updated Radio Caroline Bible out now

Radio Caroline Bible

 updated edition is out 

Published just in time for Christmas, the Radio Caroline Bible iwas published on the 2nd November.  It has the very latest news from the Radio Caroline camp including a picture of the station's new AM transmitter, due on the air later this week. This will boost Caroline's output power four fold, bringing the 'Sound of a Nation' to a wider audience on the AM band. 

The updated edition brings the story right up to date, as of Autumn 2021. It now has a technical appendix describing the equipment of Caroline’s ships and the land based facilities.  The pagination is now up to 558 pages.

The story is packed with disasters, boardings, excitement and the usual copious amounts of skull-duggery covering events from Radio Caroline’s four eras. Told by many of the key people who made Radio Caroline happen, this book gives a platform to the station managers, secretaries, and others who are usually in the shadows. Their unique aspects help put the flesh on the true story of what is the world’s best known radio ship.

Unique content & many ‘never published before’ photos among the 350 illustrations. It’s chronologically correct, fully indexed and will surely become a real collector’s item. The book’s gorgeous full-colour cover shows the ship in all her magnificence with her huge tower clawing high into the sky.

- an amazing Christmas gift!

 This is an item that will be treasured for many years by any Radio Caroline fan

They say that every home should have a Holy Bible

Every radio fan’s home needs a Radio Caroline Bible

They should read it every day. (Sir Hans Knot, radio historian.)

Full details of this incredible publication are on the Radio Caroline Bible’s own web site.

Book Cover and Poster

The book is unique in that it is a solidly made, hand-finished, hardback. It also has a superb picture of the Ross Revenge on its front cover, rather than the traditional non-colour library style solid cover. "Fotoflyte took such a fabulous picture of the Ross Revenge with the Olau Brittania ferry cruising pas and we had it available to us at high resolution, so the chance of remembering the Ross Revenge, in all her magnificence,  with one of her friends sailing pas, for size comparison, made it I'm possible to resist," said Paul. 

The shot was taken in the second week of august, 1987, just after the UK increased its Territorial Waters to 12 miles, making the former and protected anchorage in the Knock Deep inside UK jurisdiction. This meant the ship had to moved out to a mooring near the South Falls Head, a more exposed spot and closer to shipping lanes.  

It was the wild weather two months later that weakened the tower on the Ross Revenge, causing it to fall into the sea a couple of weeks later. It was also the heavy seas at that location that tore the Ross Revenge from her anchor four years later, and there her up onto the Goodwin Sands.

POSTERS

The Ross Revenge in 1987
with the Olau Britannia passing

When first published, we produced some A3 posters of the cover to promote the book and so many have asked for copies of that, we have now had a small batch specially printed. These are now on sale for a limited period at the Radio Caroline Bible website. They are digitally printed at high resolution on art paper and look superb on any office of den wall.

Available now for just £3.90  

(Including postage, folded) to UK addresses only.

ABBA's

2021 album

VOYAGE

is a record breaker!

The new album released by superstars ABBA in Autumn 2021 has rapidly become the new century's  fasting selling album on vinyl.  Sales of  the Voyage album are  made up mainly physical sales (as opposed to downloads) reflecting their likely audience demographics.  89.53% of the sales are for physical 'items' rather than downloads or other streaming.   

The group’s first album in four decades, has debuted at No.1 with sales of 203,909 - the biggest weekly sale since Ed Sheeran’s success in March 2017. 

The vinyl sales figures of just under 30,000 ( 29,891) copies easily beat the previous record this century of 24478 held by the Arctic Monkeys, for their Tranquility Base Hotel release over three years ago. ABBA's  Voyage album has also notched up sales of  148,471 copies on CD, and has even shifted 4,205 copies on cassette!

With 10 No.1 albums to their name, only seven other acts have notched up more UK chart-toppers than ABBA: The Beatles, Elvis, Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie. The No.1 for Voyage also marks ABBA’s 58th total week as UK No.1 on the albums chart. Its a position only surpassed by Elvis Presley and the Beatles. 

Sales are expected to surge again after the release of a Deluxe box set package, comprising a CD with a Poster, a pack of  Art Cards and sheets of ABBA  Stickers. Ideal for any ABBA fan - More details of that package can be had by clicking HERE. 

The tracks on Voyage are -   

1. I Still Have Faith In You

2. When You Danced With Me

3. Little Things

4. Dont Shut Me Down

5. Just A Notion

6. I Can Be That Woman

7. Keep An Eye On Dan

8. Bumble Bee

9. No Doubt About It

10. Ode To Freedom

UK Audience figures

UK  Radio Audience Figures  

The latest listening figures for radio listening in the UK contained a few surprises. 

Commercial radio is reaching 36.8 million people across the UK, the biggest audience it has ever recorded, according to the  data. RAJAR has modified its way of collating and publicising listening  but the basic principles of REACH and audience SHARE still prevail. The total combined audience for all UK radio (BBC and commercial) is now the highest level recorded at 49.5m people. That represents 89% of the UK adult population.

THE KEY POINTS. 

• Digital listening surges to 65.8% of all radio listening
• New stations (Times, Capital Dance, Boom, etc) attracting hundreds of thousands of listeners.

• DAB now the predominant platform for radio listening accounting for 43% of all listening compared to 34.2% for AM/FM

• New digital stations deliver strong performances

• Digital listening now accounts for the majority of in car listening at 53%

Digital listening has surged past 60% to now account for 65.8% – or almost two-thirds – of all radio listening, according to new data for Q3 2021 released by RAJAR today (28 October 2021). The data release marks RAJAR’s return to publication with a new modified methodology having been suspended for 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the new data, listening via DAB is now the most popular means of all radio listening accounting for 43% of all listening (and 65% of digital listening), exceeding listening via AM/FM which accounts for 34.2% of listening. Listening via online and apps accounts for 18.1% of all listening (and 27.5% of digital listening) and listening via DTV accounts for 4.7% of all listening (and 7.2% of digital listening).

The new data shows that 41 million adults, or 74% of the population aged 15+, now tune into digital radio every week, and 69% claim to own or have access to a DAB radio.

The strong performance of digital platforms has been boosted by the launch of a number of new digital stations in the last 18 months, which receive their first RAJAR results today,  including Times Radio with a reach of 637,000 listeners; Capital DANCE with a reach of 287,000 listeners; and Boom Radio with a reach of 233,000 listeners.

These stations join a host of established digital-only stations which continue to perform strongly, including  BBC 6 Music with 2.687 million listeners, and KISSTORY, the most popular commercial digital-only station, with 2.255 million listeners.  BBC Radio 4 Extra is the third most popular with 2.036 million listeners, followed by BBC Radio 5 live sports extra with 1.697 million listeners. Other stations in the top 10 are  digital-only stations Absolute 80s (1.690 million listeners); Virgin Radio (1.631 million listeners); and Heart 80s(1.493 million listeners).

INCAR RADIO LISTENING.   46.6% of listening in the car is to DAB while   AM/FM listening is 33.1%,. Online/apps listening in-car accounting for only 6.4% of all in car listening.

Another survey, released by the World DAB Forum the second week in November, showed that 89% of car owners across Europe expect a new vehicle to include the latest form of in-car entertainment, such as Apple's CarPlay.  80% of those who have a new vehicles claim to use it.  This follows an EU law making it mandatory for all new cars to include some form of digital radio in the dashboard. The EU directive is not being complied with, although the UK, where the DAB lobby is strongest have done so.