[Music] Ronan O'Rahilly dies

[Official Old Man]

You'll need to be at least my age to know instantly that this is the man who changed radio forever in the UK. Ronan O'Rahilly was the founder of Radio Caroline.
For millennials, or anyone under 40, please let me explain. In 1964 there were no 'pop' radio stations, just the BBC playing about one hours music a week. Radio Luxembourg would broadcast at night only. Then along came this man and plonked a boat in the north sea and started broadcasting music played by unscripted DJ's. Pirate radio had arrived. It was the 60's. With listening audiences in the millions the government decided to shut them down as they were having fun but shortly after they all closed down BBC Radio 1 started up using many of the pirate DJ's. As you wizz your dial through 100's of music stations today spare a thought for the man who started it all here. RIP and thank you.
ps check out the film Boat That Rocked.

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

You'll need to be at least my age to know instantly that this is the man who changed radio forever in the UK. Ronan O'Rahilly was the founder of Radio Caroline.
For millennials, or anyone under 40, please let me explain. In 1964 there were no 'pop' radio stations, just the BBC playing about one hours music a week. Radio Luxembourg would broadcast at night only. Then along came this man and plonked a boat in the north sea and started broadcasting music played by unscripted DJ's. Pirate radio had arrived. It was the 60's. With listening audiences in the millions the government decided to shut them down as they were having fun but shortly after they all closed down BBC Radio 1 started up using many of the pirate DJ's. As you wizz your dial through 100's of music stations today spare a thought for the man who started it all here. RIP and thank you.
ps check out the film Boat That Rocked.

Didn’t know his name but loved London and Caroline in the mid 60s. Trouble with Luxembourg I found was the signal could drop out as the night wore on and more European stations were picked up. The pirates were great. RIP

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

RIP Ronan

Loved the pirate radio stations. Caroline, Luxembourg (countdown of their top twenty with Tony Prince, number one was played at midnight and was usually T.Rex). Music to do your homework to.

My favourite was always Radio Nord See International. Was convinced I'd mastered the Dutch language, despite never having been there nor taken a single language lesson. Sort of like a proto-Schteve. I guess much of it came down to the half-exotic adverts for Stimirol Gum (Stimirol Gum, Stimirol Gum, Stimirol chewing gum) and Lois Jeans (Lois Lois Lois, vor girls und boys)

Another time, another planet

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

You'll need to be at least my age to know instantly that this is the man who changed radio forever in the UK. Ronan O'Rahilly was the founder of Radio Caroline.
For millennials, or anyone under 40, please let me explain. In 1964 there were no 'pop' radio stations, just the BBC playing about one hours music a week. Radio Luxembourg would broadcast at night only. Then along came this man and plonked a boat in the north sea and started broadcasting music played by unscripted DJ's. Pirate radio had arrived. It was the 60's. With listening audiences in the millions the government decided to shut them down as they were having fun but shortly after they all closed down BBC Radio 1 started up using many of the pirate DJ's. As you wizz your dial through 100's of music stations today spare a thought for the man who started it all here. RIP and thank you.
ps check out the film Boat That Rocked.

The sixties was a fantastic time to be young and the pirate staions were great, especially Radio Caroline and Radio London. Radio Luxembourg was a genine station and when I was younger I listened every night under my eiderdown (no duvets in those days). I was even a member of the Teen and Twenties Disc Club run by a certain Jimmy Saville

So RIP and thank you Ronan you were an important part of my formative years, even though I had no iidea at the time who you were!

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

RIP Ronan

Loved the pirate radio stations. Caroline, Luxembourg (countdown of their top twenty with Tony Prince, number one was played at midnight and was usually T.Rex). Music to do your homework to.

My favourite was always Radio Nord See International. Was convinced I'd mastered the Dutch language, despite never having been there nor taken a single language lesson. Sort of like a proto-Schteve. I guess much of it came down to the half-exotic adverts for Stimirol Gum (Stimirol Gum, Stimirol Gum, Stimirol chewing gum) and Lois Jeans (Lois Lois Lois, vor girls und boys)

Another time, another planet

Ah, Tony Prince. Wasn't he the royal ruler?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Ah, Tony Prince. Wasn't he the royal ruler?

He was indeed

 

[RossyG]

He was George Lazenby’s manager and advised him not to sign on for another Bond film as conservative, short-haired characters like 007 had had their day and films like Easy Rider were the future. Ouch!

But the pirates did a great job in breaking up the staid BBC monopoly and created platforms for some of the best music ever recorded, so his place in history is assured.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

The sixties was a fantastic time to be young and the pirate staions were great, especially Radio Caroline and Radio London. Radio Luxembourg was a genine station and when I was younger I listened every night under my eiderdown (no duvets in those days). I was even a member of the Teen and Twenties Disc Club run by a certain Jimmy Saville

So RIP and thank you Ronan you were an important part of my formative years, even though I had no iidea at the time who you were!

I had a little transistor radio, and my Dad threatened me if I listened to a pirate radio station, I could be arrested!

 

[Icy Gull]

Johnny Walker, the Emperor Rosko were my favourites, never that keen on Dave Lee Travis and Tony Blackburn.

