Pirate Radio, the Last Frontier
The 60s pirate radio stations lived up to their name. Behind the pop and prog rock, the jingles, theme songs and patter there were battles against governments, the elements, the BBC, rival stations, shoddy equipment and sometimes even their own colleagues.
Accidents
| In Jan 1966 the Radio Caroline South ship MV Mi Amigo drifted in a storm and ran aground on the beach at Frinton-on-Sea . A few months later (and only two hours out of port) the 200 foot transmitter mast of the Swinging Radio England ship MV Olga Patricia came crashing to the deck. |
 MV Olga Patricia courtesy of Ron O'Quinn's personal collection |
A Killing
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Radio Caroline’s MV Mi Amigo Uploaded by Albertoke, GNU Free Documentation License |
In June 1966 Radio Caroline joined forces with rival pirate Radio City, to broadcast from a Second World War marine fort seven miles offshore from Margate. One of the directors of Caroline, Major Oliver Smedley, paid the Radio City owner, Reginald Calvert, to install a new transmitter at the fort. But when Caroline heard that the British Government, who owned the forts, intended to prosecute, they withdrew from the deal. Smedley, however, wanted repayment for the transmitter. He attacked the fort and silenced Radio City. Calvert then visited Smedley's home, demanding that the raiders quit the fort and return vital transmitter parts. The men came to blows and Smedley shot Calvert dead. During the subsequent trial, Smedley was acquitted on grounds of self-defence. |
Boardings, Legal Battles, Fighting Governments
During 1967 The British government made it illegal to advertise or supply an offshore radio station from the UK. Six weeks later the BBC introduced Radio 1, modelled on the silenced Radio London. As various governments outlawed pirate radios, ‘closing down’ ceremonies occurred in which staff demonstrated their commitment by impassioned on-air appeals and copious weeping. In the run up to the 1970 UK general election Radio Caroline, towed away in 1968 for non-payment of bills, revived itself as RNI. When it was jammed by the Labour government, the station, now renamed Caroline International, campaigned for the Conservatives, calling for commercial licensing. After the election the station name-switched again to RNI, but the jamming continued under the new Tory government.
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During 1971 Radio Veronica, a popular Dutch station, paid its rival Radio Nordsee International one million guilders to go off the air for two months. To enforce this agreement Veronica crewed the RNI ship Mebo II with their own staff. At the end of the two months one of RNI's directors, Erwin Bollier, tried to refund the money. Veronica refused, claiming the right to renew the contract. On January 5, 1971 Bollier boarded the Mebo II, sacked the Veronica-appointed captain, and took command. Despite claims that Veronica's staff had sabotaged equipment, RNI were soon broadcasting again. |
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In March Veronica sued RNI for breach of contract but lost. Worse was to come. On the night of May 15 three men in a rubber dinghy started a fire on the Mebo II which damaged the stern. RNI broadcast mayday calls. All on board were rescued and the fire was put out. The studios and transmitters were undamaged and RNI went back on air the next morning.
On May 17/18 Veronica's directors Norbert Jurgens and Bull Verweij were arrested. In a television interview Verweij claimed he had paid a man to tow the Mebo II into Dutch waters, but denied any intention to endanger the lives of RNI's crew. Both were found guilty, together with the crew of the dinghy, and all five were sentenced to a year in prison.
Conflicts, Drugs, Debts
The early 1970s were, according to author Bob Noakes, a difficult time for Radio Caroline. Equipment was unpaid for, tenders had to keep changing ports to avoid customs raids, and there was a high turnover of DJs due to inexperience or personal conflicts. While the station heavily promoted what it called ‘Loving Awareness’ DJs were high on marijuana and at each other's throats. A little later Caroline began, like several other stations, broadcasting sponsored evangelical programmes in order to supplement its income. In 1974 Noakes and other staff planned a mutiny: to take over the ship, sail it to the coast of Belgium, and anchor next to the Radio Atlantis ship Janiene. The plot was discovered; Noakes was fired, and took a job at RNI.
Mix-ups and Passionate Fans
| From 1973 to 1974 Radio Atlantis, a Belgian-owned pirate radio station, used Caroline's ship MV Mi Amigo to broadcast its Flemish/Dutch programmes. Staff discovered on the station’s opening day that the transmitter crystal had gone missing. |
 Duncam Rawlinson Creative Commons 2.0 |
The matchbox-sized crystal had been used as a replacement pawn and thrown overboard when the ship’s chess set was replaced. In Oct 1973 the Mi Amigo's 180-foot lattice antenna mast (itself a replacement for the tubular steel mast that had collapsed a year earlier) fell into the sea. In response Atlantis switched to another dangerously ageing ship, MV Janiene, but closed a year later. On the last day 1,000 passionate fans crowded Vlissingen Harbour to say goodbye.
The subsequent boarding, in September 1974, of the long-abandoned Gunfleet Lighthouse seems to have been a last desperate attempt to relaunch Radio Atlantis.
And a Sinking
During the 1970s Radio Caroline’s MV Mi Amigo ran aground on sandbanks several times. One particularly serious grounding occurred in Sept 1976 when the ship broke its anchor chain, the studios were flooded, the antenna feed cable broke and the hull was breached below the water line. Finally just after midnight, March 20, 1980, the ship lost its anchor again, drifted for several miles taking in water then foundered on a sandbank and sank. The DJ’s last words from the ship were, “We're going onto the lifeboat hoping that the pumps can take it, if they can, we'll be back, if not, well we really don't like to say it ... For the moment from all of us, goodbye and God Bless."
For the next six years the ship’s 160-foot mast remained erect, pointing skywards from the North Sea in what some determined fans called a gesture of defiance.
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