Radio Caroline North and Manx Radio

I have Manx Radio on 1368kh tuned in on my car radio, so that when I switch from FM to AM (if not there already), I will be straight into Radio Caroline North and won't forget this time! The reception is variable around my neck of the woods, but, depending on where I am, I can pick it up reasonably well. I could, of course, listen to it online on my phone!

When I heard RTE playing the Fortunes and Caroline earlier today (12.55) I thought maybe they knew the relevance and would reference Radio Carolines 60 th birthday this Easter weekend (and Easter falls the same weekend as it did in 1964).

Those magical months when Caroline North was heard across the East Coast bringing pop music to these Isles for the first time.

Caroline effectively shaped Irish Broadcasting it's DJS Robbie Robinson and Chris Cary starting the super stations Sunshine and later Nova

I very much doubt it

Absolutely agreed about Caroline's influence on Irish Radio. I have a two waves of influence theory.... firstly Irish people who listened to Caroline set up the early Irish pirate stations in the late 60's and 70's (wave 1) and then, after the Mi Amigo sank in 1980, Robbie and Chris arrived here, bringing with them some of the best offshore DJ's of the time (wave 2).

Sunshine at the very beginning sounded like Radio Caroline had relocated to portmarnock. Then Robbie and Chris lifted the standards of radio presentation to new heights that Irish listeners didn't know existed.

We owe a lot to Caroline and the people who worked for it, over many years.

Tony Blackburn (OBE) on Pirate Radio 2

Does anyone know where Ronan was buried?

Would love to visit one of the days and leave flowers to show my respect.

I heard the Radio Caroline North/Manx Radio AM broadcast being relayed on 105.2 FM in south Dublin a short while ago.

Incidentally, what Radio Garden describes as Radio Caroline 648am is broadcasting Radio Caroline's album station. Steve Dack is on at the moment and will be followed by Nigel Harris. I remember finding this discrepancy before. I checked Radio Caroline's website and that is one of the online options. I think the Radio Garden option continues with the online album station.

Now listening to Ray Clark on Radio Caroline North courtesy of Radio Garden's option for Manx Radio AM! It is also available as the Radio Caroline North option on Radio Caroline's website!

It was a great listen from thr start, with the first hour more aimed at the pirate days. the second hour was mostly their music choices of the 60s as well as the 70s

Is Tommy Rivers a new name to the schedule?

Edit: I will answer my own question! It looks like it is, at least from this thread anyway.

I think this is him:

Tommy Rivers From Minneapolis, Tommy had worked for five years at a number of local radio and television stations before heading for the UK where he joined Laser-558 in June 1984 as afternoon DJ and Operations Manager. While aboard the mv Communicator, he used his spare time to complete his Masters thesis for the University of Minnesota. Known as Tommy “Whattaguy” Rivers, he left Laser in September 1985 (last show, on tape, 17th September). His last offshore broadcast was on a commercial for Arabian Sands Holidays which went out on the rival station, Radio Caroline. Returning to America, he married his English girlfriend and took a job as a newscaster on KSTP-AM, Minneapolis/St.Paul, before returning to London and a position with UPI on Fleet Street. He was the UPI Radio bureau chief and London correspondent. He later moved to NBC in the same role before heading over to CBS as a Radio correspondent. He is currently the London correspondent for ABC News Radio. He also presented weekend shows on Virgin Radio from 1993 to 1995. (This photo is from Offshore Echo's magazine. There are more photos of Tommy in Michael Dean's and Mark Stuart's photo albums. Thanks to Tommy for his assistance.)

https://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/djs8q2r.htm

Hi Declan,

Tommy isn't totally new to the Caroline North schedule - he presented a guest slot aboard The Ross in August 2019.

There is a station on 6205 kHz shortwave relaying Caroline / Manx.