History 2

Radio Syd - History (2)

1965

Britt Wadner was imprisoned again for one month in May 1965 after being convicted on charges of contravening the Swedish anti-offshore radio legislation. In June 1965, twenty seven advertisers were also prosecuted by the Swedish authorities for promoting their products on the station.

A public opinion poll survey at that time showed that Radio Syd was attracting 80% of listeners in southern Sweden and such immense popularity made the station's owners determined to continue broadcasting despite the frequent prosecution of both themselves and their advertisers.

In June 1965 Rdio Syd promoted a Rolling Stones concert in Malmo and as part of the publicity for this event members of the group visited Cheeta 2 on 27th June. This visit was successful in helping to achieve extensive press coverage for the event.

During the summer of 1965 Radio Syd made plans to start television transmissions from the Cheeta 2, which was already partially equipped for such a service from the embryo plans made between the vessel's former owner, Radio Mercur and the now defunct Radio Nord in the spring and summer of 1962. A new 5Kw transmitter and 90' aerial mast was installed as well as on-board television studio facilities.

Faced with this continued defiance from Radio Syd and the prospect of an offshore television station being launched from the same vessel in mid-1965 the Swedish Government set about drafting further legislation to strengthen the existing anti-offshore broadcasting law.

This new, tougher legislation was designed to follow the Council of Europe recommendations to ban offshore broadcasting stations, which had been agreed at the Strasbourg Convention earlier that year and extended the authorities' powers to prosecute anyone who assisted an offshore station in any way as well as to confiscate the station's assets.

Pending the introduction of this new law the Swedish authorities continued with prosecutions against Radio Syd and its advertisers using the existing legislation - in June 1965 twenty seven advertisers faced court hearings for advertising on the station and in December 1965 Mrs. Wadner was convicted and given yet another jail sentence, this time for three months. During the same month, and in January 1966 several more advertisers were also prosecuted for buying airtime on the station.

The television transmission equipment was fully installed on board Cheeta 2 by early December 1965 and on 13th December the first test transmissions for TV Syd took place. Once the equipment had been fully tested plans were made to launch a television service from the ship broadcasting programmes to the Malmo area for 12 hours a day.