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.

Pirate Radio Party Boat - offshore radio comes inland!

Pirate 

Radio 

Party 

Boat 

offshore radio 

comes inland! 

Ho Ho Ho!  A pirates's life for me!And it is,  it is, a glorious thing . . . . to be a Pirate King.

I've been VERY lucky as my life has revolved around the things I enjoy doing most - radio, music, partying etc. Probably the most serious 'proper job' I have had was being a publican. My wife Anne and I managed several and had a couple ourselves; these have usually included live music and frequent 'party nights', which were always really enjoyable.

What better than to combine Party Nights with Pirate Radio, which is something I seem to have acquired a bit of a reputation for.  I've been involved with many radio stations; most of them totally legal, but the times everyone remembers me for are my stint on Radio Caroline in the seventies and Laser in the 80s.  There were others, including legal stints for Classic FM, Virgin, Sky Radio, Radio 10 Gold, and many more.

I have to admit, the days afloat were the best, simply super days - there's something surreal, perhaps romantic, about bobbing around on a boat out at sea while spinning your favourite sounds. When it's coupled with playing with high powered transmitters and wildly swaying aerials, AND you get paid for it!  Well, life couldn't get any better!

So, we're now embarking on our latest adventure: -

PIRATE RADIO PARTY BOAT

Typical  pirate party boat, this one off Clearwater.

You've probably seen those little pleasure boats at the seaside or in amusement parks which take you for a quick cruise around the bay? some are little more than a booze cuise', some have great music and some have mock battles.    The Pirate Radio Party Boat will be quite a few steps up from those.  

Pirate Party Boat Facilities

The PRPB will be larger and contain a couple of radio stations and at least one TV channel with the usual studios and production facilities, plus a performance area for bands and artists to shoot music videos. The boat will also have exhibition areas and a restaurant overlooking the performance area, enabling us to stage cabaret and party nights on board. These will be held in ports and harbours around the coast  with the boat staying a couple of weeks in each port before moving on. 

Party facilities on a Pirate Boat

The Pirate Radio Boat will be 100% legal, and will serve top quality food and drink in a fun-soaked atmosphere. It's the ideal place for a party  whether for social clubs, family dinners or more formal events such as corporate presentations and weddings. Party Nights with a pirate theme will be one of the main activities on the Pirate Party Boat, which will be capable of carrying over two hundred visitors.  We hope to be able to announce our first 'ports of call' and firm dates shortly and shall then be able to accept bookings.

The Pirate Party Boat has a superb team of mariners, engineers and DJ-entertainers, most with long pedigrees of nautical fun and frivolity all lined up and ready to set sail. We shall even have a couple of tame parrots on the crew who will pose on your shoulder if you wear a bandana  and a patch over one eye; there's no need to have your leg off!

Putting a pirate ship together to these high standards does take some time however, and we can't give a firm 'launch' date yet. It's a chartered boat but needs a fair bit of conversion work.  We are now looking at the potential locations and welcome all suggestions of non-drying harbours and docks able to take a 180 footer (8' draught) with easy public access and car parking for coaches.  

Everybody wants to be a pirate at some time - soon everyone will get their chance. There's a little more information on this web page, or you can get more 'up to date' news and information as soon as its available by signing up for our newsletter using the form below.

International 'Talk Like a Pirate' day 

Don't forget that September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
So get practicing now, ye scurvy-faced landlubber!   Arrr!

Join the

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Favourite TV Advert, and favourite music.

Favourite TV adverts  

I took part in a radio discussion recently and was asked my favourite radio and TV commercials.   I thought that I might share this with you, as they are probably very unique and not ones that many would share with me!

Most haunting tune ever for me would be the Skol International beer commercial aired on Radio Veronica in 1968 and 69 (it may be what started me drinking - that was 1968!). I think not was also used on TV in several countries, maybe even the UK too.  

It was sung by the amazing Patricia Paay, who also coincidentally recorded several jingles for my favourite radio station then, Radio Veronica.  She later had great success in the Netherlands as a singer and made many hits, as well as becoming a well known TV presenter and pundit. 

I also confess to loving the TV jingle that most people find "cringing" for Johnsons 'Shake and Vac'. It starred an little known actress called Jenny Logan doing a manic dance around a suburban lounge with her vacuum cleaner. I'm still not sure if I find it erotic or the song is just a very clever earworm.  

