Robbie Robinson (21 April 1940 – 31 August 2021), better known by the name Robbie Dale and nicknamed The Admiral, was a British radio disc jockey who was the chief DJ of

Radio Caroline Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Allan Crawford, initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopol ...

during the 1960s.

Pirate radio

Dale was born in Littleborough, Lancashire, England, in April 1940. He was chief DJ on the offshore pirate radio ship

. Dale was one of the DJs on Radio Caroline on 14 August 1967 with

Johnnie Walker Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky produced by Diageo in Scotland. It was established in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire in 1820, and continued to be produced and bottled at the town's Hill Street plant, once the world's ...

, when the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act 1967 came into effect. At its peak, the station had 23 million listeners. After the closedown of

he worked for the Dutch pirate radio ship

Radio Veronica Radio Veronica was an offshore radio station that began broadcasting in 1960, and was on air for over fourteen years. It was set up by independent radio, TV and household electrical retailers in the Netherlands, to stimulate the sales of ra ...

from May 1968 to August 1969, and then worked on the Dutch broadcaster TROS, where he did a regular radio show on Hilversum 3 on Thursday afternoons. He was given the nickname "The Admiral" by

Dave Lee Travis David Patrick Griffin (born 25 May 1945), known professionally as Dave Lee Travis, is an English disc jockey and television presenter. He currently presents a Sunday programme between 10 am and 12 noon on ''Heritage Chart Radio''. Travis began ...

because he reportedly liked the boat to be "shipshape"; he sometimes wore an admiral's uniform while doing his show. He was involved in popular music in other ways. He recorded a single, "Soul Mama" for Pink Elephant records, released in 1969. He also wrote the 1969 single "Soul Entertainer" for the funk-soul band Respect. Dale is a member of the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame.

Later life

During the 1970s, Dale retired from broadcasting, ran a contract cleaning business in London, and one of his major contracts was with

Capital Radio Capital London is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Global Media & Entertainment as part of its national Capital (radio network), Capital Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Bri ...

. In 1980, he started-up and successfully ran Sunshine 101 in Dublin. It became one of the most popular

pirate radio station Pirate radio is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license, whether an invalid license or no license at all. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are rec ...

s in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

, until unlicensed radio was outlawed in the country in 1989. Dale then moved from

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 163,230 inhabi ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

, where he operated a holiday apartment complex. Dale died from

dementia Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...

complications in

on 31 August 2021, at the age of 81.

References

External links

* 1940 births 2021 deaths English expatriates in Ireland English expatriates in Spain English radio personalities British radio presenters Pirate radio personalities Offshore radio broadcasters British radio DJs People from Littleborough, Greater Manchester Deaths from dementia in Spain {{UK-radio-bio-stub