I grew up on Merseyside near Liverpool

I was around 11 years old during the peak of Beatlemania

I remember listening to vinyl records at home on a gramophone

as a teenager I fell in love with rock music

at that time there was no internet 

radio broadcasting was strictly controlled by the government

there was very little air time given to popular music

pirate radio stations started to fill that gap

Radio Caroline was a ship based pirate radio station

broadcasting from sea outside UK territorial limits

as a teenage rebel it was a thrill to listen to illegal broadcasts

the DJs were under no constraints about what to play or say on air

in the 1970’s I discovered local pirate radio stations

these were land based illegal broadcasters

hunted constantly by the authorities

they were very innovative in evading capture

sometimes broadcasting from a simple transmitter

powered by a car battery

connected to a cassette tape recorder

with antenna wires strung between trees in a field

I remember one land based local pirate station called Radio Jackie North

broadcasting popular music on the medium waveband at 217

urban legend said they broadcast live from tower blocks in my home town

lookouts monitored police activity at ground level

using walkie talkies they would give warnings to the broadcasters above

the station would go off air while the pirates hid the equipment

they would then move it all to an adjacent tower block

just to keep one step ahead of the raids

the Radio Jackie theme tune was Jackie Blue

a song by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils

whenever I hear that song today

it triggers distant happy memories