Radio Caroline: The True Story of the Boat that Rocked

by Ray Clark, Emperor Rosko (Foreword by), Keith Skues (Foreword by), Paul McKenna (Foreword by)

Overview

In March 1964, a ship with a towering 168ft-high steel transmitting mast anchored just beyond British territorial waters, started to broadcast . . . And a legend was born. RADIO CAROLINE was the world’s most famous pirate radio station in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. But while thousands of listeners were tuning in across the country, it wasn’t always smooth sailing behind the scenes. Though she was financed by respectable city money men initially, Caroline faced many challenges: political opposition, financial worries, technical problems and, of course, the dangers and difficulties of the sea. She defied authority, helped to transform attitudes and promoted musical innovation, love and peace throughout her trials. Radio Caroline is remembered as an icon of the Sixties but actually continued on through the Seventies and Eighties, and still broadcasts today. Featuring unpublished interviews with the ‘pirate presenters’ who were there, Ray Clark, former Radio Caroline DJ, tells the captivating story of the boat that rocked.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781803996813
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	03/28/2024
Edition description:	New edition
Pages:	402
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Ray Clark has enjoyed a successful radio career for more than thirty years, after fulfilling his dream of working aboard Radio Caroline in the eighties. Since then he has regularly broadcast on a variety of commercial and BBC radio stations, together with frequent appearances on Pittsburgh’s KDKA, the world’s oldest radio station. He has won numerous prestigious national and international radio awards. Ray continues to present programmes on Radio Caroline and BBC and has also written The Great British Woodstock (The History Press).

Table of Contents

Forewords 9

Acknowledgements 11

About the Author 13

Introduction 15

1 Before Caroline 19

2 Project Atlanta 27

3 The 'Why Not' Business 39

4 Chug-a-lug, Chug-a-lug, Chug-a-lug 51

5 Genius 61

6 Your All-Day Music Station 68

7 The Ship that Rocks the Ocean 80

8 The Caroline Network 87

9 You're Hearing Things … 105

10 Bringing News to the Nation, Fast and Factual 114

11 The Tower of Power 139

12 A Sudden Swing in High Command 143

13 Mayday, Mayday 147

14 It's a Cash Casino 155

15 The Sound of the Nation 159

16 Oh, Mister Benn, You're a Young Man 165

17 Let Me Marry You … 169

18 Paying for Plays 172

19 The Fight for Free Radio 179

20 Caroline Continues 183

21 Cutting the Chain 194

22 Television, Who Do You Think You Are Kidding …? 201

23 Unseaworthy and Barely Habitable 206

24 Caroline Comes Home 219

25 Ship in Distress 234

26 We'll Be Back 244

27 Eurosiege 260

28 Into Overdrive and Playing the Hits 264

29 Hurricane Force 12 297

30 Who Are the Real Pirates Here? 305

31 Could this Finally Be the End? 311

32 What Do We Do Now? 318

33 Past, Present … Future? 337

Notes 341

Index 348