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Old 5th Sep 2018, 4:27 pm   #361
Andrewausfa
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Had an evening of Elvis last night, a radio station playing a whole album and not just sticking to a yawn inspiring rotating playlist.

Nice one Caroline.

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Old 5th Sep 2018, 4:33 pm   #362
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

They seem to have an Elvis session weekly (I think always on Tuesdays). Whatever it is, I have heard it often late in the afternoon before tea. Lesser played (by most stations) material
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Old 5th Sep 2018, 6:23 pm   #363
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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Originally Posted by davidw View Post
Caroline "flashback" on 576kHz this afternoon. Strong on the car radio,but as I am in Suffolk probably no surprise. Cannot find the 576 frequency mentioned on the website so I've no idea where it actually originates. Its the same content as the flashback stream.
This is a land based pirate located in Suffolk.
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Old 7th Sep 2018, 2:59 pm   #364
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

I see that there is an excellent rock and roll section on Radio Caroline on Tuesday night (Del Richardson) as well as having Elvis nights. I am always interested in hearing rarely played instrumentals from the 1950's and 1960's.
Well done Radio Caroline.
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Old 2nd Jan 2019, 5:18 pm   #365
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Hi.
It is ironic that Orford Ness is now the legal transmitter for Radio Caroline. I still believe that even in the 1960's that this would have been an ideal "den" for a jamming transmitter site. The way that my (now late) father tried to dissuade us from listening to the offshore stations (even before 1967) was an absolute mystery. He did actually work on the "Ness" but with the A.W.R.E. What a strange carry on it all was! As a 10 year old then, to me the offshore stations were just ordinary music stations with a difference. I did not know what all the fuss was about. All that I know is that he signed the Official Secrets Act and we were not given any more information about why we should not be listening to these alternative stations!
Anyway, thank goodness Radio Caroline is now back (although 54 years waiting time) legally.
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Old 2nd Jan 2019, 6:47 pm   #366
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

I think we were very much more deferential and, outside of the criminal classes, a much more law abiding lot back then. It was (and probably it still is) illegal to listen to 'unauthorised' transmissions.

What does astonish me now is why the military were not sent to turf Screaming Lord Sutch off Shivering Sands. Asserting ownership would have deterred other would-be fort operators and saved a lot of problems later. In my innocent days I always thought that the government of the day were authoritan and nasty to end the offshore stations but looking back, they actually had been incredibly lax. The Dutch soon dealt with the REM island (and that wasn't even a military installation but purpose built platform) and the Germans only had a whiff of a proposed offshore station to pass a law.
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Old 3rd Jan 2019, 1:53 pm   #367
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

It must have been really difficult at that time to make positive changes to a dreadful system of broadcasting that was operated by a corporation that was supposed to care about your entertainment.
Personally speaking, I am of an age where I can remember being allowed only about 1 hour a day on the BBC Light Programme. The quality of the music to be featured was actually vetted by the BBC, and if they did not approve it, then it was banned. This happened to "Night of the Vampire" by The Moontrekkers (1961), a brilliant instrumental which ended up being forgotten about. It would have achieved a number one position, but because of its sound effects, the BBC took exception to them. When it was discovered that the sfx were deemed to be acceptable, there was a demand for the record, but the record company could not keep up with the demand, and it unfortunately took a dive!
The sad thing is that the Government also banned commercial radio (apart from Luxembourg) which made things really difficult. Nobody could obtain a licence to start up a radio station inland. The Performing Rights Society made things difficult and so did the 4 big record companies that "ruled the entertainment world", so I suppose that there was no alternative but to go out to sea.
I reckon that if commercial radio had been allowed much earlier, some improvements could have been achieved!
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Old 3rd Jan 2019, 6:59 pm   #368
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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Originally Posted by telstar View Post
The sad thing is that the Government also banned commercial radio (apart from Luxembourg) which made things really difficult. Nobody could obtain a licence to start up a radio station inland. The Performing Rights Society made things difficult and so did the 4 big record companies that "ruled the entertainment world", so I suppose that there was no alternative but to go out to sea.
I reckon that if commercial radio had been allowed much earlier, some improvements could have been achieved!
Being legally operated from another sovereign country, with the full agreement of that country's government, there was very little that the UK government could realistically do about Radio Luxembourg except try to hassle those businesses that advertised on it.

