12 hours of pop hits every day? Send in the gunboats!

UNDER FIRE: Postmaster General Reginald Bevins was
condemned over the Great Train Robbery in 1963 and
 a year later found himself at war with Britain's teenagers.

On April 20, 1964 ...  

FIFTY years ago this weekend the Caroline organisation were celebrating the news that after three weeks on air their signal could be received by 19 million people across England and an astonishing seven million listeners over the age of 17 had tuned in.

These stats were issued by the experts at Gallup and proved what a remarkable success the station had become, especially as there had been no advance publicity or promotion.

Strong rumours were continuing that another ship was shortly to join the Fredericia in the North Sea, but it wasn’t clear how this would pan out. Would this be a rival for Caroline, or would the two vessels join forces and work on getting an even bigger audience? Time would tell.

Some of Caroline’s keenest fans lived on or near the coasts of Essex and Suffolk and liked to drive down to spots near Felixstowe or Walton-on-the-Naze to see if they could view the ship. On a clear day this could be achieved, and many a courting couple parked facing the sea, snuggled up with their transistor radio and fish and chips, and gazed out to sea while the pop music played.

The UK government’s apparent intention to close Caroline down infuriated much of the population at large. One listener from Ipswich wrote to the East Anglian Daily Times: “The main factor which makes my hair bristle and blood pressure double, is that the GPO now suggests we are committing an offence by merely listening to Radio Caroline! Should I stand in dire terror, awaiting the stamp of jack-boots and the thought of a swastika-clad arm to clamp round my shoulder to hustle me and my family off to a concentration camp? What the hell do they think this is – Nazi-occupied Europe of about 20 years ago?”

The government was becoming a laughing stock, and another letter writer trilled: “It gives me horripilation just to think about it, but I cannot get it off my mind. I have committed a grave crime against the community as a whole: I have listened to Radio Caroline. There I have said it.”

The Tory MP for Maldon, Essex - Brian Harrison - raised the matter in the House of Commons half-a-century ago this week.  He urged the Postmaster General Reginald Bevins to do nothing to deprive the people of East Anglia of the first decent radio programmes they’d had for a long time. This was greeted with huge cheers. Bevins replied that they were looking into the possibility of legislation and jamming of the signal, but admitted they would proceed “cautiously.”

The town of Felixstowe loved the new station. A fishmonger, (positioned right next door to the Post Office!) was offering “Caroline skate” to his customers. And members of the town’s Round Table hired a small boat to take them out to the Caroline ship, to persuade the DJs to give publicity to the forthcoming town carnival. Mike Leighton, Arthur Spraggons and Toby Hosegood were welcomed aboard by Captain Mackay for a chat and a hot drink.

As the pop hits continued unabated from the North Sea, 12 hours non-stop every day, not everybody back on land was enjoying the situation.  D. Godfrey of Jupiter Avenue in Ipswich told the Ipswich Evening Star that Caroline wasn’t there to simply to meet a demand, but was designed to exploit for gain a loophole in the broadcasting laws. He added, presumably tongue in cheek, that 12 hours of continuous pop music was a “hostile act” and this justified the intervention of gunboats!