Offshore Echos - Radio Caroline Eighties Pages

24 Hours Again
25th November 1988, Nigel Harris recalled the events of the previous year, since the loss of the 300 foot mast. He concluded that “Caroline is now able to operate as a 24 hour English language music station and the volume of mail being received indicates that the audience lost during the last year is quickly being regained. Plans for the future include modification to the aerial to enable higher power output, so that we can cover all of the south of England, Belgium and Holland. Exactly one year after the disaster, which many people said would silence Caroline forever, she is alive and kicking and well on the road to recovery. Next year Caroline celebrates 25 years on the air and looks forward to another quarter century of successful broadcasting".

25th Birthday
Radio Caroline first officially broadcast on Easter Saturday 28th March 1964, although for some reason over the years, their birthday has often been celebrated on Easter Sunday. Just over fifteen minutes into Easter Sunday the 26th March 1989, the ships horn on the Olau Brittania could be heard. It had about 500 Caroline listeners among its passengers, on a specially arranged trip by the Caroline Movement. Chris Kennedy was overwhelmed as he spoke of "the great white lady majestically sailing past us over the waves, the little waves on the North sea this evening". He added that it "looks like they're having a ball on board the Brittania, we're having a party here too, so we're sort of doing it together even though we're a couple of miles apart at this stage I'd Imagine, looking forward to your return visit though tomorrow afternoon". Just before midday on Easter Sunday, the listeners Top 1000 was interrupted to play a "package" of memorabilia that started with "Caroline" by the Fortunes, Simon Dee introducing Caroline on 199 and the Caroline bell. This was followed by a series of old and new jingles that included Caroline 60"s jingles, Radio Seagull, Radio Mi Amigo, Caroline 70"s jingle and Loving Awareness, Radio Monique, Overdrive, Viewpoint, Caroline 80's jingles, Radio 558 and 819, Lotto 6/49. At 12.00 after the bell, there was a lot of cheering from everyone in the studio. Steve Conway announced "This is Caroline 558, your all day music station... 25 years old. Thank you to all the listeners, thank you to all the people who've been involved, especially Peter Chicago and especially the Silver Fox, we're going to play you three songs which explain what Caroline is about, three songs in a row, nothing but good music from the Lady”. The records were "All you need is Love” by the Beatles, "Voice of Love" by Loving Awareness and "Fool if you think It's over" by Chris Rea. Also onboard the Ross Revenge at 12.00 a special birthday cake was being cut, at the same time as a similar birthday cake was being cut on the Olau Brittania, the cake on the ferry was supplied by John and Jenny Knight of Caroline Movement's Thanet branch.