Some of you old timers who remember the days of the pirate ship radio stations of the 1960s might be surprised to learn that Radio Caroline has been granted a licence to operate on 648kHz (463 metres medium wave) initially with 1000 Watts e.r.p. Doubt if it'll be strong enough to be heard in Wigan during the day, but after dark, it might be possible. Transmissions expected sometime in August.

Do you remember BEFORE Caroline, when you had to wait util 8-00pm for Radio Luxembourg ("on 208 mtetres: your station of the stars") to begin its English Language broadcast, if you wanted to hear pop?

And the ever-present advert for Horace Batchelor......

"The address was always read as "Horace Batchelor, Department One, Keynsham, spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M, Keynsham, Bristol". Batchelor needed to carefully spell Keynsham out loud for his listeners (and prospective clients), as the town's name is pronounced CANE-sham, and its spelling is not obvious from the way that it is pronounced.[4] Batchelor's slow, very deliberate spelling and repeated mentions of Keynsham on his programme led to the town's name becoming something of an in-joke for British people, and was why the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band named an album Keynsham. The Bonzos referenced Batchelor on other occasions as well: Batchelor's voice is imitated at the start of the Bonzos' song "You Done My Brain In", saying "I have personally won over..."; and his is one of the names listed as a spoof band member in The Intro and the Outro, the opening track on the second side of the album Gorilla." (Wiki)

The summer of 66....school holidays..mum and dad at work...radio Caroline all morning...brilliant

I remember them both.. could only get Radio Luxembourg after it got dark.. The family would be in the 'Sitting' room watching television..I would be in the kitchen listening to Radio Luxembourg.
If I remember right, R L played a lot of what is now called Classic Country, but then was Pop.. Good times back then..:-)

Found this in 'Radio Luxembourg' wiki:

"The station sign-on time at dusk varied between summer and winter to allow maximum benefit to be gained from a skywave propagation at night that covered the British Isles, although reception was stronger in northern England. By restricting the service to night-time, the sales representatives were able to sell most of the available airtime both for spot commercials and for sponsored programmes."

Zunk

Just like to thank-you one and all for bring those lovely memories back, for that was my era also having left school i bought first portable radio from HELLER'S it was across from Wallgate Rail station, My mam/dad got me first car ( ford pop 100 ENGINE reg HEK 672 ) and what really upset me was i took mam/dad and fiancee to North Wales for a day out .
We went up "horseshoe pass" Conway and the castle ,then we made our way back thro Rhyl fro some tea. Parked up had a belting fish and chip's only to find when we got back to car we noticed the small quarter window had been forced and guessed what alas i had left radio on back shelf upon a blanket IT HAD GAWN! ( bastard's)by that time we had no music to listen to all way home ,but was not long before i saved up and bought another again from HELLER'S still very happy day's with my parent's and girl oh how one could just have a wish!
Have a nice day!

We used to call it the wireless.

Then it became more often called 'Radio'.

And, it seems, today, we have gone back to wireless, as in WIFI etc.

Remember:

Must be one of the most dramatic changes in affordability in the whole of economics: from when a radio valve cost more than a week's wages, to the Millions of transistors in a modern CPU, at the cost of......

Well, I do recall when you could buy the Z80 chip for 80 pence! (less if you purchased in quantity)

I remember taking one of those 2v glass accumulators to the hardware shop to have it re-charged, it cost 6d, by careful use, you could get a week out of it.

Yes. I guess every locality had a shop that did charging. Ours, (Bryn) went to Mrs Grifiths on Wigan Road, which in addition sold bike parts and paraffin (fuel) Can't recall ifn it whur 'Pink' or if they were Esso blee doolers. Sort of shop not found any longer.

Yes it was called a Wireless.. I remember my dad bringing home a new one.. talk about being beyond thrilled. we had a NEW Wireless.. Those were the days.. I'd like to see a youngster these days being thrilled to have their dad bring home a new Wireless..... Don't know they're born these days, short of nothing....

