Radio Caroline - The end of Mi Amigo

Whilst governments did their bit to bring an end to the pirate radio ships, it was Mother Nature which caused the most significant pauses in the life of Radio Caroline, the station which had launched the UK's inexorable drift into a tardy pop music radio era.

On 19th March 1980, the Mi Amigo broke anchor in a storm and drifted into shallow water. Whilst the crew pumped out water from the leaking ship, the presenters carried on playing back-to-back music. Finally, on 20th March, the presenters left the ship. On this audio, hear the calmness on-air and the eerie final farewell. An empty channel on Medium Wave sounds more ghostly than FM.

The ship was never again to sail, and now lies on the foot of the ocean. It was one of the two original Caroline ships which had, in the 60s, changed the face of British radio and moved into folklore. The station returned on a different ship three years later.