Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated
radio transmission. Its
etymology can be traced to the unlicensed nature
of the transmission, but historically there has been occasional but
notable
use of sea vessels – fitting
the most common perception of a
pirate – as
broadcasting bases. The term is most commonly used to describe
illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but
is also sometimes used for illegal
two-way
radio operation. Rules and regulations vary widely from country
to country.
In countries such as the US
and many countries
in Europe, many types of radio licenses exist, and often the
term pirate radio generally describes the unlicensed broadcast of
FM radio, AM radio,
or short wave signals over a wide
range.
In some cases radio stations are deemed legal where 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 is not technically illegal (such
as a
web cast or an
amateur radio transmission). Pirate radio
stations are sometimes called
bootleg stations (a
term especially associated with
two-way
radio),
clandestine stations (associated with
heavily politically motivated operations) or
Free Radio
stations.
Pirate-radio history and examples
Radio "piracy" began with the advent of regulations of the public
airwaves in the United States at the dawn of the
Age of Radio. Initially, radio, or wireless
as it was more commonly called, was an open field of hobbyists and
early inventors and experimenters, including
Nikola Tesla,
Lee De
Forest, and
Thomas Edison. The
United States Navy began using radio for time signals and weather
reports on the east coast of the United States in the 1890s. Before
the advent of valve (vacuum tube) technology, early radio
enthusiasts used noisy
spark-gap
transmitters, such as the first spark-gap modulation technology
pioneered by the first real audio (rather than telegraph code)
radio broadcaster,
Charles D.
Herrold, in San Jose, California,
or the infamous
Ruhmkorff coil used
by almost all early experimenters. 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
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
(essentially an international gentlemen's agreement on use of the
radio band, non-binding and, on the high seas, completely null),
and amid concerns about the safety of marine radio following the
sinking of the on April 15 of that year (although there were never
allegations of radio interference in that event), 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."
When the "Act to Regulate Radio Communication" was passed on August
13, 1912, amateurs and experimenters were not banned from
broadcasting; rather, amateurs were assigned their own frequency
spectrum and licensing and
call-signs were
introduced. By regulating the public airwaves, President Taft thus
created the legal space for illicit broadcasts to take place. An
entire federal agency, the
Federal Communications
Commission, was created eventually to enforce rules on
call-signs, assigned frequencies, licensing and acceptable content
for broadcast.
The
Radio Act of 1912 gave the
president legal permission to shut down radio stations "in time of
war", and during the first two and a half years of World War One,
before US entry, President Wilson tasked the US Navy with
monitoring US radio stations, nominally to ensure "neutrality." The
Navy used this authority to shut down amateur radio in the western
part of the US (the US was divided into two civilian radio
"districts" with corresponding call-signs, beginning with K in the
west and W in the east, in the regulatory measures; the Navy was
assigned call-signs beginning with N). 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 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 of being an "outlaw"
station by
AT&T (then
American Telephone and
Telegraph Company) for violating trade licenses which permitted
only AT&T stations to sell
airtime on
their transmitters. As 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
1948, the United Nations brought into being
the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, of which Article 19
states "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and
expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information
and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
It didn't take long for this to be challenged by various
governments.
In Europe, Denmark had the first known radio station in the world
to broadcast commercial radio from a vessel in international waters
without permission from the authorities in the country that it
broadcast to (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". Although the term had been used previously in Britain and
the US to describe unlicensed land based broadcasters and even
border blasters.
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.
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 a
Wireless License issued by the British
General Post Office (GPO).
However, under terms of that Wireless Licence, 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 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 (1440 kHz)).
Radio Luxembourg was later joined by three other well known pirate
stations received in the UK in violation of UK licensing,
Radio Caroline, North and South, plus
Radio Atlanta which became Caroline
South and
Radio London, all
of which broadcast from vessels anchored outside of territorial
limits and were therefore legitimate.
Radio
Jackie, for instance (although transmitting illegally), was
registered for
VAT and even had its
address and telephone number in local telephone directories.
Where actual sea-faring vessels are not involved, the term
pirate radio is a political term of convenience as the
word "
pirate" suggests an illegal venture,
regardless of the broadcast's actual legal status.
The radio station
XERF located at Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila
, Mexico,
just across the Rio
Grande
from Del Rio, Texas
, USA, is an example.
While Mexico issued radio station XERF with a license to broadcast,
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 the content of many of their programs were
in violation of US law.
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.
