate stations and began transmissions in 1971. A few visitors have asked where the name came from; other than the obvious proximity of the station to Heathrow Airport (the planes could often be heard in the background of programmes). The name was actually chosen from an old 1966 Post Office Telephone Directory, in those days numbers in the London area were the first 3 letters of the area name followed by 4 digits. The dialling code for Heathrow Airport was SKYport, or 759. Skyport finally closed down in the early 80's after first merging with Radio Corsair as the Skyport Corsair Network, and a last transmission as Workers Radio. Meanwhile the station Uptown Radio carried on the successful Skyport format but on VHF in the London area.
Radio Jackie was the longest surviving, and most well known of London's Medium Wave stations. Many visitors have written pointing out that Radio Jackie was not the first land-based pirate station, I am well aware of that, they were however the most consistent and probably broadcast more hours than any other. Many people claim to have been the first, perhaps that distinction should go to those pre-war experimental stations who decided to liven up their broadcasts with a few gramophone records!
The Landbased Pirates page has been updated to provide a comprehensive history of Land-based Free Radio from 1968-1984, more material from the early 80's will be added soon. Keep an eye on the Skyport Radio photo page as I am currently adding more photos of some the transmitters used.
You can now listen to the original programmes of Skyport Radio and Uptown Radio on the Radio Eric sound archive, featuring Terry Anderson, Bob Earl, Rob Holland, Paul Richards and yours truly.Some sensational history revealed of the early days of Radio Kaleidscope.
The history of Thames Radio and Radio Britannia has been recently added to the Landbased Pirates page
.There are also some jingles in the new Audio index, more audio/video files will be added so visit regularly.
Apparently a new film depicting the story of Radio Caroline is to be made, look out for this one.
Don't miss the Radio Caroline North ‘Pirates of the Irish Sea’ Exhibition and 40th Anniversary Convention 19/20/21 September 2008 Douglas, Isle of Man, more details can be found here and here.
Mark King