The Future

Where is Carolines place in the new millennium?

Having made ten one month broadcasts during the nineties to try to keep some semblance of Caroline on air, this pastime was losing its appeal for Caroline's staff. The novelty had mostly worn off for both the media and the listeners. Further, within the limits of navigation of Ross Revenge she had been to just about every place that she could be taken.

Fuel costs for the ship were rising and the vessels caretakers, whilst being well meaning, were breaking the ships machinery as fast as the volunteer work crews could repair her.

On the broadcasting front, the organisation Merlin Communications offered Caroline ( and other broadcasters ) some analogue satellite air time as a free sample. So the once mighty Caroline had two hours a week of satellite time sandwiched between Country Music, Heavy Metal and ' Zoo Format ' talk shows.

Peter Moore's protestations that this was ' better than nothing ' or ' better than we had before ' were starting to wear thin with the supporters. He was particularly vulnerable when businessman Peter Leutner started the satellite station European Klassik Rock. E.K.R. musically was Caroline with a different name and Moore's own staff told him angrily ' This is what WE should have been doing '.

Sadly for Peter Leutner his assessment of the income that his station might create was very over optimistic. He did not seem to grasp or want to grasp the fact that independent satellite radio was not then viable in the real commercial sense.

As fate would have it when after many months Merlin started charging for their satellite hours, Peter Leutner decided that he would reduce his losses by sub letting some of his broadcast hours. A soul station, Solar Radio took the overnights and Caroline left Merlin and found enough money to buy an eight hour block each Sunday. The four fold increase in weekly air time helped Moore regain a little of his lost credibility.

This arrangement continued during the autumn and winter of 1998 and while the modest income did not correct E.K.R's financial situation it was thought that the station would survive at least until May of the next year. It came as a shock then when E.K.R announced that transmissions would cease on the last day of 1998.

The satellite channel which thus fell silent had been leased to E.K.R. by the company Flextech Television Ltd. Without much hope of success, Caroline approached that organisation, attempting to convince them that having at least some income from the channel was better than having none at all. Surprisingly, Flextech agreed with this and a deal was struck where Caroline would buy air time direct by the hour and would rent the vacated E.K.R. studios on the same basis. The station returned to the air in the early months of 1999 with a weekend service of 12 hours duration each Saturday and Sunday.

For some time thereafter it seemed that fate may at last be playing into Caroline's hands, since Merlin also realised that their satellite channel, a tiny part of their over all operation, was a commercial white elephant and a decision was made to close it. A few independent broadcasters had bought air time on the service, namely Dell Richardson's specialist rock and roll programme, Bryan Chalkers programme of country music and a progressive music programme presented by the Staffordshire Broadcasting company. Caroline was able to absorb these and other broadcasters into it's output and by degrees the station increased broadcast hours from 24 to 63 hours a week. The new hours were mostly weekday evenings, which in terms of satellite radio were considered to be peak times.

In the summer of 99 Ross Revenge was taken to Southend pier for a summer stop over and at this notable tourist location it was difficult not to make money from guided tours and merchandising. A one month AM broadcast was carried out and when the ship left the pier in the late autumn the stations finances were unusually healthy. The next venture for Ross Revenge was to be to travel up to London and become a temporary base for the re-launch of Radio Luxembourg.

The possibility of being in a safe location such as West India Dock for the winter was very appealing. British Waterways, now in charge of the dock even suggested that Ross Revenge may be the centrepiece for their planned Millennium celebrations.

Whilst awaiting the call to sail for London the ship was taken to an exposed anchorage in the River Medway, the only anchorage that was available. Autumn passed in to winter and the order to sail for London never came. The Radio Luxembourg re-launch turned out to be a flight of fancy.

In dreadul weather on Christmas Eve, Ross Revenge broke the last of her five mooring cables and drifted down river, going aground off the container terminal at Thamesport. Only slightly damaged she was salvaged and taken to Sheerness Docks but the salvage and docking fees wiped out the income from the Southend venture.

