Offshore radio acquired the yacht Ceto and installed radio equipment. Unfortunately, the apparatus could not operate properly overboard, the signal being heavily affected by the climate conditions. The transmitter was then replaced by Siemens loudspeakers and the Ceto toured England "broadcasting" gramophone records interspersed by advertising. Unauthorized offshore broadcasting stations operating from ships or fixed platforms in the coastal waters of the Northern Sea first appeared in 1958. There were as many as eleven such stations in the mid-1960s. One of the most popular offshore radio broadcasts in Europe came from Radio Caroline, which developed out both of the strict broadcasting regulations
Irish pirate radio followed by the arrival of South Coast Radio and Radio ERI in Cork. These were pirate radio stations run for the first time on a commercial basis with the critical support of Ireland's advertising industry based in Dublin. Radio Nova in Dublin, launched as a 'clutter free' radio station, was arguably the catalyst for a sea change in radio in Ireland. It was an era of unregulated freedom on air that produced what many view as perhaps the most exciting era for radio in Ireland. Professional market research conducted in the 1980s by reputable market research companies such as Lansdowne