Ship - MS Mi Amigo or Radio Caroline - 1960s pirate radio station - postcard

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Radio Caroline - MS Mi Amigo - one of the 1960s prirate radio station off Wlaton on the Naze, England
• Publisher:  Coast Cards Ltd.
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

Please ask if you need any other information and I will do the best I can to answer.

------------------------------------------------

Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: £1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): £2.75

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

UK - PayPal, Cheque (from UK bank) or postal order

Outside UK: PayPal ONLY (unless otherwise stated) please.   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

I will give a full refund if you are not fully satisfied with the postcard.

----------------------------------------------

Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

*************

Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly.^[1] Unlicensed by any government for most of its early life, it was considered a pirate radio station.

Radio Caroline began test broadcasts during the evening of 27 March 1964, and commenced regular programming at noon the following day, on 28 March.^[2] It broadcast from a former Danish ferry, the Fredericia renamed MV Caroline and anchored three miles (5 km) off the coast of Felixstowe, just outside British territorial waters. In April 1964, Radio Atlanta began broadcasting from the MV Mi Amigo, a former coaster anchored off Harwich. Both stations operated independently for several months but the companies' sales operations were later merged. The Caroline moved to an anchorage off Ramsey, Isle of Man and broadcast as Radio Caroline North while the MV Mi Amigo remained off Essex broadcasting as Radio Caroline South. The British government considered both operations to be pirate radio stations.

Both ships remained independently owned until December 1965, when the owners of Radio Caroline North bought Radio Caroline South.^[3] In 1966 the British Postmaster General Tony Benn introduced a Bill to Parliament that outlawed unlicensed offshore broadcasting, which became the Marine Offences Act and was enacted on 14 August 1967. The two Radio Caroline ships continued to broadcast with operations controlled from the Netherlands. In March 1968, both ships were towed to the Netherlands by the Wijsmuller tug company because of unpaid bills.

On Saturday 13 June 1970 during the last few days of a British general election campaign, Radio Northsea International (RNI) rebranded itself as Radio Caroline International with O'Rahilly's permission. Caroline jingles and political messages designed to encourage listeners to vote Conservative were broadcast. Medium wave transmissions of RNI from the Mebo II while off the British coast were jammed by the British government, and the jamming continued while the station operated as Radio Caroline, even after the General Election, which the Conservatives won. The station renamed itself RNI on Saturday 20 June, and returned to an anchorage off Scheveningen, after which the jamming ceased.

The Mi Amigo was auctioned in 1972 and sold for 20,000 Dutch Guilders and the Fredericia was scrapped. Mi Amigo was bought by a pirate radio enthusiast with the intention of turning it into an offshore radio museum, before being reacquired by Radio Caroline and anchored off the Netherlands coast. Radio Caroline began intermittently broadcasting, re-launched in 1973 as Radio Seagull, and resumed full-time broadcasting in February 1974. Dutch legislation, enacted in September 1974, closed most of the pirates and Caroline became an LP-based rock station, moved to the English coast and regained a sizable audience in the UK and Europe. During this period most of the station's advertising revenue came from the sale of airtime to Dutch-language stations which time-shared its airtime. After several years of neglect and damage from grounding incidents, the Mi Amigo sank during a severe storm in March 1980.

In 1981, Radio Caroline acquired and began converting the former Icelandic trawler Ross Revenge into a radio ship, using it for broadcasts from August 1983. Once again, a partnership with a Dutch-language station proved fruitful. On 19 August 1989, the ship was raided and silenced by British and Netherlands authorities. Broadcasts resumed on 1 October of that year and continued on low/moderate power until fuel for the generator ran out on 6 November 1990. Although no longer broadcasting, the ship remained at sea with a skeleton crew until it finally ran aground on the Goodwin Sands in storms in November 1991. The ship was salvaged and continues to be used for special broadcasts. Radio Caroline currently broadcasts 24 hours a day via the Eutelsat 28A satellite at 28.5°E, via the Internet and by occasional Restricted Service Licence. Radio Caroline broadcasts music from the 1960s to contemporary, with an emphasis on album-oriented rock (AOR). The company also licenses other stations around the world to use the Radio Caroline name.

type=printed postcards

theme=transportation

sub-theme=sea

transportation type=merchant/ cargo vessels

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=unposted