Early Offshore Days 3

Early Offshore Days (3)

Other offshore broadcasters

There are further examples of early offshore radio stations, which were either non-commercial or established for specific political purposes:-

Radio Morue (Radio Cod) accompanied French fishing fleets to the waters around Newfoundland in the late 1930s. The station, based on one of the trawlers, was operated by Rev. Yvon and broadcast religious messages and news items from home to fishermen on board other vessels in the fleet.

Estacion Pyrenees In 1941 Spanish Communists, who had been exiled by the right-wing Franco Regime after the Civil War, used a Russian trawler anchored in the Black Sea as a base from which to broadcast programmes to their home country. The station broadcast on shortwave and tried to make listeners believe that it was located somewhere in the Pyrenees Mountains on the French/Spanish border. Transmissions consisted, not surprisingly, of anti-Franco propaganda and although the ship-borne broadcasts ended after a short while the station's programmes continued to be relayed to Spain for some years from land-based transmitters in various sympathetic East European communist countries.

Radio Euzkad was another floating radio station established by a Spanish political group, this time separatists who claimed to be the Basque Government in exile. They used a trawler anchored in the French port of Bayonne to broadcast anti-Franco programmes between 1950 and 1953.

Voice of America the United States Government propaganda station used a number of ships as offshore bro Voice of America logo adcasting bases, particularly during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1942 the USS Texas was anchored in the Mediterranean and equipped to broadcast Voice of America programmes as a counter to the many Nazi propaganda stations then on the air. These programmes, targeted at North Africa, were transmitted on 601kHz (498m) and commenced on 7th November 1942, coinciding with an Allied military advance in that area. However, some rapid Allied successes against the Nazi forces in North Africa meant that the station's mission became obsolete and transmissions were terminated after only a few weeks.

Three years later, in 1945, the Voice of America again used a ship, this time the Phoenix, anchored in the China Sea to broadcast propaganda programmes to the Far East on both shortwave and medium wave frequencies.

The most significant use of an offshore based transmitter by the Voice of America came in the early 1950s and was to serve as a role model for early European offshore commercial broadcasters. A merchant ship, Doddridge was converted, at a cost of $3.5million, into a floating radio station and renamed firstly Coastal Messenger and later Courier. The station was fitted out by US Coastguards who installed three on-board transmitters, one medium wave with a power of 150Kw, and two shortwave, each with an output of 35Kw.

Test broadcasts from this ship-borne station took place in the Caribbean during April 1952 on 1390kHz (215m) using an aerial held aloft by a helium filled balloon (a system tried again over 30 years later off the English coast by offshore station Laser 730).

In August 1952, havin Courier at anchor off Rhodes g successfully completed her test transmissions the Courier sailed to the Mediterranean and anchored off the Greek Island of Rhodes, commencing broadcasts as the Voice of America - Seabase Radio Station Dodecanese Islands - on 7th September 1952. The Courier remained broadcasting at this base until 1964 when she was converted for use in connection with early satellite communications, the Voice of America operation having being transferred to a landbased transmitter in Rhodes.

A full history of this station can be found in the Rest of the World Gallery on Floor 1

Commercial interest

While the practice of using ship-based radio stations for non-commercial, military or political propaganda broadcasting had continued throughout the 1940's and 50's it was not until 1958 that another commercial offshore radio station took to the airwaves - Radio Mercur, off the coast of Denmark

It is extremely doubtful that the people behind Radio Mercur knew anything about RKXR or other early attempts to launch offshore radio stations. They had simply identified a legal loophole enabling them to operate from international waters and challenge the established state broadcasting system in Denmark. Despite numerous practical difficulties they succeeded and Radio Mercur itself went on to inspire the establishment of many similar stations throughout Europe and other parts of the world.

Also the successful operation of the ship-based Voice of America outlet off Rhodes and the experience of its US Navy radio engineers helped some of the early European commercial offshore stations become established. Certainly the Swedish offshore station Radio Nord depended heavily on technical advice from US Navy radio experts who had been involved with the Courier. The concept of such a seaborne station was also partly the inspiration for the launch of Radio Veronica off The Netherlands and later Radio Caroline off the British coast.

Courier at anchor off Rhodes