Now that's what you call reminiscing.

Just think Radio Caroline legitimised at last[:) I used to love it. Such memories, and, as previously Luxembourg.
Also what about the transistor radio, now that was a revolution
And in addition to that my first record player - the Danset remember that along with my very first record - Gerry and the Pacemakers singing Ferry Across The Mersey

Horace Batchelor

It was all very odd, looking back.

We had commercial Television, since the 1955

Yet more than ten years on, the UK government still resisted having commercial radio broadcasting.

So, Radio Luxembourg and some other European broadcasters were scooping the advertising revenue until the Pirates emerged. Though the concept was launched in the 1950's, when 'Voice of America' beamed propaganda into the Soviet Block by broadcasting from a converted ship.

And, it was Caroline, and others of this ilk, that were perceived to be on the side of the people, not the government!

I always remember the trouble they had pronouncing Mesnes St in some ones request, they would say "Now here is a song for jenny who works in ........Mezznezz St" it used to crack me up every time.

Doesn't time just fly by: to think this is closer to then than it is to now!

It's frickenin, but we'll put on a brave face

In 1971, I was working as a Quality Control Engineer in Radio-Telecommunications, when I received an SOS from Radio Northsea.

London, not having coastguard, I relayed the call to New Scotland Yard, and I gather mine was the first report received. Much later, the DJs began SOS appeals on the service broadcast.

The craft had been fire-bombed, and two fire tenders EVENTUALLY arrived to quell the blaze. The crew were able to re-board after a couple of hours, and recommence broadcasting.

click

If I remember correctly,the bombers, described by the judge as gangsters, only received a one year custodial sentence.

I was going through a very bad time in my life back then and honestly have no memory of that at all.. Good on you priscus, saved life and property that night..

It is very nice of you to say so, although probably not on that occasion, being that the distress call was widely broadcast, and the emergency response was delayed, many believing that it was held back for 'political' reasons.

However, because of the nature of my work, I would commonly have equipment under test on the emergency frequencies, and often was the first to report distress calls.

It was an incredibly interesting job, but the pay was crap for Central London.

Years ago, I regularly monitored 2182kHz, can't say I ever heard any activity there.

Our lab was a SUB STANDARD (NOT Substandard) establishment, meaning that our Volt, Kilogram, Metre and Second were directly calibrated against the National Physical Laboratory's.

This comes expensive, so many manufacturers and operators engaged us to maintain standards, soak test equipment for certification, and do failure mode analysis, etc etc.

Our own Marine Division supplied automatic keying Distress transmitters, and automated monitoring stations.

I would not personally have been engaged in monitoring per se, but would be surrounded by quite a lot of equipment doing just that 24/7

Oh what great carefree days , lying ont grass in Mesnes Park with a tranny ( ie a radio , not tother) and flirting wit girls . Priceless and listening to radio caroline full of aussies

Playing around with Sue and runny nose Linda...and Alice....don't ask...Caroline days with my Pyle transistor

Mezznezz St, yes, I remember that.

Ron . E Sparks sadly he has passed.

What was one of the dj's name's i think he had a slur with his speech im damned i can't recollect it any one on here ? Also i think it was his girl/friend or wife who had a spot too would be great to find the names of these two !

Radio Caroline

Does this help?

Mollie m ,

Thank-you Mollie i have just googled radio luxembourg the people i am listening to right now are STUART & OLLIE HENRY AS i say listening to it now great ,thanks again.

Gorra transistor radio when I was 14/15 and tried many times to tune it to the staion for it coming on at 6 am, sometimes it did, other times it had drifted off....the reason was it always started with the song "Caroline" by the Fortunes.....Great station.

It's currently on-air now testing, 648kHz (463m)

more info for anyone interested


Radio Caroline

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anyone remember the djs names on caroline ? .

A good read, can't shorten the url.

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/UK/Miscellaneous/Radio-Caroline-Venmore-Rowland-1967.pdf

Radio Caroline