History Main / BuccaneerBroadcaster

** The border blaster phenomenon in North America involves stations in Mexico located near the US border that take advantage of looser broadcasting restrictions and lower costs in Mexico to broadcast over very large swaths of the southwestern US. This is often to the great irritation of American stations, whose signals frequently get overwhelmed. The "X stations" (after the Mexican broadcast callsign prefix) began in the 1930s and specialized in English language programming, including preachers, hucksters and music that was often overlooked by American stations, like RockAndRoll and R&B. Radio legend Creator/WolfmanJack first gained wide notice with a show on 100,000-watt XERF in the Rio Grande Valley, before moving on to XERB in Tijuana. FM border blasters were banned by mutual consent in 1972 (Mexican stations must broadcast at the same wattage as American stations). AM blasters are still around, but largely broadcast in Spanish these days.

** There have been three major attempts at offshore pirate broadcasting in the United States, all of which lasted only a matter of days. RXKR, based on a ship anchored off the coast of Los Angeles, broadcast for a few weeks in 1933, with the LoopholeAbuse excuse that they were actually licensed in Panama rather than the US. In 1973, right-wing preacher Carl [=McIntire=] bought an old World War II minesweeper and started a station called Radio Free America off the coast of New Jersey, which only lasted a week or so before a fire on the ship and FCC enforcement shut it down. Then a station called RNI (Radio Newyork ''[sic]'' International) tried it in 1987 and 1988 in a fully-outfitted fishing vessel anchored off Long Island. The FCC rejected their claim that they weren't subject to federal jurisdiction because they were technically in international waters, and enlisted the Coast Guard to raid the ship and arrest the staffers.

** The UrExample for American pirate radio was WUMS ("We're Unknown Mysterious Station") in the tiny town of Proctorville, Ohio. It operated sporadically from 1925 to 1970. Its operator, David Thomas, was by all accounts a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} of the highest order, but he managed to elude the FCC for decades. He was even put on trial twice for operating the station, but was acquitted both times by successfully nitpicking legal technicalities in the charges.

** The UrExample for American pirate radio was WUMS ("We're Unknown Mysterious Station") in the tiny town of Proctorville, Ohio. It operated sporadically from 1925 to 1970. Its operator, David Thomas, was by all accounts a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} of the highest order, but he managed to elude FCC for decades. He was even put on trial twice for operating the station, but was acquitted both times by successfully nitpicking legal technicalities in the charges.

* The UrExample was the yacht Ceto, which was acquired by the British ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers Daily Mail]]'' newspaper in 1928 in order to broadcast advertising, prohibited by the Creator/{{BBC}}. However the transmitting equipment of the time was unable to provide a decent signal at sea, so the only way they could be heard was using loudspeakers.

* Mexican "border blasters" (or "X stations", after the Mexican broadcast callsign prefix). They're radio stations along the US–Mexico border that take advantage of looser broadcasting restrictions and lower costs in Mexico to broadcast over very large swaths of the southwestern US. This is often to the great irritation of American stations, whose signals frequently get overwhelmed. FM border blasters were banned by mutual consent in 1972 (Mexican stations must broadcast at the same wattage as American stations), although AM blasters are still around.
** Radio legend Wolfman Jack did most of his work at a station in Tijuana. Actually, the ''only'' way Southern listeners could listen to rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues in the late 1950s and early 1960s was tuning into Mexican stations, as stations in the South would not touch that music.

* Because television broadcasting requires more expensive equipment, pirate TV examples are much rarer and generally fall under DoNotAdjustYourSet. However, a true pirate station called Lucky Seven famously aired on an April weekend in 1978 on Channel 7 (otherwise an empty channel) in Syracuse, New York. Programming was mostly movies, some mainstream (including ''Film/{{Rocky}}''), some [[UsefulNotes/{{Pornography}} pornographic]] (like ''Behind the Green Door'' and ''Deep Throat''), and interstitials with an onscreen announcer wearing a gas mask, condemning the FCC. It also had professional quality bumpers, with jingles and animation depicting a hand rolling a seven with two dice. The perpetrators have never been caught, but it's widely suspected that it was a group of students at Syracuse University who hijacked equipment from the school's broadcasting department.

* One episode of [[Series/Thunderbirds the original Thunderbirds]] features a pirate radio station operating out of an illegal and undocumented ''space station''. The [[OnceAnEpisode disaster of the week]] involves a collision with a legally-launched satellite.

* One episode of Series/{Thunderbirds} features a pirate radio station operating out of an illegal and undocumented ''space station''. The [[OnceAnEpisode disaster of the week]] involves a collision with a legally-launched satellite.

* One episode of Series/Thunderbirds features a pirate radio station operating out of an illegal and undocumented ''space station''. The [[OnceAnEpisode disaster of the week]] involves a collision with a legally-launched satellite.

* Mexican "border blasters" (or "X stations", after the Mexican broadcast callsign prefix) are another [[IncrediblyLamePun borderline]] example. They're radio stations along the US–Mexico border that take advantage of looser broadcasting restrictions and lower costs in Mexico to broadcast over very large swaths of the southwestern US. This is often to the great irritation of American stations, whose signals frequently get overwhelmed. FM border blasters were banned by mutual consent in 1972 (Mexican stations must broadcast at the same wattage as American stations), although AM blasters are still around.

