Pirate Radio - ESSAY

In the 1960s pirate radio stations effectively revolutionised the British approach to the radio. Commercial radio wouldn’t start broadcasting in the UK until 1973, meaning the BBC effectively monopolised legitimate airways for 51 years. Pirate radio posed a serious issue to the government of the day, the stations operated in international waters and paid nothing in the way of tax, but most of all pirate radio symbolised a changing tide in British culture. This change in culture is perhaps the main reason pirate radio was so popular amongst youths, it offered the new music they received so little of through the BBC, but it came alongside a new style, distanced from the monotony of post-war Britain.

One reason that pirate radio stations were so loved by young people was due to the music that they played and the convenient listening times they offered. The BBC had attempted to reach out to a younger audience with programmes such as the ‘Saturday Skiffle Club’, starting on 1 June 1957 (BBC Genome, undated), which would later evolve into the ‘Saturday Club’ (BBC Genome, undated). Programmes such as these played a variety of music which included pop and rock and roll, however they were broadcast as part of the Light Programme for only two hours on a Saturday. Between 1960 and 1969 the top selling song was The Beetles’ ‘She Loves You’, from 1964 (UK-Charts.Top-Source.info, undated). This shows a huge shift in popular music from the 1950s, when the top selling song was Frankie Laine’s ‘I Believe’ (UK-Charts.Top-Source.info, undated), a holiday song with a religious message.

In the early 1960s the only other option for listeners looking for a variety of popular genres was to tune their radios to Radio Luxembourg between 6pm and 12pm, when an English-speaking programme was aired which played popular new music. By March 1964 this formula had changed very little, leaving the market open for Roman O’Rahilly to create Radio Caroline. One of the main selling points for Radio Caroline was that from the beginning it aired for 12 hours per day every day of the week, with the slogan “Your all-day music station” (Beyond the Point, undated). Radio Caroline is an example of how pirate radio attempted to cater to a demand which was not being met in the UK. They did this by offering longer listening hours than the BBC could in 1964, as it would not launch a second radio station to cater to a different market until 1967. The unique aspects of pirate radio, such as the variety on popular music and the convenient listening hours, may have been one of the most appealing aspects to the 1960s youth.

However, for the government of the day pirate radio was not seen as a great step forward. Pirate radio stations were a drastic change to the previous decades when the BBC was the public’s only option. One major reason that the government of the day reviled pirate radio was due to the fact that they were a business which paid nothing in the way of tax. By broadcasting from international waters pirate radio stations were able to avoid UK legislation until 1967. Pirate radio stations were able to run advertisements in the same way that commercial radio does today, delivering audiences to advertisers. In 1965 Harold Wilson’s Labour government brought in the corporation tax which acted as a replacement to income tax for many companies. This acted to take a percentage of profits from a company each year. However, this only applied to resident UK companies and those overseas with a registered UK address. As pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline were positioned in international waters they would be exempt from taxation.

Alongside this, pirate radio stations were unlicensed, meaning they did not have a license to broadcast within the UK. It also led to a legal grey area for listeners as technically the wireless licences purchased by households from the General Post Office did not cover receiving unauthorised transmissions. In Europe the issue was being tackled by the European Council (Tanaka, 2015), giving jurisdiction to European countries to prosecute unlicensed broadcasts. However, in the UK it did not become illegal to broadcast in or around British waters from a ship or aircraft until the 1967 Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, which still did not properly define the laws on receiving unlicensed broadcasts from further afield. When the 1967 act came into place, Radio Caroline relocated to Holland (Radio Caroline, undated) where they continued to broadcast. From this it can be seen that one of the major challenges the government of the day faced was the uncontrollable nature of pirate radio, not only was it reviled due to the fact it could not be taxed, it was also incredibly difficult to regulate.

Another of the main appeals to the youth of the day was the sheer nature of pirate radio stations and the romanticised image of them. The youth in the UK in the 1960s were growing up in a world far different to the one of previous decades. The 1960s brought in ‘the first teenage generation free from conscription’ (Watson, undated). Rationing had ceased in 1954 and the parents of 1960s teenagers wanted their children to experience ‘more fun and freedom’ than they had (Watson, undated). In ‘Pirate Radio in Britain: A Programming Alternative’, Douglas Boyd wrote ‘Pirate radio has a glamorous and adventuresome image both for those involved in such activity and for its listeners’ (Boyd, 1986). This idea of adventure and freedom appealed to teenagers in the 1960s who were themselves looking for individuality and new forms of self-expression. With inspiration coming from the hippie movement and the growth of rock and roll in the USA, teens in the UK were surrounded by an entirely new world.

