Needle time notice
British records at the time carried a warning message around the edge of the record label in the centre of the record itself to the effect that: "Unauthorised public performance or broadcasting of this record is strictly prohibited."
Radio Luxembourg
Although the record industry in Britain wanted the public to buy its records, it had to give them some airtime so that the public could find out about their existence. To that end the record industry used the commercial nighttime signals from Radio Luxembourg whose powerful AM signal could be heard in the UK. The "208" shows on Luxembourg were mainly fifteen minutes to thirty minutes in length and presented under names such as the Decca Records Show or the Capitol Records Show. These prerecorded programmes resembled what later became known as infomercials, because they normally only featured a little over half of the record, with heavy plugging for title, artist and label.
Because all the hours of transmission were booked up by the major record companies (EMI, Decca, Pye, Philips etc.) groups and artists had to sign to them to get any exposure. This was one of the driving forces for Ronan O'Rahilly and others to start the first pirate radio station to get exposure for artists he represented.
The "pirate stations"
Unlike the BBC or Radio Luxembourg, the offshore pirate radio stations of the 1960s operated not only outside the three-mile limit of territorial waters, but also in a grey area of the law. Because the studios and transmitters were located on board the ships or offshore structures, the personnel on board were only under the authority of the captain of that ship or structure. In the case of ship stations such as Wonderful Radio London which introduced top 40 radio to Britain, the ship was registered in a foreign country and therefore subject to the laws of that country, which did not recognise "needle time". Payola operated on several of these stations.
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the state media outlet British Broadcasting Corporation. The service provides national radio stations covering the majority of musical genres, as well as local radio stations covering local news, affairs and interests. It also oversees online audio content.
Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license.
Offshore radio is radio broadcasting from ships or fixed maritime structures. Offshore broadcasters are usually unlicensed but transmissions are legal in international waters. This is in contrast to unlicensed broadcasting on land or within a nation's territorial waters, which is usually unlawful.
BBC Essex is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Essex.
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.
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.
The strict definition of a pirate radio station is a station that operates from sovereign territory without a broadcasting license, or just beyond the territorial waters of a sovereign nation from on board a ship or other marine structure with the intention of broadcasting to that nation without obtaining a broadcasting license from that nation.
Aodogán Ronan O'Rahilly was an Irish businessman best known for the creation of the offshore radio station, Radio Caroline. He also became manager of George Lazenby, who played James Bond in one film.
Pirate radio in the United Kingdom has been a popular and enduring radio medium since the 1960s, despite expansions in licensed broadcasting, and the advent of both digital radio and internet radio. Although it peaked throughout the 1960s and again during the 1980s/1990s, it remains in existence today. Having moved from transmitting from ships in the sea to tower blocks across UK towns and cities, in 2009 the UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom estimated more than 150 pirate radio stations were still operating.
Radio Scotland was an offshore pirate radio station broadcasting on 1241 kHz mediumwave, 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 Guernsey using RCA technology and engineers, it was anchored at locations off Scotland, usually outside territorial waters.
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.
Richard Anthony Crispian Francis Prew Hope-Weston, known professionally as Tommy Vance, was an English radio broadcaster. He was an important factor in the rise of the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM), along with London-based disc jockey Neal Kay, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Vance was one of the first radio hosts in the United Kingdom to broadcast hard rock and heavy metal in the early 1980s, providing the only national radio forum for both bands and fans. The Friday Rock Show that he hosted gave new bands airtime for their music and fans an opportunity to hear it. He used a personal tag-line of "TV on the radio". His voice was heard by millions around the world announcing the Wembley Stadium acts at Live Aid in 1985.
Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording.
A radio program, radio programme, or radio show, is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production, or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode.
A pirate television station is a broadcast television station that operates without a broadcast license. Like its counterpart pirate radio, the term pirate TV lacks a specific universal interpretation. It implies a form of broadcasting that is unwelcome by the licensing authorities within the territory where its signals are received, especially when the country of transmission is the same as the country of reception. When the area of transmission is not a country, or when it is a country and the transmissions are not illegal, those same broadcast signals may be deemed illegal in the country of reception. Pirate television stations may also be known as "bootleg TV", or confused with licensed low-power broadcasting (LPTV) or amateur television (ATV) services.
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.
Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL.
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:
