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44-651: The station was started by a young Swede, Nils-Eric Svensson, who had studied radio and television in the United States and had worked for a short period at the Swedish state run broadcasting company. "Skånes Radio Mercur" leased air time from the Danish pirate radio station Radio Mercur , that had started broadcasting a few months earlier from a Panama registered ship "Cheeta", anchored in international waters between Copenhagen, Denmark , and Malmö, Sweden . The broadcasts were on

88-592: A wireless license issued by the British General Post Office (GPO). However, under terms of that wireless license, it was an offence under the Wireless Telegraphy Act to listen to unauthorised broadcasts, which possibly included those transmitted by Radio Luxembourg. Therefore, as far as the British authorities were concerned, Radio Luxembourg was a "pirate radio station" and British listeners to

132-545: A 1940 British comedy about an unauthorized TV broadcaster, Band Waggon , uses the phrase "pirate station" several times. A good example of this kind of activity was Radio Luxembourg located in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg . The English language evening broadcasts from Radio Luxembourg were beamed by Luxembourg-licensed transmitters. The audience in the United Kingdom originally listened to their radio sets by permission of

176-518: A Senegalese military helicopter was shot down trying to recapture the station from Gambian rebels, killing all 18 onboard. Broadcasting to The Gambia and Senegal on medium wave, the station ceased transmitting in September 2002 when the antennae collapsed. This site was subsequently used by a number of visiting Amateur Radio operators from the USA and Europe for so-called DX-pedition . At the end of January 2020,

220-400: A new programme, the so-called Melody Radio (later known as programme 3) on 1 January 1963. The programme was very similar to the programmes on Radio Mercur and several key employees from the pirate radio were working on the programme. Pirate radio Pirate radio is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where

264-615: A new ship, a converted fishing trawler named MV Norderney . In the 1960s in the UK, the term referred to not only a perceived unauthorized use of the state-run spectrum by the unlicensed broadcasters but also the risk-taking nature of offshore radio stations that actually operated on anchored ships or marine platforms. The term had been used previously in Britain and the US to describe unlicensed land-based broadcasters and even border blasters . For example,

308-581: A result of the AT&;T interpretation, a landmark case was heard in court, which even prompted comments from Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover when he took a public stand in the station's defense. Although AT&T won its case, the furor created was such that those restrictive provisions of the transmitter license were never enforced. In 1926, WJAZ in Chicago changed its frequency to one previously reserved for Canadian stations without getting permission to make

352-516: A vessel in international waters without permission from the authorities in the country to which it broadcast (Denmark in this case). The station was named Radio Mercur and began transmission on August 2, 1958. In the Danish newspapers it was soon called a "pirate radio". In the Netherlands in 1964, Radio Noordzee and TV Noordzee began broadcasting from the REM Island and Radio Veronica acquired

396-411: Is not technically illegal (such as an amateur radio transmission). Pirate radio is sometimes called bootleg radio (a term especially associated with two-way radio ), clandestine radio (associated with heavily politically motivated operations) or free radio . Radio "piracy" began with the advent of regulations of the airwaves at the dawn of the age of radio . Initially, radio, or wireless as it

440-445: The FM band , and covered only the densely populated southwestern part of Sweden , Skåne , with the cities Malmö , Landskrona and Helsingborg . In 1958, recorded music was limited to 60 minutes per day by Sveriges Radio , and pop music was represented by two or three recordings. The new radio station played only music, accenting pop music, and was an instant success, capturing 70 - 80% of

484-454: The east coast of the United States in the 1890s. Before the advent of vacuum tube technology, early radio enthusiasts used (electronically) noisy spark-gap transmitters . The Navy soon began complaining to a sympathetic press that amateurs were disrupting naval transmissions. The May 25, 1907, edition of Electrical World',' in an article called "Wireless and Lawless," reported authorities were unable to prevent an amateur from interfering with

