Offshore radio is
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...
broadcasting from ships or fixed maritime structures. Offshore broadcasters are usually unlicensed but transmissions are legal in
international waters
The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed region ...
. This is in contrast to
unlicensed broadcasting on land or within a nation's
territorial waters
The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potent ...
, which is usually unlawful.
History
The claimed first wireless broadcast of music and speech for the purpose of entertainment was transmitted from a
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
craft,
HMS ''Andromeda'', in 1907. The broadcast was organized by a Lieutenant Quentin Crauford using the callsign QFP while the ship was anchored off
Chatham in the
Thames Estuary
The Thames Estuary is where the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain.
Limits
An estuary can be defined according to different criteria (e.g. tidal, geographical, navigational or in terms of salini ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
.
However, the majority of offshore broadcasters have been unlicensed stations using seaborne broadcasting as a means to circumvent national broadcasting regulations, for example the practice has been used by broadcasting organizations like the
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the State media, state-owned news network and International broadcasting, international radio broadcaster of the United States, United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international br ...
as a means of circumventing national broadcasting regulations of other nations. Unlicensed offshore commercial stations have operated off the coasts of
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
,
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, The
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
, The
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
,
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...
and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
.
By the late 1920s, the "
UK government concluded that radio was such a powerful means of mass communication that it would have to be in state control", and gave the publicly funded
BBC a monopoly on broadcasting. Because of rigid governmental controls and programming mostly consisting of serious music and highbrow issues, much of the UK population began to turn to radio stations
from abroad, such as
Radio Lyon,
Radio Normandy,
Radio Athlone,
Radio Mediterranee
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitt ...
and
Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg).
The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...
, especially on Sundays, when the BBC did not carry any entertainment programmes. However, English-speaking broadcast hours were limited and parts of the UK were unable to receive most stations properly during the daytime.
The earliest attempt to establish an offshore broadcaster in England occurred in 1928, when
Associated Newspapers
DMG Media (stylised in lowercase) is an intermediate holding company for Associated Newspapers, Northcliffe Media, Harmsworth Printing, Harmsworth Media and other subsidiaries of Daily Mail and General Trust. It is based at Northcliffe House in ...
(owners of the ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'') acquired the yacht Ceto and installed radio equipment. Unfortunately, the apparatus could not operate properly on board, the signal being heavily affected by the climate conditions. The transmitter was then replaced by Siemens loudspeakers and the Ceto toured England "broadcasting" gramophone records interspersed by advertising.
Unauthorized offshore broadcasting stations operating from ships or fixed platforms in the coastal waters of the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...
first appeared in 1958. There were as many as eleven such stations in the mid-1960s.
One of the most popular offshore radio broadcasts in Europe came from
Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. ...
, which developed out both of the strict broadcasting regulations in England in the 1960s as well as the fact the major labels had left little to no airtime to less established acts.
[Robert Chapman, ''Selling the Sixties: The Pirates and Pop Music Radio'' London: :Routledge, 1992 ] The Radio Caroline name was used to broadcast from international waters, using five different ships of three different owners, from 1964 to 1990. Radio Caroline was the brainchild of Ronan O'Rahilly, who dreamed up a way to air music by "unestablished" rock and roll artists
Other well-known stations of the period were
Radio Atlanta Radio Atlanta was an offshore commercial station that operated briefly from 12 May 1964 to 2 July 1964 from a ship anchored in the North Sea, three and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England. The radio broadcasting vessel was owned, at that ...
,
Radio London,
Radio 270
Radio 270 was a pirate radio station serving Yorkshire and the North East of England from 1966 to 1967. It broadcast from a converted Dutch lugger called ''Oceaan 7'' positioned in international waters off Scarborough, North Yorkshire followed ...
(broadcasting of the coast of
Filey, Yorkshire)
Radio 390,
Radio Scotland
Radio Scotland was an offshore pirate radio station broadcasting on 1241 kHz mediumwave (242 metres), created by Tommy Shields in 1965. The station was on the former lightship L.V. ''Comet'', which had been fitted out as a radio station in ...
,
Radio Northsea International and
Radio City.
Most offshore broadcast is usually associated with European unlicensed radio stations; the trend never caught on as much in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
as most organizations that could afford an offshore broadcasting boat would instead buy a legal station. Still, there were a few American offshore stations that made a lasting impression. The first station to broadcast in the U.S. from international waters was
RXKR off of the coast of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. and broadcast from May 1933 until August 1933. It was operated from a cargo carrier named the S.S. City of Panama, a ship that was actually supposed to be advertising tourism in
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
to Americans from
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. The operators of the ship actually broadcast popular music and advertisements, fooling the Panamanian government and eventually being shut down at the request of the
U.S. Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
.
Suppression
Unlicensed ''Radio and TV Noordzee'' since August 1964 used
REM island offshore platform for broadcasting aimed at the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. On December 12, 1964, a law, which split the North Sea into continental sections was passed in the Netherlands. The sea bed under REM Island, to which the structure was attached, was declared Dutch territory. Five days later,
Dutch Marines boarded the platform and ended the broadcasting.
