Pirate Radio

'Pirate Radio' became a British phenomenon in the mid 1960s before commercial radio was legalized, at a time when - for most British listeners - 'commercial' radio meant tuning in to Radio Luxembourg.

Because of British radio 'needletime' restrictions in the early 1960s, it was difficult for the BBC's Home Service and Light Programme to play as many pop records as teenagers might like. There was a prevailing fear that if records took over, live music would all but disappear. 'Needletime' restrictions existed to ensure that performing musicians could make a living. As a result, the best thing available was an unsatisfactory weekday lunchtime show on the Light Programme featuring dance bands more familiar with the swing of Glenn Miller, and always struggling to come to grips with the latest sounds. 

Things were slightly better at the weekend when two shows, Saturday Club and Easy Beat , played new records and featured live rock groups.

Even so, British teenagers hungry for pop tended to tune in to Radio Luxembourg, broadcasting from the tiny Duchy of Luxembourg in Europe, after dark. Luxembourg's formula of non-stop pop records became the model for the new pirate station, Radio Caroline, which started broadcasting on March 29 1964, when DJ Simon Dee uttered the words, "Hello everybody. This is Radio Caroline, broadcasting on 199, your all-day music station". He was speaking from a small studio onboard the 702 ton former passenger ferry Frederica, known to its listeners as Radio Caroline.

Caroline was owned by Ronan O' Rahilly, a former record plugger, whose difficulty in securing radio play for a Georgie Fame single led him to consider emulating the Dutch pirate radio station Veronica with his own ship.

As was the case with most European countries, British law only prohibited commercial radio broadcasting on land. By basing itself in the North Sea, Caroline was able to exploit this legal loophole, providing British teenagers with all-day rock & roll fun, while simultaneously providing O' Rahilly with all-day profit from advertisers. But even before Caroline took to the air, moves were afoot to stop it. In the House of Commons on February 6, Postmaster General Ernest Bevins had been questioned following rumors about the impending launch of Radio Caroline. Bevins replied that legislation would be introduced to deal with it.

Other pirate radio stations sprang up in the wake of Caroline; Radio Atlanta was anchored off Frinton-on-Sea in Essex, although most pirate activity was in the Thames Estuary, where Radio London, Radio Invicta and Radio City all competed for the huge London-area teenage audience. There was even, briefly, Radio Sutch, owned by and starring the eccentric rocker, the self-styled Lord David Sutch (later Screaming Lord Sutch) broadcasting on 1542kHz from the Shivering Sands Fort, off the Kent coast.

Although new to Britain, pirate radio had existed in Europe since at least 1958, when Radio Mercury began broadcasting to Denmark and Sweden. A year later, Radio Veronica was serving Holland, and on 16 February 1961, Veronica made its first transmissions in English, covering an area along the eastern coast from the northern port of Hull to the seaside resort of Margate. Teenage reaction was almost unanimously in favor of the pirates, but before long the police had paid visits to several stations, even though proposed anti-pirate legislation had not yet been formulated.

The legal loophole which had allowed pirate broadcasters to transmit from offshore waters was plugged on August 15 1967, when the Marine Offences Act came into force. The brief era of pirate radio was forever extinguished, and when Radio London closed down the next day, it chose The Beatles' A Day In The Life (banned by the BBC) as its parting shot.

Radio 1, the BBC's new pop music station, was launched 16 days later. The station was specifically designed to replace the recently closed pirate stations and was based on American radio formats. Former pirate DJ Tony Blackburn opened proceedings by playing The Move's latest single Flowers In The Rain.

"The BBC have succeeded to a certain extent," admitted Ted Allbury of pirate station Radio 390, "but Radio 1 is like seeing your mother dancing the Frug. She may do it perfectly well, but you wish she wouldn't behave like that".