The original board of directors for Caroline included John Sheffield ( chairman of Norcros ) and C. E. Ross ( owner of the Ross company group ) who held 88% of the Caroline company's shares between them. Another member of the group of financial backers was Jocelyn Stevens, Sheffield's son-in-law, who was chief editor of 'Queen' magazine and whose Fetter Lane offices the company was to share during the station's launch period. Two days later on February 15th the 'Mi Amigo' left Spain, also heading for the same port, to have a new aerial mast fitted. This came about as the result of an agreement with Allan Crawford which allowed Ronan O'Rahilly the use of Project Atlanta's London studio to record programmes for RADIO CAROLINE. During February and March both vessels underwent conversions at Greenore but Crawford's ship was required to leave its berth and anchor in the harbour for a week ( to make way for other freighters when her new aerial mast failed to arrive ) which increased her refit time considerably. 'Caroline' left Greenore on March 26th, reached her anchorage five miles off Harwich at 6p.m. on Good Friday March 27th and put out her first test signals the same day at 9p.m.

At noon on March 28th 1964 a new era began in British radio history as RADIO CAROLINE broadcast 'Can't Buy Me Love' by The Beatles to the south-east of England on 199 metres 1520kHz. The official launch of the station was actually on the following day, Easter Sunday March 29th when disc jockey Simon Dee announced "Hello everybody, this is RADIO CAROLINE broadcasting on 199, your all day music station". Some of the first advertisements carried by the station were for The News of the World, William Hill's Turf Accountants, Ecko Radios, Harp Lager and Kraft Dairylea Cheese. Only three weeks after it started the pirate station had an estimated 7 million listeners! There has always been confusion over the 'firsts' at RADIO CAROLINE so I'll get my two pennyworth in as well - I believe that Chris Moore was the first voice heard, on test transmissions, and his was the first regular record programme on the 29th. Simon Dee ( who had left a comparatively well-paid job with an estate agent to join the station as a disc jockey ) was the first voice heard on the official launch day. A frustrated, annoyed and disappointed Allan Crawford and 'Mi Amigo' did not leave Greenore until mid-April, the ship's troubles continuing as she sustained damage off Land's End when her radio mast broke on April 21st, forcing her to put into Falmouth for repairs.

Bob Scott, one of their six disc jockeys, was heard saying between records 'You are tuned to RADIO ATLANTA. This is not a regular format, it is a test format. I repeat, this is a test format' frequently insisting that these were only 'test' transmissions but having the major benefit of advertising the new station to a ready-made audience. Regular programmes began on May 12th using 200.6 metres 1493kHz - very similar to RADIO CAROLINE - and were broadcast from 6a.m. to 6p.m. which was very soon extended to 8p.m.

May 1964 was a busy time for the airwaves as RADIO SUTCH, owned by pop singer David ( Screaming Lord ) Sutch, started broadcasting as well. Although originally stating an intention to transmit their programmes from the 60ft fishing trawler 'Cornucopia' from a position four miles off Shoeburyness, the station finally made itself heard broadcasting on 299 metres from the Shivering Sands tower in the Thames Estuary off the coast of Whitstable. Pop music had started reaching the mainland from a number of unlikely locations and the most ambitious of these was probably a project started in May by shipbuilder Cornelius Verolme which involved the creation of a brand new artificial island off the coast of Holland. The plan was for the company Reklame Exploitatie Maatschoppij to construct the 'island' at his shipyard in Cork and tow it from there to a position about six miles off Noordvijk where it was to be sunk into the sea bed on legs rather like an oil rig. This huge undertaking acquired the name REM Island and was to become the home of RADIO NOORDZEE.

On June 3rd RADIO INVICTA made some test transmissions on a variety of wavelengths from the Red Sands fort in the Thames Estuary 5 miles off Whitstable. It had settled on 390 metres 985kHz by the time it commenced regular broadcasting on July 17th. The station was owned and managed by Tom and Francis Pepper, Charles Evans ( who was later ousted from the group ) and John Thompson, late of the unsuccessful VOICE OF SLOUGH etc. A rag week stunt by some students from Leeds University led to an abortive attempt to start an unnamed pirate station from the yacht 'Carmen' off the coast of Harwich on June 21st. Meanwhile, talks between Allan Crawford and Ronan O'Rahilly ( which had been ongoing since before either station had gone on air and were hastened by pressure on the government from the music industry to outlaw them ) resulted in the merger of RADIO ATLANTA and RADIO CAROLINE on July 2nd 1964, RADIO ATLANTA officially ceasing to exist at 8p.m. on that day.