[We surely all remember Horace Batchelor, the "Famous Infra-Draw method" and K.E.Y.N.S.H.A.M. along with ads for "Stimorol" chewing-gum?]

The emergence of the offshore pop-pirates in the 'swinging sixties' certainly provided a shakeup to the broadcasting powers-that-be, but the old-guard hung on for another decade before we got the likes of Capital Radio. I remember listening with expectation and happiness when Birmingham's BRMB, and then later Beacon Radio from Wolverhampton came on-air with their test transmissions. At last!

If only the UK Government had opened-up the broadcast spectrum in the immediate-post-WWII 1945-1950 period and allowed many more [commercial] TV/radio-stations to operate. Then us 'hip' kids wouldn't have spent our night-times tuning in to American Forces Radio broadcasts from Germany to get our baseball- and jazz-fixes.
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Old 3rd Jan 2019, 11:24 pm   #369
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

I remember being highly amused when watching an episode of the BBC TV drama series "Z-Cars" in the early 60's. In one scene there was a radio playing on a kitchen table and the station it was tuned to was Caroline, clearly recognisable to me as I was a daily listener.
This would have been dramatically correct, as it was the most popular station in the North West where the series was set, but it must have somehow slipped past the hierarchy!
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Old 4th Jan 2019, 12:20 pm   #370
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Junk Box Nick, IIRC the wording on Radio & TV Licenses 'back in the day' was that the Licence only authorised the reception of 'Licensed Broadcast and Amateur' stations, so listening to any other transmissions was illegal. Whether that is still the case I know not, but, particularly in the case of Radio, since a license hasn't been needed for many years, may not apply any more.(I'm no legal expert, btw.) Because so many people tuned into the offshore stations, the above stipulation was unenforceable as half the population would have to have been prosecuted.
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Old 4th Jan 2019, 1:42 pm   #371
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Yes, that's my understanding - it ruled most things of which there was plenty available on short wave!

Radio London and the Carolines claimed about 8 million listeners apiece which was probably somewhat optimistic; however, assuming collectively the offshore operators had a big chunk of 20 million, prosecution was out of the question. They'd still be dealing with the cases now. It does bring a vision of a room of suited members of officialdom taking down details of requests played "for Jane of 10 Any Street, Anytown" and passing them on to Knacker of the Yard.

Then again there is the question of what is a legal broadcast station. When the offshore stations were charged with operating on frequencies not allocated to them the retort was "well, so are half the stations on the medium wave!"

As for the WTA 1947, I doubt it's ever been repealed. Outside of communications receivers that we are familiar with, scanning receivers have been around for years. And then there were the police transmissions that were easily heard on domestic VHF sets. Unless someone acts on information heard, it's another one of those irrelevant laws.
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Old 4th Jan 2019, 1:51 pm   #372
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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Unless someone acts on information heard, it's another one of those irrelevant laws.
Not so. In the days before Tetra/Airwave more than one scanner user was fined and had their scanner seized and destroyed. The police even mounted sting operations by broadcasting messages about UFO's landing of large amounts of bank notes being blown across roads. Anyone who turned up with a scanner was arrested.

The WTA and indeed my early amateur radio licences only referred to accidental reception of signals which the holder wasn't authorized to receive. The content of such messages could only be revealed to a competent legal tribunal.
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Old 4th Jan 2019, 2:07 pm   #373
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

IMHO your comment reinforces my last sentence.
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Old 4th Jan 2019, 3:00 pm   #374
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

In one of those uniquely British 'unwritten constitution' things, there IS still a broadcast radio receiving licence. It is printed on TV receiving licences!

But of course, not everybody has a TV and Licence, so the radio licence is defined as applying to everyone, whether or not they have the piece of paper.

