Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE MANY NEWS stories and tributes following the passing of Ronan O’Rahilly underline the fact that as the founder of the pirate station Radio Caroline, he played a massive role in changing the face of radio in the UK, praise which he richly deserves.
But to my mind what is more remarkable is how he kept the station going, decade after decade, against all the meddling and obstruction that the UK and other governments could throw at him.
For Ronan, Caroline was a dream rather than a money-spinner, and he kept his ships afloat (mostly) and his crews engaged and enthused (always) by blagging money where he could, selling one dream to advertisers or other investors, and an entirely different one to his hard-working and sometimes unpaid crews. The DJs and engineers always look back on their involvement with Caroline with fondness, the investors somewhat less so.
Ronan believed that Caroline was a force rather than a brand and that it should be a force for good. With the concept of “Loving Awareness”, he used his station to talk to the listeners about love, understanding and mental positivity decades before it was cool to talk about emotions and feelings on broadcast media.
Rebel with a cause
I came to work for Caroline early in 1987, intending to stay a few months, but like so many before me, I was quickly sucked in by Ronan’s sheer magnetism and drive. When times were good he would make you feel as if you were king of the world but when times were bad, he would make you feel even better, restoring your faith in the dream and your part in it, no matter what calamity had just befallen the station.
In November of 1987, when we lost the 300-foot broadcast tower on the ship during a gale, things looked bleak. This was a disaster that would take us months of hard work through a bitter winter at sea to recover from. But Ronan told me I should be thrilled to be with Caroline when it was going through such exciting times, and that when, years later I would look back, these would be the days I would remember. And he was right.
Notoriously cagey after battling officialdom for two decades, he would often pass instructions in code, chopped and changed meeting venues regularly, and on one occasion interrogated me for what felt like hours to see if I was really who I said I was or an Irish Secret Service agent.
“Don’t be stupid?” I said (naively I now realise), “there is no such thing as the Irish Secret Service.
“That’s what they want you to think” he replied.
Creative payments
Coming ashore and seeking out Ronan to get paid was always an adventure. After waiting for several days, you would be contacted, and an arrangement made to meet him at one of the many fashionable cafes along the King’s Road in Chelsea.
You would spend hours nursing the one cup of coffee you could afford while waiting for his arrival. When he eventually came, there would be a long pep talk building you up before money was eventually passed under the table.
You were told not to look at it, not to draw attention. People might be watching. The amount was highly variable and bore no relation to the length of time you had just spent on the ship. It was whatever Ronan could afford, at that particular moment. But you left the café walking on air. Somehow he had made you feel a million feet tall.
The bundle of money would often be in foreign currency – another tactic to ensure you were never quite clear how much (or how little) you had been paid until he was safely away.
I still have in my possession a receipt from a branch of Barclays Bank on the King’s Road, Chelsea, for an exchange of a thousand Dutch Guilders into sterling. It is the closest thing I have to a Radio Caroline “payslip” and one of my most treasured mementos of those years. It worked out at less than 300 pounds for a stint at sea that had lasted 101 days – and yet, I walked away from that meeting with Ronan filled with purpose and confidence. He was just like that.
Adventures, with heart
Ronan cared passionately for Caroline’s independence and resisted all attempts to sell the name or the station to those who would have made it corporate and gutted its soul. When the 1990s brought an end to Caroline’s adventures at sea, and it was reborn, first on satellite, and later online, he was dismissive of those who said it was over, that it could never be the same.
“Caroline is not metal or steel,” he told me often. “Caroline is not a fixed point. Caroline can be anywhere.”
One night at the end of the 1990s, when we were running a low-powered temporary licence broadcast from the ship, by that stage moored at the end of Southend pier, I got a call from Ronan enthusing about the show I had just presented.
“That was amazing, man, you could feel the love and good vibes pouring out of you and across the airwaves,” he said.
I was surprised, I thought he was in central London, well beyond the range of our by then very limited transmissions. I asked how he could hear me.
“Hey, don’t get hung up on the whole hearing things with your ears thing,” he admonished me.
“That’s what they’d like to tell you, that you can only hear things with your ears. This is Caroline baby, and you hear it with your soul Steve, you hear it with your soul.”
Steve Conway is a broadcaster, writer and journalist. He is the author of “Shiprocked” and his new book, “Unsound – Anything I Know About Radio I Learned By Screwing It Up” is due out by the end of 2020.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I’ll never go back to an office full time. What was I thinking spending 90 minutes stuck in city traffic one way in, working a full day, sometimes having to stay late, only to spend 90 minutes in traffic on the way back home.
It added unnecessary stress to my life that was deemed ‘normal’. I refuse to go back to that way of living.
@Madra: completely agree.. why sit in traffic when you can use that time to work at your desk at home and even go for a little run before work. Going for a run or sitting in your car for 1 hour 20 think I know what I’d chose.
@Madra: At least this pandemy at this merit, having time to think and reflect about things you put in the back in your mind otherwise.
Ideally I’d love 4 days from home and 1 in the office but i’d take 3 days at home and 2 in the office
As long as it doesn’t have leading questions to get the ‘people want to go back to the office’ view like some other reports and surveys ran around the place recently have gone with. It has to be remembered that this hasn’t been a ‘WFH Experiment’ experience it has been a ‘WFH during a Pandemic’ one. Previous surveys all seemed to focus on the social aspect of working in an office which people then latched onto as being ‘the thing they missed’ – without any survey factoring in that nobody can do anything social at the minute. It would be fantastic if the ‘experiment’ went on for six months once things opened up again and then the surveys were put out.
If I could maybe get blended where I’m doing WFH Friday’s and Monday’s and then in the office Tuesday to Thursday’s, like in my old job I’ll happily take that. I simply don’t have a permanent office or work area set up for WFH on a full-time basis, even now its a pain most days to get screens and connections for the laptop set up on the living room table every morning and then take it all away every evening to eat. Plus to be honest, I am sick to the back teeth of poxy zoom and video calls, the novelty was fine for a few months last year, but once we had to do any kind of team training etc, it’s not as effective as being able to ask questions in person…..but everyone will have a different story or opinion on WFH I guess
@Tarraing Mo Liathróidí: Why not set up a home office in your back garden?
@Locojoe: other than the garage, which is already full, there is nowhere practical without me spending a fair amount of money i don’t have to do it, and to be honest I miss seeing actual work mates in person and going to lunch with people instead of sitting on my own doing it via zoom
Cant wait to get back to the office! Big desk, multiple monitors, task chair, coffee, snacks on tap, free lunch, socializing.
@Z Exotic: Most of us have to pay for our lunches & snacks so it’s not that exciting to us.
Like a lot of things in life there are good bits and bad bits of WFH, for me, the good bits of WFH far outweigh the bad bits, by a considerable margin.
As a working mother with young kids I hope that I can wfh at least 60 percent of the time. Not having to pay for afterschool means I’m actually earning a wage, my kids are happier to be home after school, I can drop them and pick them up. When they are sick I’m not scrambling around trying to find someone to mind them or take off work using annual leave where my colleagues have to take on my work.
@Bleurgh: Not have a go at you personally, but isn’t this one of the issues with WFH from an employer perspective ? They are paying for time at the desk, not time spent babysitting, tending to sick kids, etc. I get that most people would be able to juggle the work and household stuff, but it’s bound to have an impact.
I did not have the option of working from home. But I’d welcome the opportunity to try a 4 day week.
have your say