RADIO LONDON

Part One: Big L begins

Radio London was the most popular and financially successful of all the sixties offshore broadcasting ventures. It won many millions of listeners and, despite being on the air for less than three years, left a lasting legacy as the station which brought format radio (and jingles) to Britain. Radio London also provided the template - and much of the DJ talent - for the launch of the BBC's pop music service, Radio One.

Radio London was the brainchild of an American car dealer, the mayor of Eastland Texas, Don Pierson. During the summer of 1964 he noticed an article in The Wall Street Journal describing the arrival of offshore radio in Britain. Despite having no experience of broadcasting, Don was fascinated by the idea and immediately paid a visit to the UK. He flew out over the North Sea to take a look, listened to Radio Caroline and decided he could do it better. Back in the States he gathered together three other Texans to join him in the scheme: fellow car-dealers Tom Danaher and Mal McIlwain and oilman Jack McGlothlin. Each partner was responsible for raising a quarter of the total needed and could bring in other investors.

 

In all it took less than twenty people to raise the $500,000 (then around £180,000) they estimated they required to finance the project. There was a rumour at the time that Lady Bird Johnson, wife of American president Lyndon Johnson, was one of the investors, but there is no evidence to support this. The company they set up to operate the station was registered in the Bahamas. US radio legend Gordon McLendon was consulted. He had been one of the pioneers of American Top 40 radio and owned the Dallas station KLIF (named after the Oak Cliff area of the city). He had also been one of the people behind the Swedish pirate Radio Nord so was one of the few people in the world with the necessary experience. Philip Birch was appointed Managing Director. He set up the British sales company, Radlon (Sales) Ltd. with offices based in London's fashionable Curzon Street. Radio London's ship was a 780-ton former American minesweeper, bought for £28,000. Under an earlier name, the USS Density, she had disposed of some 500 mines and rescued several hundred men from a sinking ship. More recently she had been owned by a Greek company which had renamed her Manoula. Now she was the mv Galaxy - an early suggestion for the station's name. The conversion work was carried out in Miami. RCA was awarded the contract to supply the broadcast equipment and, on 22nd October 1964, the Galaxy set sail for Europe. The Galaxy had been fitted with a new aerial mast. Radio London press releases claimed it was 212 feet high (“23 feet higher than Nelson's Column”) but there has been some doubt expressed about the accuracy of this figure. Ian Anderson (in an article for Offshore Echos magazine) suggested it was probably more like 180 feet tall, 150 feet of which was visible above deck level.

 

Pierson's original plan was that the ship would re-broadcast taped programmes from KLIF Dallas, with the news and advertisements replaced. KLIF referred to itself as “Big D” so a similar jingle package was ordered up from the PAMS company using the name “Big L”. However the idea of relaying KLIF was scrapped before the station was launched, much to Pierson's annoyance. This was just one of many disagreements that caused a rift to develop between him and his fellow directors. The split in the management team, and especially between Pierson and Birch, even extended to an argument over the choice of ship's anchorage. This led to the American taking the strange step of consulting Ronan O'Rahilly, boss of the rival Radio Caroline, on the suitability of Birch's intended anchorage. O'Rahilly thought that the spot in the Thames estuary he had picked was inside territorial waters so, in November 1964, the Galaxy dropped anchor in an alternative position: off Frinton-On-Sea, Essex, safely outside the three mile limit. The disagreements within the company continued. Eventually they resulted in Don Pierson being forced to resign from the station he had founded before it had even made it on to the air. He did, however, keep a financial interest in the venture and later went on to launch another radio ship, home of the ambitious Radio England/Britain Radio project.

Meanwhile Big L test transmissions began. The first, on 5th December, revealed problems which took almost a fortnight to fix. The tests resumed on 16th. The following day Paul Kaye was the first DJ to make an announcement. The first disc was a new release, Paper Tiger by Sue Thompson - a song which would become very familiar to listeners over the next few weeks. The tests ended during the afternoon of 22nd December. At 6am the next day Pete Brady presented the first proper programme on Radio London with his opening record being Cliff Richard's I Could Easily Fall (In Love With You). The first advert was for The News Of The World. The station was broadcasting on 1133 kilohertz, 264.8 metres (referred to on the air as “266”) with, at that time, a power of 17 kilowatts.

