Why do we commonly refer to illegal radio transmissions as "Pirate Radio?" It all began with inspiration from Radio Luxembourg and Voice of America - wartime transmissions flooding the airwaves in Europe way back in the 1950's.
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 broadcasted to Denmark in this case. The station was named
Radio Mercur and began transmission on August 2nd 1958. In the Danish newspapers it was soon called a
"pirate radio".
Radio Mercur started regular transmission on August 2nd 1958 and ceased officially on July 31st 1962, though there still were 3 days of illegal transmissions from August 13-15 1962. Later broadcasting under the name of Radio Mercur in various locations such as
Mallorca, on the
Spanish Costa del Sol, and finally in
Copenhagen, Denmark as a local radio station until 1994.
Radio Mercur was probably the first commercial offshore radio station in the world and gave inspiration to a whole number of offshore radios or pirate radios in Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium and United Kingdom during the 1960s. The Danish press soon began to use the expression "pirate radio" on Radio Mercur, and a number of cartoons in newspapers and magazines pictured the radio station with pirate symbols.
Radio Mercur made all of its recordings in studios in Copenhagen, Denmark and the tapes were then sailed to a transmitting vessel in international water in Oeresund between Denmark and Sweden. Transmissions took place on the FM-band, first on 88,00 MHz, later on different frequencies to be able to meet complaints from the Danish authorities and also to transmit in stereo with dual transmissions on two frequencies simultaneously.
Radio Mercur used the fact, that radio transmitting in international water only was regulated by international agreements, that didn't take into account that it was a possibility to transmit regularly from an anchored ship. The inspiration for the radio station came from
Radio Luxembourg and the American
Voice of America, that broadcast from a military vessel, USCGC Courier, in the Mediterranean.
The radio station was started by Peer Jansen and Ib Fogh. It was called a pirate radio, because it was considered a lawless attack on the monopoly of the Danish National Broadcasting Corporation, though the authorities didn't have any weapon in the first place to stop the "radio pirates".
The Danish parliament decided a bill in June 1962, that effectively prohibited all participation in activities supporting transmissions, recordings, etc. after August 1st 1962. At the same time similar bills were pushed through in Sweden and the other Nordic countries. Transmissions started again some days later, but the Danish authorities took immediate action and send police out to seize the vessel and end transmissions. In Sweden the station
Radio Syd, using two of Mercur's former ships in succession, succeeded transmissions up to 1966 in defiance of the law.