It is hard enough to compare a Top Forty listing against a Top Fifty, let alone an isolated Caroline Countdown against a chart taken from a full set of Fab Forties. There are so many factors to build into the equation that this cannot be regarded as a serious analysis. For instance, Caroline had a Top Fifty, but although the Radio London chart was announced as a Top Forty, it rarely contained only forty singles! Offshore radio fans all know that the Fab Forties are not in any way based on sales of records, whereas Caroline was more likely to have charts (or certainly the top twenty of them) based on those published in music papers such as Melody Maker. There are instances where it cannot be established for certain that a particular single we have listed as being played on either station that week was actually aired. We have mentioned before that typed 'official' lists sent to the ship from the on-shore office are likely to bear little resemblance to what the listeners heard. I am sure this applies equally to Caroline. Alan Field's chart (on which I have based the Fab Forty information given here) comes as close as we are likely to get to what Big L played in this particular week, as Alan listened and wrote it all down at the time.

When it came to choosing their playlists, both stations had their own agendas. The entries marked with an asterisk indicate records containing a song (either the A- or B-Side) published by the Radio London-associated music publisher, Pall Mall Music. It should be noted that despite the expected Big L prejudice towards including these releases, the singles are not necessarily being played exclusively by Radio London! However, it does seem that the recording by Freddie Ryder, who just happened to work for Caroline, was being played exclusively by his own station. (See page 2)

If we simply regard this as a fun comparison of two station playlists for the same week in 1966, based on the information available, it makes interesting reading and gives a fair indication of how fast singles were dropped from the Big L playlist. The feature has been split into 2 parts for ease of viewing.

To see the full-sized Caroline Countdown (left) in its original form, visit the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame. Jonathan continues to add more Countdowns to the PRHoF, as received from Jempi Laevaert and John Hatt and in 2009, acquired a set of Radio City Sixties for the website.

Interested in the Caroline charts? The Stonewashed Collection, complied by Jempi Laevaert, is attached to the Radio London website and updated periodically.