Caroline Cash Casino Background

BACKGROUND

In the early summer of 1966 Radio Caroline’s southern station was struggling to attract listeners and advertisers in a strongly competitive market serving London and South East England.

The station’s ship, Mi Amigo had run aground in January 1966 and had to be taken to The Netherlands for repair. Whilst in dry dock the opportunity was taken to give the ship a major re-fit, including the installation of a new, more powerful transmitter.

While this was happening during the early months of 1966 Radio Caroline South continued broadcasting from another ship, Cheeta 2, which had been loaned by Swedish offshore station, Radio Syd. However, numerous technical problems were encountered and the station was often off the air for days at a time, giving rival stations (in particular Radio London) the opportunity to attract a large number of Caroline’s listeners and advertisers.

When Caroline South returned from its own ship in April 1966 it struggled to win back listeners and advertisers, despite having a re-vamped format, a new DJ line-up and a more powerful transmitter than before, .

By August 1966 Caroline’s owner, Ronan O'Rahilly, engaged two consultants to revamp the Caroline Sales organisation and generate more advertising income for the station. Terry Bate and Alan Slaight (who had both worked very successfully in Canadian commercial radio) were charged with the task of increasing airtime sales, creating commercial opportunities, promoting in-house merchandise and generally advising on sales administration.

One of the consultant's first objectives was to cut overheads and costs by drastically reducing the size of the Sales Department at Caroline House, while at the same time managing to achieve a larger volume of airtime sales.

Terry Bate was also credited with introducing the most successful sponsorship deal ever achieved by an offshore radio station - Caroline Cash Casino – helping to increase audience levels and generating a huge revenue income for the Radio Caroline network.