The 4 phases of the original Radio Caroline

Due to the major additions and corrections that I have made to the contents of yesterday's blog, this edition will be very short. I will begin by referring you once more to page 497 of Paul Rusling's 'bible':
"Few have tried so hard to denigrate the Radio Caroline name and the reputation of Ronan O'Rahilly, as a small group that claims the original Radio Caroline finished in Autumn 1964 when the original backers lost interest, once Harold Wilson came to power."

That is not a true representation of the work published by 'The Trio', because there were several phases that the original Radio Caroline went through after it was created in 1964.

The first phase did end on October 15, 1964 when the socialist Labour Party government led by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, barely squeaked into office and took over day-to-day administration of the United Kingdom. The original purpose behind Radio Caroline had been to pressure the previous Conservative government into issuing land-based licences for sponsored commercial radio stations. Now that objective had been rendered null and void.

On the other hand, Paul Rusling dismissed the original promoters of Radio Caroline with these garbled words:
"It's true that some 'original backers such as CO Stanley, of the Pye group and William Harvey of the BPB dropped out at that time but they were small investors and never key players." (sic).

Rusling could not even get the names of the "original backers" right, and so it is not surprising that his dismissal does not even make grammatical sense.

Following the socialist Labour Party take over, a second phase began. The de facto management of Radio Caroline which controlled two ship radio stations, had a choice: They could close down, or they could wait and see if the slim majority that held the Labour Party in place, stayed in place, or whether a new election would return the previous Tory government to power. A decision was made to wait and see what would happen to the government, but they did so in a legislative climate in which the socialist Labour Party had made it very clear that they would not be introducing sponsored commercial broadcasting.

Just as this second phase began, a new wrinkle was added. That was when the obfuscated news stories about Radio Caroline resulted in Texas investors sending over a commercial radio on board ship that was modeled upon stations heard in Dallas. A merger of interests was discussed, but since the Radio Caroline faction was mired in deliberate deceit, and so there was no basis for honest negotiations to take place, and the people behind Radio Caroline were not willing to show their hand.

This stalemate which had been met with Texas competition, then resulted in Mafia-based overtures coming from New York to find temporary favor with the de facto management of Radio Caroline who were really treading water until the next General Election. But that phase also came to its conclusion on March 31, 1966 with another defeat of the Tories, and another win for the Labour Party who now had a solid working majority.

The original dream and purpose of Radio Caroline was dead. In the third and final phase that began on March 31, 1966, Radio Caroline sank into the depths of dystopian dysfunction when a bullet killed Reg Calvert of Radio City on June 21, 1966. At the same time matters were made worse when the same Texan adventurers showed up again, but this time with two more commercial radio stations on board one ship.

The end came midnight on August 14, 1967, when a new law made it illegal to operate offshore commercial radio from within the United Kingdom. There followed a twilight zone fourth phase which lasted a few months until both Radio Caroline ships were finally towed away on March 3, 1968, although the original Radio Caroline stations had already died months before on August 14, 1967.

Tomorrow I will return with details behind the mystery that was created for 'The Trio' in 2014, by the book called 'Radio Man'.