Pirate radio

For other uses, see Pirate Radio (disambiguation).
REM Island was a platform off the Dutch coast used as a pirate radio station in 1964 before being dismantled by the Netherlands Marine Corps.

Pirate radio is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license.[1] In some cases, radio stations are considered 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 an amateur radio transmission). Pirate radio is sometimes called bootleg radio[2] (a term especially associated with two-way radio), clandestine radio (associated with heavily politically motivated operations) or free radio.

  1. ^ "Pirate radio/television station". Online Cambridge Dictionary. 21 May 2023.
  2. ^ Misiroglu, Gina, ed. (2015). "Pirate Radio". American Countercultures: An Encyclopedia of Nonconformists, Alternative Lifestyles, and Radical Ideas in U.S. History. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-47728-0. An unlicensed FM station (often run by an amateur radio operator) that manages to occupy a commercial or state-run FM band is an example of a pirate or "bootleg" radio station