The
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it has 46 member states, with a p ...
in 1965 passed the "European Agreement for the Prevention of Broadcasts transmitted from Stations outside National Territories" to address this loophole, although some member states were slow to implement this in national law. Radio broadcasts from ships that are unauthorized under the laws of the recipient may cause
radio frequencies to be unusable. This can be potentially detrimental to certain emergency and security services. The 1965 agreement was an attempt to resolve this by treaty.
[''Oppenheim's International Law (Vol.I) (9th Edition) - Peace, 9th edition'' edited by Jennings, Sir Robert; Watts, Sir Arthur (19th June 2008), Part 2, Ch.6, Radio Communication and the High Seas.]
In 1967, the UK Government enacted the
Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967, outlawing advertising on or supplying an unlicensed offshore radio station from the UK. Several other European countries passed similar legislation.
List of offshore stations
;Aimed at British listener
#*
Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. ...
*
Laser 558
Laser 558 was an offshore pirate radio station launched in May 1984 using disc jockeys from the US. It broadcast from the Panama-registered ship MV Communicator in international waters in the North Sea. Within months the station had a large audi ...
*
Radio London
*
Radio City (previously Radio Sutch)
*
Swinging Radio England
Swinging Radio England ("SRE") was a top 40 offshore commercial station billed as the "''World's Most Powerful''" that operated from 3 May 1966 to 13 November 1966 from a ship in the North Sea, four and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, En ...
*
Britain Radio
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
*
Radio Scotland
Radio Scotland was an offshore pirate radio station broadcasting on 1241 kHz mediumwave (242 metres), created by Tommy Shields in 1965. The station was on the former lightship L.V. ''Comet'', which had been fitted out as a radio station in ...
*
Radio 390 (Previously Radio Invicta, KING radio)
*
Radio 355
*
Radio 270
Radio 270 was a pirate radio station serving Yorkshire and the North East of England from 1966 to 1967. It broadcast from a converted Dutch lugger called ''Oceaan 7'' positioned in international waters off Scarborough, North Yorkshire followed ...
*
Radio Atlanta Radio Atlanta was an offshore commercial station that operated briefly from 12 May 1964 to 2 July 1964 from a ship anchored in the North Sea, three and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England. The radio broadcasting vessel was owned, at that ...
*
Tower Radio
A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures.
Towers are specifica ...
*
Radio Seagull
*
Radio Essex (later BBMS)
*
CNBC
CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk s ...
Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company
;Netherlands and Belgiu
#*
Radio Northsea International -also targeted British and (occasionally) German listeners
*
Radio and TV Noordzee
*
Radio Veronica
*
Radio Monique
*
Radio Atlantis
*
Radio Mi Amigo Internationaal
*
Radio Delmare
*
Capital Radio
Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. ...
*
Radio 819
*
Radio Antwerpen aka Radio Uilenspiegel
*
Radio Paradijs
*
Radio Dolfijn
*
Radio 227
;Scandinavi
# :
*
Radio Nord (Sweden)
*
Radio Syd
Radio Syd ("Radio South") was a Swedish pirate radio station. It began life as ''Skånes Radio Mercur'', the first "pirate radio" in Sweden, and started to broadcast in December 1958.
History
The station was started by a young Swede, Nils-Eric ...
(Sweden)
*
Radio Mercur (Denmark and Sweden)
*
Danmarks Commercielle Radio Denmark
;United State
#:
*
RXKR 1933
*
Radio Free America 1973
*
Radio Newyork International
Radio Newyork International was the name of a pirate radio station which broadcast from a ship anchored in international waters off Jones Beach, New York, United States in 1987 and 1988. The history of Radio Newyork International (RNI) is link ...
1987-88
;New Zealan
#
*
Radio Hauraki
Radio Hauraki is a New Zealand rock music station that started in 1966. It was the first private commercial radio station of the modern broadcasting era in New Zealand and operated illegally until 1970 to break the monopoly held by the state-o ...
;Middle Eas
#
*Voice of Peace
Voice of Peace ( he, קול השלום, ''Kol HaShalom'') was an offshore radio station that broadcast in the Middle East for 20 years from the former Dutch cargo vessel ''MV Peace'' (formally ''MV Cito''), anchored off the Israeli coast ...
(Israel)
*Arutz Sheva
''Arutz Sheva'' ( he, ערוץ 7, lit=''Channel 7''), also known in English as ''Israel National News'', is an Israeli media network identifying with religious Zionism. It offers online news articles in Hebrew, English, and Russian as well as ...
(Israel)
* Odelia TV (Israel)
* Radio One (Israel)
* Radio Hof (Israel)
* Radio Gal (Israel)
* Radio Dan (Israel)
* Galei Hayam Hatichon (Israel)
* Arutz 2000 (Israel)
;Other
#
*Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the State media, state-owned news network and International broadcasting, international radio broadcaster of the United States, United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international br ...
(United States Coast Guard Cutter Courier, moored off Rhodes
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...
