Radio Caroline: visiting the Ross Revenge

Over the Easter weekend of 1964, the M.V. Caroline dropped anchor a few miles off the Essex coast and started broadcasting popular music.

A certain 12 year old, super-glued his ear to the family wireless, and within 3 weeks was joined by 7 million other listeners. Within a year, there were over 20 million of us.

Who would have thought that 12 year old would still be listening to Radio Caroline 54 years later?

Caroline on Pirate BBC Essex?

On the 14th August 1967 the UK government introduced the Marine Offences Act in a desperate attempt to stop offshore "Pirate" radio stations.

It was pretty successful as, one-by-one, the stations turned off their transmitters and their staff headed for home.

But Caroline didn't stop, and now on the 50th anniversary of this legislation, Caroline is not only transmitting via the web, but also on the Medium Wave radio band!

Radio Caroline on the RaspberryPi

This is a simple project to create an internet radio and music box which can be attached to your home stereo amplifier.

It is also an excuse to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Radio Caroline, a station that fueled the British popular music industry in the 1960's.

I'll cover the RaspberryPi details later, but let's start with a history lesson.