This is reflected in the change in tone in popular music, with songs like ‘Sugar Sugar’ by The Archies which made it to number one on the UK Singles Chart in October 1969 (Official Charts, undated). The significance of music such as this, as well as others such as Credence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Bad Moon Rising’ charting earlier in the same year (Official Charts, undated), shows an ever-increasing amount of American culture and rebellion moving across the UK. For teenagers in the 1960s the evolution of youth culture was an ever-changing scene, something which pirate radio was uniquely adapted to cater to. The pirate radio DJs were some of the first to come onto the air with character and personality to entertain teenagers and help create the teenage identity. DJs such as Tony Blackburn and Kenny Everett appeared on pirate radio stations in the 1960s (Offshore Radio, undated). The combination of the growing teenage identity and the ability of the pirate radio DJs to connect to their audience and supply them with new music and trends to identify with undoubtably shaped youth culture in 1960s UK. Due to this it is likely that much of the youth who loved the pirate radio scene were drawn to it as they were the only radio broadcasts which focused not only their content, but also their DJs on catering to their young audience.

Another reason that pirate radio was so reviled by the government of the was due to the concerns that unlicensed broadcasts may be ‘a danger because of radio frequency interference to emergency shipping channels, and to overseas radio stations’ (Beyond the Point, undated). Pirate radio stations used medium wave frequencies which had sometimes become overcrowded in other countries. The government was concerned with the possibility that these transmissions could interfere with emergency broadcasts along the coasts where the pirate stations were situated. As an island nation the UK also relies heavily on shipping for imports and exports, with ports still handling 484 million tonnes of cargo in 2016 (Department of Transport, 2017). Keeping wavelengths clear would have been highly important to the government as almost all of the UK’s imports and exports were moved by ships.

Though the UK was experiencing a period of relative peace during the 1960s, one of its major allies, the USA, was still in the midst of the Cold War. Due to this the UK government, especially under the administration of Harold Wilson, was attempting to improve relations in a volatile time, ‘as a Prime Minister he intended to develop closer contacts with the Soviet leadership’ (Boydell and Brewer, undated). During this time, it is likely that the UK government would have wanted all of their emergency channels to be clear and in good working order, therefore the possible interference would have been avoided at all costs. The combination of these factors would have likely meant that pirate radio was perceived as a real threat to the everyday operations of UK services. In a post-war country it is likely that a government will want these operations to go as smoothly as possible.

Another reason that youths may have been drawn to pirate radio stations is due to some of the Americanised aspects of them. American culture had been spreading to the UK for over a decade, but pirate radio stood as a symbol of Americanisation. Radio Caroline was named after the daughter of John F. Kennedy after Roman O’Rahilly saw a picture of a young Caroline Kennedy playing in the Oval Office of the White House (Radio Caroline, undated). The Kennedys were a symbol of the USA to the rest of the world as well as a symbol of modern times. By 1923 there were around 530 unlicensed radio stations in the USA (Pearson, 2006) which were owned for a variety of purposes. This idea predates even the earliest pirate stations in the UK, which could arguably have been Ceto, a yacht used in a promotional campaign by the London Daily Mail in 1928. Pirate radio is also somewhat representative of the American dream and anti-establishment ideals. American fashions such as skinny jeans, modelled by stars such as Audrey Hepburn in ‘Two for the Road’ (Globe Photos, 1967), and go-go boots became popular in the UK. Audrey Hepburn is one example of a British-born Hollywood film star who was seen wearing an American fashion trend in the 1960s, perhaps acting as an example and a role model and inspiration to young people in the UK. This combination of music, fashion and ideas became very popular with young people in the UK in the 1960s, by being part of this cultural revolution pirate radio would have been popular with teenagers and young people who were looking to be part of the movement.

A final reason that pirate radio was so reviled by the government of the day is due to the fact that they had monopolised the airwaves for so many decades and had intended to carry on in the same way. The BBC wouldn’t launch a second radio station until September 1967, following the trend seen in the extreme popularity of pirate radio. However, this meant that for four years the BBC only had one station to rival the content that the pirates were offering, and it would be unable to do this as it would involve changing the station beyond recognition. When BBC Radio 1 was launched in 1967 its first DJ was Radio Caroline’s Tony Blackburn (BBC, undated). This could be seen as the BBC attempting to reinstate their dominance over the airwaves after the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act. The creation of BBC Radio 1 could be seen as the government of the day’s attempt to counter the damage which had been done to the BBC’s reputation by pirate radio and to win over some of the audience that pirate radio had catered to.

In conclusion, pirate radio not only offered new music in a more available fashion, it also came along with new fashions and trends which the UK youth in the 1960s became attracted to. Pirate radio was an example of free expression in a time when expression and art were constantly expanding. To the government, pirate radio stations were obstructive to the day-to-day workings of the UK, as well as being companies which managed to avoid taxes and cripple their radio dominance. These factors made for a large division in opinion between the youth and the state in the 1960s.