I went to see the movie Pirate Radio tonight. I really looked forward to this one because I remember hearing about these ships when I was a kid. There always seemed to be these quasi-legends associated with broadcasting back in the day but I definitely remember the older teenagers on our street talking about how our rock radio djs were broadcasting from ships on the lake.

As I got older and found out stuff like, oh you know, the legendary Riverboat wasn't actually an old steamboat anchored at the mouth of the Don River but a Yorkville coffee house, I assumed that the Pirate Radio ships never actually existed. This movie provides some kind of satisfaction or even retribution. So what if they weren't broadcasting in Toronto? It's like finding out that unicorns are real.

The movie is a patchwork of stories from several of the boats broadcasting 'fab 40' (or top 40 in america) from the North Sea during the '60s. One of the better known was Wonderful Radio London (above), commonly known as Radio London or the Big L. Between December 1964 and August 1967, djs beamed their shows live from the hold of a World War II minesweeper anchored 5 Km from Essex.

The general name for this type of broadcasting was Radio Caroline. At left is the M.V. Mi Amigo, home of Radio Caroline south, which also broadcast from '64-'67.

You can read more about Pirate Radio and the Marine Offenses Act here but seriously, go see the movie. It's a feel-good flick with a fantastic sound track and great actors. Aside from the obvious cast members, I love that it features Chris O'Dowd and Katherine Parkinson from "IT Crowd"and Rhys Darby from "Flight of the Conchords".

oh and this cracked me up - the character of Gavin totally reminded me of Stringer.