Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation.
Its etymology can be traced to the unlicensed nature of the transmission, but historically there has been occasional but notable use of sea vessels – fitting the most common perception of a pirate – as broadcasting bases.
Rules and regulations vary widely from country to country but often the term pirate radio generally describes the unlicensed broadcast of FM radio, AM radio, or short wave signals over a wide range. In some cases radio stations are deemed legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially when the signals cross a national boundary. In other cases, a broadcast may be considered ‘pirate’ due to the nature of its content, its transmission format (especially a failure to transmit a station identification according to regulations), or the transmit power (wattage) of the station, even if the transmission is not technically illegal (such as a webcast or an amateur radio transmission). Pirate radio stations are sometimes called bootleg stations (a term especially associated with two-way radio), clandestine stations (associated with heavily politically motivated operations) or Free Radio stations.
Radio ‘piracy’ began with the advent of regulations of the public airwaves in the United States at the dawn of the Age of Radio. Initially, radio, or wireless as it was more commonly called, was an open field of hobbyists and early inventors and experimenters, including Nikola Tesla, Lee De Forest, and Thomas Edison. The United States Navy began using radio for time signals and weather reports on the east coast of the United States in the 1890s. Before the advent of valve (vacuum tube) technology, early radio enthusiasts used noisy spark-gap transmitters, such as the first spark-gap modulation technology pioneered by the first real audio (rather than telegraph code) radio broadcaster, Charles D. Herrold, in San Jose, California, or the infamous Ruhmkorff coil used by almost all early experimenters. The Navy soon began complaining to a sympathetic press that amateurs were disrupting naval transmissions. A 1907, edition of ‘Electrical World’ in an article called ‘Wireless and Lawless’ reported authorities were unable to prevent an amateur from interfering with the operation of a government station at the Washington, D.C. Navy Yard using legal means.
In the run-up to the London Radiotelegraph Convention in 1912 (essentially an international gentlemen’s agreement on use of the radio band, non-binding and, on the high seas, completely null), and amid concerns about the safety of marine radio following the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15 of that year (although there were never allegations of radio interference in that event), the New York Herald headlined President William Howard Taft’s initiative to regulate the public airwaves in an article titled ‘President Moves to Stop Mob Rule of Wireless.’
When the ‘Act to Regulate Radio Communication’ was passed that summer, amateurs and experimenters were not banned from broadcasting; rather, amateurs were assigned their own frequency spectrum and licensing and call-signs were introduced. By regulating the public airwaves, President Taft thus created the legal space for illicit broadcasts to take place. An entire federal agency, the Federal Radio Commission was formed in 1927 and succeeded in 1934 by the Federal Communications Commission. These agencies would enforce rules on call-signs, assigned frequencies, licensing and acceptable content for broadcast.
The Radio Act of 1912 gave the president legal permission to shut down radio stations ‘in time of war,’ and during the first two and a half years of World War One, before US entry, President Wilson tasked the US Navy with monitoring US radio stations, nominally to ensure ‘neutrality.’ The Navy used this authority to shut down amateur radio in the western part of the US (the US was divided into two civilian radio ‘districts’ with corresponding call-signs, beginning with K in the west and W in the east, in the regulatory measures; the Navy was assigned call-signs beginning with N). When Wilson declared war on Germany in 1917, he also issued an executive order closing most radio stations not needed by the US government. The Navy took it a step further and declared it was illegal to listen to radio or possess a receiver or transmitter in the US, but there were doubts they had the authority to issue such an order even in war time. The ban on radio was lifted in the US in late 1919.
In 1924, New York City station WHN was accused of being an ‘outlaw’ station by AT&T (then American Telephone and Telegraph Company) for violating trade licenses which permitted only AT&T stations to sell airtime on their transmitters. As a result of the AT&T interpretation a landmark case was heard in court, which even prompted comments from Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover when he took a public stand in the station’s defense. Although AT&T won its case, the furor created was such that those restrictive provisions of the transmitter license were never enforced.
In 1948, the United Nations brought into being the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which Article 19 states: ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
In Europe, Denmark had the first known radio station in the world to broadcast commercial radio from a vessel in international waters without permission from the authorities in the country that it broadcast to (Denmark in this case). The station was named ‘Radio Mercur’ and began transmission in 1958. In the Danish newspapers it was soon called a ‘pirate radio.’
The term had been used previously in Britain and the US to describe unlicensed land based broadcasters and even border blasters (a licensed commercial radio station that transmits at very high power from one nation to another). In the 1960s in the UK, the term referred to not only a perceived unauthorized use of the state-run spectrum by the unlicensed broadcasters but also the risk-taking nature of offshore radio stations that actually operated on anchored ships or marine platforms. A good example of this kind of activity was ‘Radio Luxembourg’ located in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The English language evening broadcasts from Radio Luxembourg were beamed by Luxembourg licensed transmitters. The audience in the United Kingdom originally listened to their radio sets by permission of a Wireless License issued by the British General Post Office (GPO). However, under terms of that Wireless Licence, it was an offence under the Wireless Telegraphy Act to listen to unauthorized broadcasts, which possibly included those transmitted by ‘Radio Luxembourg.’ Therefore as far as the British authorities were concerned, ‘Radio Luxembourg’ was a ‘pirate radio station’ and British listeners to the station were breaking the law. This did not stop British newspapers from printing program schedules for the station, or a British weekly magazine aimed at teenage girls, ‘Fab 208’ from promoting the ‘DJs’ and their lifestyle.
