The offshore radio project that never made it to air The sinking of the Mi Amigo on 20 March 1980 marked a dramatic low point in the long and turbulent history of Radio Caroline. Yet, as so often in offshore radio history, the loss of one ship immediately sparked new ambitions. Within weeks, a small … Read more
A Floating Media and Communications Centre in the Atomic Age Nederlandstalige versie – Deutschsprachige Version Able Day (Test Able) was the first of two nuclear weapons tests conducted by the United States as part of Operation Crossroads on 1 July 1946 (local time) at the remote Bikini Atoll. A B-29 bomber dropped a bomb (“Gilda”) … Read more
March 1970 marked a brief but symbolically powerful chapter in the history of offshore broadcasting, when a small group of Canadian supporters helped beam uncensored news to Greece from international waters. Canadians for a Free Greece was a political advocacy group active in the late 1960s and early 1970s that campaigned against the military junta … Read more
Eine schwimmende Medien- und Nachrichtenzentrale im Atomzeitalter English version – Nederlandstalige versie Der Able-Tag (Test Able) war der erste von zwei Kernwaffentests im Rahmen der Operation Crossroads, die am 1. Juli 1946 (Lokalzeit) von den USA auf dem entlegenen Bikini-Atoll durchgeführt wurde. Eine B-29-Bombe (“Gilda”) detonierte in ca. 158 Metern Höhe mit einer Sprengkraft … Read more
Rhodesia On 19 April 1966 the first reports appeared concerning a plan by the British government in which it considered launching a major propaganda offensive against the Rhodesian government of Ian Smith, as diplomatic measures against Smith’s apartheid policies had had no effect. The use of radio ships was contemplated because the British radio station … Read more
Jeff: The “Radio Station of the German Freedom Party” was the first European offshore radio station, and the only one which primarily targeted a German audience. Remarkably, it served a political purpose – resistance against the Nazi regime. It was programmed by German journalists living in exile, supported by Dutch, British, and French collaborators in … Read more
Jeff: Radio Caroline, which started test broadcasts from International Waters on Good Friday in March 1964, is often credited with being the first British offshore radio station. However, few people realize there was actually another English language station in the North Sea several years before that, in late 1960 and early 1961. Here’s Ray Robinson … Read more
Jeff: Half a century ago, the Voice of Peace radio ship was one of the best known pirate radio stations in the world. It was on the air in the Mediterranean for twenty years in an effort to bring peace to those troubled areas, and it was quietly sunk at the end of its illustrious … Read more
Jeff: Today Ray Robinson brings us some interesting historical notes regarding the offshore beginnings and nautical connections of one of Southern California’s best known stations – KBIG, or ‘K-BIG’. As an AM station in the early 1950’s, it created a distinctive presence by broadcasting from a popular passenger ferry, the S.S. Catalina, while plying the … Read more
Jeff: Offshore radio broadcasting from international waters has most frequently been associated with radio stations in the North Sea that broadcast pop and rock music, such as Radio Caroline or Radio Veronica. But then in 1993 came Radio Brod (“Radio Boat” in Croatian). In the middle of the worst armed conflict in Europe since the … Read more