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[paw broon]

Bowers enjoyed the mention of Radio Luxembourg, in Marty
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=79025
and wanted more about the pirate stations.  First, this is from BBC about the original Radio Scotland:-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-40900666

But Luxembourg was the one I listened to before the others started. At the time it was difficult to hear much pop music.  The BBC shows were pretty poor, even to the extent of having their own singers covering top ten hits with a studio orchestra.  The problem now with looking back at Radio Luxembourg is the monster that was Jimmy Savile.  He DJ'd "Guys, Gals and Groups" and "Teen and Twenty Disc Club" on RL.
When the pirate ships started broadcasting, it was a revelation.    In Central Scotland I could get Caroline and on a good night, Radio London.  Then Radio Scotland came along. 
Sometimes I could pick up Radio Atlanta?  and a couple of others on my wee transistor radio.
But it was Luxenbourg that introduced me to some great music in the late '50's early '60's. Johnny and Th ehurricanes; Bobby Vee; Del Shannon; The Platters; Elvis; The Ventures and lots of early British pop.

[crashryan]

Being an American I knew nothing about pirate radio. The first time I head about it was in an episode of Secret Agent/Danger Man in which John Drake infiltrates an offshore broadcast station. I couldn't understand what the big deal was. Radio stations broadcasting the Voice of America to freedom-loving cells in the Soviet bloc made sense to me. But illegal stations broadcasting rock 'n' roll and advertisements? That was weird. By the way, I haven't seen that episode in nearly 60 years. Can someone who remembers it tell me why a secret agent needed to infiltrate an offshore broadcast station?

When I moved to Washington State as a boy in 1960, rock was still Forbidden Music in many families, but it was played on radio stations everywhere. The arrival of transistor radios freed kids from parental dominance over the family radio and as we know the decline and fall of Western civilization followed.

The "Marty" story sent me to Wikipedia and a fascinating history of Radio Luxembourg and The 208. The biggest surprise to me was that the station was owned and often programmed from England, not Luxembourg.

[Robb_K]

Being an American I knew nothing about pirate radio. The first time I head about it was in an episode of Secret Agent/Danger Man in which John Drake infiltrates an offshore broadcast station. I couldn't understand what the big deal was. Radio stations broadcasting the Voice of America to freedom-loving cells in the Soviet bloc made sense to me. But illegal stations broadcasting rock 'n' roll and advertisements? That was weird. By the way, I haven't seen that episode in nearly 60 years. Can someone who remembers it tell me why a secret agent needed to infiltrate an offshore broadcast station?

When I moved to Washington State as a boy in 1960, rock was still Forbidden Music in many families, but it was played on radio stations everywhere. The arrival of transistor radios freed kids from parental dominance over the family radio and as we know the decline and fall of Western civilization followed.

The "Marty" story sent me to Wikipedia and a fascinating history of Radio Luxembourg and The 208. The biggest surprise to me was that the station was owned and often programmed from England, not Luxembourg.

That was because The UK was the prime market that was being deprived of that kind of music, and stations in The UK wouldn't play it.  It's obvious that a station outside The UK's legal water boundaries couldn't get licensed by The British authorities.  So, it had to be a foreign licensor, but be stationed well within the listening range of the entire UK.  France, Belgium and The Netherlands had extremely intertwined trade relations with The UK, and so, likely didn't want to offend The British by sending pirate music and commercial advertising to them.  But tiny Luxembourg didn't depend so heavily on trade with Britain, so they could afford to take the risk of licensing the ocean-based radio station, and possibly facing a reprimand from their low countries brethren, plus, at worst, a small slap on the wrist (which probably never even happened). 

The BBC eventually saw that the youth of their country wanted to hear that music, and so, reluctantly had to give up trying to promote only old-fashioned sappy MOR Pop music, and move towards catching up with the times.  RL was one of the catalysts that got music tastes in Britain to change.

