The Principality of Sealand is a micronation on HM Fort Roughs, an offshore platform in the North Sea approximately twelve kilometres off the coast of Suffolk, England. Roughs Tower is a Maunsell Sea Fort that was built by the British in international waters during World War II. Since 1967, the decommissioned Roughs Tower has been occupied and claimed as a sovereign state by the family and associates of Paddy Roy Bates. Bates seized Roughs Tower from a group of pirate radio broadcasters in 1967 with the intention of setting up his own station there. Bates and his associates have repelled incursions from vessels from rival pirate radio stations and the U.K.'s royal navy using firearms and petrol bombs. In 1987, the United Kingdom extended its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, which places the platform in British territory.
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the public service broadcast 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.
Stephen Paul Lamacq, sometimes known by his nickname Lammo, is an English disc jockey, currently working with the BBC radio station BBC Radio 6 Music.
Uttlesford is a local government district in Essex, England. Its council is based in the town of Saffron Walden. The district also includes the town of Great Dunmow and numerous villages, including Stansted Mountfitchet, Takeley, Elsenham, Thaxted, and Newport. The district covers a largely rural area in the north-west of Essex. London Stansted Airport lies within the district.
BBC Essex is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Essex.
BBC Local Radio is the BBC's local and regional radio division for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of forty stations.
BBC Radio Cornwall is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Cornwall.
Hits Radio Cornwall, formerly Pirate FM, is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Cornwall on DAB from studios in Redruth.
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.
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.
Johnnie Walker, MBE is an English radio disc jockey and broadcaster. He began his career on pirate radio, most notably on Radio Caroline. He joined BBC Radio 1 in 1969 and BBC Radio 2 in 1998. He presents Sounds of the 70s on Radio 2 on Sunday afternoons and The Radio 2 Rock Show on Friday nights.
Rhys Montague Darby is a New Zealand actor and comedian, known for his energetic physical comedy routines, telling stories accompanied with mime and sound effects of things such as machinery and animals. He was nominated for the Billy T Award in 2001 and 2002. He also won the 2012 Fred (Dagg) award at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, for best NZ show.
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, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 it became illegal for a British subject to associate with it.
Richard Keith Skues MBE, AE is a British radio personality. His career spans more than 60 years.
BBC East is one of BBC's English Regions covering Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and parts of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It is headquartered in The Forum, Norwich since 2003. It was also separated into two areas, one with the East area covering mostly in Norfolk, Suffolk & Essex, and another from the West area which covers from Cambridge, serving mostly Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and the three counties.
Ian Damon is a British radio personality.
The "Fab 40" was a weekly playlist of popular records used by the British "pirate" radio station "Wonderful" Radio London which broadcast off the Essex coast from 1964 to 1967.
Patrick Roy Bates, self-styled as Prince Roy of Sealand, was a British pirate radio broadcaster and micronationalist, who founded the self-proclaimed Principality of Sealand.
