In October/November 1966 The News of the World published a three-part series called “Lid Off The Pop Pirates” written by DJ Mike Raven.
Although the press had written extensively about the pirates, especially in the aftermath of the shooting of Reg Calvert by Oliver Smedley, little was known about the background to some of the stations. At the time of
publication, this series was a revelation.
Colin Nichol has kindly contributed scans of the first article and Wendy Haberl has sent copies of parts two and three. Our grateful thanks to them both.
It is worth noting that Mike Raven was related to Oliver Smedley, and had worked for him on Radio Atlanta, so he was probably not the most objective person to comment on the then-recent trial for manslaughter. In fact the paper
later had to publish an apology for one of Raven's comments relating to Reg Calvert.
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