The first Radio London disc-jockey crew was an experienced team, led by senior DJ Tony Windsor. He had previously broadcast in his home country of Australia as well as on Radio Atlanta and, briefly, Radio Caroline as Tony Withers but, like all his colleagues, changed his name when he joined London. Also aboard were Paul Kaye - later to become more of a news-reader than DJ - and Earl Richmond, both of whom had worked on forces broadcasting overseas, Pete Brady a Canadian DJ who had been on radio in the Caribbean, and Dave Dennis who had been heard on Radios Atlanta and Invicta as Neil Spence. The only novice was Kenny Everett who joined with no radio experience at all but went on to become their biggest star. A couple of the older guys, Kaye and Richmond, struggled initially with the fast-moving Top 40 format but the station sound gradually came together.

Dave Cash joined the team a few days after the launch with Duncan Johnson coming aboard on 1st February 1965. When he arrived, Duncan found there weren't any blankets for his bed - they were all in the studio being used to dampen the sound in what had previously been a corner of the ship's metal hold. The DJs had to endure some quite primitive conditions in those early days. Kenny Everett told the Daily Mail that at the start of the station he was “ill for three weeks” and had to “examine each cornflake separately for weevils” but, as Radio London grew, the conditions improved and, even at their worst, they were considerably better than on some of the rival stations. The ship's chief steward was Michel Philistin, a young Haitian who had crossed the Atlantic on board the Galaxy. He was frequently mentioned on air and, despite initially speaking very little English, became a firm favourite with the listeners as well as the DJs.
By late 1964 the two Radio Caroline ships had already proved that offshore radio could work in Britain but their programmes were somewhat unadventurous and quite middle-of-the-road. Radio London, by contrast, was an out-and-out Top 40 station. Dave Cash recalls: “The difference between Caroline and London was the formatting. Caroline had always been what I call ‘catch-as-catch-can radio’. It was a great idea, it was the first, it was responsible for all the others so, because of that, it deserves its place in history but you used to go out there with a bunch of records and play them. No one had any idea what order they were in. No one had any idea of format at all.” Radio London's first programme director, Ben Toney, brought the successful American Top 40 format, as used on Gordon McLendon's KLIF, to Britain. It seems obvious now but back then it was revolutionary. Big L won an audience immediately, even if for the first few weeks it was noticeably short of discs and somewhat repetitive.

RADIO LONDON'S FIRST PROGRAMME SCHEDULE.

 6.00am Pete Brady - 9.00 Earl Richmond - 12.00pm Dave Dennis - 3.00 Tony Windsor - 6.00 Paul Kaye - 9.00 Closedown Information from ‘The London Sound’.

 

Radio London was the first British offshore station to provide regular news bulletins. Before the launch various press agencies had been approached to provide these but they had proved too expensive. A deal was nearly reached with the (pre-Murdoch) Sun newspaper. This was a Labour-supporting paper which had grown out of the defunct Daily Herald and was struggling to find a place in the market. Unfortunately the paper's lawyers were worried about the legalities of getting involved with a pirate station and the deal was cancelled. As a result, Big L was forced to obtain its news by listening to the BBC, rewriting it, and putting it out thirty minutes later: “on the half-hour, Radio London news tells you more, says it better.”

Radio Caroline was largely run by people from the music-business and had been started to provide a platform for their artistes and records. By contrast Radio London was run by sales people. It was much more business-like. Big L was there to make money. There was a very professional team both at sea and on land. The Galaxy was a happy ship on which to work and, of all the pirates, Radio London had by far the lowest turnover of staff although occasionally a DJ would arrive and then disappear again quite quickly if he did not fit in with the close-knit team aboard. Radio London's success was immediate and Caroline South in particular lost thousands of listeners within only a few months. A National Opinion Polls survey conducted in February 1965 for Big L revealed that, in an area south of a line drawn between The Wash and The Severn, on an average day, 2,170,000 listeners were tuned to them. Only 1,090,000 were with Caroline South. These figures were disputed by the rival station. By May an NOP survey showed that at peak time, between 12.30 and 1pm, Big L had 1,630,000 listeners. The whole Caroline network (i.e. both ships) had one million. Much of the station's success was due to the leadership of Tony Windsor. A middle-aged man with something of a drink problem, “T.W” was a surprising hero but he was revered by the other disc-jockeys and he helped to train them into arguably the best team British radio had heard.

