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
Pirate radio in North America is the James Brownyard memorial station, playing clips from an old Pennsylvania daytime AM station of that same name. Radio One recreated the sound of 1960s top-40 radio and played oldies with an echo chamber reverb effect behind the announcer much like WABC had done. The Voice of the Sea Cucumber was known for some very strange programming, its announcer calling himself "Dear Leader." There are also many stations that are specifically aimed to the pirate radio listening community; many are long-running gag stations such as WBNY, the Voice of the Rodent Revolution, with programming by its leader Commander Bunny,