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
Irish pirate radio people who left the pirate scene just before the superpirates emerged such as Marty Whelan, Gerry Ryan, Dave Fanning, John Paul, Ian Dempsey and Robbie Irwin. North Dublin Community Radio (a forerunner to NEAR FM), was a local community-based radio station, which operated in the Northside of Dublin broadcasting on 100 MHz FM and on 1008 kHz AM. XFM was seen as one of the "grandads" of operating pirates in Ireland, having run almost continuously since 1991, when it was called "Alice's Restaurant"; Although other stations such as Radio Star Country, shortwave pirate Jolly Roger Radio/Riverside Radio and EFR/Choice FM