Offshore Radio

Offshore Radio is radio broadcasting from ships or fixed maritime structures, usually in international waters. The claimed first wireless broadcast of music and speech for the purpose of entertainment was transmitted from a Royal Naval craft, the HMS Andromeda, in 1907. The broadcast was organized by a Lieutenant Quentin Crauford using the callsign QFP while the ship was anchored off Chatham in the Thames Estuary, England. The majority of offshore broadcasters have however been pirate radio stations using seaborne broadcasting as a means to circumvent national broadcasting regulations, for example the practice has been used by broadcasting organizations like the Voice of America as a means of circumventing national broadcasting regulations of other nations.

Most offshore broadcast is usually associated with European pirate radio stations, as the trend never caught on as much in the United States. Most organizations that could afford an offshore broadcasting boat would instead buy a legal station. Still, there were a few American offshore stations that made a lasting impression. The first station to broadcast in the U.S. from international waters was off of the coast of California in the 1930s.

The station was called RXKR, and broadcast from May 1933 until August 1933. It was operated from a cargo carrier named the S.S. City of Panama, a ship that was actually supposed to be advertising tourism in Panama to Americans from California. The operators of the ship actually broadcast popular music and advertisements, fooling the Panamanian government and eventually being shut down at the request of the U.S. Department of State.

One of the most popular offshore radio broadcasts in Europe came from Radio Caroline, which developed out of the strict broadcasting regulations in England in the 1960s. By the late 1920s the BBC was formed, and the “UK government concluded that this was such a powerful means of mass communication that it would have to be in state control.” Because of rigid governmental controls and a lack of popular music broadcasting, much of the British population began to turn to radio stations from abroad, such as Radio Lyon or Normandy, Radio Athlone, Mediterranee and Radio Luxembourg. In the UK, only signed artists from major labels were broadcast, and only for short periods of time during the day. Radio Caroline was the brainchild of Ronan O'Rahilly, who dreamed up a way to air music by “unestablished” rock and roll artists. The ship broadcast its first show on Easter Sunday in 1964.

Offshore pirate stations have operated off the coasts of Belgium, Denmark, Israel, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, The United Kingdom, Yugoslavia and the United States. See Pirate radio for full details.