WEBVTT - Pirate Radio: Mavericks on the High Seas 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.559 Hey, everybody. I don't know if you've heard, but we 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:07.040 have a book coming out finally, finally, after all these years. 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:10.120 It's great, it's flun You're gonna love it. It's called 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:14.600 Stuff You Should Know Colon an incomplete compendium of mostly 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:19.760 interesting things. Ye, and it's twenty six jam packed chapters 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:22.640 that we wrote with another guy named Knowls Parker, who's 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:27.720 amazing and is illustrated amazingly by our illustrator Carl Manardo. 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:30.560 And it's just an all around joy to pick up 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:32.960 and read. Even though we haven't physically held in our 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:35.280 hands yet, it's like we have Chuck in our dreams 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.480 so far. I can't wait to actually see and hold 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:41.040 this thing and smell it. And so should you, so 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.800 pre order now. It means a lot to us. The 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:46.720 support is a very big deal, So pre order anywhere 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.440 books are sold. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:59.240 production of My Heart Radios How Stuff works, Hey, and 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.520 welcome to up up the volume. I'm Josh, there's Chuck. 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:07.720 Jerry's out there somewhere raging against the machine. And this 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:11.160 is um bubble to say, it's just Stuff you should Know. 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:15.960 I love it. When I sent you this, uh, this research. 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:18.479 You are like, the first thing you said, let's pump 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.639 up the volume. Sure. Man, it's such a great movie. 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:23.320 You know, it's funny is I didn't think about that 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:26.759 once until you said that, and I was like, oh yeah, yeah, 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:30.880 it was all about piracy and radios. Yeah, I love 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:33.120 that movie. I just hadn't seen it, and I don't know, 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:35.959 I don't think probably since then. It has a really 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.840 has a good soundtrack, has bad Brains and Henry Rawlins 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.440 doing kick out the jams you see five songs. It 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.360 also has probably the best sound Garden song of all 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:50.080 time heretic. Yeah, well it's tough to call for me 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:52.760 is a sound Garden nut, but yeah, good song. It 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:54.920 is a good song. Which one is better than that? 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.160 I like a lot of sound Garden, so yeah, I 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:02.200 have probably twenty tied for songs. Okay, but is that 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:05.360 one of them? Yeah, it's up there. Oh thanks for that. 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.000 I love it. It's great. I mean I love all 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.880 sound Garden songs. Yeah, I guess I do too, now 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:14.080 that I think about it, I think I could have 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:16.919 had something to do with Chris Cornell's voice to an extent. 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.080 Man r I P Yeah, for real. I used to 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:22.960 joke about the imagining the first time that he like 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:25.320 sung in the shower when he was thirteen or something. 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.320 He was like, what, I'm like, Oh, I think I 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:31.080 know what I'm gonna do for a living. Yeah, exactly, shower. 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.080 So we're talking about pump up the volume and Chris 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:39.600 Cornell right now, because this episode is about pirate radio, 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:45.120 and specifically it's about the British pirate radio invasion of 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:49.359 the sixties that I had no idea about. I've never 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:52.200 seen that movie, um, Pirate Radio, but I intend to 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.440 now have you seen it? I haven't seen the movie, 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:58.720 but I was acquainted with the story somehow. I think 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:00.600 I might have seen a short documentary or or something 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:05.720 about the Caroline and uh, really really cool stuff it is, 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:07.760 which is why we're going to talk about it in 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.840 this episode. But um, I just found the whole thing. 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:13.840 I don't know if mind blowing is the right word, 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.360 but certainly deeply interesting. And I think it's cool because 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.520 it's one of those like pieces to the jigsaw puzzle 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:24.040 of history, at least like rock history, that you didn't 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.080 even realize, like you didn't you didn't have you know, 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.240 And by you I mean me. Yeah, And Here's the 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.880 thing is, there were other pirate radio stations all around 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.720 the world, and there always have been since there's been 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.680 radio and restrictions on radio. But he and as long 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:43.240 as there's rock, Chuck, there always will be. That's true. 