Lights of the coast road

I don't think we need that many along this stretch of road - nobody walks there much at night, cars have headlights. Perhaps it's so shipping knows when to stop?

In the mid-1960s, this stretch of coast attracted many a car to stop at night, facing the sea and flash it's headlamps. This way they could show their support for Radio Caroline which was anchored just over three miles out at sea. The ship, the MV Mi Amigo originally broadcast as Radio Atlanta, but when Caroline and Atlanta merged, the Amigo became Radio Caroline South.

If you never heard the station, you will recognise many of the names who broadcast: Tony Blackburn, Dave Lee Travis, Emperor Rosko, Simon Dee and Johnny Walker, all of whom were soon signed to the BBC.

It was Tony Benn, the then Postmaster General of Harold Wilson's Labour government, who introduced the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act of 1967. A few weeks later, the BBC renamed it's radio channels and started Radio 1. Early in 1968, Radio Caroline was boarded and shut down, leaving the young of Britain to rely on Auntie to play them the music they wanted to hear.

What is most interesting is the fact that Radio Caroline was only really started in the first place by Ronan O'Rahilly, a pop music manager, because of Radio Luxembourg's refusal to play a record of one of his artists. The artist was Georgie Fame.