CHAPTER ONE: Tom meets Ronan and joins Radio Caroline.

     It was March 1964. I had dropped into a pub on the Kings Road for a pint. The radio behind the bar tender was blaring some BBC Light Programme music such as Frankie Vaughan or Victor Silvester or maybe even Cliff Richard. I said to the bar tender “That's pretty awful music.”
“So?” said the bar tender, “That's the best we've got.”
     A young feller sitting at the bar next to me piped up with an Irish accent “Don't you be worrying. We'll soon be putting out the finest rock 'n' roll and you can say ‘good bye’ to that stuff.”
“How's that?” I asked.

Ronan O'Rahilly

“Oh we've got a ship off the coast and in a few days we'll be on the air.”
“Yeah?” I said with enthusiasm. “Hey, that's great! Do you need any more deejays?”
“Why, are you in radio?”
“I freelance for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. But I'd rather be deejaying, playing rock 'n' roll music.”
“Well that's real dandy. When can you start?”
“Whenever you want.” I said. “Hey, my name's Tom Lodge” I added, putting out my hand to shake.
“Good. I'm Ronan O'Rahilly” he said, taking my hand in a warm grip.

The original Radio Caroline ship, the M.V. Fredericia

     That was how I moved from the CBC to Radio Caroline.
In a few days I was on the air. That first day we went out to the ship, we went in a fishing boat. The seas were a little rough but the sea was already in my bones. The rougher the better.
     With us were Chris Moore, Simon Dee and a few others I forget. This was the M.V. Fredericia, a Danish passenger ferry that Ronan had bought and rigged up for radio in the Irish port of Greenore. She was an elegant lady with a large galley where we ate, sorted new record releases, played cards and swapped the latest gossip. But the greatest time was being on the air. At last I could play the music I loved. My favourites at that time were the Rolling Stones' Not Fade Away which shot up to number four, the Hollies' Just One Look and Manfred Mann's hit 5-4-3-2-1. I believe I was on the air for four hours a day but sometimes there was a shortage of deejays and so I would do more. I was enjoying every minute. But the strange thing about radio is you do not know who is listening and how many. It is kind of like I was in my living room playing my favourite records and talking to the wind. But I loved it.

The front door to Caroline House.

     Our schedule on the ship was two weeks on and one week ashore. That was the schedule but it hardly ever worked out that way because most of the time we were short staffed. Not to worry because the two things I loved the most had come together: the sea and the music.
     I remember going ashore and visiting Ronan in some crummy little office in London, a place where our supplies could be organised. We were all like kids who had discovered the greatest, never ending, cookie jar.
     And then two things happened: Ronan created Caroline House at 6 Chesterfield Gardens in Mayfair and, at about the same time, another ship sailed within three miles of us, dropped anchor and started broadcasting. Everything changed. We had suddenly become grand in Caroline House and, at the same time, we had to deal with competition. And that was a big problem because the advertisers instantly stopped buying ads. They said they would wait to see which had the bigger audience, the new station Radio Atlanta or us, Radio Caroline.
     Now we had two enemies, the British government and Radio Atlanta. But we had the spirit of enthusiasm and were determined to find a solution.

©Tom Lodge 2002