[Captain Audio]

Being an American I knew nothing about pirate radio. The first time I head about it was in an episode of Secret Agent/Danger Man in which John Drake infiltrates an offshore broadcast station. I couldn't understand what the big deal was. Radio stations broadcasting the Voice of America to freedom-loving cells in the Soviet bloc made sense to me. But illegal stations broadcasting rock 'n' roll and advertisements? That was weird. By the way, I haven't seen that episode in nearly 60 years. Can someone who remembers it tell me why a secret agent needed to infiltrate an offshore broadcast station?

When I moved to Washington State as a boy in 1960, rock was still Forbidden Music in many families, but it was played on radio stations everywhere. The arrival of transistor radios freed kids from parental dominance over the family radio and as we know the decline and fall of Western civilization followed.

The "Marty" story sent me to Wikipedia and a fascinating history of Radio Luxembourg and The 208. The biggest surprise to me was that the station was owned and often programmed from England, not Luxembourg.

I found that episode on Youtube awhile back. IIRC it had something to do with spies using the station to pass along information.

I remember reading of abandoned fortified anti aircraft batteries and radar stations built during WW2 on towers in the English Channel being used by pirate radio stations in the 60's.
In recent years some of these old towers have been taken over by wealthy people who build private island mansions on them.
I think some of those artificial island fortresses predate WW1.

[paw broon]

Not quite right.  BBC played popular music. Saturday Club is one instance on radio and the 6.5 special on BBC tv. There are samples of the latter on YouTube. But these were once a week. The Pirates were on all day and evening.  RL was on every evening.  Pop music was available all the time.  6.5 Special had pop stars of the time and occasionally Saturday Club had guest artists and groups.
Also, the pirate stations were a bit anti establishment to most kids.
The programmes were made in London and shipped to Luxembourg for broadcast. 

[bowers]

 Gentlemen, thanks to one and all for enlightening me on this subject! And a special thanks to Paw for introducing me to Radio Scotland- I'd never heard of it before. Loved the photo of the demonstration in Edinburgh! I'm currently scouring You Tube for Scottish bands of the 60's and am enjoying The Poets, Scots of St. James, and Beatstalkers. Any other suggestions? Cheers, Bowers

[paw broon]

Well, apart from the bands I was in, there were a lot, most of which didn't get very far.  You might find The Golden Crusaders - they were from Bathgate. Dean Ford and The Gaylords, later became Marmalade.  I'll fire up my failing memory and try to dig up more.

[bowers]

Found the Golden Crusaders- would have loved to see them live! Lotsa raw power. The ad pictured on the You Tube video says "They're new, they're English, they've got an Epic single...". Oh my- bet that didn't go over well with the Bathgate crowd! Cheers, Bowers

[The Australian Panther]

Re Pirate Radio stations:- Didn't need those in Australia, but the commercial stations were pretty limited till the late 60s. My memory says that nobody running a commercial radio station knew what was going to sell or why or to what audience, and from 1960 to 1970 everything changed so much and so fast they just went with the flow. I think TV was more important than Radio for promoting groups and music at the time.
But I do believe there were Australians 'spinning platters' on the Pirates.
Interestingly, re people playing Rock music in other countries, John Peel apparently got his start in the US.
Re Scottish bands, there is also the fact that a significant number of musos in what were considered 'English' bands were from Scotland - not to mention Ireland and Wales.
And Paw, what instrument do you play? I'm guessing Keyboards.

Cheers!           

[paw broon]

Wrong Panther .  I wonder what got you to that conclusion. I was the singer- chanter as Coatbridge slang would have it,  you really need the accent to get the full impact .  I also played a bit of rythm guitar and moothie - mouth organ, harmonica in one band where we played r 'n' b.
It's important you should know we weren't very successful. Or very good.  Enthusiasm, that was the thing.  At that time there were umpteen bands and pop singers in our area. My short street had members of 3 bands and a girl who had some local fame as a singer in the club's. 
It was a great time.  30 watt Vox amps, cheap guitars, cheap mics, lots of tape,  all a bit Heath Robinson.  It's a miracle not more of us got hurt.