Pirate radio in the United Kingdom Caroline and Radio London started to broadcast on medium wave to the UK from offshore ships or disused sea forts. At the time, these stations were not illegal because they were broadcasting from international waters. The stations were set up by entrepreneurs and music enthusiasts to meet the growing demand for pop and rock music, which was not catered for by the legal BBC Radio services. The first British pirate radio station was Radio Caroline, which was launched by Irish music entrepreneur Ronan O'Rahilly, and started broadcasting from a ship off the Essex coast in 1964. By 1967 ten pirate
Radio Mercur Radio Mercur Radio Mercur was a Danish offshore broadcasting commercial radio station. It started regular transmission on August 2, 1958 and ceased officially on July 31, 1962, though there still were 3 days of illegal transmissions from August 13–15, 1962. Later broadcasting took place under the name of Radio Mercur in Majorca from 1969–70 and again on the Spanish Costa del Sol from 1982–84 and finally in Copenhagen, Denmark as a local radio station from 1987-94. A Swedish "pirate" station, Skånes Radio Mercur (changed name to Radio Syd in 1961 ), started broadcasting on December 14, 1958, from the same