Radio Caroline 1970s History 5

Radio Caroline 1970’s - History (5)

It was announced on 12th August 1974 that the provisions of the Dutch Marine Offences Act were to become effective at midnight on 31st August 1974. During the afternoon of 29th August 1974 the Mi Amigo raised her anchor and sailed to a position off the Essex coast of England, near the Kentish Knock Lightship.

Broadcasts of Mi Amigo off English coast, September 1974 both stations on board the ship - Radio Mi Amigo and Radio Caroline - had continued as normal during this voyage. The move had been made because Ronan O'Rahilly felt that the authorities in Holland were likely to forcibly board and tow the radio ship into harbour because there were Dutch nationals on board.

As the midnight deadline approached for the Dutch Marine Offences Act to come into effect Radio Caroline continued broadcasting defiantly, becoming 'illegal' for the second time in its history.The Mi Amigo was supplied at this time with food, oil and water by fishing vessels from small Belgian and Dutch ports on journeys which took up to 48 hours to complete.

DJs and crew, however, were clandestinely ferried to and from the radio ship using small ports and isolated beaches on the south east coast of England, a practice which quickly caught the attention of the British authorities. On 29th October 1974 two DJs were ferried out to the Mi Amigo from Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex, but on the return journey their launch was boarded by police and Home Office officials and four crewmen were detained and questioned, but not charged. A month later, on 26th November 1974 a tender from Brightlingsea, Essex was photographed from a helicopter as it approached the Mi Amigo and on return to port those on board were questioned by police and Customs officials. Following this some items of ship-to-shore communications equipment were confiscated in a police raid on premises later that same evening.

At about this time Radio Caroline started promoting the concept of 'Loving Awareness' – LA - basically that loving, caring, positive thoughts would conquer the selfishness and hatred prevalent in the late 20th Century world. Ronan O'Rahilly conceived and developed the philosophy out of the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Speaking in an interview some years later he explained the thinking behind Loving Awareness:-

“Our brain has both loving energy and defensive energy. We have tapped and used the defensive one and we haven't explored in any serious way the loving one. LA is about developing a loving habit. Love is our most natural emotion, but it is the one we abuse most. Life has become a daily survival of looking after number one. Caroline is showing people that there is another way. Quite simply if you love people they will love you in return.”

As part of its LA Campaign Radio Caroline promoted a gathering at Stonehenge during the midsummer solstice in 1974. Hundreds of people turned up, but unfortunately some acts of vandalism and damage to the ancient monument marred the occasion.

1975

The idea of starting a German Service on Radio Caroline was formulated in 1975 by former Advertising Manager, Dennis King who arranged with Jack O'Brien of the American Forces Network (AFN) in Berlin to record ‘Berlin Service’ programmes in the AFN studios. The first of these programmes was broadcast in August 1975 and continued each week until the end of December when they were suddenly discontinued without explanation and the station's experimental German Service never returned.

By mid September 1975 four Radio Caroline staff had been on the Mi Amigo for over nine weeks without a break and were anxious to come ashore for some leave. Although tenders normally came from France, Belgium or Holland a tender from Brightlingsea in Essex was eventually sent out to the radio ship to collect the long-serving crew and DJs.

Shortly before this tender arrived alongside the Mi Amigo a small fishing boat had anchored nearby, but those on board the radio ship thought nothing unusual of it at the time. As the DJs and crew transferred from the radio ship people on board the fishing boat began taking pictures of them and, thinking they were Radio Caroline fans, the DJs waved back as they climbed on board the tender.

However, just inside the British territorial limit a police launch started to pursue the tender and eventually met up with the 'fishing boat' which had been anchored near the Mi Amigo. It was only then that the Radio Caroline staff realised they had been photographed, not by the station's fans as they had initially assumed, but by British Home Office officials on a surveillance exercise. All on board the tender were subsequently arrested when it arrived back in Essex and were summonsed to appear at Southend Magistrates Court on charges under the Marine etc. Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967.