RADIO LONDON, also popularly known as BIG L, was backed by a consortium of 17 main shareholders, mostly Texan oil people, under the name of Marine Investments Inc. and was headed by Don Peirson who owned the Abilene National Bank and several automobile agencies. Other top men were Tom Danaher, who also owned automobile agencies and the airport at Wichita Falls, Mal McIlwain of McIlwain Cadillac Company and Ford agencies and Jack McGlothlin who was a Texas oil mogul. Many of the main shareholders sub-divided their holdings amongst smaller investors, allegedly including 'Ladybird' Johnson. This rumour had its grounds in the fact that the station's managing director, Philip Birch, had been a guest at the Johnson's ranch and claimed to have gained presidential approval for the venture during his stay. Aware of the success of his local Dallas radio station KLIF and further impressed by that of RADIO CAROLINE, Don Peirson planned to bring an American presentation style to British offshore radio.

The original idea was to broadcast pre-recorded KLIF tapes under the name of KLIF LONDON with the necessary changes to the jingles, but the plan was moderated when it occurred to them that the 'conservative' British listening public might not be attracted by the upbeat American style presentation. Sales manager and disc jockey Ben Toney, who had previously been a director of Fort Worth stations KCUL and KJIM, was brought in as programme director from the American station WTAW to produce a format for the new station in association with ex-RADIO NORD man Gordon McLendon.
One of the ideas they introduced led to RADIO LONDON being the first 'British' pirate radio station to carry news bulletins, which were broadcast on the half hour along with a weather forecast. The format was a mix of top 40 records with an occasional 'golden oldie', overseas hit, new release or L.P. track thrown in and was known as the 'Fab 40'. Each 'show' was about 3 hours long, containing about 6 minutes of advertising per hour.The biggest advertiser in the station's early days was Reckitts and their line of products which included 'Beecham's Powders', 'Germolene' and 'Setlers', the latter probably being a popular product on board ship during heavy weather.

RADIO CAROLINE's answer to the 'Fab 40' was their 'Sound Sixty Five', but the cramming of so many discs into a three-hour show meant playing only shortish sections from each which effectively meant that the station was really only mimicking what LUXEMBOURG had been doing at the turn of the decade. The disc jockeys recruited for RADIO LONDON were mainly fairly highly experienced with the exception of a 19 year old Liverpool lad named Maurice James Christopher Cole, who was to become better known as Kenny Everett. He and another disc jockey, Dave Cash, came together in April 1965 to produce a popular, zany show which, despite only lasting for a few months, achieved a 'cult' status in the history of pirate radio. They later recreated this partnership, known as 'Kenny & Cash', for the land-based commercial station CAPITAL RADIO.

Another programme which also attained a 'cult' status was John Peel's anarchic late night 'perfumed garden' show which ran for a few months early in 1967, broadcast between midnight and 2a.m. Instead of sticking to the playlist it contained a lot of blues music and introduced the British listeners to 'underground' sounds and L.P. tracks from groups like Country Joe and the Fish, Frank Zappa and Velvet Underground which John had been presenting a short time earlier for a Californian station was something of a precursor to the 'hippie' movement of the late Sixties. The station management apparently had a lot less interest in the late night output which allowed John to create a format which he later used to similar good effect in a show called 'Night Ride' on RADIO 1. RADIO LONDON was very professional and soon established itself as the main competitor to RADIO CAROLINE, surprisingly being much more in tune with the 'Ready Steady Go!' Mod scene with its high quality presentation and catchy PAMS jingles.

On December 12th 1964 the Dutch government finally made a move and passed a law which made it illegal to broadcast from structures on the offshore sea bed. This resulted in the closure of RADIO NOORDZEE and
TV NORDZEE during the period 16th / 17th December when Dutch marine police boarded REM island, closing the station down and confiscating the equipment 'for refusal to comply with the law'. The structure still remained in 2005 used as a meteorological station, but under threat of being dismantled.
Tragedy occurred at Red Sands fort on December 16th when RADIO INVICTA co-owner Tom Pepper, engineer Martin Shaw and disc jockey Simon Ashley were drowned in very bad circumstances following the capsizing of their launch after having delivered supplies to the station from Faversham.