A professional-looking website has appeared, claiming that a new offshore station called Caroline Classic Rock will be launching in 2008. What’s odd is that the station claims to have studios in Colorado, USA, but says it’s registered in Cuba!
The home page says that “Our music format will be the same as Arrow Rock and our friends at Radio Free Colorado. More News on Caroline Classic Rock frequency and about Mi Amigo 2, anchored 2 miles off the coast of Monrovia of Republic of Liberia for work to being [sic] carried out on the AM/SW Transmitters, and it will then sail to International Waters off the Frinton Coast in early 2008. The supply ship is a reg Cuban ship and will supply Mi Amigo 2 every 6 weeks with fuel, water, food, post and a new Cuban crew.”
The details in bold appear in a different font, and seem to have been added or changed later than the rest of the text.
The schedule is given as “AM English Service 06.00 - 018.00 [sic] hrs, AM Dutch Service 018.00 - 06.00, 7415 kHz Short Wave Service in English.”
The website also says that “all programmes will be coming from our studio in Colorado in USA via a satellite link to Mi Amigo 2, our night time frequency will be legal.”
The only name mentioned is Chris O’Railly, who is listed as both the technical and administrative contact for the website. Contact details can be found using the WHOIS process. We are not allowed to reproduce that information here.
However, the purpose of the website appears to be to wind up Peter Moore, who runs the UK based Radio Caroline. There is mention of an “Up Yours Moore” Caroline Classic Rock Party in Howth, Dublin, but no date or time is mentioned.
We would be interested to hear from anyone with further information on this project, or confirmation that it’s a hoax.
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 13:15
We feel this is a hoax. Over the years rumours have come and rumours have gone about new offshore stations and nothing has come of them.
Perhaps if anyone is in, or going to the Dublin area, they might want to visit the address given in the websites whois database…
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 13:19
Thanks. I have removed the contact details you added, as it is illegal to publish information obtained as a result of a whois search. I don’t want to have the lawyers in
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 13:48
Andy, this ship appears to be of the same class as the Olga Patricia / Laissez Faire (Swinging Radio England, etc.) I have been working with Svenn Martinsen of Norway who has become very informed about most of the ships built in this class and he may be able to identify it. I will draw Svenn’s attention to your request for more input.
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 14:08
A couple of things to point out:
1. The ship has its name on the bridge badly Photoshopped out.
2. The address quoted is Encinitas, Republic of Cuba. Encinitas, CA 92023 is in California.
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 15:44
Well spotted, William! The more times you read what’s on that Web page, the more holes you find in the information. Whoever is behind it clearly doesn’t have much idea about international politics
If I was trying to perpetrate a hoax, Cuba would be one of the last countries I’d mention. It’s a wonder he didn’t choose North Korea 
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 15:58
nonetheless, the clicking on the LISTEN link at the top left corner of the page does bring up an audio stream of classic rock tracks. This is continuous music, without any announcements. So whatever is going on here, there are more resources behind it than just putting up a single hoax webpage.
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 16:22
Robert, dont take to much notice of the stream… The player links to this URL… http://www.radiostorm.com/stream/classic-rock.asx. I just cut/pasted this URL in to my WMP… and guess what comes up…? Shock, horror, its *Caroline Classic Rocks* (aka Radio Storms stream!)
So, it goes to show they cant even provide their own audio content, but seems to be using Radio Storms
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 18:17
Hi Boys, well it`s nice to see talking about Caroline Classic Rock, who is going to be the first one to say we were wrong. We are using Classic Rock for our online test, our online service will come from Radiostorm shortly.
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 19:40
How interesting… All these comments and their home page gets modified at 18:42hrs today (11th Dec 2007).
Perhaps ‘Chris’ will fill us in as to the make, model, serial number, etc of the transmitter(s), etc. and where your own stream servers are based.
Also perhaps you will fill us in as to why you need a vertical ‘75m unipole antenna’ for 7415kHz??
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 20:17
How interesting… All these comments and their home page gets modified at 18:42hrs today (11th Dec 2007). I don’t know of any web design company that updates websites out of normal working hours…
Perhaps ‘Chris’ will fill us in as to the make, model, serial number, etc of the transmitter(s), etc. and where your own stream servers are based.
Also perhaps you will fill us in as to why you need a vertical ‘75m unipole antenna’ for 7415kHz??
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 21:07
Looks like a small boat for a 75m antenna and a 200 kW transmitter
I wonder how they will photoshop that one on the poor boat.
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 22:02
A ship that is flying under the Cuban flag?;) ( That’s to reads at the site )
But something else, I dont think it is a hoax but just the preparing of a good April Fool’s joke. Same here in Holland 1 or 2 years ago,professional site, even a picture of a radio ship, professional online programs but at the 1th of April, music and a loud laugh telling it is the 1th of April;)
Something else for the grandson of Ronan: If you place an address in the whoius information that is incorrect and a non existing phonenumber than you have a little chance that the regisrar takes the site off from the internet. So, be so kind to place there the correct information, nobody shall kill you but maby some of us like to join this coming April fools joke;)
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 22:11
The photo which has “”Up Yours Moore”
Caroline Classic Rock Party in Howth Dublin” underneath it (http://www.radiocarolineeurope.com/2080633384PHOTO2.jpg), is actually a photo from a 50th birthday party… If you look at the red ballon in the background, the banner to the left of it has “50th” on it, as does the green ballon!
haweeha, you mention the mast, but as has been pointed out to me, why do you need a 75m vertical unipole for 7415kHz….?? A full wave antenna would be almost half this length for this frequency, and HF arrays aren’t normally vertical!