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528-594: The "radio pirates". Radio Mercur made all of its recordings in studios in Copenhagen, Denmark and the tapes were then sailed to a transmitting vessel in international water in Øresund between Denmark and Sweden. Transmissions took place on the FM-band, first on 88,00 MHz, later on different frequencies to be able to meet complaints from the Danish authorities and also to transmit in stereo with dual transmissions on two frequencies simultaneously. The first transmitting vessel

572-406: The Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom during the 1960s. The Danish press soon began to use the expression " pirate radio " on Radio Mercur, and a number of cartoons in newspapers and magazines pictured the radio station with pirate symbols. Radio Mercur used the fact that radio transmitting in international water was only regulated by international agreements; these didn't take into account

616-536: The Swedish Riksdag had introduced laws that made it impossible to continue the station as he saw it. He sold the station in 1961 to continue a career in the US, where he now lives in California. Britt Wadner , who was working in marketing on the station, took over. In 1962 Skånes Radio Mercur bought the transmission vessel Cheeta Mercur from Radio Mercur, and the name was changed to Radio Syd to differentiate it from

660-621: The TV transmissions of TV Martí , which are directed at Cuba (the Cuban government jams the signals). Military broadcasting aircraft have been flown over Vietnam , Iraq , and many other nations by the United States Air Force . Illegal use of licensed radio spectrum (also known as bootlegging in CB circles) is fairly common and takes several forms. The films The Boat That Rocked (2009), Pump Up

704-459: The US, but there were doubts they had the authority to issue such an order even in war time. The ban on radio was lifted in the US in late 1919. In 1924, New York City station WHN was accused by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) of being an "outlaw station" for violating trade licenses which permitted only AT&T stations to sell airtime on their transmitters. As

748-592: The US, the 1912 "Act to Regulate Radio Communication" assigned amateurs and experimenters their own frequency spectrum, and introduced licensing and call-signs . A federal agency, the Federal Radio Commission , was formed in 1927 and succeeded in 1934 by the Federal Communications Commission . These agencies would enforce rules on call-signs, assigned frequencies, licensing, and acceptable content for broadcast. The Radio Act of 1912 gave

792-653: The Volume (1990), and On the Air Live with Captain Midnight (1979), as well as the TV series People Just Do Nothing (2014-2018), are set in the world of pirate radio, while Born in Flames (1983) features pirate radio stations as being part of an underground political movement. Pirate radio is also a central plot point of the video game Jet Set Radio and its sequel Jet Set Radio Future . The video game Reverse: 1999 features

836-487: The artificial island based Radio Noordzee along with the Swedish stations Skånes Radio Mercur and Radio Nord close to Stockholm. The radio station was founded by Peer Jansen and Ib Fogh. It was called a pirate radio, because it was considered a lawless attack on the monopoly of the Danish National Broadcasting Corporation, though the authorities didn't have any weapon in the first place to stop

880-505: The building and all original equipment dating back to the 1960s were totally destroyed in a violent fire, which marks the end of Radio Syd. In 1984 a short comeback - now on shortwave - was a grand success. Its MW programme was rebroadcast by GamTel, (formerly Cable & Wireless at facilities in Abuko ), on shortwave reaching more than 1500 listeners around the world, from an idea by a Swedish Radio Club. Radio Mercur Radio Mercur

924-510: The change, and was charged by the federal government with "wave piracy". The resulting legal battle found that the Radio Act of 1912 did not allow the US government to require stations to operate on specific frequencies, and the result was the passage of the Radio Act of 1927 to strengthen the government's regulatory authority. While Mexico issued radio station XERF with a license to broadcast,

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968-709: The commercial station Radio North Sea International , which was based aboard the motor vessel (MV) Mebo II anchored off southeast England in the North Sea . Other examples of this type of unusual broadcasting include the USCGC Courier (WAGR-410) , a United States Coast Guard cutter which both originated and relayed broadcasts of the Voice of America from an anchorage at the Greek island of Rhodes to Soviet bloc countries. Balloons have been flown above Key West, Florida , to support

