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Pirate radio is the unlicensed use of the radio spectrum, reserved for commercial, governmental, or public use. Shortwave radio pirates are also common in the radio world.
Pirate radio is illegal in countries that require licenses of broadcasters. However, the necessary equipment is easy to hide, and the regulatory bodies (in the United States, the FCC) have not been effective in finding and prosecuting offenders.
Pirate radio is frequently associated with the anarchism movement. Members of the movement see pirate radio as a challenge to large corporations and governmental spectrum regulatory schemes seen as serving the interest of large corporations.
The term 'Pirate Radio' seems to go back to the birth of broadcasting itself. In 1924, the New York City station WHN was accused by AT&T of being an "Outlaw" station for violating trade licenses and a landmark case was heard in court which even prompted comments from Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover in the station's defense and the cause of "Free Radio". However, the alternative use of the term 'Free Radio' seems to have been born in San Francisco during the Hippie days of the so-called "Summer of Love" when many things were named 'free' as part of the communal lifestyle. In Europe the terms "Free Radio", "Pirate Radio" and the more defined "Offshore Radio" have usually referred to the same form of unlicensed broadcasting. In the USA the term "Free Radio" has been used with "Free TV" to describe that system of licensed broadcasting that is most often supported by commercials, while "Pirate Radio" has been used to describe unlicensed broadcasting.
In the USA, UK and Northern Europe, pirate radio has a long tradition broadcasting from international waters.
The first pirate radio ship was probably The Rex, a gambling ship that operated off the coast of California in the early 1930s. From 1958, several ship-based pirate stations have broadcasted into Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. On March 28, 1964, Radio Caroline was established as the first and most famous British pirate radio station. Whenever it ceased transmissions, land-based pirate channels, often limiting transmissions to Sundays and Bank Holidays, tended to increase in number.
The most famous of these Pirate Radio stations is Radio Caroline that broadcast to great areas of the U.K., with many famous Disc Jockeys working because of their great love of the music of the era. John Peel is one such D.J. from Radio Caroline who has gone on to have a profound effect on modern, cutting edge music on BBC Radio 1. Another famous pirate radio broadcaster is Paddy Roy Bates, who went on to found the self-proclaimed nation of Sealand.
The 1970s saw illegal Pirate Radio come ashore in cities like London, Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester. Usually set up in high rise tower blocks the stations would increase their transmission capabilities by erecting the Di-pole ariels as high up as possible.
Some of the pirate stations are now legal and successful outfits, including Radio Jackie and Kiss FM in London, and the rather more rural Sunshine Radio in Ludlow, Shropshire, which was run from studios at the end of a farm drive in its unlicensed days.
Modern day Pirate radio stations often cater for local communities and underground music fans that are not necessarily catered for by larger corporate Radio stations. Unfortunately, some of these illegal stations refuse to respect other legal radio stations and the emergency services by allowing their transmissions to drift across other important airwaves. This gives other more conscientious Pirate Stations an unwanted disrespectful image that leads to many raids by the DTI who confiscate and prosecute persistent offenders. It is also thought that a small percentage of Pirate stations use the station as a base for drug running and other criminal activities though this is in the minority. Most Pirate stations are there simply out of an absolute love for the music style they play.
Pirate Radio stations can apply for a Broadcasting Licence but they will usually need to go off air for a time to present a legal case.
Overall if a Pirate radio station is run within the boundaries of the law it can be a valuable asset to a community and ultimately the wider city area.
A good example of modern day Pirate radio can be found at P.C.R.L.
On August 14, 1967 - In the United Kingdom a Marine Offences Act came into force prompting many offshore radio stations to close, most prominently Radio London off Frinton in Essex at 3pm local time on this day. The Act boosted a campaign for onshore commercial radio to be legalised, which would enable listeners to choose a non-BBC English-language station and cause the establishment style of BBC radio to be relaxed and refreshed. See BBC Radio 1
In 1997, it is alleged that Sir James Goldsmith
This led to the creation of Radio Riposte by the PS in 1979 and the arrest of François Mitterrand and Laurent Fabius. Some of these stations persisted until 1981 when they became legal "Bordighiera,
And the late and more political Radio K (1981-1982) broadcasting from Bussana di San Remo,. All these stations went bankrupt after the election of François Mitterrand and the legalization of private radio stations in France.
Pirate radio is more commonly known as "underground radio" in Taiwan, even in mainstream press. The movement began in the liberalizing political milieu following the lifting of the decades-long martial law. Historically most of the stations have opposed, in some manner, the political establishment represented by the Chinese Nationalist Party and the Republic of China (ROC) framework, in favor of the then opposition movement broadly consisting of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and allied social movements. A few stations positioned themselves on the opposing end of the political spectrum, generally favoring the ROC status quo advocated by the New Party and "non-mainstream factions" within the Nationalist Party.
Programming generally is of a vertical blocking format, with live call-ins taking up a good portion of air time. On some stations slots are allocated to local community and activist groups. The most prominent segment of the audience is the urban working class. Although Mandarin and, much less frequently, Hakka are used on the air, Taiwanese is by far the most commonly used language.
Most if not all underground stations favor a mechanism to gain legal status but many balk at the costly requirements, which they believe to favor corporate and Nationalists-owned broadcasters. Government policy has always treated underground radio as an illegal enterprise, even after the DPP came to power. Official responses have been more varied, alternating between levying fines and confiscating equipment to tolerating their presence. Most stations are able to set up backup broadcast points within days of government raids. Commercial stations are known to file official complaints against pirate stations, whose signals are said to interfere with legal broadcasts.
The movie Pump Up the Volume has as its hero a high-schooler who does pirate radio broadcasts.
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