Radio Caroline 1970s History 2

Radio Caroline 1970’s - History (2)

However, on 3rd September 1972 the Mi Amigo dropped anchor off Scheveningen between the Norderney (Radio Veronica) and the Mebo II (RNI). Ronan O'Rahilly then persuaded two ex-Caroline South DJs, Andy Archer and Chris Carey (Spangles Muldoon), together with radio engineer Peter Chicago - all then working on RNI - to leave their luxury radio ship and help him re-launch Radio Caroline from the battered, rusty and vandalised Mi Amigo.

The Mi Amigo remained silent at her anchorage for most of September 1972 while the transmitter and other equipment was put in working order.

Although on the technical side work was progressing fundamental problems started to arise between Ronan O'Rahilly and Gerard van Dam over the actual re-launch of Radio Caroline. Ronan O'Rahilly wanted the Mi Amigo to anchor off the British coast where Radio Caroline had been enormously popular during the mid 1960's and he anticipated being able to easily recapture the large audience levels the station had attracted in those heady days. Gerard van Dam on the other hand felt that the commercial potential for the re-launched Radio Caroline lay in Holland where advertising on offshore radio was still not against the law. This dispute dragged on for many weeks during the late summer of 1972 and when the transmitter on board the Mi Amigo was finally restored its switch on was delayed because of uncertainty about the final location of the ship and the target audience of the re-launched station.

Radio Veronica was planning to change frequency at the end of September 1972 and, because of the likelihood that millions of listeners would be re-tuning their radios, engineers on board the Mi Amigo decided to switch on their own transmitter and make some test broadcasts. In the late evening of 29th September unidentified test transmissions of continuous music were heard across Europe on 1187kHz (253m).

Meanwhile, at 12.30pm on 30th September 1972, just as Radio Veronica had temporarily left the air and the RNI 2 service had been launched, further test transmissions of continuous music were heard on 253m. These transmissions, without any announcements or station identification continued into early November 1972.

Unfortunately the dispute between Ronan O'Rahilly and Gerard van Dam continued to delay the return of Radio Caroline. Plans existed at this time to operate a Dutch language service on 197m - to be known as Radio 199 - and an English language service on 253m (announced as 259m), under the call sign Radio Caroline.

These plans were thwarted, however, when the Mi Amigo drifted during a storm on 13th November 1972 and the aerial mast collapsed. A temporary aerial was rigged and test transmissions resumed again at the end of the month with a taped announcement asking for reception reports.

At the beginning of December 1972 DJs on board the Mi Amigo started presenting programmes without identifying either themselves or the station. At 11.00am on 17th December the test transmissions moved to a new frequency of 197m. The following day programmes, presented by on-board DJs in both English and Dutch, were aired under the call sign Radio 199. After a few days the Radio 199 identification was dropped and on 22nd December 1972 the station officially started to identify itself as Radio Caroline. Broadcasts continued for 24 hours a day in both English and Dutch over the Christmas holiday period.

For Radio Caroline 1972 ended with a dramatic turn of events - during the early hours of 28th December the lights on the Mi Amigo failed. The crews of neighbouring radio ships Norderney and Mebo II witnessed rockets being fired from the Caroline ship and, fearing the vessel was in distress, they called the Mi Amigo only to be told that there was no problem and the rockets were being used to provide light to carry out essential repairs.

The true situation was far more serious. The Dutch crew on board the Mi Amigo (who had originally been engaged by Gerard van Dam) claimed they had not been paid since the vessel left harbour in September and decided to bring matters to a head by sabotaging the fuel line to the lighting generators. They hoped this would force the radio ship to return to port, but when Captain van der Kamp refused to sail in the crew then abandoned the Mi Amigo, leaving only him and four broadcasting staff on board.

Transmissions of Radio Caroline programmes continued, but later that day DJ Andy Archer suddenly announced that ‘visitors’ had arrived alongside the Mi Amigo and that he was going out on deck to investigate. The 'visitors' turned out to be the former Dutch crew of the radio ship who had returned. Ten minutes later Radio Caroline left the air suddenly as the Dutchmen climbed aboard the Mi Amigo and fighting broke out on deck between them and the English broadcasting staff. The station was off the air for over two hours while an agreement was reached with the former crew who, having received assurances about their pay, agreed to return to duty. Transmissions from Radio Caroline then recommenced, although the atmosphere on board the Mi Amigo remained very tense.