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On March 28, 1964, Radio Caroline began broadcasting.
Radio Caroline: The pirate radio station turns 60
By Lewis Adams
BBC News, Essex
30 March 2024
A legendary pirate radio station is to host a special three-day broadcast to mark its 60th anniversary.
Radio Caroline defied the authorities when it started broadcasting non-stop pop music, offshore, on 28 March 1964.
{snip}
Many well-known broadcasters started their careers on Radio Caroline, including Tony Blackburn, Johnnie Walker and Simon Dee. … The station was founded at a time when broadcasting was dominated by the BBC and pop was played for an hour a week.
The Radio Caroline DJs were photographed at Walton police station, in Essex, after their ship ran aground in 1966.
Artists, such as The Kinks, Status Quo and Chris de Burgh, credited their success to airtime on the station and all recorded messages for the special anniversary broadcast.
{snip}
Built in 1960, the Ross Revenge is a 200ft (61m) former deep sea fishing trawler that was converted into a fully-functioning radio ship. … Radio Caroline was broadcast from the ship until 1991 when it was shipwrecked off the Kent coast.
The MV Mi Amigo, Radio Caroline's second ship, ran aground in 1966
{snip}
By Lewis Adams
BBC News, Essex
30 March 2024
A legendary pirate radio station is to host a special three-day broadcast to mark its 60th anniversary.
Radio Caroline defied the authorities when it started broadcasting non-stop pop music, offshore, on 28 March 1964.
{snip}
Many well-known broadcasters started their careers on Radio Caroline, including Tony Blackburn, Johnnie Walker and Simon Dee. … The station was founded at a time when broadcasting was dominated by the BBC and pop was played for an hour a week.
The Radio Caroline DJs were photographed at Walton police station, in Essex, after their ship ran aground in 1966.
Artists, such as The Kinks, Status Quo and Chris de Burgh, credited their success to airtime on the station and all recorded messages for the special anniversary broadcast.
{snip}
Built in 1960, the Ross Revenge is a 200ft (61m) former deep sea fishing trawler that was converted into a fully-functioning radio ship. … Radio Caroline was broadcast from the ship until 1991 when it was shipwrecked off the Kent coast.
The MV Mi Amigo, Radio Caroline's second ship, ran aground in 1966
{snip}
Radio Caroline - Pirate Radio Ships 1965
decibelfm
2.6K
Likes
218,175
Views
2015
Apr 16
Not available in your country? Try https://vimeo.com/125143389
52 Years ago a British Pathé film crew left Felixstowe harbour on the tender 'Offshore 1' for a visit to Radio Caroline's MV Mi Amigo. The footage of their 2 day film shoot was heavily edited and ended up as a 3 minute item, used as part of a short Pathé cinema special about 'Water'.
The Pathé archive recently published this 'Water-clip' on YouTube where many of you may have seen it. The picture quality and lighting of the professional cameraman were pristine, since it was shot on 35mm cinema film (without sound, just commentary and stock music added).
The young successful 'pirate' Radio Caroline got a bit of a tendentious outdated treatment by Pathe's commentator - representing the establishment in those days.
BUT... what interested me most was the fact that British Pathé also made 7 minutes of outtakes available online, albeit without any sound or colour correction. Outtakes consisting of many short fragments spread out over two files and in random order, but showing many details, scenes and DJ's on the Mi Amigo.
After analyzing all material it became clear to me that - when put back together in the right order, combined with audio, music and the original 3 minute item - the result should be a unique, high quality detailed representation of what life looked like on the Mi Amigo in this early, exciting period (late summer 1965).
Lately I restored hundreds of old photographs and video material for my iBook 'Pirate Radio Ships in the 70's' and since I'm a multimedia producer with a Final Cut Pro X editing set, I just could not resist the challenge, had to give it a try, see what it would look like.
So I set out for a complete re-edit, this time using every single frame available, putting all fragments back in the right order. Had to find the tunes of the DJ's and other music from that period (Pathé never recorded audio with the film). Searched many archives to find audio of the original text spoken by DJ's Dough Kerr, Paul Noble and Gary Kemp and was lucky enough to find it! Syncing it up as good as possible, adding background sound and effects (like seagulls, generator sound and typewriters) and a music soundtrack to the multitrack mix. Painstakingly colour grading all fragments to make them match and to revive the real colours.