This song always reminds me of the late night Johnny Walker programme where he asked young lovers with cars to park so that he could see them flashing their car lights from the ship. He played this song every night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lp7FtJXp7k

RIP Ronan, you are responsible for some fabulous memories of my youth

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Johnny Walker, the Emperor Rosko were my favourites, never that keen on Dave Lee Travis and Tony Blackburn.

This song always reminds me of the late night Johnny Walker programme where he asked young lovers with cars to park so that he could see them flashing their car lights from the ship. He played this song every night



RIP Ronan, you are responsible for some fabulous memories of my youth

I loved Emperor Rosko. I have a CD of one of his shows, with a great favourite on it.



The CD is this one.

 

[Swansman]

Paddy Bates: "You again...."

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

You'll need to be at least my age to know instantly that this is the man who changed radio forever in the UK. Ronan O'Rahilly was the founder of Radio Caroline.
For millennials, or anyone under 40, please let me explain. In 1964 there were no 'pop' radio stations, just the BBC playing about one hours music a week. Radio Luxembourg would broadcast at night only. Then along came this man and plonked a boat in the north sea and started broadcasting music played by unscripted DJ's. Pirate radio had arrived. It was the 60's. With listening audiences in the millions the government decided to shut them down as they were having fun but shortly after they all closed down BBC Radio 1 started up using many of the pirate DJ's. As you wizz your dial through 100's of music stations today spare a thought for the man who started it all here. RIP and thank you.
ps check out the film Boat That Rocked.

Alan Freeman, pop pickers, chart show was two hours on a Sunday, wasn't it, on the good old Light programme.

And I always preferred Radio London..... although Caroline was the first.

 

[maltaseagull]

Didn’t know his name but loved London and Caroline in the mid 60s. Trouble with Luxembourg I found was the signal could drop out as the night wore on and more European stations were picked up. The pirates were great. RIP

So true about Luxembourg, signal was crap under the bedclothes too!

I remember one of the pirate ships sailed around the coast. Was it radio London or Caroline?

 

[bha100]

You'll need to be at least my age to know instantly that this is the man who changed radio forever in the UK. Ronan O'Rahilly was the founder of Radio Caroline.
For millennials, or anyone under 40, please let me explain. In 1964 there were no 'pop' radio stations, just the BBC playing about one hours music a week. Radio Luxembourg would broadcast at night only. Then along came this man and plonked a boat in the north sea and started broadcasting music played by unscripted DJ's. Pirate radio had arrived. It was the 60's. With listening audiences in the millions the government decided to shut them down as they were having fun but shortly after they all closed down BBC Radio 1 started up using many of the pirate DJ's. As you wizz your dial through 100's of music stations today spare a thought for the man who started it all here. RIP and thank you.
ps check out the film Boat That Rocked.

Let the Loving Awareness Sound, gently kiss your ears on Caroline

 

[GT49er]

Alan Freeman, pop pickers, chart show was two hours on a Sunday, wasn't it, on the good old Light programme.

And I always preferred Radio London..... although Caroline was the first.

Radio London for me too - John Peel and his Perfumed Garden show. Happy days - nay, even exciting ones!

ROP Ronan.

 

[AmexRuislip]

You'll need to be at least my age to know instantly that this is the man who changed radio forever in the UK. Ronan O'Rahilly was the founder of Radio Caroline.
For millennials, or anyone under 40, please let me explain. In 1964 there were no 'pop' radio stations, just the BBC playing about one hours music a week. Radio Luxembourg would broadcast at night only. Then along came this man and plonked a boat in the north sea and started broadcasting music played by unscripted DJ's. Pirate radio had arrived. It was the 60's. With listening audiences in the millions the government decided to shut them down as they were having fun but shortly after they all closed down BBC Radio 1 started up using many of the pirate DJ's. As you wizz your dial through 100's of music stations today spare a thought for the man who started it all here. RIP and thank you.
ps check out the film Boat That Rocked.

Yes I grew up with the stories of my parents listening to RC.
I used to love listening to Radio Luxembourg and eventually Atlantic 252... great times

 

[The Large One]

Years ago - maybe 25 - I went for a job interview at a book publishers specialising in popular music.

One question in the interview was 'Who, in your opnion, were or are the three most important people in this history of popular music?' Obviously, there was no specific right answer - merely an indication as to how well I appreciated pop.

One of my answers was Ronan O'Rahilly. Without him, and his sticking two fingers up at the establishment, popular music, especially British popular music, would have been an inestimably poorer cultural phenomenon.

 

[AnotherArch]

So true about Luxembourg, signal was crap under the bedclothes too!

I remember one of the pirate ships sailed around the coast. Was it radio London or Caroline?

Ah, Radio Luxembourg - Your Station of the Stars. Just a nudge on the dial from a far more powerful BBC station (Home Service West?), and as has been said, signal dropping out later in the evening. Worse in summer with the 'atmospherics'. Not a 'pirate' as such but an English-speaking foreign commercial station.
I didn't agree with my dad on most music, but he had been a fan of Luxembourg from just before the War - he was in the Ovaltinies! [Cue the song].
Regarding the adverts, can anyone spell the home town of the pools maestro - Horace Bachelor?

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

K E Y N S H A M

Whats my prize?

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

K E Y N S H A M

Whats my prize?

Or, if I was a smart-arse pedant,

B R I S T O L