ARLA/CLUSTER: Radio Caroline vai voltar a "navegar"

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Pirate station Radio Caroline drops anchor at the River Blackwater

An iconic pirate pop radio ship has dropped anchor in the River
Blackwater for the first time since the mid-1990s, with plans to take
over the airwaves.

Radio Caroline, the world's most famous pirate radio station, which is
housed on the ship MV Ross Revenge, has docked just off the shore of
Bradwell after leaving its home of 10 years in Tilbury docks last
Thursday (July 31).

The station altered the face of pop music by challenging the
established radio format in the 1960s, 70s and 80s by playing 24 hours
of pop music a day, and tracks that other radio stations wouldn't.

Now the team is back on the Blackwater for the first time since 1993,
and plan to use a temporary 28-day radio licence to give Maldon and
the Dengie a taste of the famous station whilst they apply for an AM
licence to operate permanently.

Manager of the Ross Revenge Peter Moore, 67, who lives in Maldon and
who has been involved with Radio Caroline since 1976, said: "It's nice
to be back at Bradwell on the Essex coast again.

"We've had a lot of support from the local community and we hope to
get more involved.

"It was a hard old slog to get the boat here and we're glad to be back
– we've had a great reaction so far from the local community."

The radio station, currently based on its third ship, has a cult
following throughout Europe, after a turbulent history of
international police raids, fires, shipwrecks and financial ruin, all
of which inspired the movie "The Boat That Rocked" starring Bill Nighy
and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

At the height of its power the station had up to 20 million listeners
from the UK and Europe and changed the face of radio as we know it by
challenging the BBC's monopoly over the airwaves.

Peter told the Chronicle: "It's a totally different time now to when
Radio Caroline was over the airwaves and to think of the risks that
you took even getting on the ship and playing music is hard to
believe.

"Legally you could find yourself in prison for two years for just
playing music and the boat was hardly sea worthy.

"But it was a fantastic time to be involved with music. Radio Caroline
is like an addiction now we all work here as volunteers and love it."

Read the full Essex Chronicle story at
http://www.essexchronicle.co.uk/Pirate-station-Radio-Caroline-drops-anchor-River/story-22121919-detail/story.html

To tune into Radio Caroline go to http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/

Our thanks to Mike Terry for the above information