The Irishman’s name was Ronan O’Rahilly, a small-time businessman who dabbled in the record industry. He realized that a station using a transmitter on a ship anchored 5.5km from the coast would be outside British territorial waters, and therefore not subject to broadcasting laws.
He named it Radio Caroline, reportedly after seeing a picture of a young Caroline Kennedy dancing in the Oval Office that, to him, represented a playful disruption of authority.
Being free from the British authorities meant being free from record company and artist rights’ restrictions. Radio Caroline could import the American Top 40 format: playing today’s biggest hits repeatedly and giving tomorrow’s the time to climb. “I remember hearing Tom Jones’ ‘It’s Not Unusual’ for the first time, thinking that it was terrific, that was probably the first pirate radio hit,” Blackburn tells TIME. The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks all came after.
But if fans loved the pirate radio stations, the record companies losing out on royalties did not.
As lawmakers debated whether or not to act, there came one incident that “more than any other, forced the government into legislating against the offshore stations,” ex-pirate DJ Ray Clark wrote in his history of the ship, Radio Caroline. During a heated dispute over a radio transmitter, a pirate station manager was shot dead by Oliver Smedley, a former Liberal political figure turned businessman. Smedley was later acquitted on grounds of self-defense, but the scandal forced the government’s hand. “The extraordinary and tragic events of the past 24 hours have impressed on everyone… that piracy is piracy,” politician Hugh Jenkin told Parliament. The Marine Broadcasting Offences Act came into effect on Aug. 14, 1967, making it illegal for anybody to do business with or supply the ships from the U.K.
In the summer of 1966 the PLA attempted to remove the toppled G4 Gun Tower, but only managed to tear some steel from the top house. In the same year a team from the Radio Essex Fort Knock John broke into the PLA Tower, to salvage the ammunition hoist and generator parts.
In June 1966 Shivering Sands was occupied by a boarding party from a rival radio group in a dispute about ownership of a transmitter. The chain of events that flowed from this led to the shooting dead of Radio City’s owner, Reg Calvert.
Following Reg Calvert's death his widow, Dorothy Calvert, ran the station, until it was finally prosecuted and closed on 8th February 1967. A caretaker crew stayed on Shivering Sands Fort for a time after the station closed, removing much of the equipment.
Roy Bates of Radio Essex again raided the Fort and removed the original gantry lights after Radio City had left.
http://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/2017/05/radio-city-pirate-radio-station-1966.html
http://time.com/4955482/pirate-radio-bbc-1-rock-history/
http://www.offshoreradiomuseum.co.uk/page462.html