March 20, 1980: The Day Radio Caroline’s Mi Amigo Sank, Ending an Era of Pirate Radio
At 11:58 PM on March 19, 1980, a DJ named Stevie Gordon leaned into the microphone aboard a rusted Panamanian coaster called the Mi Amigo and told listeners across Britain that Radio Caroline was about to go off the air. Force-ten gales were already over the gunwales. The 134-foot mast that had beamed sixteen years…