A FORMER pirate radio station has finally been given the green light to broadcast the Queen’s Christmas message – more than 50 years after being forbidden from doing so.
Radio Caroline, based on the Ross Revenge which is moored on the River Blackwater, has been an authorised broadcaster for three years.
But in its pirate days back in the Sixties it was forbidden from broadcasting the Queen’s traditional Christmas Day address to the nation.
On December 1, 1964, David Block, publicity officer for the then pirate radio station, contacted the BBC to request a copy of the Queen’s Christmas message.
Despite having more than 12million listeners, he was told the request could not be granted because Caroline was a pirate radio station, and to come back “if and when” he could provide “evidence of credentials as representative of an authorised broadcaster”.