The MV Nordeney was from November, 1964 until 31 August 1974 the transmission ship for offshore radio station Radio Veronica. [1]
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The MV Nordeney was from November, 1964 until 31 August 1974 the transmission ship for offshore radio station Radio Veronica. [1]
The Norderney was built in 1949 as the MV HH 294 Paul J Müller in Hamburg-Finkenwerder. This 50 metre long trawler was in service as fishing-vessel in the waters around Island from 1950 until 1956 and in July of that year it was sold to the Niedersächsische Hochseefischerei GmbH. (Lower Saxony deepsea fishing Ltd.) and was re-christened as NC 420 Norderney
In 1960 the then 11-year-old vessel was sold to a Dutch company for scrapping. In early 1964 the brothers Verweij bought the ship. The 3 brothers formed the management of Radio Veronica. The Norderney was bought to replace the former German lightvessel Borkum Riff from 1911 as that vessel was completely worn-out and also a little bit too small to continue to be operated as a radio ship. As (former) light-vessel the Borkum Riff had her name printed in large letters on the hull of the ship: this idea was copied on the Norderney, even though she wasn't a light-ship.
On the Zaanlandse Scheepsbouw Maatschappij shipyard in Zaandam the trawler was transformed into an offshore radio-ship. The works included placement of two 25 meter high wooden antenna-masts to connect the washing-line antenna (nickname for the random wire antenna). Originally the Norderney was built as a steamship and the boiler and engine was already removed from the ship when it was bought by the Verweij brothers. This provided the required space for a large studio and a separate large room for the transmission equipment.
A Continental Electronics 316 C medium wave transmitter of 10 Kilowatt. [2] At a later date a second similar transmitter was installed as backup. In November 1964 the Norderney entered service and took over the role of the old Borkum Riff.
During a severe storm on 2 April 1973 at 20:54 hours the anchors of the Nordeney didn't hold and the vessel was drifting. As the ship had no engines she drifted towards the coast at Scheveningen and around 23:30 she ran aground high up the beach of Scheveningen. The crew was already taken off-board by the KNRM lifeboat Bernard van Leer.
Just before the crew left the ship they removed the crystals from the radio-transmitter so that the Norderney was legally not being a radio-ship (as that would have been against the law in the Netherlands).
The ship stranded high up on the beach and it took until 7 April before they managed to turn the ship and get the bow pointing towards the sea. It had already been planned to organise a large demonstration on the Binnenhof in The Hague to convince members of parliament not to support new legislation that would outlaw off-shore radio stations. In support of this Radio Veronica needed to be on air during the demonstration the management of Veronica accepted an offer from competitor Radio Caroline to use her ship and transmitter if Veronica assisted in repairing the equipment on board of the ship Mi-Amigo.
In the early hours of 18 April, exactly the day of the planned demonstration in The Hague, tugboats managed to get the Norderney back afloat and she was brought back to her original position, some 6 nautical miles from the coast - just outside the territorial waters. At around 16:00 that day the Norderney was back in service and Radio Veronica could be received via her own frequency on the 538 meter-band as well as on 259 meter via the transmitter of Radio Caroline.
In spite of the above mentioned large demonstration of 18 April 1973 and large popular support for Radio Veronica and other off-shore radio stations, new laws were introduced that made transmitting from sea, even in international waters, a crime. Also advertising via an off-shore radio station became illegal which meant the end for Radio Veronica and other "pirate radio stations". The people behind Radio Veronica formed the Veronica Omroep Organisatie (VOO) who applied for a broadcasting status. Although the government was accused of trying to keep this follow-up of the former pirate out of the public broadcasting system, the VOO got a license. In 1976 the VOO got a license and the first programmes were broadcast via the national radio and TV stations. Veronica remained a public broadcaster for many years, but when it was all legalized they switched back to a commercial station in 1994.
On 31 August 1974 at 18:00 the station ended her transmissions. During the last hour one could hear a clock ticking counting down and a very emotional Rob Out held a speech saying that with the end of Radio Veronica a part of the democracy died. [3] After that they played a part of the Dutch national anthem, the Wilhelmus, and then a bit of the main Veronica jingle. With the removal of the crystal from the transmitter the story ended. [1] [4]
Although all transmissions had ended the Norderney remained at sea. While the VOO was applying to enter the Dutch public broadcasting domain speculations were made that Veronica would come back from the ship one way or the other.
On 11 August 1975, nearly a year after the last transmission, the Norderney was towed into the harbour of IJmuiden. Most of the former Veronica DJ's and director Bull Verweij. The ship moored in Amsterdam until 28 August 1975.
In Zaandam, and later Dordrecht, the ship was initially adapted to become a museum - but she ended up as a disco club and over the years she was used as a nightclub in different places around the country.
In 1990 the public broadcaster VOO hired the ship to celebrate "30 years Veronica" and she was used for one day anchored off the coast of Scheveningen as a platform for live radio and TV programmes. In 1994, 20 years after the closure of the offshore radio transmissions the VOO left the public broadcasting domain and went commercial again [1]
In 1999 the last day of the old pirate station was relived, 25 years after the day the offshore station ended transmissions. [5]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1973 | |
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Scheveningen[ˈsxeːvənɪŋə(n)](listen) is one of the eight districts of The Hague, Netherlands, as well as a subdistrict (wijk) of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long, sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is popular for water sports such as windsurfing and kiteboarding. The harbour is used for both fishing and tourism.
Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license.
The Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967, shortened to Marine Broadcasting Offences Act or "Marine offences Act", became law in the United Kingdom at midnight on Monday 14 August 1967. It was subsequently amended by the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 and the Broadcasting Act 1990. Its purpose was to extend the powers of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949, beyond the territorial land area and territorial waters of the UK to cover airspace and external bodies of water.
The Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company (CNBC) was an English language pirate radio station which hired airtime for a few hours each day from the Dutch pirate Radio Veronica in 1960–1961. Programmes were pre-recorded at Veronica's Amsterdam studio together with the Dutch programmes, and broadcast from the Veronica ship Borkum Riff. The address for prospective advertisers was given as Ross Radio Productions Ltd, 23 Upper Wimpole Street, W1.
Radio London, also known as Big L and Wonderful Radio London, was a top 40 offshore commercial station that operated from 23 December 1964 to 14 August 1967, from a ship anchored in the North Sea, three and a half miles (5.6 km) off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England.
Pirate radio exists in most countries in Europe.
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, England. While the station was dubbed a pirate radio station, its operation took place within the law and its offices were in the West End of London. Its representation was by a company formed earlier in the year to represent in Europe the ABC radio and television stations of the United States.
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 audience, due to its strong signal and continuous music, mixing current records with oldies. However, insufficient advertising starved the station off the air in late 1985. In 1986 an attempt was made to return as Laser Hot Hits, but the same problems arose.
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 of radio receivers by providing an alternative to the Netherlands state-licensed stations in Hilversum.
Radio Nord was a Swedish offshore commercial station that operated briefly from 8 March 1961 to 30 June 1962 from a ship anchored in international waters of the Baltic Sea off Stockholm, Sweden. While the station was dubbed as a pirate radio station, its actual operation took place within the laws of the day and its offices were located in the heart of Stockholm. Its ownership was vested in a company which had been specifically formed by Texas broadcasting and political interests that included Gordon McLendon and Clint Murchison Jr.
MV Ross Revenge is a radio ship, the home of Radio Caroline, as well as having supported Radio Monique and various religious broadcasters. Funded by the Icelandic government, she was constructed in Bremerhaven in 1960 and served as an Icelandic commercial trawler until 1963 when sold to the Ross Group fleet, notably taking part in the Cod Wars of the 1970s. Following her decommissioning, she was purchased by Radio Caroline and outfitted as a radio ship, complete with 300-foot (91 m) antenna mast and 50 kW transmitter. Her broadcasts began on 20 August 1983; her final pirate broadcast took place in November 1990. She ran aground on the Goodwin Sands in November 1991, bringing the era of offshore pirate radio in Europe to an end. She was, however, salvaged, and is now maintained by the Caroline Support Group, a group of supporters and enthusiasts.
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. Unlicensed by any government for most of its early life, it was a pirate radio station that never became illegal as such due to operating outside any national jurisdiction, although after the Marine Offences Act (1967) it became illegal for a British subject to associate with it.
Capital Radio was a pirate radio station which operated from international waters off the coast of the Netherlands in 1970.
Radio North Sea International was a European offshore radio station run by the Swiss firm Mebo Telecommunications, jointly owned by Swiss engineer Edwin Bollier and his business partner, Erwin Meister. RNI broadcast for less than five years in the early 1970s and, courting both disaster and success, made a modest financial profit.
Borkum Riff is a brand of pipe tobacco manufactured in Denmark for a Scandinavian Tobacco Group.
Radio Mercur 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.
Radio Atlantis was a Belgian-owned offshore pirate radio station, which operated in 1973 and 1974 from the coast of The Netherlands and Belgium. The station began broadcasting from the Radio Caroline ship MV Mi Amigo on 15 July 1973. The station was owned by Belgian businessman Adriaan van Landschoot who ran a chain of companies all named Carnaby:
Hendrik "Bull" Verweij was one of the founders of the Dutch offshore radio station Radio Veronica, and was president of the station from its founding in 1959 until 1975. He was born in Hilversum. After Veronica was forced to stop, one of the DJs of the station, Rob Out, formed the Veronica Omroep Organisatie: a legal entity that grew out from a candidate broadcasting organisation to the largest broadcaster in the country.
Mi Amigo was originally a three-masted cargo schooner, that later gained international recognition as an offshore radio station. She was built as the schooner Margarethe for German owners. A sale in 1927 saw her renamed Olga and she was lengthened in 1936. During the Second World War, she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine and served as an auxiliary ship between 1941 and 1943. In 1953, the ship was again lengthened to 133 feet 9 inches (40.77 m). In 1959, she was sold for conversion to a floating radio station and was renamed Bon Jour. Subsequently, she was renamed Magda Maria in 1961 and Mi Amigo in 1962. She served, intermittently, as a radio ship, until 1980, when she sank in a gale.
Veronica is a brand name of successive Dutch commercial and public radio and television broadcasters. It began its life as an offshore radio station, Radio Veronica, on 17 May 1960. The name comes from its first name VRON – Vrije Radio Omroep Nederland. "Free" was a reference to the laws at the time that didn't allow commercial radio broadcasters to operate from a location within the (land) territory of the Netherlands.
