A familiar figure has returned to the Essex coastline.

Radio Caroline has moored up at the end of Southend Pier and is readying itself for a month of 24-hour broadcasts beginning in July.

GARY MAC boarded merchant vessel Ross Revenge - Caroline's home for the past 16 years - to find out what we can expect in the coming weeks from the most famous pirates of the airwaves.

You can tune in to 1503am on July 26 for a taste of what turned on a nation back in the sixties.

Their long hair may be greying. They may now have "proper jobs" to go to. But the swashbuckling spirit of the pirates of the airwaves lives on.

In recent years Radio Caroline has continued its precarious existence on temporary fm licences. Their last illegal broadcast was in November 1991.

But any fear that Britain's favourite pirate station is in danger of becoming respectable is immediately dispelled by station manager Peter Moore.

"Would we take a full fm licence if it was offered?" he says. "Never!"

The words "biting" and "hand that feeds it" come to mind.

Surprisingly, it is not a continued romance with the vagaries of whirring, whining medium wave that prompts his answer.

Peter -- a Caroline man for the past 12 years -- retains the spirit of the station which refuses to sink.

"An fm licence spells boring programming," he says. "The radio authority demands a business plan and a promise of performance.

"You have to prove you have the money to make it work. They have a say in what you are going to play. It stifles creative radio."

Caroline has always been anarchic. Their DJs intersperse '60s and '70s rock with the kind of off-the-wall, opinionated, and dare we say it entertaining, spiel that wouldn't be tolerated on any other station.

Freedom of speech and British radio are two terms that do not make good bed fellows, according to Peter.

Caroline's presenters shift uneasily when asked direct questions about the quality of the country's commercial radio. They have a living to protect, after all.

Similarly, former presenters still in the business generally give Caroline a wide berth! With the exception of Johnnie Walker, perhaps.

The headline-grabbing DJ is a good friend of Caroline's and there are high hopes of him making a guest appearance.

By contrast, the station's newest recruit has just three months' broadcasting experience. Sarah Miles joins from London's Liberty Radio to present the afternoon drive-time show.

She is obviously grateful for the opportunity to further her career in an ever-diminishing profession.

"Networking, several stations taking the same programme, is killing the industry." says Peter. "Ten stations take a common programme -- nine DJs lose their jobs!"

One UK station has a presenting staff of one. A computer programmes and plays the music. The voice links are provided in a weekly two-hour session recorded by a presenter. They are then slotted in by the computer!

As Sarah surveys Caroline's colossal valve-driven mixer and acquaints herself with the cabin stuffed full of vinyl that passes for a library, she must have been relieved to learn that CD players and mini-discs are to be added to the studio.

"We try and play as much on vinyl as possible," says Peter. "It goes together with medium wave transmissions perfectly."

But Caroline is in no way technophobic. They currently broadcast on the Astra satellite, taking up an extra audio channel on the Travel Shop programme.

"Satellite gives us the freedom to present the real spirit of Caroline," says Peter. "You pay the satellite provider £1,500 and off you go. No stuffy rules and regulations. Anyone with a satellite dish can pick it up."

As Caroline limps onward you can't help feeling that their future is there for the taking. The internet will be the radio waves of the new millennium. Finally there is a broadcast medium that matches the philosophy of the station.

And surfing sounds a whole lot more fun than sinking!

Pirates - the Caroline crew prepare to welcome visitors Radio Caroline - a history in brief

28 MARCH 1964: First

transmission at noon. Opening announcement by Simon Dee.

14 AUG 1967: Marine Broadcasting Offences Act becomes law. All offshore

stations apart from Caroline North and South close down.

23 FEB 1974: Radio Caroline begins regular transmissions on 259 metres.

19 MARCH 1980: MV Mi Amigo sinks. All hands rescued by Sheerness lifeboat.

8 AUG 1983: - MV Ross Revenge off the Essex coast.

20 AUG 1983: New Radio Caroline begins regular

transmissions on 319 metres

8 AUG 1985: Government wages war on Caroline. Survey ship on permanent patrol, cutting off food, water and fuel supplies.

JUNE 1987: Territorial limits extended to 12 miles. Ross Revenge moves to South Falls

16 OCT 1987: Caroline weathers the hurricane

JAN 1991: Broadcasting Bill becomes law allowing authorities to use armed forces to silence Radio Caroline

28 NOV 1993: Ross Revenge harbours in River Blackwater.

26 SEPT 1995: West India Lock, London, becomes the new home base for the Ross Revenge

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.