It was on March 3, 1968 that the British government officially banned the concept of "pirate radio," shutting down icons like Radio Caroline. 

The linked article points out just how different radio was in the British Isles compared to what we had here. While CHUM-AM and CKOC were just a few of the stations in North America broadcasting Top 40 24 hours a day, it was a rare sound on U.K. stations - which were all BBC. Imagine if all we had was the CBC and for most of the day, they wouldn't play any of the popular songs.

That's why the pirates became so famous and so popular. I only wish the Internet had been around then. Imagine what you would have been able to hear online! (Bill Dulmage would probably have run out of tape!)

How pirate radio stations changed the course of rock music