REM Island is a platform built in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

and towed off the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

coast in 1964 as the pirate broadcasting home of ''Radio and TV Noordzee''. Both stations were dismantled by the

Netherlands Armed Forces The Netherlands Armed Forces ( nl, Nederlandse krijgsmacht) are the military services of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The core of the armed forces consists of the four service branches: the Royal Netherlands Navy (), the Royal Netherlands ...

. It was 10 km off

Noordwijk Noordwijk () is a town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water and had a population of in . On 1 January 2019, the former municipality of Noordwij ...

Construction and foundation

Radio and TV Noordzee was founded in 1963 with land-based offices and broadcast from the sea. The artificial island was built in the harbour of Cork, Ireland. It was towed to its location and anchored in cement on the seabed. On 12 August 1964 a test broadcast was performed and on 15 August regular broadcasting started. The radio service broadcast on 1400 kHz, while on television it used Channel E11 ( System B). REM stands for ''Reclame Exploitatie Maatschappij'' ("advertising exploitation company"). The company intended to broadcast commercial radio and TV. Dutch law at the time did not authorise such broadcasts but the island was outside territorial waters. Other stations, such as

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

, used a ship.

Raid

While Dutch authorities were unhappy with the broadcasts, they did not possess the legal right to stop them. However, on the 12 of December, 1964, the government passed the REM law, which split the North Sea into continental sections. The sea bed under REM Island, to which the structure was attached, was therefore declared Dutch territory. Five days later,

Korps Mariniers The Netherlands Marine Corps ( nl, Korps Mariniers) is the elite naval infantry corps of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The marines trace their origins back to the establishment of the on 10 December 1665, by the then grand pensionary of the Dutc ...

boarded the platform and ended broadcasting.

Later use and dismantling

A year after the raid, Radio Noordzee resumed transmissions legally under the name

TROS Tros or TROS may refer to: * 18281 Tros, an asteroid * Transformer read-only storage, a type of read-only memory * TROS, a Dutch broadcasting union, originally an acronym for Televisie Radio Omroep Stichting * Tros (mythology), a figure in Greek ...

. After that REM Island was used by the government to measure sea temperature and salt concentration. After a failed attempt to sell the island in 2004, the government dismantled it with a goodbye radio event by

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

enthusiasts, with the callsign '
PB6REM
'' on the platform on 8 June 2006. Since March 2011 the platform sits in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

harbour where it serves as a restaurant.

References

External links

{{coord, 52, 20, N, 4, 20, E, region:NL_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Artificial islands of the Netherlands Offshore radio Radio masts and towers in Europe Towers in the Netherlands