From its launch at Easter 1964 Radio Caroline’s programmes were an immediate success with listeners – filling a much needed gap in the market for an all day popular music service.
The audience figures of 4 million listeners (estimated initially from the volume of mail received from listeners in London and South East England) made the station an attractive proposition for potential advertisers. The estimated audience was confirmed by a Gallup Poll carried out within weeks of Caroline’s launch showing the station now had 7 million listeners in London and South East England.
A further poll carried out in the late summer of 1964 by Attwood Statistics showed the listenership figures for both stations peaked at between 9% and 15% of the potential audience aged 12 and over.
It was not against the law at that time for any company to purchase airtime to promote their goods or services to the millions of people listening to Radio Caroline.
However, shortly after Radio Caroline came on the air the British Government sought to obstruct its operation by trying to persuade advertisers not to buy airtime on the new station. This wasn’t formal legislation making it illegal to advertise on Radio Caroline (or any other similar offshore commercial station) but merely putting pressure on the advertising industry, letting it be known that the Government of the day was not supportive of commercially funded radio services, independent of the BBC monopoly.
