Aha, so you've come to explore the Chart Room.

Well, there are some very interesting charts to be found here - "all-time listeners charts" which was an idea pioneered by Radio Caroline and copied by many.

Caroline was, during the 1970's, very much an album station and a Top 100 Album Chart was created by inviting listeners to write in and vote.

In 1984, just after Radio Caroline took to the air again from their new ship Ross Revenge, listeners were invited to send in a list of their favourite tracks from the Caroline era. From this was created the Radio Caroline Listeners' All-Time Top 500 1964-1984. It is interesting to see the variety of music voted for, and no doubt this helped the station to decide on the music to play.

Radio Caroline continue to conduct similar exercises during RSL broadcasts and, of course, on the satellite service. One recent example is their All-Time Top 500 1999. It is interesting to compare this with older charts, for certain legendary tracks have vanished, but other older material has emerged having clearly matured with time.

Several landlubber radio stations have followed in Caroline's footsteps. One Dutch station with a very offshore flavour is arrow Classic Rock, and they produced a Top 100 Rock Legends in late 1998 and Top 50 Guitarists in early 1999.

Finally, a little secret. The 1983 Radio Caroline ship Ross Revenge was to have been named Imagine. At the last minute the ship's name was left as it was, no doubt owing to some legal technicality. However, it is no coincidence that the very popular John Lennon track imagine, which always scored well, took No1 position every time in charts of that era! These days it has been ousted by another unofficial Caroline anthem, Rockin' in the free world.

OK, so the compilers might have done a little cheating, but I'm sure some listeners did a bit of vote-rigging too. However, the end result is a fantastic collection of wonderful music. A glance through the listings is almost guaranteed to bring back some fond memories.