Free radio
Another
variation on the term pirate radio came about during the
"Summer of Love" in San Francisco
during the 1960s. These were "
Free
radio", which usually referred to clandestine and
unlicensed land-based transmissions. These were also tagged as
being pirate radio transmissions. Free Radio was only ever used 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:
In Europe, in addition to adopting the term
free radio,
supportive listeners of what had been called pirate radio adopted
the term
offshore
radio, which was usually the term used by the owners
of the marine broadcasting stations.
More recently the term Free Radio implied that the broadcasts were
commercial free and the station was only there for the output, be
it a type of music or spoken opinion. In this context, 'Pirate'
radio thus refers to stations that do advertise and plug various
gigs and raves.
Pirate radio by geographical area
Since this subject covers both national territories, international
waters and international airspace, the only effective way to treat
this subject is on a country by country, international waters and
international airspace basis. Because the laws vary, the
interpretation of the term
pirate radio also varies
considerably.
Questions have been raised about various types of broadcasting
conducted by national governments against the interests of other
national governments, which have in turn created
radio jamming stations transmitting noises on
the same frequency so as to destroy the receivability of the
incoming signal.
While the
USA transmitted its programs towards the USSR, 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 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
. It was even alleged the station was a front
for a
Warsaw pact numbers station.
Other
examples of this type of unusual broadcasting include the Coast
Guard Cutter USCGC Courier,
which both originated and relayed broadcasts of the Voice of America from an anchorage at the
island of Rhodes
, Greece to
Soviet bloc countries.
Balloons
have been flown above Key West, Florida
to support the TV transmissions of TV Martí, which are directed at Cuba
.
Military
broadcasting aircraft have been flown over Vietnam
, Iraq
and many
other nations by the United
States Air Force. The
European
Union financially supported a radio station broadcasting news
and information into the former
Yugoslavia from a ship anchored in international
waters.
Pirate radio in Asia
For individual listings under this heading please click the link
above.
China (From International Waters)
Taiwan (The history of Underground Radio)
Pirate radio in Australasia
For individual listings under this heading please click the link
above.
New Zealand (From International Waters)
Pirate radio in Central America and Caribbean Sea
For individual listings under this heading please click the link
above.
Swan Island (History of Radio Swan / Radio
Americas)
WTNT - Trinidad Rock Radio, ( T&T ) Trinidad
and Tobago -
www.wtnt.tk
Pirate radio in Europe
Pirate radio in the Middle East
For individual listings under this heading please click the link
above.
Israel (From Territorial Waters)
Pirate radio in North America
For individual listings under this heading please click the link
above.
Mexico (History of the "
Border blasters")
United States of America (History of Pirate Radio;
From International Waters)
New media pirate radio
Pirate radio has long been synonymous with AM (LW,MW & SW) and
FM (VHF) unlicensed broadcasting and "border blasting" in most
parts of the world. With the advent of the internet, many
conventional AM/FM radio stations have also taken to simulcasting
via the web. These range from public broadcasters, licensed
commercial radio, and in some countries, the 3rd tier of low power
license exempt radio stations.
Despite pirate radio being known for over the air transmission, a
new type of so called "pirate radio" stations now operate on-line.
The distinguishing feature is that these on-line pirates will
usually not pay music copyright fees, like most of their AM/FM
pirate cousins.These on-line stations will usually attract a small
and loyal audience and may go unnoticed by the authorities, unlike
the real AM/FM pirates who can easily be heard and traced on a
conventional radio. The common term for this type of operation is
better served by the term "Studio Pirates" rather than pirate
radio, as no real radio transmitter is used. However, as technology
advances and becomes cheaper it is only a matter of time before a
conventional transmitter is plugged into a wireless internet device
and relays the internet radio station on air. (The internet station
can of course deny any involvement in this, as anyone could relay
any station, legal or otherwise in this way.)
A recent case of on-line studio pirate was seen in the UK. Hitz
Radio(UK) and not to be confused with HitzRadio.com (USA) managed
to attract large amounts of mainstream media publicity in early
2007. This publicity resulted from
Ryan
Dunlop, the owner of the station, nominating Hitz Radio for
various business awards. After this publicity, many people with
radio industry knowledge began to probe the station, which had
claimed "millions of fans" and tens of thousands of listeners
on-line. These claims, along with others, were part of the
portfolio put forward for the business awards. When industry
insiders checked these claims, it resulted in the UK music
copyright agencies
PPL and
MCPS-PRS Alliance chasing back fees owed
by
Ryan Dunlop and Hitz Radio. That in
turn resulted in the audience claims to be false, based upon the
amount of back dated fees owed for copyright.
Piracy in amateur and two-way radio
Illegal use of licensed radio spectrum (also known as
bootlegging in CB circles) is fairly common
and takes several forms.