1012-485: The content of many of their programs could not have been aired by a US-regulated broadcaster. Predecessors to XERF, for instance, had originally broadcast in Kansas , advocating " goat-gland surgery " for improved masculinity, but moved to Mexico to evade US laws about advertising medical treatments, particularly unproven ones. In Europe, Denmark had the first known radio station in the world to broadcast commercial radio from

1056-514: The interests of other national governments has created radio jamming stations transmitting noises on the same frequency to prevent reception of the incoming signal. While the United States transmitted its programs towards the Soviet Union , which attempted to jam them, in 1970 the government of the United Kingdom decided to employ a jamming transmitter to drown out the incoming transmissions from

1100-551: The listeners during its limited broadcasting hours. Skånes Radio Mercur was built on enthusiasm, without financial backing, and the start-up was difficult. To Nils-Eric's surprise, both the newspapers and the record companies boycotted the young station. The ad agencies were also slow to catch on, mostly because they were not equipped to handle this new media. Subsequently, the support came from small advertisers and small maverick record labels, which cashed in handsomely. Nils-Eric Svensson stayed with his station for three years, until

1144-409: The miniaturization of transmitters and the fact that they can be put together by amateurs, 'encounters' a collective aspiration for some new means of expression. Propaganda broadcasting may be authorized by the government at the transmitting site, but may be considered unwanted or illegal by the government of the intended reception area. Propaganda broadcasting conducted by national governments against

1188-529: The mv Cheeta 2 broadcast the British station Caroline South for a few weeks after the mv Mi Amigo ran aground at Frinton. After this service ceased, the ship was sold and moved to the Gambia , where she eventually sank. Mrs. Wadner was jailed at least once for breaching Swedish broadcasting law. Radio Syd was eventually set up in The Gambia just outside the capital Banjul . During the 1981 Gambian coup d'état attempt

1232-496: The name Radio Mercur but with the jingle from DCR. DCR used the vessel Lucky Star for its transmissions. The Danish parliament decided on a bill in June 1962, that effectively prohibited all participation in activities supporting transmissions, recordings, etc. after 1 August 1962. At the same time similar bills were pushed through in Sweden and the other Nordic countries. The final song played

1276-724: The operation of a government station at the Washington, D.C. Navy Yard using legal means. In the run-up to the London Radiotelegraph Convention in 1912, and amid concerns about the safety of marine radio following the sinking of the RMS ; Titanic on April 15 of that year, the New York Herald of April 17, 1912, headlined President William Howard Taft 's initiative to regulate the public airwaves in an article titled "President Moves to Stop Mob Rule of Wireless." In

1320-592: The other Swedish radio pirate, Radio Nord , close to Stockholm. Radio Syd continued to broadcast after the Riksdag had passed a bill against pirate radios in June 1962. In 1964, the station bought the larger vessel, Cheeta II from the former Radio Mercur, that ceased transmissions to Denmark in August 1962, because of a similar bill by the Danish Folketing . Radio Syd ceased transmissions to Sweden in 1966. The second ship

1364-588: The possibility to transmit regularly from an anchored ship. The inspiration for the radio station came from Radio Luxembourg and the American Voice of America , which broadcast from a military vessel, the USCGC Courier , in the Mediterranean. The success of Radio Mercur directly inspired other groups of radio enthusiasts to begin their own ship-based stations. These included the Dutch stations Radio Veronica and

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1408-454: The power of its 250 kW transmitter was far greater than the maximum of 50 kW authorized for commercial use by the government of the United States of America. Consequently, XERF and many other radio stations in Mexico, which sold their broadcasting time to sponsors of English-language commercial and religious programs, were labelled as " border blasters ", but not "pirate radio stations", even though

1452-453: The president legal permission to shut down radio stations "in time of war". During the first two and a half years of World War I , before US entry, President Wilson tasked the US Navy with monitoring US radio stations, nominally to "ensure neutrality." The US was divided into two civilian radio "districts" with corresponding call-signs, beginning with "K" in the west and "W" in the east. The Navy

