PIRATE power ruled the airwaves – and the ocean ones for that – during the mid-Sixties when off-shore radio stations were set up in the waters surrounding the British Isles.

Radio Caroline, broadcasting off the coast of Suffolk, was the most famous pirate station and has inspired the new film, The Boat That Rocked.

But North Yorkshire had its own pirate station. Radio 270 broadcast from a former Dutch fishing vessel moored in the North Sea between Scarborough and Bridlington, from 1966 to 1967.

Initially, most pirate stations were legal because they operated in international waters. They were hugely popular – listened to by half the country, starved of pop music by the BBC.

But the British Government sank the pirates with its Marine Offences Act of 1967, which made it illegal for anyone to advertise, work for or supply such stations.

Radio 270 was on air for only 14 months but drew some two million listeners.

Here, we speak to some of the key players involved in 270 and ask the fans to explain its appeal and legacy.

The owner

Scarborough businessman Don Robinson set up Radio 270 along with a local farmer and fisherman and appointed supermarket magnate Wilf Proudfoot as managing director.

They bought a Dutch fishing boat, the Oceaan 7, which was the smallest of the pirate radio ships at just 139 feet long.

It was sheer good fortune that Radio 270’s frequency allowed it to be received across England and into northern Europe. “We were the smallest pirate station but had one of the biggest listening audiences,” said Don.

Commercial radio was a new prospect and Don recalled how they had to offer adverts for free. “People would go into their shop and say how they heard about their business on 270. When we went back, we were then able to pull in the adverts.”

Don said setting up a pirate station was a dream. “It was thrilling. We were young people trying to do something different and doing it reasonable successfully.

“We paved the way for broadcasting to become more independent,” he said. “Pirate radio was the breakthrough for commercial television and radio. Before that, everything was just the BBC.”

Radio 270 was equally popular on shore. DJs worked two weeks on the boat, with two weeks off. During time on land, they would travel across the North of England hosting discos, a new phenomenon.

“Discos were unheard of at the time,” said Don. “People would go to listen to groups, nobody danced to records.”

But that all changed when Radio 270 DJs turned up with their record decks and crates of vinyl at the likes of the Milton Rooms in Malton, Northallerton village hall and the Railway Institute in York.

The DJ

PIRATE radio launched the careers of many big-name broadcasters including Tony Blackburn and John Peel. BBC Radio One stalwart Paul Burnett began his career on 270.

Paul, brought up in Darlington, said his mum cashed in £125 in Premium Bonds to buy him out of the RAF so he could take up the job at 270. “It was the best money I ever spent,” he said.

He was aboard for the ill-fated launch of 270 on April 1, 1966, when the mast and broadcast antennae snapped in rough seas, delaying the station’s start by two months. “It was absolutely terrifying,” said Paul, who suffered from sea sickness. “I was so ill I wouldn’t have cared if the boat sank. I just hoped to die!”

Paul never got over his nausea. “I once threw up half-way through a live commercial for Danish bacon on the breakfast show. I sat there waiting for the tender to come out with my notice, but it didn’t,” he said.

Living quarters were cramped; the DJs slept and ate in the main hold, about the same size as an average living room. They were on a roster to work two weeks on with two weeks off, and ordered to keep Oceaan 7 ship-shape between shifts.

“Mr Proudfoot was a no-nonsense Yorkshireman who didn’t want to have the lads out there doing nothing, so we’d have to carry out maintenance. I remember having to chip the rust off with a hammer. It was a horrible job, and pointless as it just got rustier by the minute.”

There were high jinks on the high seas, too. DJs would dress up as pirates and carry out mock sword fights for the benefit of day-trippers on the regular boat trips out from Scarborough.

One time, they nailed the clogs of a Dutch crew member to the deck while he climbed the mast. “He twisted his ankle, which was rather unfortunate,” said Paul. “But he got his own back a few weeks later when he threw the DJ responsible overboard.”

The fans

AROUND 25 million listeners tuned in to Britain’s pirate radio stations every day.

York television consultant Chris Wood was a fan. Growing up in Middlesbrough in the mid-Sixties, he listed to several stations, including 270 and Caroline.

“It was so fresh, and very un-British,” said Chris. “Everything else on radio was so incredibly stiff-upper lip BBC, where they only played an hour or so of pop music on radio shows.

“The pirate presenters had the most fabulous voices; lots used to put on transatlantic accents, which was all part of the dream; that it was elsewhere and took you away from the grey humdrum life of suburban Britain.”

Neal Guppy ran discos in York in the mid Sixties and remembers young people coming in, buzzing about the pirates. “It was giving them music in the way they comprehended it. It was less formal than the BBC. People would come in and ask the DJs for so and so that they’d heard on 270. I also ran mobile discos at the time, so I would buy about two new 45s every week, based on what people had asked for.”

Radio York DJ Dr Rock, aka Charles White, credits 270 with bringing him north. He remembers arriving in Scarborough shortly after the demise of 270 and going to Proudfoot’s supermarket where the station’s record collection was being sold off.

The DJ bought some 45s – and still plays them today on his show. “Some were quite valuable and make great airplay; records like Ike and Tina Turner and Ray Charles.”

After the pirates, British radio was never the same again. “The BBC was very square,” said Dr Rock. “Broadcasters used to wear a tux, even though no one could see them behind the microphone. Pirate radio brought a new vitality and a cultural revolution.”

"We were broadcasting from the high seas, making our own rules"

IT was only four weeks of his broadcasting career, but the month spent on board Radio Caroline holds treasured memories for Jerry Scott.

Jerry, who hosts Radio York’s early morning show, joined Radio Caroline in the late Eighties while it was broadcasting off the Kent coast.

“I was in between jobs and decided it was a good idea,” said Jerry. Conditions were just as basic as they had been in the station’s heyday.

“There was no running water. We had fresh water delivered by a fishing boat, but in old Fanta and Coke bottles and you could still taste the cola in it.”

There was a unique spirit on pirate radio, said Jerry, 49. “There was a real sense of anti-establishment. We were broadcasting from the high seas, making our own rules; no one told you what to say or what records to play. That was the freedom of it all.

“There were four of us on board and we used to run the station 18 hours a day, doing four-hour shows each.

“Food was very basic; we had beans on toast if we were lucky. We drank beer – the Dutch were really good at bringing us beer and cigarettes. It was 20 years ago, but the memories of jumping on board and the buzz of working there for a month are with me all the time.”