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.880 But the the UK version was sort of the most 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.880 celebrated and the most famous. I think obviously why they 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:52.360 made a movie about it. And one of the reasons 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:56.760 is because the man whose thumb they were under was 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:00.200 the BBC, which is a big deal. It was a 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.720 big deal because here in the United States and I know, 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:05.240 um ahoy to all of you listeners outside of the 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:07.160 United States who are you're like, well, yeah, we we 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:10.480 this is what it was like. Um, in the United States, 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:15.480 the radio spectrum has always been very free, or it 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.400 was intended to be very free, to where um, there 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:21.320 was a multiplicity of voices and you could say a 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:23.760 lot of stuff got a little stodgy, and it was 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.400 kind of stodgy from the outset. But for the most part, 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:32.200 it wasn't just one monolithic organization that controlled all of 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.600 the radio waves. That's just not how it's been in 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.320 the States and in places like the UK. That's how 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.880 it was basically, right out of the gate. They said, Um, 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.919 you know, we this is a really valuable tool. You 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:47.760 can really shape people's minds with this. So we're going 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.279 to leave it specifically under government control. Like we'll provide 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.880 a bunch of different stuff. Not everything you want, um, 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:59.560 but a lot of stuff. Especially if you're a stodgy conservative, 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.760 old establishment type, you're gonna love what we're pumping out. 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:06.520 But um, the point is it's too important to just 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:09.200 kind of let anybody come along as the money for 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:11.599 a radio license to just set up a radio station. 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:15.200 That seems absurd. Only the the Looney colonies would do 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.320 something like that. Yeah, So the BBC had a very 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:22.000 vice like grip, like you were saying, for geez, about 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:26.480 forty something years and then you know, the sixties come along, 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:31.320 and like so many other things in America and the UK, uh, 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.400 kids that were born of these World War two I 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:39.680 guess you would call them baby boomers or booms or boomers. 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:43.240 The babies of those boomers where rock and roll kids. 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:45.480 You know, they grew up seeing Elvis and the Beatles 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:49.360 on television, and they were not square like their parents were, 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.600 and they had different ideas and their parents did. And 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:56.120 this was the case in England in the nineteen sixties 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.440 when the BBC was you know, rock and roll was 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.360 was a thing and they were like, we're not playing this, 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:05.640 this devil's music. They probably didn't say that that was 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:09.320 more American if you, but if you, it was certainly controversial. 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.360 UM songs that seemed to us like I mean, like 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:15.560 you just hear him on an elevator today, like they 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.599 were highly controversial back then, you know, and like there 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:22.320 was genuinely nowhere on the radio in the UK for 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.200 you to reliably turn to to hear this stuff. You 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:28.320 have to go to like a club um to hear them, 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:31.440 and those were few and far between. And then if you, 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.480 um were lucky enough, you might be able to occasionally 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:37.960 dial in Radio Luxembourg, which played some of these like 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.840 pop hits, but they were also it was still largely 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.760 controlled by a few record labels, so it didn't just 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:48.039 they didn't go deep. It was still like whatever new 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:50.279 big band they were trying to promote, but it was 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:52.919 still way cooler than anything the BBC was promoting. The 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.719 problem is that the reception was certainly spotty. Have you 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:59.640 ever been to Luxembourg? I have not. I may have 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:02.640 passed through it not known it. They blinked, but I 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.240 don't believe I have. It's so under the radar. I 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:07.160 flew out of there once. That's the only thing I've 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:11.040 been to Luxembourg is flew home from Europe out of 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:14.680 Luxembobourg airport. So that's my only like, I don't know 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.760 anything about it as a place. It's it's interesting. It's 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:21.440 like the Delaware of Europe. It's right, it may or 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:25.280 may not exist. Yeah. So um, that was pretty much 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:27.240 the long and short of it. The BBC didn't really 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:30.840 didn't really care that the teenagers wanted more. They just 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.760 said no. They might have even said nine at this point, 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.040 you know what I mean. Yeah, And this is where 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:39.720 a gentleman comes in the picture that would really change everything. 