, Greece)
* SPLAJBC/LBJ Libyan State Radio
* Radio Brod Former Yugoslavia
* World Mission Radio
British offshore radio: timeline
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PlotArea = left:125 bottom:60 top:0 right:50
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1964 till:31/03/1968
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Colors =
id:onair value:blue
id:t value:white
ScaleMajor = increment:1 start:1964
BarData =
bar:Caroline text:"Radio Caroline"
bar:Atlanta text:"Radio Atlanta"
bar:Sutch text:"Radio Sutch"
bar:CarolineNorth text:"Radio Caroline North"
bar:Invicta text:"Radio Invicta"
bar:City text:"Radio City"
bar:London text:"Radio London"
bar:King text:"King Radio"
bar:390 text:"Radio 390"
bar:Tower text:"Tower Radio"
bar:Essex text:"Radio Essex"
bar:Scotland text:"Radio Scotland"
bar:England text:"Swinging Radio England"
bar:270 text:"Radio 270"
bar:Britain text:"Britain Radio"
bar:BBMS text:"BBMS"
bar:355 text:"Radio 355"
bar:227 text:"Radio 227"
PlotData=
width:11
bar:Caroline from: 28/03/1964 till: 02/03/1968 color:onair
at:28/03/1964 shift:(0,-5) text:"Caroline" textcolor:t
PlotData=
width:11
bar:Atlanta from: 12/05/1964 till: 02/07/1964 color:onair
at:12/05/1964 shift:(0,-5) text:"Atlanta" textcolor:t
PlotData=
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bar:Sutch from: 27/05/1964 till: 22/09/1964 color:onair
at:27/05/1964 shift:(0,-5) text:"Sutch" textcolor:t
PlotData=
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bar:CarolineNorth from: 02/07/1964 till: 03/03/1968 color:onair
at:02/07/1964 shift:(0,-5) text:"Caroline North" textcolor:t
PlotData=
width:11
bar:Invicta from: 17/07/1964 till: 11/02/1965 color:onair
at:17/07/1964 shift:(0,-5) text:"Invicta" textcolor:t
PlotData=
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bar:City from: 23/09/1964 till: 08/02/1967 color:onair
at:23/09/1964 shift:(0,-5) text:"City" textcolor:t
PlotData=
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bar:London from: 23/12/1964 till: 14/08/1967 color:onair
at:23/12/1964 shift:(0,-5) text:"London" textcolor:t
PlotData=
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bar:King from: 24/03/1965 till: 22/09/1965 color:onair
at:24/03/1965 shift:(0,-5) text:"King" textcolor:t
PlotData=
width:11
bar:390 from: 25/09/1965 till: 28/07/1967 color:onair
at:25/09/1965 shift:(0,-5) text:"390" textcolor:t
PlotData=
width:11
bar:Tower from: 22/10/1965 till: 30/04/1966 color:onair
at:22/10/1965 shift:(0,-5) text:"Tower" textcolor:t
PlotData=
width:11
bar:Essex from: 27/10/1965 till: 06/10/1966 color:onair
at:27/10/1965 shift:(0,-5) text:"Essex" textcolor:t
PlotData=
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bar:Scotland from: 31/12/1965 till: 14/08/1967 color:onair
at:31/12/1965 shift:(0,-5) text:"Scotland" textcolor:t
PlotData=
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bar:England from: 03/05/1966 till: 04/11/1966 color:onair
at:03/05/1966 shift:(0,-5) text:"England" textcolor:t
PlotData=
width:11
bar:270 from: 09/06/1966 till: 14/08/1967 color:onair
at:09/06/1966 shift:(0,-5) text:"270" textcolor:t
PlotData=
width:11
bar:Britain from: 16/06/1966 till: 22/02/1967 color:onair
at:16/06/1966 shift:(0,-5) text:"Britain" textcolor:t
PlotData=
width:11
bar:BBMS from: 06/10/1966 till: 25/12/1966 color:onair
at:06/10/1966 shift:(0,-5) text:"BBMS" textcolor:t
PlotData=
width:11
bar:355 from: 15/03/1967 till: 06/08/1967 color:onair
at:15/03/1967 shift:(0,-5) text:"355" textcolor:t
PlotData=
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bar:227 from: 15/03/1967 till: 23/07/1967 color:onair
at:15/03/1967 shift:(0,-5) text:"227" textcolor:t
See also
* ''
The Boat That Rocked'', 2009 film
*
Border blaster
A border blaster is a broadcast station that, though not licensed as an external service, is, in practice, used to target another country. The term "border blaster" is of North American origin, and usually associated with Mexican AM station ...
*
Extraterritorial jurisdiction
*
Marine Broadcasting Offences Act (UK)
*
Pirate radio
Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license.
In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially ...
References
External links
All about Offshore Radio- website dedicated to the offshore stations. (Dead link - Try http://offshoreradio.co.uk)
(Attempts to provide a comprehensive list of all ships and offshore structures used for broadcasting)
Offshore Music Radio- website dedicated the music and radio presenters of the offshore stations.
Radio London- site dedicated to UK offshore radio, especially Radio London.
{{Offshore radio
Pirate radio
International law