Part Three: Monique comes aboard

On 27th September 1984 the station changed its name to “Caroline International” for a while and, from the following night, broadcasting hours were extended to 2am. A couple of weeks later, on 9th October, they grew further, to 3am. Even better, the following week 24 hour broadcasting returned. With eight disc-jockeys and a newsreader, the largest broadcast team for many years, Caroline sounded on top form.

Alton Andrews on a Caroline afternoon show in October 1984. This clip is taken from a recording shared on the Free Radio Forum by Robin Westhof. Thanks to him (duration 2 minutes 58 seconds)
Paul McKenna on the afternoon show on Caroline International, 13th October 1984. This clip is taken from a recording in the archive of Golden Radio NL, shared on the Internet Radiocafé forum (now known as Radiotrefpunt) by MartinJA. Our thanks to him too (duration 3 minutes 27 seconds)

In the early hours of 17th October extremely dedicated Caroline listeners might have heard an offshore landmark. For the first time, the two transmitters on the Ross Revenge put out different programmes. While Barry St.James was broadcasting on 963 kHz, engineer Mike Barrington took over on 576 kHz until 5am.

Mike Barrington hosting a test transmission on 576kHz in the early hours of 17th October 1984. An excellent engineer but not the slickest DJ - he forgets the frequency, gets his colleague's name wrong and ‘crashes’ the vocals! The clip is taken from a recording kindly provided by John E. Patrick (duration 2 minutes 19 seconds)

The tests proved successful but on Sunday 28th a technical fault silenced the 576kHz transmitter. It returned to the air on 9th December.

Then on Saturday 15th December the two frequencies split completely. While Radio Caroline continued on 576 kHz, non-stop music began on 963, with just occasional links announcing the arrival of a brand new radio station, Radio Monique International.
 
After a year of living hand-to-mouth, economic necessity had forced Caroline to hire out its main transmitter. Dutch entrepreneur Fred Bolland, the man who had run Caroline's Dutch service during 1979-80, was now prepared to pay the ship's expenses and running costs in return for the daytime use of the big transmitter for a new Dutch station named after his former wife. Caroline was reduced to using just the small 5kW transmitter during the day. Radio Monique opened for business on 16th December.

The opening of Radio Monique, 11am GMT, 12 noon CET, 16th December 1984. This clip is taken from a recording shared on the Radiotrefpunt (radio meeting point) forum by Frank V. Our thanks to him. The opening music was the theme to the TV show Terrahawks (duration 2 minutes 35 seconds)

Although more musically middle-of-the-road than Caroline, Monique had a slick, professional presentation style and was on the air each day from 4am to 7pm GMT (later 6pm). Some of Monique's programmes featured top Dutch disc-jockeys recorded on land, legally, for a syndication company Music Media Nederlands. These tapes went out on a couple of Belgian and Spanish stations, as well as on Monique. The disc-jockeys and advertisers claimed not to have anything to do with the pirate broadcasts but, none-the-less, were quite happy to be featured. This cunning ruse brought old offshore favourites Joost den Draaijer, Tony Berk and Stan Haag back to a wide audience without them facing the risk of prosecution. Caroline still used the big transmitter during the night, while 576 kHz transmissions continued 24 hours a day (just closing down in the small hours of Monday morning for maintenance). The 576 signal was not particularly good at this time so, although Monique's cash guaranteed Caroline's survival, the station had lost a large chunk of its audience. Aware of this, a new second-hand 10 kilowatt medium wave transmitter was bought from the Irish land-based pirate South Coast Radio.
 
As can be seen from the programme schedules below, Johnny Lewis, fresh from hosting the test transmissions for Laser, was now firmly established on Caroline. Other voices new to the Ross Revenge during this period included Samantha, last heard from the mv Mi Amigo in 1978, and names like Alton Andrews, Paul McKenna, Susan Charles, Keith King, Tony James and Bruce Purdy. Another former DJ, Nick Richards, returned in January.

Alton Andrews.	Andy Johnson.	Susan Charles.	Bruce Purdy.	Paul McKenna.	Nick Richards.
Photos courtesy of Caroline Martin. See more of her pictures here.

On Sunday 6th January 1985 the Caroline crew noticed that Laser's ship seemed nearer than usual. They radioed across to warn their neighbours that they were drifting. The Communicator's crew checked their radar. They were where they should be, it was the Ross Revenge that had moved. In freezing force 9 gales and a torrential blizzard, the anchor chain had parted and the ship had started to drift. Shortly before 8pm Bruce Purdy closed Caroline down. The air-sea rescue people on land were alerted but, fortunately, were not needed as the ship managed to sail back to the anchorage under her own steam. The spare anchor was dropped but, because Ross Revenge was running low on fuel, it was decided to keep the station off the air to conserve the remaining stocks. Just a brief transmission, with code numbers for the office, was broadcast on 8th January.

Engineer Andy Moorcock with a “test transmission from the mv Imagine” on 8th January 1985. This clip is taken from a recording posted on The Offshore Radio Club Forum by Hans Hendriks. Our thanks to him (duration 2 minutes 53 seconds)

Caroline and Monique remained silent, by coincidence at the same time as Laser was off the air with aerial difficulties. Eventually the seas calmed down enough for the possibility of a supply trip but it was so cold that the diesel froze. It proved impossible for the crew to pump the fuel aboard. On the 10th Laser managed to make it back onto the air on reduced power and, the following morning, the two stations aboard the Ross Revenge followed suit. Refuelled, and with a supply of new records and late Christmas cards, the disc-jockey's sounded delighted to be back. They also sounded louder. A new transformer had been fitted and ensured a much stronger signal on 576 so that, while Laser continued to struggle with aerial problems, Caroline was now enjoying the stronger signal. Soon afterwards a new main anchor was fitted.

Nick Richards on Caroline-576, Sunday lunchtime 24th February 1985.This clip is taken from a recording shared on the Radiotrefpunt (radio meeting point) forum, by Vincent. Our thanks to him (duration 3 minutes 11 seconds)

On the advertising front, as well as some of the previously mentioned campaigns, Caroline had recently been running adverts for Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen, Nikon FG20 cameras and Expo '86. These were now joined by extensive promotion for Bet Canada, an agency selling tickets for Lotto 6/49, the Canadian State Lottery.
 
From Monday 25th to Wednesday 27th March 1985 Caroline tried out a new frequency, 585 kHz, 513 metres, but it was not a success and on the 28th the station was back on 576 kHz.

Jay Jackson on Caroline International, broadcasting on 585 kHz, from the morning of 26th March 1985. This clip is taken from a recording shared on the Radiotrefpunt (radio meeting point) forum, by Vincent. Our thanks to him (duration 3 minutes 3 seconds)

Many thanks to Monitor magazine, the Caroline Movement Bulletin and Offshore Echos.
 
Press cuttings about Caroline and Laser can be found here and following pages.
 
Back to the previous page.
 
To be continued.