UPDATED JULY 2024
In the sixties Robin Best was a DJ on Radio 270. Sadly he passed away in May 2021 but his son Matt has very kindly sent us some excellent photos his father took on
the ship; plus we have two RNI Super Hit 50 charts from 1971.
9th July: We have just heard the sad news that RNI's Paul May, also known as Paul Dean on Laser, passed away yesterday. He had been battling cancer. Our condolences to
his family and friends.
We were delighted to hear that a blue plaque has been unveiled to the memory of our old friend, the late Duncan Johnson. In June the Royal Variety Charity added ten plaques honouring
former residents at its care home Brinsworth House in London. Duncan was in good company. Other plaques were for such famous names as Charlie Drake, Norman Wisdom, Leslie Grantham, Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson, and Mike Yarwood.
Duncan passed away in 2018. Our tribute to him is here. He isn't the only ex-pirate to have been granted a blue plaque. One was unveiled to the memory of Kenny Everett in 2013. See
here. (Photo shared by the Royal Variety Performance on Facebook.)
Thanks to those of you who have voted on which cover Erin Kelly should use for her book about Laser-558. If you haven't voted yet and want to have your say, please check out this page.
There is going to be a celebration of the 60th anniversary of Radio Caroline North happening in Ramsey on the Isle of Man over the weekend of 2nd-4th August. Andy Wint and Ray Clark will be telling the Caroline story; there'll be
60s live music, Caroline North beer, cars and buses from the era, themed tram rides, offshore memorabilia, etc.. More details here.
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 our Facebook page, you will be alerted when this site is updated.
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SIXTY YEARS AGO:
3rd July 1964: Radio Caroline set sail for a new anchorage in the north. Radio Atlanta became Radio Caroline South (see here for more details).
6th July, 3.32pm: The Caroline ship dropped anchor in Ramsey Bay, Isle of Man. The station was now Radio Caroline North.
17th July: Radio Invicta began regular programmes on 985 kHz, referred to as “306 metres” (see here for more details).
29th July: Radio Noordzee began broadcasting in Dutch from the man-made “REM island” off Noordwijk, Holland.
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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.)
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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
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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.
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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.
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