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:45.080 And his name is uh Ronan and I've heard Americans 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:50.040 pronounced it O'Reilly. It's spelled oh little accent capital r 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:53.600 A h I L l y. And I heard him 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:57.760 speak his name in court when they asked his surname. 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:02.480 But he said it so quickly it sounded like a dolly. 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:05.160 It sounded like a d So it may just be 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.600 like some weird like you know, Irish pronunciation or something 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.920 that I don't know about, but we're gonna say Riley. 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.960 I mean that's how Yeah, that's how I heard it too. Um. 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.880 But yeah, so he sounded like Brad Pitt and snatched 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:20.600 sort of. I couldn't understand him. That's where there was 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:24.560 a d in there. But he was He was a 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.880 guy who uh figured out that their jurisdiction over the airwaves, 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:33.520 the BBC and the UK government's jurisdiction stopped about five 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.600 kilometers off the coast three miles here in the States. 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.640 And he said, and there were he didn't invent the 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.920 idea of planning a boat out there and broadcasting. Other 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.840 countries were doing this kind of thing and exploiting this 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:51.120 loophole already, but he said, this is this is something 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:52.880 we should do. The kids want their rock and roll, 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:55.880 they want their MTV. We don't know what that is yet, 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.559 and I'm gonna bring it to him. Yeah. So um, 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.400 he he actually took inspiration. Like you're saying, there was 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:07.000 some Scandinavian countries, specifically Sweden and Denmark that had been 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.559 home to pirate radio stations that were docked off of 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.640 their coast, and for very similar reasons too. There was 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:16.400 a state monopoly on radio broadcasting at the time, and 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:19.880 some people were like, uh no, that's I want to 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:22.560 broadcast what I want to broadcast. So they set up 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:25.079 those shops, I mean, all the way back in the fifties. 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.520 And I actually ran across one in the United States 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:31.240 to bring it on home that was operating in the 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:35.360 nineteen thirties three um, and it had a call sign 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:38.480 r x k R, and it was out of Panama, 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.000 even though it was off of the coast of Long Beach. 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:43.720 And I think, Chuck, I think, I think we either 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:46.800 talked about it in our Prohibition episode or we talked 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:50.680 about it in our Who Owns the Oceans episode, but 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:54.000 it was it was originally one of those floating speakeasy 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:58.840 casinos doctor National Waters. Then they started to broadcast radio 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.600 pirate radio is well for a little while, so it 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.720 had happened before. And there was actually because of the 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.080 success of the Scandinavian stations, there was kind of this 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.520 mad rush in the UK to be the first too, 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:16.040 to see I guess um and start broadcasting, and Ronan 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.319 O'Reilly beat them all with what came to be known 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.120 as Radio Caroline. Yeah, so he was sort of in 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.960 a tight race with another guy named Alan Crawford who 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.160 had a project called his was gonna be Radio Atlanta. 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:31.760 I think it was called Project Atlanta. Nothing to do 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.520 with Atlanta, Georgia, Atlanta, Texas. From what I saw, really, 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:38.480 I figured it was just a riff on Atlantic As 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.400 in the ocean. No one of the one of the owners, 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:45.439 um was a from Dallas, I believe, is a radio 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:48.560 man from Texas, and for some reason he chose Atlanta 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:51.800 after Atlanta, Texas. I did another ones in Atlanta, Texas. 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:56.680 I didn't neither. Neither did the people who live in Atlanta, Texas. So, um, 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:00.720 they're the Delaware of Texas. That's all right. So there 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:04.040 was I think o'reiley got about half a dozen investors. 