The following article by Paul Donovon appeared in the

 

Sunday Times on Sunday 6th February 2011

Radio Caroline was the metronome of the Swinging Sixties. It launched Tony Blackburn, Emperor Rosko and DLT as well as two lesser names who both became Tory MPs. The first pirate ship in 1964, it hit the headlines again two years ago with the film The Boat that Rocked. Without Caroline, there would never have been Radio 1 (which might have been a very good thing, but that is another matter).

Many people have no idea it is still on the air. Mi Amigo sank, the Ross Revenge was raided, and in the l99O’s Caroline came inland and went legit. Today it broadcasts 24-hour classic pop - album tracks - only from Strood, an ancient town in Kent. It is heard on the Internet and Sky, where the number of its channel (199) derives from the number of its first medium frequency, in metres when it was bobbing about on the North Sea.

Caroline wants to turn back the clock to that age in one respect. It has launched a campaign to get a new medium wave frequency equipped with this, it hopes that listeners in the Southeast of England will once again, be able to hear it on radio sets and in their cars.

This campaign has attracted unexpected support Tracey Crouch, the new Conservative MP for neighbouring Chatham, has put down an early day motion calling on Ofcom, the regulator, “to exhaust all avenues in allocating it a medium-wave frequency. So far, 47 other MPs have signed it, including the former ministers Frank Field and Nicholas Soames and the first Green, Caroline Lucas.

‘I’m a fan of music radio and my dad was a wannabe DJ as well as an insurance broker and he grew up with Caroline,” says Crouch, 35. “The Boat that Rocked did seem to suggest it was the evil Tories rather than a Labour government that banned the pirates, but at least it put the issue back on the agenda.

I really do not understand Ofcom's obdurate attitude in saying there are no medium- wave frequencies available. They just want to get everyone onto digital. When I contacted Ofcom, they conceded there was an unused medium-wave frequency in the southeast, 1071 kHz. It is held by, but not used by, the French. Ofcom said: ‘We have informally contacted France’s frequency regulator and will be following that up with a format request we would like to work with Caroline on this. In addition, the BBC World Service will end transmission on 648 kHz next month, so that frequency too may be freed.

It would be great to hear Caroline on a radio set again, a veritable phoenix of the airwaves. I doubt, however, if the station could afford the medium-wave licence fee (up to £10,000) payable to Ofcom, let alone the extra power bill nobody is paid anything at the station, which is one of only two in Britain to rely on listener subscription. The DJs all have day jobs, ranging from B&Q shop worker to university technician. They work on Caroline in their spare time. Still, they might surprise us all. The boat that rocked might become the boat that shocked.