She’s one of the‘pirates’playing music aboard Radio Caroline
She’s one of the‘pirates’playing music aboard Radio Caroline
By Chandra Johnson
The Taos News
As the new comedy “Pirate Radio” opened nationwide Nov. 13, one of the DJs from the ship that the movie is loosely based upon has dropped anchor in Taos.
Known only by her pirate DJ name, Pandora joined the crew of the independent radio ship Caroline in 2002. Pandora has lived part-time in Taos since the early 1990s.
“The movie is fabulous, though you need to take the partying with a huge pinch of salt,” Pandora said of the film, which opened in her native England in May. “If it wasn’t for Radio Caroline and the government tr ying to shut it down, independent radio wouldn’t have started in Britain.”
Since called Radio Caroline, the ship-tur ned-floating radio station that par tially inspired the film has been broadcasting off the English coast since 1964, when 24-hour music was a new concept to British listeners.
When radio was developed in the early 20th centur y, the British government controlled public broadcast with the British Broadcast Corporation (BBC). The programming was basically an hour or so of music a week — and not the kind baby boomers were listening to.
“They were so afraid of all those millions of people listening to that dreadful music,” Pandora laughed.
That “dreadful music” in-
He named his vessel Caroline, the station’s Web site says, after seeing a photo in Life Magazine of President Kennedy’s daughter Caroline playing in the Oval Office dur ing an impor tant meeting.
cluded the Beatles, Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones, as far as the BBC was concerned, and it took a young str uggling rock band manager to change things.
Unable to get the acts he managed any air time on traditional radio stations, Ronan O’Rahilly decided to start his own radio station where no one would ever find it — in the choppy waters of the Atlantic.
He named his vessel Caroline, the station’s Web site says, after seeing a photo in Life Magazine
of President Kennedy’s daughter Caroline playing in the Oval Office during an important meeting. O’Rahilly decided that’s what his radio station should be like.
Pandora said she was inspired by the history of Radio Caroline even as she grew up listening to it. It’s part of why Pandora goes solely by her on-air name — to keep with the tradition of the or iginal DJs who had to hide their identities while working on the Caroline.
“After Parliament passed the Marine Offenses, it became illegal to adver tise, help or be associated with off-shore radio broadcasting in any way,” Pandora said. “There were stories about DJs drinking rain water because there were no supplies. The energy of listening to something you know people are risking their lives for is amazing. Those people were so passionate about the music that they were at sea for weeks and when they went on shore, they couldn’t even talk about it.”
And off-shore independent radio is still making a difference. Pandora said she is now taking part of Caroline’s Israeli equivalent, Voice of Peace, in the hopes of ending government censorship in Israel.
“It’s not just about broadcasting. It’s technology under the radar, literally,” Pandora said. “There’s that little added passion when you’re in a studio on a ship somewhere br inging balance and making a difference.”
Tina Lar kin
Pandora of Radio Caroline stands in the dining room of her Taos home. She will be back on the air broadcasting live from ferry Caroline docked port side in British waters.