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:06.360 Because this is gonna call some money. Because you gotta 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:09.160 buy a ship. Um, it can't just be a little 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.480 dinghy or or a rowboat or anything like that. You 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.480 have to get it takes. It takes a shipload of equipment. Yeah, 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.280 it takes, and people to operate it and people to 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:20.360 stay on it and stuff like that in meeting rooms, 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.440 and so you gotta have a legit ship. So um 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:28.840 Crawford for Radio Atlanta got the MI Amigo and O'Riley 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:34.359 got a passenger ferry, a Danish ship called the Envy Frederica. 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:39.040 They each renamed them Uh Atlanta and then Caroline, respectively, 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:45.079 apparently Caroline after Caroline Kennedy because he, as Laura Goes, 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:48.880 saw a picture. O'Riley saw a photo of Little Caroline 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.240 and Little John Jr. Dancing in the Oval Office and 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:54.040 he was inspired by that because he was like, this 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.839 is what we're trying to do, like sort of uh, 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:58.959 you know, you're not allowed to dance in the Oval Office, 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:01.199 yet they're doing it, and we're not allowed to broadcast 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.080 rock and roll music because the government says so. So 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:06.760 you know, I'm gonna name after Caroline, very cute name. 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.280 It is very cute. Um. So that's the name that 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.760 he went with. And I'm glad that he was one 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:15.040 of the I'm glad he was the one who who 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:17.680 made it first because he was the one who was 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:21.320 doing it. I guess as as purely as you would 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.640 expect somebody to be doing with like a constant rotation 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:29.640 of DJ's operating twenty four hours a day, legitimately broadcasting 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:32.839 from the ship, and that was not Radio Atlanta's model. 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:37.000 At all. They were compiling shows or day's worth of 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:41.120 shows in the studio back in London, recording them and 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.920 then sailing it out to the ship. It was really 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:47.520 it was also, I mean there was like banking concerns 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.280 that were invested in it was. It was ill legit 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.880 as far as pirate radio goes from the outset. So 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.120 I'm glad that they weren't the ones who made it 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.840 to market first. Yeah. So Radio Caroline. Their slogan was 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:04.760 your all day music station because of seven format, and 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:07.800 it was new and in and of itself, right, Yeah, 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.360 I mean as far I mean as far as playing music, absolutely, 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:12.840 and they just within a few months. I think they 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.360 launched in on Easter Sunday nineteen sixty four with the 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.960 Stones tune It's all over Now perfect. I saw not 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:23.720 fade Away. I saw it's all over Now. Actually I 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.679 saw in the Guardian and then one other source not 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:29.840 fade Away, and then I I also saw um all 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:33.120 over Now. But I saw both enough legit places that 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:35.800 I'm I honestly don't know. Yeah, I saw not fade 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:42.160 Away was the station's theme song, so who knows, And 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.240 then they got someone else to compose an original theme 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.040 song because I think they didn't want to keep playing that. 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:50.400 But at any rate, they launched and it didn't take 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:53.240 long until they had a larger audience than all of 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:58.240 the BBC stations combined. That's wonderful. And they quickly merged, 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:00.560 I think if it goes from Easter Sunday, they merged 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:04.400 in July, just a few months later with Radio Atlanta. 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.360 I guess they figured they had uh, just more power together. 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:12.320 And then the Mi Amigo they became um the Carolina 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:16.040 North in the Caroline South, broadcasting from due different places. Yeah, 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:19.200 which covered almost all of the UK, but not all 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:23.040 of it. There was some southwestern parts that just didn't 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:27.200 didn't get it from either ship they had. They had 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:31.600 pretty good coverage of of the aisles for sure with 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:35.080 those two ships. And then eventually Radio Atlanta went under 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:38.920 as an organization and Radio Caroline was able to take 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.120 over both of those ships. So they had that they had, 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.360 I mean, for a pirate radio station, they they had 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:46.800 a lot of power behind them, for sure. Yeah, and 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:48.760 I don't I mean, we haven't said the obvious. They 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.000 were called pirate radio because they were operating on ships 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.560 in the ocean and flouting the law, So it was 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:58.200 sort of doing double duty there with the name. Yeah, 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:00.520 there's actually some really great pieces out they're on the 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:05.080 internet about this this era UM. And one of them 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.280 I saw was they said, like, from the moment they 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:12.560 started broadcasting, it was basically immediately called pirate radio. For 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.600 some reason, those two words together just seem they just 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.880 strike something in you, you know, Yeah, yeah, for sure. 