| Forty
years ago, a new sound was heard across radio sets in Essex and much
of eastern and southern England. They were test transmissions for
something called 'Radio Caroline.' On Good Friday offshore pirate
radio started to the strains of the Rolling Stones' Not Fade Away.
For
the next three years Radio Caroline built up an audience of a around
eight million listeners. It led to many other offshore radio stations,
many of them broadcasting off the coast of Essex.
The
broadcasters and their listeners were part of the 60s social revolution.
They were the generation who'd never had it so good. The generation
who discovered the pill, who campaigned against the threat of nuclear
war, who questioned the wisdom of the establishment. They were the
generation who developed their own pop music and wanted to hear
it.
Forty
years on, BBC Essex and BBC Online are going Pirate. For the first
time we'll be bringing together the BBC and pirate radio. The auld
rivals have laid down their cutlasses and are as one.
Pirate BBC Essex will broadcast from the LV18, a former lightship
vessel owned by the Pharos Trust, which wants to turn it into an
educational and tourist vessel.
You'll be able to hear the music pirate radio stations in the North
Sea were playing 40 years ago. We'll have the music of the pirates'
heyday - 1964 to 1967 and be featuring some of those songs the pirates
made hits.
Pirate BBC Essex can be heard online and on 729, 765 and 1530 MW.
During the week you'll be able to see the pirate presenters via
webcams. We're hooking up with UltraLab of Anglia Polytechnic University
to use cuttinge edge technology to bring images to your computer.
There will also be the chance to listen online, wherever you are
in the world. And you'll have the chance to email the pirates with
your messages and requests.
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