- Unlicensed operation—Particularly associated with amateur radio
and licensed personal communication services such as GMRS, this refers to use of radio equipment on a
section of spectrum for which the equipment is designed but on
which the user is not licensed to operate (most such operators are
informally known as "bubble pack pirates" from the sealed plastic
retail packaging common to such walkie-talkies). While piracy on
the US GMRS band, for example, is widespread (some estimates have
the number of total GMRS users outstripping the number of licensed
users by several orders of magnitude), such use is generally
disciplined only in cases where the pirate's activity interferes
with a licensee. (A notable case is that of United States amateur
operator and political activist Jack Gerritsen (operating under the
revoked call sign KG6IRO), who was
successfully prosecuted by the FCC for unlicensed operation and
malicious interference [26500].) A subcategory of this is free banding, the
use of allocations nearby a legal allocation (most typically the 27
MHz Citizen's Band) on modified or
purpose-built gear.
- Inadvertent interference—Common when personal communications
gear is brought into countries where it is not certified to
operate. Such interference results from clashing frequency
allocations, and occasionally requires wholesale reallocation of an
existing band due to an insurmountable interference problem; for
example, the 2004 approval in Canada of the unlicensed use of the
United States General
Mobile Radio Service frequencies due to interference from users
of FRS/GMRS radios from the
United States, where Industry Canada
had to transfer a number of licensed users on the GMRS frequencies
to unoccupied channels to accommodate the expanded service.
- Deliberate or malicious interference—refers to the use of
two-way radio to harass or jam other users of a channel. Such
behaviour is widely prosecuted, especially when it interferes with
mission-critical services such as aviation
radio or marine VHF radio.
- Illegal equipment—This refers to the use of illegally modified
equipment or equipment not certified for a particular band. Such
equipment includes illegal linear
amplifiers for CB radio, antenna or circuit modifications on
walkie-talkies, the use of "export" radios for free banding, or the
use of amateur radios on unlicensed bands that amateur gear is not
certified for. The use of marine VHF
radio gear for inland mobile radio operations is common in some
countries, with enforcement difficult since marine VHF is generally
the province of maritime authorities.
List of known pirate radio stations
- Alice's
Restaurant Rock Radio London UK, now legal.
- KlashFM
Essex, UK based radio station.
- DesireFM
92.1 Essex, uk based weekend radio.
- Impact FM 87.5, United Kingdom
and online at impact875.co.uk
- Laser 558
- Radio Caroline South,
United Kingdom
- Radio Jackie, United Kingdom (Now
licensed and legal)
- Radio Caroline North,
United Kingdom
- Radio Scotland, United Kingdom
(1960's Pirate Ship)
- Radio 270, United Kingdom
- Swinging Radio England,
United Kingdom
- Britain Radio, United Kingdom
- Radio City,
United Kingdom
- Radio 390, United Kingdom
- Radio Essex, United Kingdom
- Radio Sutch, United Kingdom (Short
Lived)
- Radio Mercur, Denmark
- Radio Milinda, Dublin
- Radio Kaleidoscope, United
Kingdom
- Radio Scotland, United Kingdom (not BBC)
- Radio Veronica

- Thameside Radio 90.2, London
United Kingdom
- Radio London, United
Kingdom
- TSF , from Portugal, originally a
pirate radio, it was legalized during the 1989 forgiveness of
private radios (since these weren´t allowed in Portugal).
- Dread Broadcasting
Corporation, London's first black music radio station.
In popular culture
Movies
- In the motion picture Born in
Flames (1983), two different radical feminist groups voice
their concerns to the public with pirate radio stations. One group,
led by an outspoken white lesbian, operates "Radio Ragazza". The
other group, led by a soft-spoken African-American, operates
"Phoenix Radio".
- Christian Slater's character in the movie Pump Up the Volume (1990)
runs a pirate radio station from his basement.
- Pirate Radio USA
(2006), a documentary of US pirate radio.
- The 2009 movie The Boat
That Rocked (released in the USA and Canada as Pirate
Radio) is a fictional film about UK
pirate radio.
Novels
- In the best selling novel Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows, rebels use a pirate radio station called
"Potterwatch" to inspire the population to join them against the
then-Death-Eater-controlled Ministry of Magic. They also use it to
report whatever deaths the legitimate (meaning
"Voldemort-controlled") media deem unworthy of mention.
- In the Daniel Pinkwater novel Looking for Bobowicz the
main characters, Nick Itch, Bruno Ugg, and Lorretta Fischetti,
listen to a pirate radio station called WRJR (Radio Jolly Roger)
run by Vic Trola, otherwise known as Arthur Bobowicz.
