SPANGLES MULDOON


Born in Chester on 5th October 5th 1946, his real name is Chris Cary. He joined Caroline South, aged 19, just as the Marine Offences Act took effect in August 1967. He had wanted to join Caroline North, but ended up with Caroline South. He says: "Jimmy Saville was my idol. broadcast under a raft of names on Caroline. Herb Oscar Anderson and Spangles Muldoon being two. But never as Chris Cary. The name changes were mostly down to cutting up jingles belonging to other people and editing them together to get a name. Everyone else was doing it - so why shouldn't I?" He presented some late night programmes before taking over the noon-3pm show, which became known as the Lunchtime Loonabout (“with the goon, Muldoon”). The Offshore Themes web-site reveals that his theme tune was an instrumental version of Yeh Yeh by the Mark Wirtz Orchestra. In March 1968 he left Caroline South to transfer to the North ship but the station close-down beat him to it. Almost exactly one year after The Marine Broadcasting ( Offences ) Act came into effect a station called RADIO LONDON THREE transmitted for about an hour on 204 metres as a protest 

against the Act. Over the next few days the station changed its name to RADIO FREE LONDON and was heard intermittently. The signals were finally traced to a flat from which ex- Radio Caroline disc jockey Spangles Muldoon was broadcasting. The radio transmitter was dismantled and confiscated but the ex-pirate had the last laugh. The equipment that was taken was a false set-up and the actual working transmitter was left intact! 

Another story: In the late 60s Chris Carey was Deejaying in Cambridge and one madcap idea of his was to put aerials up trees around Cambridge and equip a van with a transmitter and play pre recorded programmes and if things got hot just unplug the aerial and drive off to a new location and plug into another tree aerial.

After running his own disco: Fraser’s Discotheque in Wolverhampton his return to sea came on July 10, 1970 when he joined Radio Northsea International. After the station’s close in September 1970, he next appeared on RNI as a summer relief jock on September 14, 1972, but famously resigned on air four days later, to run the returning Radio Caroline. However, Chris says: RNI did play an important part in my life - and was where I met some of my best friends, who I still know to this day.

Around 1976 he joined Radio Luxembourg, under his real name. At the same time he was getting involved in the early video games market, later expanding into computers.

Former Radio Scotland DJ Brian Webb (also known as Brian McKenzie on Radio Northsea) told him about the burgeoning Irish land-based pirate scene and, together with former Caroline director Philip Solomon, Chris started Sunshine Radio in Dublin. The station manager was his old Caroline colleague Robbie Dale who later took over the station as Chris moved on to start up Radio Nova. This was probably the most professional and successful of all the Irish pirates. In 1986 Nova closed down and Chris moved back to the UK. He now had a company dealing in satellite equipment and for a while ran a satellite-distributed version of Radio Nova in Britain which employed a number of former pirates including Paul Burnett, Mark Wesley (alias Mark West) and Tony Blackburn. He also owned a Birmingham radio station, Buzz-FM, which he famously acquired for £1. He continued to trade in satellite equipment but in 1996 police raided his factory and charged him with manufacturing “pirate” satellite decoder cards. In April 1998 he was sentenced to four years in jail. He escaped from Ford Open prison, surfacing in New Zealand using the alias Chris Broady. However, detectives, paid for by Rupert Murdoch tracked him down & he was extradited to the UK and returned to the UK prison system. 

Chris' website www.chriscary.com quotes: Chris is currently living on the Isle of Man where he is receiving hyperbaric treatment for the effects of his stroke. Each day he goes into a hyperbaric chamber for an hour (these are the chambers that are used to treat divers who have suffered the 'bends'). Luckily he's not claustrophobic. Sadly although these chambers exist on the mainland UK it is only on the Isle of Man that the chamber is available to stroke victims. 

Chris is applying for planning permission to erect a long wave radio mast on the Isle of Man.  A licence to broadcast on 279 Khz long wave has been granted for the Isle of Man , and he is applying for the associated planning permission.  More can be read about his progress with this project at www.exidy.co.uk (Exidy Media Services is the working title for this project).

Return to RNI DJ Hall of Fame Page