 

The station's playlist was a Top 40 which differed noticeably from the UK sales chart. It was much faster moving, was often weeks ahead of the ‘real’ chart and on many occasions included songs which weren't in the sales chart at all. Known as the Fab 40, there is a set from 24th January 1965 to the station close-down on the Radio London website. From January 1965 Big L carried a religious programme, The World Tomorrow, initially weekly but quickly extended to three times a week and then daily. The programme was sponsored by the Worldwide Church of God of Pasadena California who paid £300 per show for the privilege of being on Radio London. The income from this one programme paid for the basic running-costs of the entire ship. Other sponsored shows arrived, both evangelical and secular. The Voice of Prophecy began a weekly broadcast every Sunday from February 1965. From 7th March Miners Make-Up financed UK Tops The World also on a Sunday. This was later joined by The Cema Bingo Show, The Colgate-Palmolive Request Hour, The Bromley Half-Hour, Call In At Curry's and many others. 
Major advertisers were only too happy to buy airtime at a peak rate of £76 for 30 seconds. Within two years the station had paid off its initial launch costs and made a further one million pounds profit. 

Part Two: Kenny & Cash, and the rescue of John C. Winn

In early 1965 Radio London reached an agreement with the Wijsmuller company to take care of all the crewing and tendering requirements. As this firm already looked after Caroline South, it was not long before an arrangement was arrived at by which the two stations shared the same tenders - and the cost.

 

In March 1965 Radio London did a deal with music publisher Harold Shampan. Together they formed Pall Mall Music Ltd. The publishing royalties on the sale of a single were split 50-50 between the publishers of the A and B-side of the disc so owning the rights to the B-side of a hit could be financially rewarding, even if it was seldom played. Pall Mall Music signed up numerous B-sides - and a few A-sides - over the next couple of years. These deals had a considerable influence on Radio London's Fab 40 as extensive airplay was given to the A-sides. (This sort of cross-promotion was not unique to Radio London. The long-established Radio Luxembourg also had publishing interests.) For example the Fab 40 of 30th October 1966, a typical week, contained five Pall Mall-related releases. Another was a Big L “climber”, a new release picked for future success. None of them was a genuine hit. In fact the vast majority of the Pall Mall releases failed to enter the sales chart but some did, including offshore favourites like Amen Corner - Gin House Blues, Jeff Beck - Hi Ho Silver Lining, Graham Bonney - Super Girl, Jimi Hendrix Experience - Hey Joe, Zoot Money's Big Roll Band - Big Time Operator, New Vaudeville Band - Winchester Cathedral and The Alan Price Set - The House That Jack Built. Radio London was operating on one third power for its first few months on air but, from 20th March, the full 50 kilowatts was available and it made a huge difference. The signal really pumped out. By then the DJs had got to grips with format radio and were sounding on top form. It very quickly became apparent that Radio London was quite simply the slickest and hippest of all the stations. It was also now the loudest.

 

Before Radio London launched, the team of new DJs had been played tapes of KLIF Dallas so that they could familiarise themselves with the Top 40 format. Among these tapes was a recording of a popular KLIF double-headed show fronted by Charlie and Harrigan. Dave Cash and Kenny Everett were impressed by the programme and suggested they might do something similar on Big L. The Kenny & Cash Show launched in April 1965 and was an immediate success. Combining an inventive irreverance, Goon-style humour, lots of Beatle tracks and clever scheduling - it went out at 5pm, just after kids had got back home from school - it is still fondly remembered. In fact it is hard to believe it only ran for six months. The programme came to an end in October when Dave Cash moved to the Breakfast Show to replace the departing Pete Brady.
Just after Easter 1965, on Tuesday 20th April, the Wijsmuller tug Offshore I was carrying out its regular duties, servicing Radio Caroline South and Radio London. Caroline's ship, the mv Mi Amigo, was the first port of call. Disc-jockeys returning from their shore leave were dropped off and the tender continued on its way to the Radio London's vessel.

