Italy
The ex-Radio North Sea International (RNI) ship, Mebo II, remained at her anchorage until 9th September 1974 when she sailed to the De Groot van Vliet shipyard in Slikkerveer. Together with the Mebo I (Angela) she was dry docked and both vessels were scraped, painted and overhauled. On board the Mebo II the transmitter equipment was stripped and overhauled, while a new record library and three new studios were constructed to replace the existing two studio facility. The aerial mast was heightened by 15', a second medium wave aerial was installed and all equipment tested and tuned using a dummy load.
Altogether nearly half a million pounds was spent on this refurbishment work and it was announced publicly at that time that the ship would sail to an anchorage off Genoa in Italy and commence broadcasts under the call sign Radio Nova International.
The two ships left the shipyard on 9th October 1974, but were immediately detained by the authorities acting under the provisions of the Dutch Marine Offences Act. Prior to this raid an item had been broadcast by London's ILR news station, LBC, stating that the Mebo II was not really destined for Italy as had been announced, but in fact was to anchor off the British coast to broadcast Radio Nova programmes.
A preliminary hearing into the right of the owners to move the vessels, one of which carried radio transmitting equipment, contrary to the new Dutch law, was held on 11th November 1974 with a full hearing taking place on 4th December. At that hearing lawyers for the owners of the vessel argued that because the ship was registered in Panama the laws of that country, which stated that the radio transmitters aboard Mebo II counted as cargo, should apply.
The Court was not swayed by this argument, however, and when judgement was given on 10th December 1974 the owners were given permission to take the Mebo II out of port only after the transmitters had been removed from the vessel. An appeal was lodged by the ship's owners but this hearing did not take place for another three months.
The effect of all this legal argument about whether or not the Mebo II could leave port meant that the proposed Radio Nova project off the coast of Italy never came to fruition.
However, a land-based station of the same name, run by some former RNI DJs did establish itself in northern Italy, taking advantage of the confused state of that country's broadcasting laws at the time which allowed unlimited numbers of private radio and television stations to be established.