Anchor Struck

In 1964 Ronan O’Rahilly and Allan Crawford founded Radio Caroline, a pirate radio station designed to circumvent The BBC’s and record companies’ monopoly of popular music by broadcasting in international waters. In 1976 it began night-time transmission with “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft” by the Canadian rock band Klaatu.

John Woloschuk, who wrote the song with fellow Klaatu member Terry Draper, got the idea when he learned that a group called The International Flying Saucer Bureau asked its members to take part in World Contact Day on March 15, 1953. The belief was that if enough earthlings focused on a single message it would be broadcast telepathically through space.

The message began with the “Calling Occupants . . .” line, then assures the occupants that they would be “welcome with the utmost friendship . . . please come in peace and help us in our EARTHLY problems.” It ends with “Let us hear from you. We are your friends.”

Despite its optimism, the song got little recognition in the disco era. The Carpenters had more success with a cover of it the next year, but not much more. World Contact Day was expanded to World Contact Week on its 60th anniversary. Still no luck.

I believe the aliens are waiting to contact us after they see how this Trump thing plays out.