 

Meanwhile overhead an American pilot was flying a Voodoo fighter aircraft. Based in France he was on a training mission when he was forced to eject at near supersonic speed. The ejection fractured his shoulder and damaged his knee. Dazed, light-headed and on the verge of losing consciousness, he guided his parachute towards the small ships he could see way down below him. The North Sea in April can be pretty inhospitable but, fortunately for First Lieutenant John C. Winn, the tender was in the right place at the right time. Radio London DJs Pete Brady and Dave Dennis were on their way back to the Galaxy. They saw the parachuting airman descend into the water. The tender changed course to pick him up. Some newspapers reported that Pete jumped into the sea to help him on board - which was not strictly true - but the two DJs did assist in getting him onto the tender. The exhausted pilot was then taken to the radio ship to dry off. He was given warm clothes and a drink. And, of course, the station did not hesitate in relaying full details of the drama to their listeners.Having swapped crew at the Galaxy, the Offshore I then returned to the Mi Amigo. The Radio London DJs going on leave (Dave Cash, Kenny Everett and Earl Richmond) were joined by their Caroline counterparts (Garry Kemp, Doug Kerr and Keith Martin) and the tender headed back for land with the injured pilot. An ambulance was waiting on the quayside and John Winn was rushed to the hospital at USAF Bentwaters in Suffolk, a very lucky man.

 

Radio London was not the only radio station to get in on the excitement that day. An air-sea rescue helicopter was launched to pick up the pilot and headed out to sea. Someone must have heard that he was on board a pirate station but got its name wrong because the helicopter landed a man on Radio City's fort. This caused some alarm to the occupants. Once everything had been explained though they too could not wait to inform their audience.The rescue of the pilot received a lot of publicity on land, which was particularly helpful to Radio London which had only been on the air for a few months and only been broadcasting on full power for a matter of weeks. What delighted the writer of this memo, right, was that the station was not described on the BBC news as a “pop pirate”. It seemed that, in a very short time, Radio London had already become an accepted part of the established media. It is thought that the author of the memo was John Dienn, alias DJ Earl Richmond, writing to his colleague Paul Kaye. Following the rescue, Radio London received a letter of thanks from the Governor of Texas, John Winn's home state, and Programme Director Ben Toney was made an Admiral in the Texas navy! A couple of years later John C recorded a message of thanks that was broadcast on Radio London.

 

 

RADIO LONDON PROGRAMME SCHEDULE, July 1965.

MON-SAT  6.00am Pete Brady - 9.00 Tony Windsor - 12.00pm Dave Dennis - 3.00 Dave Cash - 5.00 Kenny & Cash - 6.00 Kenny Everett -  8.00-8.30 “The World Tomorrow” (sponsored) - 9.00 closedown 

SUN -MON-SAT except:   7.30-8.00am “The Herald of Truth” (sponsored) - 9.00-9.15 “The Voice of Prophecy” (sponsored) -  11.00-12.00pm “The Colgate-Palmolive Request Hour” (sponsored) -  2.30 “Radio London Brides” (sponsored) -  3.00-6.00 “Radio London Fab 40” Information from ‘The London Sound’.

 

Part Three: Adrift

In November 1965 Kenny Everett was fired. Despite being hugely popular, the DJ had consistently made fun of The World Tomorrow, the evangelical programme scheduled in his show. This sponsored half-hour, fronted by Garner Ted Armstrong or his father Herbert W Armstrong, brought in so much money that the Big L management could not afford to upset them. Kenny had to go. (He was allowed to return to the station in June 1966 after promising to behave himself.)

