In early Summer 1964, the Red Sands off the Isle of Sheppey -another of the ageing anti-aircraft platforms- was taken over by people who wanted to make a go of regional commercial radio in Kent. Subsequently test broadcasts were carried out on a number op frequencies. In the second half of July the newcomer settled on 985 kHz and called itself “Radio Invicta, your station on sticks on 306”. Reception in Kent, Essex and coastal areas in Belgium was excellent. Life on the solitary sea-towers was at first uncomfortable and sometimes fraught with danger. But for the people putting up the money, a fort-based operation cost a lot less to run.
Although she could hardly be called a fan of this or any other station, Invicta’s more middle-of-the-road type of music was somewhat better tolerated by my mother than the output of most of the floating broadcasters. In the early evening reception on 306m became problematic however. Invicta’s power of just 750 Watts proved no match for a strong same-channel signal drifting in from Algiers. As the evening progressed no amount of turning the ‘tranny’ could prevent Invicta from being totally swamped out.
More of AJ's radio- and other anecdotes.
In 1964, like modern day successors to the 16th century French, Dutch and English privateers off the Spanish Main, suddenly a flurry of radio pirates popped up along the British Main, being the Essex coast and the Thames Estuary; often described as pirate alley. Unlike their Caribbean predecessors, who went after Spain’s silver bullion, the pop pirates had set their sights on London’s advertising dollar in an attempt to break the monopoly of the BBC and the large record companies. The pioneer in the race to lay claim to the lucrative London market was Radio Caroline, financed by Irishman Ronan O’Rahilly, who hoped to emulate Veronica’s success. A former Danish passenger ferry Frederica was bought, renamed Caroline and fitted out as a radio ship in the Irish port of Greenore, owned by Ronan’s family. After two days of tests off Felixstowe Britain’s first offshore station opened officially on Easter Sunday, March 29th 1964. Ronan had been egging on everyone connected with the organisation in order to be able to inaugurate the station on that day.
In
fact, at the time, I only heard about Caroline going on the air on
Easter Monday, as I was spending my school holidays in the small
Belgian village of Beerzel (near Malines) where my maternal
grandparents lived. My immediate problem was that Caroline’s
broadcast on the announced 199m (in fact 1520 kHz) was too close to
Belgian regional radio in Antwerp. But as luck would have it my niece
Maria Goris, who had just married, was in possession of a large
Phillips portable radio, which could be turned away from most of the
splutter involuntarily caused by the Antwerp station on the adjacent
channel. After a few minutes’ tuning and turning the sound of
Caroline’s bell rang through the small house. It would change my
life forever. Over the years the start of Caroline has also become a
very important date to me personally. More than half a century later I
still use it as an all important benchmark. In my life BC means
‘Before Caroline’.
More of AJ's radio- and other anecdotes.
In early Summer 1964, the Red Sands off the Isle of Sheppey -another of the ageing anti-aircraft platforms- was taken over by people who wanted to make a go of regional commercial radio in Kent. Subsequently test broadcasts were carried out on a number op frequencies. In the second half of July the newcomer settled on 985 kHz and called itself “Radio Invicta, your station on sticks on 306”. Reception in Kent, Essex and coastal areas in Belgium was excellent. Life on the solitary sea-towers was at first uncomfortable and sometimes fraught with danger. But for the people putting up the money, a fort-based operation cost a lot less to run. 
