On 2nd July 1964, the offshore radio stations, Radios Caroline and Atlanta merged and the original Radio Caroline - now renamed Radio Caroline North - upped anchor from her mooring 3 miles off the Essex coast. She sailed around the southern coast of the UK and after that long momentous weekend, took up position anchored in Ramsey Bay, off the Isle of Man. Caroline broadcast on 199 metres in the medium wave band ("Caroline on One-Nine-Nine"), 1520 khz and her signal came through loud and clear to this teenager in Manchester. Quite simply, my life changed forever!

To those of you who are younger than me, it will be difficult to understand just how dire radio had been for us teenagers in the years BC (Before Caroline). These were the days prior to Radios 1 and 2, let alone Commercial Radio. Pop music from the BBC was restricted to a few hours a week, mainly Saturday Club (2 hours every Saturday morning), Easy Beat (90 minutes on Sunday mornings) and Alan Freeman's "Pick of the Pops" Chart Show (originally just one hour, later extended to two hours, every Sunday afternoon). In the evenings we would listen to Radio Luxembourg on 208 metres for our dose of pop output, but the signal was poor and prone to fading - in any case, records were never played in their entirety, as the programmes were sponsored by the record companies and Lux's job was to plug as many records as they could in their 15 or 30 minute programme segments.:-(

Then along came Radio Caroline, broadcasting 12 hours a day from 6 a.m. till 6 p.m. playing non-stop pop music - outside UK territorial waters and UK jurisdiction. It was heaven to this 14-year old in July 1964! That heaven continued for nearly 4 years until the finally dream ended - after the Marine Offences Act came into force on midnight 14th August 1967, it became very difficult for the stations to continue and in March 1968, both Radio Caroline ships were towed away by a Dutch salvage company, for non-payment of tendering fees.

But for those four magical years, they were such wonderful times. What was so special about Caroline on One-Nine-Nine? Well, it wasn't just that it was non-stop pop. It was the type of music played. Instrumental in setting the music policy were Programme Director, Christopher Moore (born in Washingon, DC) and Head DJ, Tom Lodge - Tom had spent much of his youth in Canada and was used to the type of fast-moving commercial radio popular in the United States and Canada. Under their command, Caroline North didn't just play the UK hits of the day - they also played the tracks hitting the American Billboard "Hot 100" Charts at the time, including massive amounts of R&B and what was becoming known as Soul music. This type of music was simply not played on the BBC.

What hasn't been adequately credited is Radio Caroline North's place in the history of what became known as "Northern Soul". There is no doubt in my mind that Radio Caroline was playing the music played at the Twisted Wheel and vice versa - the two fed off each other. This explains why, when I first went into the Wheel in 2004, I knew most of the records played - I had first heard them on Radio Caroline as a kid. I would like the importance of this to be recognised by the Northern Soul community and for Radio Caroline North to get due credit.