 

In the early hours of 12th January 1966 Radio London's ship, the mv Galaxy, dragged her anchor in a gale. Mark Roman was on board at the time: “I was woken up and (someone) said we are adrift. So we got up and put our life-jackets on and Dave Dennis made a cup of tea and we sat in the ward room ... (Unfortunately) when the steering gear was connected, something broke and it didn't work, so we couldn't steer with the rudder. Normally, when a ship's got two engines, you can steer on the engines - which is fine but our engines were in different water-tight compartments because it was (previously) a war ship. There's a watertight compartment between each engine which is a damned good idea when ... you're in a war-time situation, but difficult when you've only got one engineer on board, who can only control one engine. So the captain said ‘I'll just steer on one engine. All I've got to do is, when I'm pointing in the wrong direction, I'll go hard astern and, when I'm pointing in the right direction, I'll go hard ahead’. And that's what he did. All night.” The Clacton lifeboat was launched but, in the event, was not needed. Radio London was off the air the next morning as the Galaxy had drifted inside territorial waters but, by lunchtime, she was back at her anchorage. At 1pm programmes resumed. It was a nerve-wracking time for Dutch steward Thys Spyker. After the ship's drifting he transferred to Caroline South and he arrived there just in time for that ship to lose her anchor as well. And this time the ship did not just drift; she ended up on the beach. At the end of February the station experimented with extended broadcasting hours and in March this became permanent with the addition to the schedule of The Kaye Club, hosted by Paul Kaye between 9pm and 12, and London After Midnight rounding off the day's programmes until 2am. Ben Toney left the station around this time and Alan Keen, formerly an airtime salesman, replaced him as programme director.

 

In early 1966 a film called Dateline Diamonds went on general release. It was shot on a budget of just £27,000, so hardly a blockbuster, but it was heavily promoted on air. It appeared in cinemas as part of a double bill supporting comedy film, Doctor In Clover. Dateline Diamonds featured shots of the Radio London ship as well as brief appearances from Kenny Everett, Tony Windsor and Ben Toney, alongside stars William Lucas and Kenneth Cope. The Small Faces were also seen and heard, as was newcomer Kiki Dee. In May it was announced that the transmitter power was being increased to 75 kilowatts at a cost of £50,000. In fact this never happened - it was just a publicity stunt timed to coincide with Caroline South increasing its power to 50 kilowatts. Big L was the most profitable of all the offshore stations and for a while a northern sister station, Radio Manchester, was under active consideration although it never materialised.

 

There were also plans for a second station in the south. Radio London had always kept to its very successful Top 40 format but in 1966 Philip Birch considered setting up a sweet music sister station, UKGM (“United Kingdom Good Music”). This was to be based on the Shivering Sands fort in the Thames Estuary, home of Radio City. DJs Duncan Johnson and Keith Skues were appointed to run the new service and plans were well advanced. Then the fort was hijacked by a rival pirate group. This led to the shooting of Radio City boss Reg Calvert. Radio London immediately pulled out of the deal. Plans for UKGM were abandoned. In July 1966, National Opinion Polls published the results of an audience survey which showed that Radio Caroline (both ships combined) had an audience of 8,818,000. Radio London's single ship had 8,140,000 listeners. (Radio 390 had 2,633,000, Radio England - which had only recently started full-time broadcasting - had 2,274,000, Radio Scotland had 2,195,000 and Britain Radio, Radio England's middle-of-the-road sister station, a mere 718,000.)

 

 

RADIO LONDON PROGRAMME SCHEDULE, August 1966.

Weekdays(excluding sponsored shows) 5.30am Mike Lennox -  9.00 Tony Windsor -  12.00pm Dave Dennis -  3.00 Ed Stewart -  6.00 Kenny Everett -  9.00 Mark Roman -  12.00am “London After Midnight”Information from ‘The London Sound’.

Part Four: Kenny Everett tours with The Beatles

In August 1966 The Beatles embarked on their final concert tour of America. Following the furore over John Lennon's “more popular than Jesus” comment there was considerable concern and interest in how the group would be received. NEMS, the Beatles' management company, arranged for a number of British journalists to accompany the tour and, from the offshore stations, Caroline's Jerry Leighton, Swinging Radio England's Ron O'Quinn and Radio London's Kenny Everett were invited.

 

It was not possible for Kenny to send live reports direct to the ship because the Post Office had cut off ship-to-shore communication with all the pirate vessels so he had to phone a number on land. Radio London news chief Paul Kaye would come ashore to take the call, record the conversation with Kenny, then head back to the ship where the recording was edited and music added to compile a 30 minute programme. Sponsored by Bassett's Jelly Babies, supposedly The Beatles' favourite sweets, the shows went out each evening at 7.30pm for the duration of the tour.
This is part of one of the programmes, a copy of the studio master. Radio London suffered from night-time interference so the telephone conversation would have been difficult to hear on air. But on this recording you can make out every word. Hosted by Senior DJ Tony Windsor the clip includes Kenny telling Paul Kaye about the trans-Atlantic flight and the first concert of the tour. Part of it was recorded at that first gig at the International Amphitheatre Chicago on 12th August 1966.

