The First Pirate Radio
Radio Mercur was probably the first commercial offshore radio station in the world and gave inspiration to a whole number of offshore radios or pirate radios in Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium and United Kingdom during the 1960s. The Danish press soon began to use the expression "pirate radio" on Radio Mercur, and a number of cartoons in newspapers and magazines pictured the radio station with pirate symbols.
Radio Mercur used the fact that radio transmitting in international water was only regulated by international agreements; these didn't take into account the possibility to transmit regularly from an anchored ship. The inspiration for the radio station came from Radio Luxembourg and the American Voice of America, which broadcasted from a military vessel, the USCGC Courier, in the Mediterranean.
The success of Radio Mercur directly inspired other groups of radio enthusiasts to begin their own ship-based stations, in The Netherlands the stations Radio Veronica and the artificial island based Radio Northsea, and in Sweden Skaanes Radio Mercur (later named Radio Syd) - in the beginning transmitting from the same ship as the Danish station - and Radio Nord close to Stockholm.
Read more about this topic: Radio Mercur
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