1496-403: The same ship. It broadcast to the southern province of Sweden, Skåne, and was run by a young man, Nils-Eric Svensson, who had studied radio and TV in the USA and had worked at the government-run Swedish Radio for a very short time. Radio Mercur was probably the first commercial offshore radio station in the world and gave inspiration to a whole number of offshore radios or pirate radios in Sweden,

1540-404: The signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially when the signals cross a national boundary. In other cases, a broadcast may be considered "pirate" due to the nature of its content, its transmission format (especially a failure to transmit a station identification according to regulations), or the transmit power (wattage) of the station, even if the transmission

1584-470: The station were breaking the law (although as the term 'unauthorised' was never properly defined it was somewhat of a legal grey area ). This did not stop British newspapers from printing programme schedules for the station, or a British weekly magazine aimed at teenage girls, Fab 208 , from promoting the DJs and their lifestyle. (Radio Luxembourg's wavelength was 208 metres (1439, then 1440 kHz)). Radio Luxembourg

1628-417: Was Auld Lang Syne by Mitch Miller . Transmissions started again some days later, but the Danish authorities took immediate action and sent police out to seize the vessel and end transmissions. In Sweden the station Radio Syd , using two of Mercur's former ships in succession, succeeded transmissions up to 1966 in defiance of the law. The National Danish Broadcasting Corporation ( Danmarks Radio ) started

1672-524: Was Cheeta Mercur. It was later accompanied by the larger Cheeta II, placed in Storebaelt between Zeeland and Fuenen in order to cover most parts of Denmark. In September 1961 another pirate radio station began to compete under the name DCR/The Commercial Radio of Denmark (Danmarks Commercielle Radio). This was started by a group of former Mercur employees. The two stations merged in January 1962 and continued under

1716-663: Was a Danish offshore broadcasting commercial radio station. It started regular transmission on 2 August 1958 and ceased officially on 31 July 1962, followed by 3 days of transmissions from 13 to 15 August 1962. Later broadcasting took place under the name of Radio Mercur in Majorca from 1969–70 and again on the Spanish Costa del Sol from 1982–84 and finally in Copenhagen, Denmark as a local radio station from 1987-94. A Swedish "pirate" station, Skånes Radio Mercur (changed name to Radio Syd in 1962), started broadcasting on 14 December 1958 from

1760-400: Was assigned call-signs beginning with "N". The Navy used this authority to shut down amateur radio in the western part of the US. When Wilson declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, he also issued an executive order closing most radio stations not needed by the US government. The Navy took it a step further and declared it was illegal to listen to radio or possess a receiver or transmitter in

1804-469: Was later joined by other well-known pirate stations received in the UK in violation of UK licensing, including Radio Caroline and Radio Atlanta (subsequently Radio Carolines North and South respectively, following their merger and the original ship's relocation), Radio London , and Laser 558 , all of which broadcast from vessels anchored outside of territorial limits and were therefore legitimate. Radio Jackie , for instance, although transmitting illegally

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1848-429: Was more commonly called at the time, was an open field of hobbyists and early inventors and experimenters. The degree of state control varied by country. For example, in the UK, Marconi 's work was supported by the post office, but in an era of weak regulation, a music hall magician Nevil Maskelyne deliberately hijacked a demonstration. The United States Navy began using radio for time signals and weather reports on

1892-574: Was registered for VAT and even had its address and telephone number in local telephone directories. By the 1970s, pirate radio in the UK had mostly moved to land-based broadcasting, transmitting from tower blocks in towns and cities. Another variation on the term pirate radio came about during the " Summer of Love " in San Francisco during the 1960s. "Free radio" usually referred to secret and unlicensed land-based transmissions. These were also tagged as being pirate radio transmissions. Free Radio

1936-493: Was used only to refer to radio transmissions that were beyond government control , as was offshore radio in the UK and Europe. The term free radio was adopted by the Free Radio Association of listeners who defended the rights of the offshore radio stations broadcasting from ships and marine structures off the coastline of the United Kingdom . Félix Guattari points out: Technological development, and in particular

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