Recently, the excellent film ‘The Boat that Rocked’ “based on ‘Radio Caroline’” rocketed the name ‘Radio Caroline’ back out into the public eye after 20, 30, or is it 40 years of complete obscurity. Unfortunately for the merry band of pensioners who have carried on a ‘Radio Caroline’ via the internet and satellite they have a few minor hurdles to leap if they are to truly capitalise from the publicity.
The first, and probably most important one being that the phrase ‘Radio Caroline’, like the word ‘Hoover’, ‘Sky’ or even ‘Google’, no longer means ‘a radio station called Radio Caroline’ but means ‘all the long gone jolly offshore pirates of the 1960s’. Watching the inaccurate media reports about the real life history surrounding the fictional film, or even doing a search on Twitter chatter has confirmed this a hundred times. People just don’t know that any remnant of the offshore era exists.
Those that recall the pirate ships are confused as to when it all ended. For the overwhelming majority of folk it was the 60s. A few others will recall a Radio Caroline ship sinking. Even less recall the replacement ship, and the drama surrounding its boarding by authorities and finally the abandoning of caretaker crew to await helicopter rescue.
For those that then hear that there actually is a Radio Caroline to tune into today and then finally find the internet site and audio stream, there’s a big shock. This version of Radio Caroline sounds nothing like the version they recall, which, like the pirate station depicted in the film, was more fun and upbeat than the boring drone available to today’s internet listeners.
This final hurdle for this version of Radio Caroline is why it can only boast a few hundred listeners despite all the relentless and unrivalled free publicity. Unfortunately it is staffed by ageing volunteers who in the main are enthusiasts of the concept of offshore radio, primarily the boats that were once used as a platform for the broadcasters. Like steam engine enthusiasts, they have little to no interest in running an actual passenger railway, but just want to play with the engine. They are happy to drive their steam engine up and down a tiny bit of spare track at random times and speeds and maybe pretend they are doing the London to Scotland express run. This by its very nature automatically excludes providing an actual passenger railway for today’s passengers. Likewise the current version of Radio Caroline excludes all but a very few of today’s listeners. Its programming is a carbon copy of what the station was doing offshore after its hey day of the 1960s.
Not many ordinary radio listeners were aware of Radio Caroline’s return or intermittent continuance during the 1970s. It became the preserve of loners and misfits sitting in their bedrooms who also liked the more specialist diet of rock music it opted to play rather than the pop it had been more famous for in the previous decade. So, Radio Caroline quickly became a mainly forgotten secret cult for the few dedicated followers who would hang on every word uttered by the mainly stoned hippies that broadcast from it. Meanwhile, the vast majority of potential listeners were getting their musical choice catered for by the growing network of licensed stations.
The dedicated followers from the 1970s grew up and when offshore radio died, they came forward to grab and lovingly preserve the artefacts that were left. This they do to this day with a rabid obsession. Having preserved the equipment it made sense to them to produce radio programming. Again, this programming had to emulate the era of Radio Caroline most precious to them rather than move with the times, update itself or provide a unique service for radio consumers as had once been the case.
It is true to say that they will be some new stumblers finding this carbon copy of the 1970s Radio Caroline for the first time after 35 years who will find it completely agreeable. However, after an initial curiosity the overwhelming majority will disappear leaving it to play out the same old and getting older records to the same old and getting older faithful.
The true listeners to the original Radio Caroline remember if for being fun, for cocking a snook at authority, for being daring and taking a chance, even if in truth it never did any of those things. They imagine that The Boat That Rocks somehow truly represents in pictures what was going on in the background to get them the music and entertainment they remember. Then they listen to the modern day version of Radio Caroline. Then they go away very disappointed, leaving the old fellas to play with their train set on their own, rather than capitalise on the upsurge in interest in a type of Radio Caroline that actually rocks today’s boat.
Surely that’s got to be the saddest part of the legacy of offshore radio?
England's England 