A plan for an airborne television station to be called Caroline Television was announced in 1968 and the station was scheduled to go on the air by the spring of 1969. The proposed station was the brainchild of Irish businessman Ronan O'Rahilly. O'Rahilly had been the man behind Radio Caroline, which began broadcasting at Easter in 1964 from the m.v. Fredericia, a ship which had been renamed m.v.Caroline. Radio Caroline was anchored in International waters off the Suffolk/Essex coasts of the U.K.

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The programmes from Caroline Television were to have been beamed to the ground using Sratovision technology from two four-engined Lockheed Super Constellation aircraft built in the 1940s or 1950s. The Stratovision technology had been used successfully by the United States during the Vietnam War to beam programmes down to their forces.

The intention was to set the planes on auto-pilot and fly them over the International waters of the Irish sea, although this was later changed to the east coast of Britain. The programmes were to have consisted mainly of recorded material bought from foreign countries.

A headline in the Daily Mirror newspaper of June 3 1970 stated "Flying TV Pirates win a million dollar deal for adverts". The report went on to say that Caroline TV had won U.S.advertising contracts worth more than £400,000. The Daily Mirror report also said that advertising man Ted Page had sold Americans £8,000 a minute slots on the station.

A Lockheed Super Constellation in flight

It was reported that two Lockheed Super Constellation aircraft were purchased and taken to an undisclosed location to be fitted-out for television broadcasts, but it is unclear exactly how much, or if any work at all was undertaken.

The shows were to have been broadcast from 6pm to 3am, mostly in colour on 625 lines. The backing for the project was said to have come from foreign companies interested in the advertising potential of the station. Caroline Television's start-up cost was estimated at one million pounds, with offices in Canada and the United States set-up to sell air-time.

A statement relating to Caroline Television was made from the House of Commons on February 16 1970 by the minister for Posts and Telecommunications at the time, John Stonehouse. He said that concerted action would be taken by European countries against the operators, this included: withdrawal of aircraft registration and use of airports and legal measures against operators. The test broadcasts for Caroline Television were eagerly awaited, but to the best of our knowledge no signals were ever received, and the project seemingly dropped.

 

Aircraft images courtesy of www.airmuseumsuk.org