In the hours after the ship from which Radio Caroline broadcast - the MV Mi Amigo - sank approximately 13 miles off the coast of Clacton, Essex (UK), the land-based UK radio networks were full of the news that the infamous pirate radio station that had broadcast since Easter Sunday, 1964, was finally sunk. 

This recording contains edited excerpts from radio news bulletins broadcast by BBC Radio One, BBC Radio Two, Capital Radio (London), LBC News Radio (London) and IRN (the Independent Radio News feed that was supplied to ILR stations by LBC). It also features a lengthy interview with Steve Gordon, who was the last voice to be heard from the ship just minutes before the staff and crew abandoned ship on that stormy night of 20th March 1980. 

Caroline Sinks - Radio Bulletins 20th March 1980

In my professional life I work with video technology - shooting, editing and writing about it. I also tinker with anything related to consumer technologies and I love gadgets. However, I've always been fascinated with British Offshore Radio (aka "Pirate radio") since first hearing Radio London when visiting London from my home two of Plymouth back in 1965. 

Radio in the UK has never been better than when the (radio) pirates ruled the waves. Radio Caroline continues to fly the flag for the rightful cause of free, open radio and I've never stopped supporting that cause.

The sound files uploaded here are a sample of my personal recordings made since the early 1970s.

Caroline Sinks - Radio Bulletins 20th March 1980

Colin Barrett