Issue 10

Riding the waves on the boat that still rocks

Lark Music friend Tina Ediss shares her luck at visiting the iconic radio station Radio Caroline

Listening to Radio Caroline in the 1960s At 9am, on a hazy morning that held the airtime and he couldn’t get it played. With had been a memorable part of our youth. promise of a sunny day, we boarded the his typical “why not?” attitude he decided The establishment, and our parents, tender Razorbill 3 at West Mersea in to start his own radio station. disapproved of it which made it even to take us on a voyage back to the The station offered an alternative to more appealing. Teenagers all over the . mainstream radio which was then under country tuned in, often listening secretly Radio Caroline was launched in 1964 the control of the BBC; there were three on their transistor radios as they hid by Ronan O’Rahilly. Ronan had been a stations – the Light Programme, the under the bed covers. familiar face on the music scene Home Service and the Third Programme. So it was with great excitement that we and he started his own record label to There was little airtime for the latest were going out to tour the iconic pirate promote . He found major hits, especially the new, exciting sounds radio station Radio Caroline. record companies had a monopoly on coming from the USA. Picture: Colm O'Laoi Colm Picture:

This article first appeared in Lark Music magazine, and has been republished with permission. 29 Perfectly tuned insurance

SHIP OF MEMORIES: The red hull and towering masts makes you tune into one's youth Pictures: Paula Shaw and David Bathurst

O’Rahilly‘s first two ships, both volunteer – all highly skilled, dedicated who was programme controller and one broadcasting outside British territorial people. of the mainstays of Caroline during the waters, were MV Caroline which mid-80s. Paula Shaw, the Ross Revenge Tour operated near the and MV Mi Manager told us: “Our visitors come from “The Ross Revenge was my home for Amigo off the coast of . The all over the world, some are long-time about four years in the 1980s,” recalled first record played on March 28, 1964 was listeners and some are new. We have a Peter in his rich, perfect-for-radio voice. Not Fade Away by the Rolling Stones. lot of students, families and enthusiastic “Along with other Caroline diehards, I Eventually seized by debtors, MV listeners of all ages. would spend months at a time on board - Caroline met a sad end in a Dutch then take a couple of week’s shore-leave to “A lot of the younger people learned scrapyard in the early 70s. The Mi Amigo see friends and family – and go to the pub. about Radio Caroline from the movie continued until 1980 when she floundered , which was loosely “It was a way of life, and I very much in heavy seas and sank. Everyone onboard based on our story. They’re fascinated to enjoyed it. I look back on my time on the was saved but thousands of precious see the studio equipment loaned to the Ross with great fondness. I was invited records and equipment were lost. filmmakers. back to take part in the monthly Caroline The station started transmitting from North broadcasts from the ship and was “Some get quite emotional; Radio her replacement, the Ross Revenge in thrilled to accept. I’ve been doing it for Caroline brings back happy memories for 1983. Once a trawler, she was sturdier about three years now.” many of our listeners. than the previous vessels. Even so, she We were split into two groups for the couldn’t ride a Force 10 storm and was “People really enjoy being shown around tour. For me, it was all about the music, shipwrecked on the Goodwin Sands in by the DJs, most were on onboard in the my husband Roy was more interested 1991. pirate days, and love hearing their stories. in the technical aspects. He’s a radio Eventually restored by volunteers, Visitors leave Ross Revenge saying it was frequency engineer so, for him, seeing all the Ross Revenge now broadcasts live an incredible experience.” the equipment was like seeing the crown from the Blackwater Estuary in Essex GETTING ONBOARD jewels. one weekend a month. The station also When we came alongside the ageing ship, The tour lasts about an hour and a half. transmits 24/7 from a land-based studio. with her red hull and soaring mast, there It had us clambering up and down steep The trip out to the ship takes about 30 was really no mistaking Radio Caroline. stairs, down to the hold, to the depths of minutes. There are two types of tour; As we climbed onboard I could hear David the engine room, out on the deck and into you can join those led by a DJ during the McWilliams’ Days of Pearly Spencer, a the record library. The tour ended in the monthly live broadcasts or at other times song played repeatedly by Radio Caroline studio as the DJ broadcast his live show. in 1967. The mood was set. when there’s no live broadcast. We were Back in West Mersea, over a fresh seafood lucky enough to get on a live broadcast We were taken to the mess where the tour lunch in one of the seafront restaurants, tour. Everyone working on the ship is a begins. Our guide was DJ Peter Philips I asked Roy if he had enjoyed it.

This30 article first appeared in Lark Music magazine, and has been republished with permission. Issue 10

Ronan O’Rahilly May 21, 1940-April 20, 2020

Not long after Tina Ediss's trip came the sad news that Ronan O’Rahilly had died. He had been SHIP OF MEMORIES: The red hull and towering masts makes you tune into one's youth Pictures: Paula Shaw and David Bathurst suffering with dementia for many years and passed way in a nursing home in Ireland on 20th April. He was 79. “I think it’s an incredible story,” he said, The son of a wealthy Irish businessman, Ronan was “I mean, where would you even begin to proud to boast he had been expelled from seven create a radio station on a ship? It was an schools; he was always going to be different. unusual technical and major engineering He was hip, cool in a decade that defined cool. A feat using the expertise gained by the free-thinking rebel, he had all sorts of ideas, some North American AM radio stations. hare-brained, others genius. He is credited with changing the face of radio forever and launching “The transmitter room has a 1963 vintage the careers of our most loved DJs including Tony RCA BTA-50H “Ampliphase” 50kW AM Blackburn, and Johnnie Walker. transmitter – that’s like finding a lost classic car. It fed the original antenna Tina spoke with station manager Peter Moore who had known Ronan for decades: tower which was 300 ft, about as high as Big Ben! It had to be balanced and “The sad death of our founder Ronan O’Rahilly and stabilised by 300 tonnes of concrete in the massive publicity thus created, reinforced what the ship’s hold, and that’s still there. There a uniquely clever man he was and the huge impact Radio Caroline had. are also 250 – 500kVA AC generators in the generator room which powered all the “On the one hand we can be happy to have saved broadcasting equipment.” his ship and that his station can still be heard on AM radio, DAB and worldwide online. But, where would I have to admit that most of that was lost Radio Caroline have been now had Ronan not had on me, but the grin on his face said it all. to spend so much time protecting the station from For the rest of the day those golden oldies decades of hostility from successive governments ran in a loop in my head, triggering all sorts and agencies. of memories the way only music can. “The fact that Radio Caroline did not tick the right regulatory boxes ignores the fact that in 56 years it Radio Caroline broadcasts live never did an ounce of harm but gave enjoyment to from Ross Revenge one weekend a millions. Ronan once said to me, sadly bewildered month. For boat trip information, “Do you know, in all these years nobody has ever visit radiocaroline.co.uk or email said to us ‘Hey, you guys are not so bad, let’s talk [email protected] this over’.” Listen to Radio Caroline online at Ronan, above centre, with DJs and Johnnie Walker radiocaroline.co.uk , on DAB, on 648 Picture: The Archive AM and on the Radio Caroline app.

This article first appeared in Lark Music magazine, and has been republished with permission. 31