Radio Luxembourg was later joined by three other well known pirate stations received in the UK in violation of UK licensing, ‘Radio Caroline,’ North and South, plus ‘Radio Atlanta’ which became ‘Caroline South’ and ‘Radio London,’ all of which broadcast from vessels anchored outside of territorial limits and were therefore legitimate. Radio ‘Jackie,’ for instance (although transmitting illegally), was registered for VAT and even had its address and telephone number in local telephone directories.
Where actual sea-faring vessels are not involved, the term pirate radio is a political term of convenience as the word ‘pirate’ suggests an illegal venture, regardless of the broadcast’s actual legal status. The radio station XERF located at Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas, is an example. While Mexico issued radio station XERF with a license to broadcast, the power of its 250 kW transmitter was far greater than the maximum of 50 kW authorized for commercial use by the government of the United States of America. Consequently, XERF and many other radio stations in Mexico, which sold their broadcasting time to sponsors of English-language commercial and religious programs, were labelled as ‘border blasters,’ but not ‘pirate radio stations,’ even though the content of many of their programs were in violation of US law. Predecessors to XERF, for instance, had originally broadcast in Kansas, advocating ‘goat-gland surgery’ for improved masculinity, but moved to Mexico to evade US laws about advertising medical treatments, particularly unproven ones.
Another variation on the term pirate radio came about during the ‘Summer of Love’ in San Francisco during the 1960s. These were ‘Free radio,’ which usually referred to clandestine and unlicensed land-based transmissions. These were also tagged as being pirate radio transmissions. Free Radio was only ever used to refer to Radio transmissions that were beyond government control, as was offshore radio in the UK and Europe. The term free radio was adopted by the Free Radio Association of listeners who defended the rights of the offshore ‘radio stations’ broadcasting from ships and marine structures off the coastline of the United Kingdom. Félix Guattari points out: ‘Technological development, and in particular the miniaturization of transmitters and the fact that they can be put together by amateurs, ‘encounters’ a collective aspiration for some new means of expression.’
Propaganda broadcasting may be authorized by the government at the transmitting site, but may be considered unwanted or illegal by the government of the intended reception area. Propaganda broadcasting conducted by national governments against the interests of other national governments has created radio jamming stations transmitting noises on the same frequency to prevent reception of the incoming signal. While the United States transmitted its programs towards the Soviet Union, which attempted to jam them, in 1970 the government of the United Kingdom decided to employ a jamming transmitter to drown out the incoming transmissions from the commercial station ‘Radio North Sea International,’ which was based aboard the Motor Vessel ‘Mebo II’ anchored off southeast England in the North Sea. Other examples of this type of unusual broadcasting include the USCGC Courier (WAGR-410), a United States Coast Guard cutter which both originated and relayed broadcasts of the ‘Voice of America’ from an anchorage at the Greek island of Rhodes to Soviet bloc countries. Balloons have been flown above Key West, Florida to support the TV transmissions of ‘TV Martí,’ which are directed at Cuba (the Cuban government jams the signals). Military broadcasting aircraft have been flown over Vietnam, Iraq and many other nations by the United States Air Force. The European Union financially supported a radio station broadcasting news and information into the former Yugoslavia from a ship anchored in international waters.
Despite pirate radio being known for over the air transmission, a new type of so called ‘pirate radio’ stations now operate on-line. The distinguishing feature is that these on-line pirates will usually not pay music copyright fees, like most of their AM/FM pirate cousins. These on-line stations will usually attract a small and loyal audience and may go unnoticed by the authorities, unlike the real AM/FM pirates who can easily be heard and traced on a conventional radio. The common term for this type of operation is better served by the term ‘Studio Pirates’ rather than pirate radio, as no real radio transmitter is used.
Illegal use of licensed radio spectrum (also known as ‘bootlegging’ in CB circles) is fairly common and takes several forms. Unlicensed operation is particularly associated with amateur radio and licensed personal communication services such as GMRS, this refers to use of radio equipment on a section of spectrum for which the equipment is designed but on which the user is not licensed to operate (most such operators are informally known as ‘bubble pack pirates’ from the sealed plastic retail packaging common to such walkie-talkies). While piracy on the US GMRS band, for example, is widespread (some estimates have the number of total GMRS users outstripping the number of licensed users by several orders of magnitude), such use is generally disciplined only in cases where the pirate’s activity interferes with a licensee.
The Daily Omnivore 
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