Ray Clark has interviewed numerous people involved with Radio Caroline for his documentaries and his book, Radio Caroline: The True Story Of The Boat That Rocked (reviewed here).
This short conversation with newsman Nick Bailey was carried out around the time of Caroline's thirtieth anniversary in 1994.
We are grateful to Ray for sharing it with us. He began by asking Nick how the station gathered its news.
NICK BAILEY: Well I think thirty years on we can actually say that we took it from the BBC (laughs). After (spending time on) the south ship I was transferred to the north ship and I remember we had a complaint
from a listener saying they could swear they heard the 'pips' (the Greenwich time signal on the BBC). Well they were quite right. We said at the time that it wasn't the case but it was the pips from the BBC which they heard from the
other room going through somebody's open microphone. It was the BBC's news regurgitated which we put out, saying it was our own news. It was a complete cheat!
And I'll tell you something else that was a cheat on Radio Caroline North. This was when we had Dave Lee Travis with us on the north ship. I think Ronan O'Rahilly or someone in upper management thought
it would be a good idea that we cover the TT races (on the Isle of Man) but we didn't have the manpower or the resources to do it properly. So Dave Lee Travis did reports with the sound effects of motorbikes in the background saying
that he was actually on the Isle of Man (laughs).
Nick Bailey reading the Manx roulette numbers on Jerry Leighton's Early Show on their last day on Caroline North, 8th August 1967. The mention of something happening at 10:30 refers to the debate taking place that day in the Manx
Parliament, the Tynwald, about the future of Radio Caroline. The first voice is Jerry, then Nick. The Manx Roulette Coupons advert features Tony Prince. This clip is
taken from a recording available from www.azanorak.com. Our thanks to Ray Robinson (duration 2 minutes 28 seconds)
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Nick Bailey in the Caroline North newsroom. Photo kindly provided by the man himself.
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Back to Ray's chat with Robbie Dale.
Ray's conversation with Keith Hampshire is over the page.
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