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.560 And there's there's lots of cool documentaries to UM in 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:25.000 addition to the narrative film, which obviously takes a lot 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:27.280 of liberties, and we'll talk a little bit about that, 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:30.440 but a lot of cool short documentaries and even longer documentaries. 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:36.520 You wanna take an ad break, Yeah, true pirates. Right, 0:15:36.920 --> 0:16:07.880 we'll be right back, everybody, all right, We're back, hopefully. 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:12.440 Those were the bosses ads you've ever heard. Yeah, I'm 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:18.720 sure they were very subversive and flouting h anti establishment exactly. 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:24.120 So UM Radio carolines up and running. And when I 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:28.200 said earlier, Chuck that there was like a UM it 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:31.160 represents a piece of the puzzle of rock and roll history, 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:34.840 even pop culture history that I didn't realize, what I 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:38.600 didn't know existed. But when I said that, I meant 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:44.440 this this specific group of pirate radio stations, but really 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.640 Radio Caroline, from what I can tell, had such a 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:51.840 pronounced effect on music that they they actually managed to 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:57.080 reshape it and rechange it because the BBC was basically saying, 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:01.200 we're only playing stagy stuff your parents like, like literally 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:05.480 square records. That's how square the music we're playing is. Um, 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:09.520 we there's no place for you bands to play the 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:11.760 music you want to play, so you have to make 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.560 your make music that we will play on BBC. And 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.120 all of a sudden, now there was this really potent 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:22.240 outlet that hadn't existed before. And those bands that had 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.640 started out kind of prim and BBC ready were now 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.760 able to start taking acid like on a daily basis 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:33.840 and really explore like their musical um abilities and try 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:37.080 new things. And they knew that there was a good 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:39.800 chance that it would get played on Radio Caroline or 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.199 some of the other pirate radio stations, and in that 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:46.600 it actually shaped psychedelia. It's shaped the psychedelic music scene, 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:50.720 um by just giving it a place to start. Yeah, 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:52.679 I mean they had to fill it. Says here about 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:58.320 songs each week because they were going seven that was 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:01.359 each DJ that had to Yeah, that's a lot of music, 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.800 and you know, you gotta you didn't want to just 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:06.760 play the same stuff over and over. They wanted to 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:10.359 follow and they could follow the American Top forty sort 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:12.520 of system where you you play the hits, and you 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:14.960 play the hits a little more, but then you also 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:18.320 try and break new music and this house stuff works. 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.040 Article says that the Moody Blues we're a band that 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:24.040 kind of came directly out of pirate radio as far 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:28.280 as being broken on pirate radio, starting to do experimental 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:32.040 stuff and that wouldn't obviously get played on the BBC anywhere, 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:35.080 but having started out as playing music that would get 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:37.360 played on the BBC and then being allowed to kind 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:41.160 of alter what they wanted to be totally. And Um, 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:45.440 one of the song I saw that's widely considered the 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:49.400 first pirate radio hit of um the Swinging sixties in 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:55.000 the UK because Tom Jones, it's not unusual. Good song. Now, 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:59.000 that is unusual as far as facts go. Uh you 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:03.560 think that makes the Carlton Dance one degree remove from 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:06.840 British sixties pirate radio. I would not have seen that 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.720 connection before. Yeah, And I mean you hear it's not 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:11.960 unusual it's a cool song and Tom Jones was a 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:16.960 cool dude. But it definitely it feels way more square 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:22.640 to my ears now than than early psychedelia for sure. 