UPDATED NOVEMBER 2025
Forty years ago Laser-558 ceased transmissions. It was a sad end to a hugely popular radio station. This month we remember its demise in part 5 of The Laser Story; and
we have numerous press cuttings from the time.
The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame was sad to hear of the recent deaths of four former offshore radio people: Tony Pine passed away
on 1st October. Back in the sixties he was Radio City's longest serving electrical and general engineer; on 13th October we lost Caroline DJ of the eighties Nigel Roberts. He was mainly heard on the
Caroline Overdrive service; on 25th October former Radio City and Caroline South DJ Tom Edwards lost his battle with cancer; and on 28th October, Colin Nicol,
ex-Radios Atlanta, Caroline and England passed away in Perth, Western Australia. We send our sincere condolences to the families and friends of all four. (The photo of Tony, left, is courtesy of Eric Jay; the photo of Nigel, right, was taken by Dennis Jason; the one of Tom, above left, is from Who's Who in Pop Radio, publshed by the New English Library;
and the one of Colin, above right, was supplied by the man himself.)
Our tribute to Tom Edwards can be found here; the one to Colin Nicol is here.
In Ireland, a local councillor has suggested a plaque or other suitable form of commemoration should be installed in Greenore, the port where the original Radio Caroline ship, and the
rival Radio Atlanta vessel, were fitted out. More details at www.ireland-live.ie.
See the contents page and DJ Directories of the sixties, seventies and eighties for full details of this website. If you
click to follow us on Facebook, you will be alerted when the site is updated.
|
SIXTY YEARS AGO:
7th November 1965: Radio Essex started regular broadcasts on 1353 kHz, 222 metres, from Knock John fort (more details here).
|
FIFTY YEARS AGO:
17th November 1975: Radio Caroline and Radio Mi Amigo were silenced by a police raid on their ship (more details here).
|
FORTY YEARS AGO:
5th November 1985: Laser-558 stopped broadcasting (more details here).
6th November: Laser's ship, mv Communicator, was escorted into Harwich by a government-hired surveillance vessel.
7th November: Radio Caroline moved onto Laser's vacated 558 kHz frequency.
|
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO:
5th November 1990, 1am: Radio Caroline closed down for the night. It did not reopen in the morning. It was the final broadcast from Caroline at sea
(play audio).
|
Britain's first offshore radio station, Radio Caroline, began broadcasting at Easter 1964 from a ship anchored just outside UK territorial waters.
She was followed by a host of other radio stations based on boats and marine structures dotted around the coast.
These “pirates” rapidly won an enormous and enthusiastic audience.
The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame
has been set up to honour the stars, the broadcasters, from that golden era of music radio.
This site is a tribute to the people who endured a daily battle with the elements to provide a soundtrack to the swinging sixties.
(The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame is a British-based website. It only includes those DJs who broadcast in English and could be heard in the UK. Offshore radio also flourished in Denmark,
Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Israel and New Zealand. The absence of the DJs from these countries in the Hall of Fame does not suggest that they are any less deserving, just that they are outside the scope of this site. Please
see the links page for details of websites which cover offshore radio in other parts of the world.)
|
The inductees in The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame are listed alphabetically. To find your favourite voice from the sixties either select
it from the drop-down list below, search the site using the Google box or click on the appropriate page from the table of contents beneath. For broadcasters from the later decades, go to the Seventies
Supplement or Eighties Supplement. There are some that we know very little about - see the help wanted page.
THE OFFSHORE STATIONS OF THE 60s, 70s AND 80s
|
We are very grateful to everyone who has contributed information, recordings or memorabilia to The
Pirate Radio Hall of Fame. We are always on the lookout for more so, if you have any items of interest, please get
in
touch.
|
A number of the photos, stickers and recordings on this site are beginning to show
their age. Apologies for those that are of less than perfect quality. Many of the photographs were distributed freely by the various radio stations
and were intended for as wide a circulation as possible. Others have been donated to The Pirate Radio Hall of
Fame which are of unknown origin. Where photos have been scanned from books, newspapers or magazines, we have given credit.
However, if anybody believes that their copyright has been inadvertently infringed by the inclusion of an item on this site, please
get in touch and it will be removed immediately. Similarly, anybody who has supplied
audio for The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame has been credited but tapes get passed from collector
to collector and often there is no way of knowing who made the original recording. Our apologies to anyone who thinks their work has been used
here without due acknowledgment.
The name ‘Radio London’ and the RL logo are used by kind permission of Radio London Ltd.
The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame links to MP3s which can be downloaded by UK-based
customers from Amazon. As in a traditional record shop, Amazon offers multiple versions of some songs. It isn't always easy to identify precisely which
version is which. We have endeavoured to ensure that each link leads to the appropriate version of the relevant track - the one that was played by the
offshore DJs of the era - but please listen carefully before purchasing. If you discover that any of them are later re-recordings, please
let us know.
The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame participates in the Amazon Europe S.à r.l. Associates Programme, an affiliate
advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk. If you buy anything from an Amazon link on
this website, we earn commission.
|
|