TV
- In the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles Season 5 (1991) episode "Pirate
Radio", Pirate Radio is something everyone listens to and Krang
uses it to hypnotise people into walking through an inter-dimension
portal into Krang's Chasm.
- In an episode of King of the
Hill ("Father of the Bribe", Season 6, Episode 109), Dale
runs a pirate radio station and is then forced to sell it to
Octavio.
- In an episode of Sealab
2021, captain Murphy runs a pirate radio station using the
emergency transmission equipment, until it is shut down by the FCC,
whose draconian tactics are satirised.
- In an episode of Malcolm
in the Middle, Hal finds a radio transmitter which he used
to broadcast a pirate radio-station when he was in college (under
the alias "Kid Charlemagne"). He decides to start his pirate radio
broadcast again, without the knowledge of his family.
- In The Simpsons episode
Wild Barts Can't Be
Broken, Bart, Lisa, Milhouse and others start a pirate radio
station to broadcast a programme called "We Know All Your Secrets",
which contains scurrilous gossip and the secrets of Springfield's
adult population in received
pronounciation accents.
- In the Secret Agent / Danger Man series
episode "Not So Jolly Roger" (1964) British secret agent Patrick
McGoohan portrays a pirate DJ at station Radio Jolly Roger. The
episode credits Radio 390.
- In an episode of the 2000 show Pelswick, the title character opens a pirate
rock music station of his own—one that quickly begins consuming all
his time and energy.
- The 1965 TV series Thunderbirds features a pirate radio
station named KLA, which operates from an unlicensed manned
satellite, in the episode "Ricochet".
- The Australian TV soap Neighbours currently features Zeke Kinski
working at the "Pirate Net" station
- In the Radio Goodies episode of
The Goodies, the Goodies
operate both a pirate radio station and a pirate post office, with plans to operate a pirate bus
service, a pirate bank and finally (by towing the entire nation
outside the 5-mile limit) a pirate state.
- The Canadian TV show Radio
Free Roscoe was about four high school students who set up
their own pirate station in competition to the official high school
radio station.
- Tower Block Dreams
is a 2004 BBC documentary investigating the underground music
scene on council estates in the United Kingdom, in which pirate
radio plays a part.
Video games
- In the video game series' Jet
Grind Radio and Jet
Set Radio Future, the player receives instructions,
objectives, and updates via pirate radio operated by a mysterious
man known as "DJ Professor K".
- In the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice
City, the Wildstyle radio station is purportedly a pirate
radio station.
- In the video game Fallout 3
the player can tune into "Galaxy News Radio" operated by Three Dog.
This station plays 50s style music, satirical humor, and also news
blurbs about the progress of the character. The player can also
complete a quest which adds to the station's broadcasting power,
allowing all residents of the Wasteland to hear the transmissions.
Galaxy News Radio used to be a TV News Station, as shown in
"Fallout"
- In the video game Ratchet & Clank
Future: A Crack in Time there is a station called Pirate Radio
that you can listen to during space travel.
Music
- The Toasters, a ska revival band, produced a song called
"Pirate Radio" about the singer listening to pirate radio station
late in the night.[26501]
- Pauline Black with Sunday Best released the recording "Pirates
on the Airwaves" in 1984 [26502]. The lyrics mention "From the tops of
tower blocks, tune your radio to rock, all night long."[26503]
- Roger Waters' 1987 solo album
Radio K.A.O.S. is centered around a
fictional pirate radio station in Los Angeles, called Radio KAOS
(hence the album name).
- On their album "Root Hog or Die", Mojo
Nixon and Skid Roper recorded the
track "Pirate Radio", about an off-shore station named "Radio Free
America" that is shut down by the FCC and the Coast Guard. In concert, Mojo
Nixon has stated that this was about "a pirate radio station in New
York City", probably Radio
Newyork International. [26504]
- In an upbeat folk song called "The Pirate Radio Song" by
David Rovics, (on his album entitled
"Hang A Flag In the Window,") a call to freedom of speech and
information is voiced, as the chorus states: "Seize the airwaves!
Seize the Time! 'Cause lying to the people is the real crime. When
its all owned by corporations and theirs is the only word; we will
seize the airwaves, speak freely and be heard." This song was
copyrighted by David Rovics in 2002, and was posted by himself for
free download on www.soundclick.com on May 26, 2005.
David Rovics stated that this song is "Dedicated to the good people
seizing the airwaves throughout the US and the world, but it
especially goes out to the folks at Free Radio Santa Cruz."
See also
References
External links