And, yes it still limits reception to licensed broadcasters and licensed radio amateurs all other reception is forbidden unless covered by another licence.

If you have an amateur radio licence you get the additional right to receive standard frequency transmissions! Yippee! Hooray! <Champagne cork pop SFX goes here>

It's a grey area whether you can listen legally to foreign broadcasts.

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Old 4th Jan 2019, 3:18 pm   #375
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

I was listening to Radio Caroline when I was ten.

And when that was off it was London, 270, City...

I'm a reformed character now!
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Old 4th Jan 2019, 4:41 pm   #376
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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The police even mounted sting operations by broadcasting messages about UFO's landing of large amounts of bank notes being blown across roads. Anyone who turned up with a scanner was arrested.
Going to the place mentioned would still count as acting on information received without due authorisation. If you just listened to it and stayed wherever you already were, nobody could do anything. And the whole thing sounds too close to "soliciting a crime" for any convictions to stand.
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Old 4th Jan 2019, 4:48 pm   #377
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Yes it was a shame that the airwaves in the U.K had not been opened up to cater for all tastes in music, just think of what could have been achieved.
It is only recently that various government ministers have actually declared that they actually listened to offshore radio broadcasts, and have really enjoyed it. So much for the wireless telegraphy act!
The problem with the BBC was that it was under the tight control of a Lord Reith who was allowed to give his permission to what he thought that "Joe public" might enjoy. I once read somewhere that if a Captain Eckersley had been given this post, things might have been different. According to Lord Reith, music was allowed but hit had to be "educational".Take for example Jack Good's great show on television, the "6-05 special". This featured skiffle, rock and roll, crooners like Michael Holliday and so forth. It must have taken some effort for Jack to persuade the BBC to produce these shows, and enjoyable they were. However, the BBC tried to gradually "dampen" them down by adding an educational break part way through. Apparently, this annoyed Jack Good so much that when I.T.V arrived on the scene he "jumped ship" and started his own music series "Oh Boy". I remember these shows on television from when my dad used to repair televisions in the 1950's. There were songs by Lonnie Donnegan, Nancy Whiskey and Chas McDevitt, Johnnie Duncan & The Blue Grass Boys, plus Don Lang and his Frantic 5 who performed the theme tune.
It was not just rock and pop music that suffered in the BBC's control, my mother's singing career took a dive. She was trained up as a classically trained soprano at the Northern School of Music in Manchester, and by 15 years age in 1947. She regularly sang at Leeds Town Hall to a large audience, and these concerts were very popular. However, the BBC were in control of entertainment and they stated that you had to have "Grammar school" education in order to get promotion in to the world of music, and because she did not have this advanced education standard (and yet she had musical talent plus she passed her music and singing course), they refused to support her in furthering her career potential! Imagine if the broadcasting system had been improved on, and she had been allowed access to persue her talents further?
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Old 4th Jan 2019, 4:57 pm   #378
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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The police even mounted sting operations by broadcasting messages about UFO's landing of large amounts of bank notes being blown across roads. Anyone who turned up with a scanner was arrested.
Going to the place mentioned would still count as acting on information received without due authorisation. If you just listened to it and stayed wherever you already were, nobody could do anything. And the whole thing sounds too close to "soliciting a crime" for any convictions to stand.
I don't think the law says anything about "acting". The offence is one of receiving authorisation. The convictions did stand.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/asse...o-Scanners.pdf

This is an area of the law which isn't often enforced. Look at the number of plane spotters with airband receivers you see at airports. When the RAF ran the Air Sea Rescue Service they actually published the frequencies used on their website.
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Old 4th Jan 2019, 5:32 pm   #379
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

When Radio 1 was first broadcast, didn't the BBC initially use cover versions of popular tunes and songs recorded by 'approved' orchestras and musicians before realising they were just sticking their fingers in the wall of the dam?
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Old 4th Jan 2019, 5:58 pm   #380
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

No, they played the pop music of the day.
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