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 22:35
The domain registration’s postal address is potentially valid, but the phone number looks like a UK one with the Irish country code tagged on the front. It’s too long to be an Irish phone number, even a mobile number.
on Dec 11th, 2007 at 23:30
Paul, the postal address isn’t valid… Howth is in Dublin 13 not Dublin 14. In fact going by Wikipedia they are miles apart. The telephone code for that area is +353 183. As such, you’d know your own postcode and telephone code if you lived there, wouldn’t you…
on Dec 12th, 2007 at 09:23
Interesting that he’s taken all the details off the site, presumably because he realises he’s been rumbled
Media Network normally ignores stuff like this, but our attention was drawn to it because it claimed there would be 12 hours a day in Dutch. As for the Cuban connection, I cannot find any place called Encinitas in Cuba, although the website still claims the company is registered there. Time to contact the Cuban embassy, I think 
on Dec 12th, 2007 at 11:01
..And it’s back up, and modified again…
The only Encinitas I can find is in San Diego County, CA, USA… and a major corporation like Google Inc. surely can’t make such an error in omitting it from their maps, can they…??
Let us know how you get on with the Cuban Embassy please, Andy. Another interesting thing is that, as they have the (reg.) company details at the bottom of that webpage, don’t you also have to publish your company reg. number as well…??
Wonder if the company ‘they’ registered the domain name with (which is based in Guildford, Surrey, UK), has the IP address of the computer which made the domain registration…? CCR could be traced quite easily like that. In fact more digging has shown ‘CCI’ are using an free ‘ad-free’ web hosting service. Seems strange for a ‘company’ that can afford a 200kW TX…
on Dec 12th, 2007 at 11:57
Hi l`m back again, the75m vertical unipole is for the AM and not for the short waves. Steve here in Howth in Co Dublin is re-designing the site.
l did not said anything about a telephone number on the site, the number you saw on our dormain details with so called telephone number is wrong anyway don`t know were that came from, Dublin14 should a been 13 as you said. Our server is in the states, and yes you are right Encinitas is not in Cuba, that`s down to Steve who got it wrong, and please tell the Cuban Embassy if you want to go that far, sounds bit childish to us here in Howth.
You lot should come over to meet real people who don`t run people down because they are trying bring back real radio, with real music
Have a nice day, time to have a drink
Chris O`Railly
on Dec 12th, 2007 at 16:03
Well, if you really want to tease Moore (AKA Smith) you had better come up with a beter story.
My suggestion would be a Venezuelan sponsored project: Under the Caroline name)
Money no problem:
Oil No problem:
Big ships, PE oil tanker, no problem, registration: no problem.
Chavez wants to promotes his political system as he heavily does on Venezuelan TV , he is already providing the London buses with cheap oil!!
So a 200 + kW AM + SW would be a piece of cake
(The ship to be fitted out under the eyes of R Netherlands folks on Bonaire, just off the Ven. coast, hi hi)
And mind you, Hugo Chavez is mad enough to really do such a thing…….
Didn’t he start an International service via R Havana?
Keep smiling
ruud
on Dec 13th, 2007 at 10:55
A couple of AM licences are aviable in Holland, why don’t ask for them instead??? In DRM mode, too, brigth as RTL on 1440 kHz.
on Dec 14th, 2007 at 13:06
DRM only produces noise on AM, no receivers.
As a broadcaster you are wasting money for many, many years, if DRM will ever fly.
on Dec 14th, 2007 at 18:26
Hi lads, sorry about the windup, we were hoping to take the widup to April 1st, but that twat in Essex giving the wrong address, never mind. Caroline Classic Gold is real, we are in talks with Sigitas Zilionis in Lithuania for night transmission on 1386 am, and we are hopefully he will give us a test transmission, and no this is not a windup. If you wan`t to contact him, you can
Chris O`Railly
on Dec 15th, 2007 at 14:51
So what about the Radio Caroline International web stream ?
That apparently isn’t a hoax either but they seem to be keeping a low profile at the moment while planning something ….
http://www.carolineinternational.com
on Dec 16th, 2007 at 17:52
It is remarkable that a topic about a would-be offshore radio station has had this amount of responses! I wonder why?
on Dec 17th, 2007 at 08:55
Because Radio Caroline did and is still doing a good enough job to evoke such emotions.
Eiyther that or there are more sad people in the world than we ever thought possible.
on Dec 19th, 2007 at 12:43
Our hoax at Caroline Classic Rock gave us great response and loads of e-mails (upto date 1977 e-mails) but we are real and with great classic rock
on Dec 19th, 2007 at 19:26
l agree Steve, it did bring us lot of listeners from around the world, and we are going out live on a live test at http://streamwebtown.com/CarolineClassicRock with some great classic rock, and it`s free stream
Lots of people think the irish are thick, you’re wrong, time for a drink
Chris
http://www.radiocarolineeurope.com
on Jan 29th, 2008 at 08:56
Tests has been done on 945 kHz with the power of 150 kW.