In Sheffield as a teenager the start of pirate radio in
the 60's was heaven.
The best reception in Sheffield was from Radio 270
a boat moored off the Yorkshire coast.
Has anyone any memories of 270 ?

I remember Caroline which i think was anchored somewhere off the Norfolk coast, won,t be that one though with the sound of it.

Originally posted by Chris M
In Sheffield as a teenager the start of pirate radio in
the 60's was heaven.
The best reception in Sheffield was from Radio 270
a boat moored off the Yorkshire coast.
Has anyone any memories of 270 ?

My most vivid memory of 270 was sitting on the beach at Scarborough in August 1966.
In those days everyone had a transistor (portable) radio.

Anyway, Yellow Submarine by the Beatles came on and the beach became a huge flurry of actvity as everyone rushed back to their radios and tuned to 270.
Within seconds a beach about two miles long became a massive sing song venue with everyone joining in.

Andy

Yes Andy I Think 270 organised a few beach activities
as well.
A local boat ran trips to 270 - circled the ship and
returned -can't imagine there was much to see.
I think the only DJ on 270 to transfer to Radio 1 was
Paul Burnett ??

Other pirates I got on my tranny -
Caroline
Radio Scotland
North Sea

But they all faded in and out.

why no more pirate radio?

suppose they ran out of song's...
what shall we do with a drunken sailor,
yellow submarine,
i am sailing,
row row row yer boat,
and i'm stuck there.

sorry, that first bit was a serious question.
did they change the law or something?

Originally posted by rarstar
did they change the law or something?Are you for real?

Doesn't the word "Pirate" refer to the fact that it is illegal - and not that it's being broadcast from a boat (by "pirates")!? :lol:

definitely not.

but i thought there was a loophole or something and if they were broadcasting from a boat, they weren't 'really' in britain and couldn't be arrested. or something along those lines.

and i assumed that they must have changed the law to make boat broadcasters arrestable.

either that or police speedboats just got faster over time, and they were all taken out during miami thunder style raids in the seventies.

or maybe not.

why did they dissapear, then?

You will find your answer on Google, after a quick search I found this;

Meanwhile in the UK during the 60s, pirates began to transmit from offshore ships, located around England. 'Radio 270' was located off Scarborough and could be heard as far as London. 'Radio Scotland' was located off the North-East coast of Scotland, and 'Caroline North' off the Isle Of Man. Some stations used old ministry forts from World War II gun placements. The authorities realised that the forts were under British jurisdiction and closed the stations down, but the ships outside the mainland were beyond their control. At midnight on August 14th 1967, the government introduced a new law - The Marine Offences Act, which made it illegal for the stations to operate. The act also prohibited UK companies from advertising on pirate radio, thus depriving the stations of their revenue. Tony Ben is the person responsible for the destruction of the off-shore stations. He was instructed by Harold Wilson and the Labour Party to silence the Big L, Caroline and Radio Nordsea for good, as they were allowing access to political parties (other than Labour) to the airwaves.

The full page is here, The History of Pirate Radio (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pir8radio/html/history.html)

haha!

so they did change the law.

i, infact am the man.

eat my shorts dude.

the speedboat raids would have been more fun though, nevermind.

ruscoe, whats the score?
ruscoe, ruscoe, what's the score?

just a bit of fun man, it's friday.

am i for real? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Erm... 1 - 0 (to you) init? :cry:

:P

Does anyone remember the forerunner to pirate radio - radio Luxemburg? That was the only way in the fifties to hear rock music.

Radio 2 has been or is still running a series on the history of Pirate Radio in the evenings. If you missed it you can listen again from their web site www.bbc.co.uk/radio2

"Radio Revolutionaries" the show is called. Second part is on Tuesday evening at 8.30pm and '270' is featured!

Does anyone else remember the pirate stations of the 1980's though... I remember quite a few but then again, ahem, cough, I did help a few of them out...?

There was 'Weekend Music Radio', 'Rebel Radio', 'Radio Britannia' (tho from Barnsley), 'Ocean Sound' (Mexborough) and 'ZFM' to name but a few.