Radio Caroline

Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. Unlicensed by any government for most of its early life, it was a pirate radio station that never actually became illegal, although after the Marine Offences Act (1967) it became illegal for a British subject to associate with it.

The Radio Caroline name was used to broadcast from international waters, using five different ships of three different owners, from 1964 to 1990, and via satellite from 1998 to 2013. Radio Caroline currently broadcasts 24 hours a day via the internet and by occasional restricted service licence. Radio Caroline broadcasts music from the 1960s to contemporary, with an emphasis on album-oriented rock (AOR). The company also licenses other stations around the world to use the Radio Caroline name.

1964-1968

Radio Caroline origins

Radio Caroline was begun by Irish musician manager and businessman Ronan O'Rahilly. O'Rahilly failed to obtain airplay on Radio Luxembourg for Georgie Fame's records because it was committed to sponsored programmes promoting major record labels; EMI, Decca, Pye and Philips.

Radio Caroline (New Zealand)

Radio Caroline was a radio station in Timaru, New Zealand.

The station began as a government-owned community based radio station in on 18 January 1949 with the original call sign of 3XC broadcasting on 1160AM. Radio Caroline also broadcast in Twizel originally on 1550AM; the Twizel station ran a hybrid of Radio Caroline and National Radio programming.

In 1978 Radio Caroline moved to 1152AM in Timaru and 1485AM in Twizel, the change in frequency was due to the New Zealand AM band changing from 10 kHz frequency spacing to 9 kHz spacing. Coinciding with the change in frequency the station call sign was changed to 3ZC.

Rebranding as Classic 99FM

From 1993 onwards Radio New Zealand consolidated most of their local adult contemporary stations into the Classic Hits brand. In 1995 Radio Caroline began broadcasting on 98.7FM in addition to the AM frequency and became part of the Classic Hits FM network as Classic Hits 99FM. The station initially retained local programming between 6am - 7pm.