The 1960s pirates: a comparative analysis of Radio London and Radio Caroline

Anyone who can remember anything at all about pirate radio in the 1960s can usually remember two names: Radio Caroline and Radio London are synonymous with the offshore era. Between them they accounted for the majority of the audience who listened to the pirates, and the majority of the sponsors who advertised on them. But although they basically shared the same market rationale Caroline and London approached their task completely differently. London sought respect, prestige and accommodation. Its every move was geared towards being incorporated into the existing system of broadcasting, and its main purpose for existing seemed to be to bring about a legal commercial radio system in Great Britain. Radio Caroline had a very different rulebook and a very different guiding ethos. By a series of acts which culminated in a highly symbolic stand against what it saw as repressive legislation Caroline made explicit an underlying set of contradictions which anticipated in microcosm the wider philosophical and political contradictions of the 1960s counter-culture. For Radio London respect would eventually be won and the station's influence and programming legacy would endure in the shape of its replacement – BBC Radio One. For Radio Caroline there would be nothing like the same degree of influence. This contrast of approaches and outcomes between the two major pirate stations is at the very epicentre of the story of offshore radio.