SIDEBAR - PIRATE RADIO

On Easter 1964 Radio Caroline began broadcasting from a ship anchored in international waters off the coast of Essex in southeastern England. Although moves to outlaw the station were under way within a week, by the time Radio London, a station with a slickly professional sound and commercial clout, opened in December, the United Kingdom was ringed with illegal broadcasters, operating from either ships or disused marine defense emplacements. Audience figures grew through 1965 as listeners embraced the formula of young, flamboyant disc jockeys and jingles and station identifications imported from the United States, punctuating a Top 40 playlist impervious to the needle time agreements between the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and record companies that forced the Light Programme to substitute live versions played by dance bands for the real hit records. It was not until July 1966, however, that the Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Bill began the parliamentary process that would outlaw offshore radio on August 15, 1967. By then the BBC's new Radio 1with ex-pirate disc jockeys such as John Peel, Kenny Everett, and Tony Blackburn playing Top 40 hits peppered with American-made idents and jingleswas only six weeks from its launch, and only Caroline among the major players risked prosecution, remaining on the air until March 1968. John Pidgeon