Pirate Stations Close

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31449, 16 August 1967, Page 17

Pirate Stations Close

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, Aug. 15. Bagpipes at midnight playing "Auld Lang Syne,” followed by the National Anthem, were the last sounds from the pirate radio station Radio Scotland when the station went off the air last night for the last time.

At the same moment the new Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Act came into force, making it an offence for any British national to take part in any “unauthorised broadcasting activity” on the high seas. Today the two Radio Caroline ships—Caroline South operating off Felixstowe; Suffolk, and the Northern [Caroline, four miles out in | Ramsey Bay off the Isle of

Man—will be the only pirate commercial radio stations still broadcasting off the shores of Britain. Radio London—off Frinton, Essex—together with Radio 270, out in Scarborough Bay, also went off the air yesterday as the new act came into force. Three other pirates, Radio 355, Radio 227 and Radio 390, have already closed. Nearly 3000 teen-agers, many wearing black armbands, attended Radio Scotland’s elosing-down ball in a Glasgow dance hall last

night. Radio 270 came to an end with a transmission of Vera Lynn’s recording of “Land of Hope and Glory,” and a telegram from the managing director, Mr Wilf Proudfoot, which included the message: “We shall return.” Yesterday, Radio London broadcast farewell messages from pop stars Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, Tom Jones and Dusty Springfield. Last night about 1000 screaming teen-agers burst

barriers at London’s Liverpool Street station to welcome seven disc jockeys arriving from the ship. At the height of the boom there were 11 pirate radio stations round Britain. The flood of pop music stimulated the record industry and brought a change in thinking at the 8.8. C., where planners have now scheduled a non-commercial channel devoted solely to the seemingly inexhaustible appetite for pep music. The new law was a product of the agreement signed by most European countries at Strasbourg in January, 1965. One country which did not ratify the agreement was the Netherlands—and it is to Dutch waters that Radio Caroline will retreat to continue its fight Caroline’s sister ship. Radio Caroline North, will continue broadcasting off the Isle of Man, where the position has lately been obscured by the local Parliament’s attempts to claim immunity from the new law.