* ''Series/TheGoodies'' start a pirate radio station in "Radio Goodies". Inspired, Graeme starts a pirate post office, then goes DrunkWithPower and tries to start a pirate nation by dragging England out of its own five-mile limit. It is highly amusing.

* [[http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/ Radio Caroline,]] described in the opening section, originally broadcast from 1964–8, but made less-publicized comebacks from 1972–80 and 1983–90. In the '90s, it began broadcasting legally from a land-based studio via satellite and later the internet. As of 2016, it's hoping to get a DAB digital radio license.

* Inspired by the pirates broadcasting to Britain in the 60s, the ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' episode "Ricochet" features a pirate station operating from a small satellite - which naturally gets into trouble. (Why the owners didn't think to use an ''unmanned'' satellite is never explained.) The guy's on-air shtick is [[DumbassDJ so incredibly irritating]] that the Tracey brothers are clearly giving serious thought to [[RefuseToRescueTheDisliked leaving him to die]].

* The ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' episode ''Ricochet'' featured one of these operating [[RecycledInSpace in SPACE]] from a space station, also [[RippedFromTheHeadlines inspired by Radio Caroline]].

* A land-based variation of this is the "border blaster", with high-powered transmitters carrying signals at a far greater distance than most radio stations.

* "Mexican Radio" by Music/WallofVoodoo is a tribute to the powerful AM radio stations located near the U.S.-Mexico border known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_blaster "border blasters."]]

** Luxembourg wasn't fussy about who or what it broadcast as long as they paid up (in other words, the radio equivalent of the SwissBankAccount). Prior to the pop shows starting in the early evenings, 208 was the home of a particularly repugnant American televangelist (British broadcasting law refused any sort of airtime for these people in Britain). Despite hating pop and rock music as being a tainted and ungodly thing of Satan, Garner Ted Armstrong and his church had no choice but to rent airspace from the Satan-worshippers in Luxembourg to get their message into Britain.

* ''Literature/InTheYear2050AmericasReligiousCivilWar'' gives us EIBLAZE, a pirate radio/TV station set up by Creator/RushLimbaugh, Sean Hannity and Creator/GlennBeck to resist censorship by the evil Liberal government. After all existing networks are folded into Al-Jazeera (it's that kind of book) EIBLAZE moves to Israel and runs an internet show.

* Inspired by the pirates broadcasting to Britain in the 60s, the ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' episode "Ricochet" features a pirate station operating from a small satellite - which naturally gets into trouble. (Why the owners didn't think to use an ''unmanned'' satellite is never explained.) The guy's on-air shtick is [[DumbassDJ so incredibly irritating]] that the Tracey brothers are clearly giving serious thought to [[RefusingToRescueTheDisliked leaving him to die]].

* Inspired by the pirates broadcasting to Britain in the 60s, the ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' episode "Ricochet" features a pirate station operating from a small satellite - which naturally gets into trouble. (Why the owners didn't think to use an ''unmanned'' satellite is never explained.) The guy's on-air shtick is [[DumbassDJ so incredibly irritating]] that the Tracey brothers are legitimately tempted to leave him to die.

*** In fact, in the '60s, Armstrong's show was broadcast daily by almost ''all'' of the ship-based pirates off Britain as well.

* Q-USA is a pirate video example, from ''ComicBook/AmericanFlagg''.

* Before UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, many cross-border commercial stations operated in small European countries, generally aimed at Britain, where the Creator/{{BBC}} enjoyed a monopoly on radio and listening to unauthorised radio broadcasts was illegal. Radio Luxembourg became the most popular of these (it was ''run by that country's government''). During the war, some of them, including Luxembourg, were taken over and used to broadcast Nazi propaganda; after the war, Luxy was the only one that resumed commercial operations. In TheFifties, Luxembourg broadcast lots of {{Game Show}}s, most of which defected to television as soon as Creator/{{ITV}} went on the air, leaving Luxembourg as solely a music station. UsefulNotes/TheBBC developed a rivalry with Radio Luxembourg for much of TheFifties and TheSixties, especially in the arena of pop music. In fact, many BBC [=DJs=] also broadcast on Luxembourg--clearly, contracts were more lenient in those days. In 1989, a partnership between Luxembourg and RTE resulted in Atlantic 252, which broadcast to the British Isles from Ireland until 2002.

* [[http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/ Radio Caroline]], described in the opening section, originally broadcast from 1964–8, but made less-publicized comebacks from 1972–80 and 1983–90. In the '90s, it began broadcasting legally from a land-based studio via satellite and later the internet. As of 2016, it's hoping to get a DAB digital radio license.

* In the Midwest during the late '70s and early '80s, it was Bruce Quinn's ''Jolly Roger Radio''. They played the pirate trope to the hilt. Avast, matey, here be some Pentangle and Steeleye Span fer ye! They also had a number of promos joking about how they knew they were going to get busted. They did. Quinn later [[http://www.worldofradio.com/dxld4026.txt owned WKLU Indianapolis]] and sold it for something like six million dollars. With his wife Mitzi, he now owns and operates [[http://www.whum.org/page2/ WHUM]], a noncommercial freeform station in Columbus, Indiana.