Offshore radio

Offshore Radio is radio broadcasting from ships or fixed maritime structures. Offshore broadcasters are usually unlicenced but transmissions are legal in international waters. This is in contrast to broadcasting without a licence on land or within a nation's territorial waters, which is usually unlawful.

The claimed first wireless broadcast of music and speech for the purpose of entertainment was transmitted from a Royal Navy craft, 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.

However, the majority of offshore broadcasters have been unlicenced 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. Unlicenced offshore commercial stations have operated off the coasts of Belgium, Denmark, Israel, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, The United Kingdom, Yugoslavia and the United States.

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 UK population began to turn to radio stations from abroad, such as Radio Lyon, Radio Normandy, Radio Athlone, Radio 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.

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