For pure comedy the TV ad that really cracks me up is SMASH - the one where the aliens are sat around a space ship console laughing at the primitive way we cook our potatoes: "Then they smash them all to bits." Sheer Brilliance! 

Favourite Music 

For many years I kept a note of which my favourite music tracks were - its around 400. Tunes that just have a certain magic for me and which i could never be without. If I'm feeling a bit low I just pop on a few of these and they really are like medicine. Who needs drugs? 

Music can really make you feel so good. Many are landmark tracks from kye moments in my life, although strangely there are few from my first radio broadcasts (on Radio Caroline in 1973) although there are many that bring back memories of Radio Veronica, the leading Dutch station in the 60s and 70s.  

My favourites cover many genres, the whole spectrum of music almost and while there are a lot from 1966, a quick run down revelas I am still bvery much "into the music"  right through the 80s and 90s, even into this century. My children will be so surprised to see that!  

One of the most dominat rooms in our home for many years has been the Record library, the singles alone numbering tens of thousands.  One of the reasons we only moved house very rarely! 
Click here for a listing of Paul Rusling's favourite music tracks (mostly singles!) 

How does one become a Disc Jockey

How does one become a DJ?

The most common question that every DJ gets asked all the time is, "How to I become a DJ?"  In my case, I have been spinning the 45s for so many years I have a bit of difficulty remembering. Did I get born playing records? Of course not, although as my love of music emerged when i was only about 10 years old it WAS quite some time ago.

That was late 1963; there was very little music on the radio and maybe I was lucky as my family were pretty poor and we didn't have a television, but night times were spent huddling around my Mum's old Bush listening to Radio Luxembourg. One Saturday morning I went to the Locarno Ballroom in Hull with a friend, where they hd a two hour disc session for kids - I was hooked. It became a major part of my life for the next few years, and eventually I got chance to do a guest DJ spot by one of the DJs, and would help hims sort his records out etc.  By the time I was 12 or so I found that there were all kinds of strange radio stations popping on and off the dial - pirate radio ships, which played my beloved pop and soul music all the time, unlike the BBC which was pretty turgid and boring at the time.

Within a few years I was involved in that world of watery wireless too, but in March 1968 I began playing the records at a local club.  The first one was a tiny little place in Hull called MUSIC BOX. I remember at the time thinking that there was NOTHING more satisfying than someone coming up and saying they enjoyed the music you were playing.  (I don't think I had discovered girls yet, far too busy with the music!)

I had also become quite keen on the technical aspects of audio and music, but especially of radio engineering. I decided that radio and music had to be my future career, though I had no idea how. Radio was simply the BBC, hundreds of miles away from Yorkshire. The pirate radio ships had been put off the air - who could I combine the two? The local college had a large marine radio section, but there were no such thing as grants, so I had to find a job to "work my way" thru college and support myself. Working as a DJ in clubs was THE obvious solution. I had lots of training courtesy of some of the best showmen in the business, in particular other DJs on the Mecca circuit; we were trained and encouraged to be showmen. I even worked on the fairground for a thrilling week, spinning the records on the waltzer, and extolling the girls to scream if they wanted to go faster. I still love to wander the fairground  fifty years later and reminisce about those days but its my only DJ gig to which I would NOT want to ever return!

What I was getting was the hands-on experience of actually DOING the work of a DJ, and the technical knowledge of how a programme was assembled, what was possible, and how to make it sounds as though you knew what you were doing. Later, I was offered my first proper radio gig on Radio Caroline, hosting the breakfast show. I got that simply because I had those important essential ingredients - expertise with equipment, and showmanship, or rather just raw enthusiasm.

And that's the key - get the experience and have more than a modicum of enthusiasm.

The DJ world is much more competitive now and DJs are expected to have many more skills such as mixing, scratching and Beat Matching, none of which were even possible with the primitive equipment we had in the 60s. To get the skills is important and one source I would recommend is the course run by How to DJ Fast.  
You can go from being a beginner to mixing like a pro, impressing your friends and packing the dance floor in just two weeks!

Click that link to take a look, and you could be DJing yourself REALLY SOON. All the instruction is done by video, so you can work so the course work in the comfort of your own home. There's a money back guarantee, and you could start in the next ten minutes, wherever you are, no matter what the time is. 

Getting a break into radio is now so much easier nope that there are around 600 radio stations in the UK alone, although few of them want real DJs these days at all. I will look at how to get a break into radio in a future blog; I'm going to to try and talk someone else to write that article if I can!