The result is amazing and also a bit confusing. The pristine colours and sharpness make it hard to imagine all this happened half a century ago. We see a young and excited 22-year old Tony Blackburn enjoying the tender trip, looking up to his then boss: senior DJ Doug Kerr. The film crew used professional film lighting in all shots and it shows: detailed colour views of the studio, engine- and transmitter room, bridge and the guys playing chess on deck.
Tony Blackburn is featured extensively and other DJ's seen in action are: Gary Kemp, Paul Noble, Simon Dee and Dough Kerr, assisted by engineer Patrick Starling. Keith Skues and Bryan Vaughan can be seen briefly, leaving on the tender.
The featured tender Offshore 1 is a legendary ship as well, being the tender for both Caroline and Radio London. She had a second career in the 70's as Radio Northsea's 'Trip Tender' and is still being used for fishing trips out of Scheveningen in Holland.
To my knowledge this is the best available document on offshore radio and Radio Caroline in the 60's, the inspiration and 'source code' for all that was to happen later, Enjoy!
decibelfm
2.6K
Likes
218,175
Views
2015
Apr 16
Not available in your country? Try https://vimeo.com/125143389
52 Years ago a British Pathé film crew left Felixstowe harbour on the tender 'Offshore 1' for a visit to Radio Caroline's MV Mi Amigo. The footage of their 2 day film shoot was heavily edited and ended up as a 3 minute item, used as part of a short Pathé cinema special about 'Water'.
The Pathé archive recently published this 'Water-clip' on YouTube where many of you may have seen it. The picture quality and lighting of the professional cameraman were pristine, since it was shot on 35mm cinema film (without sound, just commentary and stock music added).
The young successful 'pirate' Radio Caroline got a bit of a tendentious outdated treatment by Pathe's commentator - representing the establishment in those days.
BUT... what interested me most was the fact that British Pathé also made 7 minutes of outtakes available online, albeit without any sound or colour correction. Outtakes consisting of many short fragments spread out over two files and in random order, but showing many details, scenes and DJ's on the Mi Amigo.
After analyzing all material it became clear to me that - when put back together in the right order, combined with audio, music and the original 3 minute item - the result should be a unique, high quality detailed representation of what life looked like on the Mi Amigo in this early, exciting period (late summer 1965).
Lately I restored hundreds of old photographs and video material for my iBook 'Pirate Radio Ships in the 70's' and since I'm a multimedia producer with a Final Cut Pro X editing set, I just could not resist the challenge, had to give it a try, see what it would look like.
So I set out for a complete re-edit, this time using every single frame available, putting all fragments back in the right order. Had to find the tunes of the DJ's and other music from that period (Pathé never recorded audio with the film). Searched many archives to find audio of the original text spoken by DJ's Dough Kerr, Paul Noble and Gary Kemp and was lucky enough to find it! Syncing it up as good as possible, adding background sound and effects (like seagulls, generator sound and typewriters) and a music soundtrack to the multitrack mix. Painstakingly colour grading all fragments to make them match and to revive the real colours.
The result is amazing and also a bit confusing. The pristine colours and sharpness make it hard to imagine all this happened half a century ago. We see a young and excited 22-year old Tony Blackburn enjoying the tender trip, looking up to his then boss: senior DJ Doug Kerr. The film crew used professional film lighting in all shots and it shows: detailed colour views of the studio, engine- and transmitter room, bridge and the guys playing chess on deck.
Tony Blackburn is featured extensively and other DJ's seen in action are: Gary Kemp, Paul Noble, Simon Dee and Dough Kerr, assisted by engineer Patrick Starling. Keith Skues and Bryan Vaughan can be seen briefly, leaving on the tender.
The featured tender Offshore 1 is a legendary ship as well, being the tender for both Caroline and Radio London. She had a second career in the 70's as Radio Northsea's 'Trip Tender' and is still being used for fishing trips out of Scheveningen in Holland.
To my knowledge this is the best available document on offshore radio and Radio Caroline in the 60's, the inspiration and 'source code' for all that was to happen later, Enjoy!
