Background; Pirate Radio of the 60s

During the 1960s the BBC(British Broadcasting Corporation) had a monopoly on radio broadcasting in Britain, and the needs of pop music fans were not being met. Pop music received very little exposure, and there was a limit to the amount of records they could play. The BBC mostly broadcasted educational material such as speeches and lectures as well as banjo “butchered” pop songs.

The first radio station to fight the government was Radio Luxembourg, based in Luxembourg they broadcasted pop music to the UK. It was illegal but since they were abroad there was no way to prosecute them.

Offshore Pirate Radio did not start until 1964 when Radio Caroline(North) was the original ship to anchor off the Essex Coast. Radio Caroline first started broadcasting in 1964 but was joined a month later on May 9th by a pop radio station, Radio Atlanta which later merged with Radio Caroline, due to Radio Caroline’s audience base, becoming Radio Caroline South. Radio Caroline broadcasted from 6 a.m to 9 p.m and 12 midnight to 2 a.m. to North of England, Midlands, Ireland, Scotland and North Wales. On Easter Sunday of 1964, with their voices pre-recorded (because they were too nervous to broadcast live) Chris Moore and Simon Dee announced “This is radio Caroline on 199, your all day music station” followed by “Not Fade Away” by the Rolling Stones dedicated to their founder Ronan O’Rahilly. Ronan was a music industry entrepreneur who was finding difficulty getting his artists on the radio, so he found a way around the monopolized mainland UK stations.
By Autumn of 1964, Radio Caroline had more listeners than the BBC as pirate radio fans started to see the BBC as “grumpy killjoys”. The British government threatened to shut down pirate radio but made no actual efforts, due mostly to loss of votes, until a dispute over sea forts ended in murder giving pirate radio DJ’s a bad name. They were then portrayed as battling, murdering gangsters, allowing the government to propose the Marine Offenses Act becoming law at midnight, August 14th 1967. Ronan and Radio Caroline however attempted to defy the government, moving base to Holland, however the costs were high and isolation took its toll on the DJ’s. March 3rd 1968 the Radio Caroline was towed to shore and impounded by its creditor due to lack of payment. Ronan attempted to purchase Radio London, Oceaan VII, and Radio 270 ships but couldn’t because of the cost.
Radio London broadcast to the Southeast, anchored a few miles off Essex in the North Sea. The station broadcasted from December 16th 1964 to August 14th 1967. Started by Don Pierson, from Eastland Texas, he got the idea from Radio Caroline and Radio Atlanta.

Radio 270 was located on the Dutch ship Oceaan VII which was anchored off Bridlington Bay, broadcasting from June of 1966 to 1967, serving Yorkshire and North East of England. The Station dealt with many technical “nightmares” and seasick DJ’s on the harsh North Sea waves, only lasting less that a year but not because of its internal troubles but rather the governments Marine Offenses Act. The Oceaan VII was the inspiration for the Radio Rock boat in the film “Pirate Radio”/“The Boat that Rocked”.

Radio 270's Oceaan VII

Ronan O'Rahilly