In another disappointment, agents working for Chatham Dockyard asked that Ross Revenge be brought to that location to be part of the traditional Navy Day celebrations that were being revived at the old naval dockyard. Workers prepared the ship for display but the participation of the Ross was cancelled at the last moment and the agreed attendance fee was not paid.

A decision was made to close the ship down until further notice to save the costs and damage of keeping a crew on board. Ross Revenge was only energised when working parties went on board. To many purists, still dreaming of a return to the ocean to broadcast, this was seen as a betrayal and the Caroline organisation crystallised into those who were solely interested in the ship and those who felt that making radio broadcasts was the main reason for Caroline's existence.

None the less, the satellite operation was now running all weekend and each weekday evening. The station tinkered with some Short Wave time from an overseas location and there was a test day of broadcasting on an AM frequency with the power of 500KW, ten times greater than Caroline's previous highest ever broadcast power. Sadly, funds could not be found to take this channel on a regular basis.

Early in 2001 Flextech warned Radio Caroline that they may soon cease their analogue satellite activities and that they did not have another platform to put the station on. After a flurry of activity and with time running out, the station found one practical and affordable alternative and after one month of silence in April 2001, Caroline returned on May 1st with a full time service in digital via the Astra 1G satellite. Coinciding with this, Radio Caroline also secured airtime weekend evenings on The Rock Of The Riviera 88.4FM to the French & Italian Rivieras. In addition to the rebroadcast of shows from our Maidstone studio, programmes from the Riviera are also broadcast in these slots and are identified as Caroline South.

 DJ Bob 'Buzby' Lawrence in Radio Caroline's studios at the Maidstone TV Centre

For the UK, this was not the ideal channel since Astra 1G is at 19.2 degrees East of South, while the Sky channels used by most UK viewers are at 28 degreees East. However the dedicated UK audience re-equipped to hear the station, with the bonus that it was now full time. A new audience built on the continent where 19.2 is the standard. 

With income from merchandising, sponsorship and donations, Caroline had reached a plateau where she could continue at this level indefinitely. The now careworn Peter Moore is still in charge, stating that he regarded the IG service as a test and training operation while the station refined both it's musical and presentation standards. However, listeners and colleagues continually posed the question of 'where do we go from here', while some diehards had still not forgiven him for downgrading the role of the ship.

The obvious next step was to take an audio channel via Sky and thus have the potential of reaching 7 million households. The decision to move to Sky was decided for us when our uplink to the 19.2 Astra 1G satellite closed when the Maidstone studios were sold to a new consortium who decided to shut the uplinking operations from the broadcast centre.

Meanwhile in August 2002, Radio Caroline launched on a new satellite platform. 
Worldspace satellites are audio only and send down a signal, which can be received on a specially designed portable radio. Putting Caroline on one beam of the Afristar satellite gives coverage of all of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Radio Caroline is now part of a prestige subscription package of stations that includes Virgin Radio, Talksport and National Public Radio (NPR.)

November 2002 saw the end of our transmissions via the Astra 1G satellite at 19.2 degrees and preparations to launch via the Sky Digital position at 28 degrees east. As an interim measure, our new satellite uplink partner World Radio Network (WRN) provided a temporary channel on the Eutelsat 13 degrees east satellite. In February 2003 Radio Caroline launched its new outlet at the Sky Digital position of 28.5 degrees east via the Eurobird satellite. In our 40th anniversary year 2004, Radio Caroline also launched nationwide on Italy's DAB network through a licensing deal with the Milan based national network RTL 102.5 Hit Radio.Radio Caroline also broadcast throughout the month of August on medium wave via a restricted service license (RSL.) For this broadcast Ross Revenge was towed from Strood, Rochester to Tilbury where she is berthed today. Occasional broadcasts from the ship take place some weekends.2004 also saw the 'beefing' up of Radio Caroline's streaming on the Internet.

Radio Caroline's immediate plans include a new stereo Internet stream and securing a position on Sky Digital's Electronic Programme Guide (EPG.) This will raise Caroline's profile in Sky's 7 million homes.

Radio Caroline relies on the support of our ever expanding base of dedicated listeners, as well as our sponsors. To find out how you can join the Caroline Support Group click here.

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