There is an interview with Kenny in which he discusses this trip to America on the Radio London website. He describes receiving the phone call inviting him on the tour as being “the greatest day of my life”.

Part Five: Radio East Anglia

April Fools Day is often popular with radio stations. It gives the DJs a chance to do something a bit different in their shows and the audience enjoys the joke. For Saturday April 1st 1967, the DJs on Radio Caroline South and Radio London planned something truly spectacular - they were going to swap ships! Listeners would wake up to hear DJs from the rival station on the air. It was a great idea but unfortunately the bosses got wind of it and memos started flying. The idea was quashed. There was no way that the DJs could get away with it so, on board the Galaxy, the Radio London team came up with an alternative April Fools scheme. They would launch a new radio station - Radio East Anglia! Radio London's programmes would appear to be drowned out by this new more powerful station, testing on an adjacent wavelength. It was a clever plan - and it worked. The main players in the Radio East Anglia fool were DJs Keith Skues and Ed Stewart with engineers Ian West and Dave Hawkins. The first hint the listeners had that something was up was in Keith's 8-11am show. During the 9.30 news, a voice interrupted the bulletin saying “1-2-3-4 Radio East Anglia testing”. An hour later, the 10.30 news contained some very odd items indeed:

 

The Slough telephone number, if anyone chose to enquire about the zebra, belonged to Radio London Programme Director Alan Keen. Interviewed in Chris Elliot's book The Wonderful Radio London Story he said: “My telephone started ringing and people were asking questions about the zebra in Slough .... I must have had, without any exaggeration, at least two dozen telephone calls within the course of an hour.” As Keith's programme continued, his show was interrupted again by someone counting. At 11 o'clock Keith handed over to Ed Stewart - but Ed's programme suffered from “interference” too. The interruptions continued, with middle-of-the-road music being heard occasionally either in the background or obliterating the Radio London programme completely. Then, at 11.26, “Radio East Anglia” began broadcasting. Ian West, Radio London's Norfolk-born engineer had the perfect accent for this spoof radio station. The address he gave for reception reports belonged to offshore photographer David Kindred who received dozens of complaints from listeners, angry that their favourite radio station's signal was being wiped out by this new more powerful broadcaster! He is quoted in Keith Skues's book Pop Went The Pirates saying “I received more than 100 letters, mostly abusive, asking for Radio East Anglia to get off the air. It's the April Fool that worked. Everybody took it so deadly serious, that's the funniest thing.” Radio East Anglia claimed to broadcast on 267 metres with a power of 250 kilowatts. Radio London was on 266 with 50 kilowatts so it was quite believable that one would blot out the other.

 

The newspapers had been reporting that the Government would be allowing the BBC to launch local radio when the offshore stations were closed down and, although there had been no approval for commercial radio, it was almost believable that a local station could be testing. In keeping with the generally held view that no new station could be as exciting as the pirates, the Radio East Anglia programmes were particularly inept with discs ‘wowing’, the DJs misreading scripts and an uninspiring choice of music. After a while, Bob Parkin handed over to his colleague Apsley Guise (Radio London's Australian engineer Dave Hawkins). As the time approached 12 noon, the traditional time for April Fooling to end, Radio London cut through again. At noon Ed Stewart's show continued as if nothing had happened and Radio East Anglia was never heard from again. On land, irate listeners phoned the Post Office to complain about what they took to be an official station interfering with their favourite programmes. As a stunt it was a great success but Radio London bosses were not impressed. Ed and Keith received severe reprimands from Managing Director Philip Birch and Programme Director Alan Keen. However the Sunday papers were full of news of the stunt, giving the station some wonderful publicity, so they can't have been too upset. Radio East Anglia was a great idea, brilliantly executed .... and your webmaster wasn't the only one to be fooled!