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:26.119 I mean sure, the whole thing is from front to 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:29.480 back about smoking hash and how much Tom Jones loved 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:33.240 his hash. But it's still today it seems a little tame, 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:35.520 for sure. Yeah, he was so great. He's Welsh, right, 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:41.080 I don't know, probably I think he's Welsh. Okay, we'll 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:44.080 go with that. So one of the big DJs, and 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:46.320 they had a you know, a whole rotation of DJs 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:49.280 that all loved what they did, and most of them 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:51.840 went on to be DJs for life. Some stayed with 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.320 Radio Caroline for life. Um. I guess that's the sort 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.080 of spoiler, is that they're still around today and you 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:00.760 can listen to them on the internet and on the radio, 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.120 even though they have a legal license now. But I 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:07.040 was listening to their their stream. Uh you can stream 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:09.400 sort of the classic version, which is music from back then, 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:15.520 and it's just fantastic. Uh, it's like a good WFMU playlist. 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:17.800 If you ever remember, we were on FMU for a while. 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:21.560 The classic New Jersey freeform radio station. That's so great. 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:25.280 They clearly had some space to fill too. Yeah, so 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.160 I encourage you to go listen to to Radio Caroline 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:30.760 and check it out. But one of the more famous 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.240 DJ's to come out of that scene was Tony Blackburn. 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:36.760 And he was a fan of Radio Luxembourg just as 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:40.160 a listener and saw an ad in the n M E. 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:44.600 Uh New Musical Express still a great magazine. Sure, it's 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.320 been around since the fifties. I read, Oh, it's fantastic, 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:50.960 Uh that Melody Maker are two of the best. And 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:55.600 he basically applied to this for this job, got it 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.640 and uh became one of the more popular DJs on 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:04.120 on that ship. Yeah, he was one. Um, I mean 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:07.640 kind of going down through history. Pete Tong started out 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.960 on Pirate Radio. Uh. He's very well known DJ and 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:14.439 supposedly also UM. I think we mentioned him in the 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:19.320 Cockney rhyming slang episode where Everything's gone all wrong. It's 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:23.560 gone Pete Tong. Well, yeah, we definitely did, because we 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:26.240 talked about that. It's better than nothing, I think. Um. 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:34.200 And then there was another very famous DJ. Um his name, Yeah, 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:38.439 he's I'm the DJ, He's the rapper. Remember that they 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:40.400 had to explain it to everybody on one of their 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:43.200 so H. The guy I'm thinking of his DJ Andy 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:47.200 Archer and Um. He is a very well known DJ, 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:49.359 has been for many many years. I think he started 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.040 out in the sixties. I don't know if he's on 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:56.080 Caroline or Radio London one of the competitors, but he 0:21:56.320 --> 0:21:58.960 UM is known to have coined the term an iraq 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:01.880 and in the UK I didn't know this, but antarak 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:07.160 is slang for like a super nerdy obsessive fan basically 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:14.040 um and the term was coined because Andy Archer UM 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:18.280 called some of the nerdy mail radio pirate radio fans 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:20.320 who were like so obsessed with the whole thing they 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:23.920 would actually hire boats to take them out to the 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:28.080 ships that were UM broadcasting. They would normally wear like 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:31.840 antaracts because of the weather. So in anarak apparently gets 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:34.960 its its origin from pirate radio too well. And that's 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:37.199 one of the cool things about the early days of 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:39.920 pirate radio is they didn't have ratings to depend on. 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:45.040 They got their feedback from uh kind of like us 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:47.480 from from hearing from people. We we get it via 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:50.080 email and stuff like that. But they got bags and 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:53.800 bags of mail just like us. Just like us, um, 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:56.720 people would stop by their office, like you said, on 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:59.800 by boat, just specific us. That's happened to us before, 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:04.119 even though it's you know, not encouraged any longer, and 0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:08.400 especially now during the lockdown there's no one here, um, 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:10.919 but people would show up. They would send them gifts. 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:14.160 I think Blackburn was the one that said he would 0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:16.919 tell listeners that when he got back to land and 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:19.280 he would drive away in his little sports car, that 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:21.880 he would give away just you know, records. He would 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:24.560