Part Six: Peel, Pepper and their final hour

Radio London was a tightly formatted Top 40 station. The only programme which was allowed a bit of flexibility over the music played was the late-night London After Midnight show which tended to reflect the taste of whoever was hosting it. In 1967 this programme headed off in an unexpected direction.

 

A new disc-jockey arrived on Big L in February. Originally from Merseyside, real name John Ravenscroft, he had been working on American radio. As usual for the most junior presenter, he was given two air shifts, covering for whoever was on leave and taking care of the midnight-2am slot. Broadcasting under his new name of John Peel, he quickly discovered that none of his colleagues - either on the ship or in the Curzon Street offices - were paying much attention to what he was playing at that time of night. John decided to try an experiment. The format was dispensed with, the Fab 40 stayed in its rack and he unleashed The Perfumed Garden on an unsuspecting audience. It was the time of hippies, flower power and underground music. In Britain and America bands were experimenting. Jefferson Airplane, Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, Country Joe & the Fish, the Incredible String Band, Tyrannosaurus Rex and many others had never been heard on British radio before. Peel played them. There is an apocryphal tale that the first the Radio London management knew of the new programme was when Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, telephoned to congratulate them on it. By then The Perfumed Garden had already taken root and begun to flourish. For many listeners throughout Europe, it was John Peel who turned them on to a whole world of new music.

The Beatles were at the forefront of the innovation and experimentation that was taking place in 1967. Millions eagerly awaited their every release. Radio London had already enjoyed the exclusive first play of Strawberry Fields Forever but, in May, the station achieved something even more impressive: the very first play anywhere of the epoch-defining LP, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. 

 

Throughout 1967 Radio London campaigned vociferously to be allowed to stay on the air but the legislation was looming. Initially Big L insisted that it would continue. Philip Birch investigated various possibilities including having the ship relay a signal from a foreign country but ultimately none of the options seemed viable. The sales team could not find enough international advertisers to support the station or British ones prepared to break the law. On 28th July it was announced that Big L would close down at 3pm on 14th August.

At two o'clock in the afternoon of the 14th August Radio London began its final hour of broadcasting, hosted by Ed Stewart and Paul Kaye. Disc-jockeys and recording stars paid their respects in a special show pre-recorded the previous evening. In fact the final hour lasted less than sixty minutes - the generator was running slightly faster when the tape was being replayed than it had when it was being recorded. Despite this infinitesimal increase in speed, the show was a sombre and moving farewell. The last record was played (The Beatles' A Day in the Life, a Sgt. Pepper album track banned by the BBC), the final advert was aired (for Consulate cigarettes - also the last advertiser on Caroline South before it went illegal) and then Paul Kaye, the station's first voice, became its last as he closed Radio London down for the final time. The ‘Big Lil’ theme tune played out. At 3pm 266 fell silent, just nine hours ahead of the new act coming into force.
Just down the dial, on 259 metres, the Caroline South DJs welcomed their new listeners and held a minute's silence in memory of the departed rival. An emotional Robbie Dale promised that Caroline would keep going and paid his respects to his Radio London colleagues. At 6.40 that evening the returning disc-jockeys arrived at Liverpool Street station in London. Thousands of fans had gathered there and earlier had seen off the last team of Caroline broadcasters to leave the country. They welcomed the Big L presenters defiantly. The terminus was brought to a complete standstill as the fans swarmed everywhere, waving banners and shouting support for the offshore stations. But it was all too late; the Marine Offences Act was about to become law. It was a final act of protest by thousands of unhappy listeners who, after two and three quarter years, were going to have to get used to life without wonderful Radio London. The BBC's Radio One was launched at the end of the following month. Its jingles were made by PAMS of Dallas and based on the same package used by Radio London. The first disc-jockey team included eleven former Big L presenters (Ed Stewart, Keith Skues, Duncan Johnson, Pete Drummond, Kenny Everett, Tony Blackburn, Pete Brady, John Peel, Chris Denning, Dave Cash and Mike Lennox) with others joining later. BBC producer Johnny Beerling had even made a secret trip out to the Galaxy before the closedown to see how it should be done. Radio London might have been a pirate but it seemed there were still a few things it could teach ‘Auntie’ BBC. It was an unstated admission that Radio London had been something very special.