Radio Veronica
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article refers to a historical Dutch radio station, not the current oldies station with the same name
Radio Veronica is also a radio station in Athens, Greece, see http://www.veronica.gr
Radio Veronica was a pirate radio station that began broadcasting in 1960, and has the distinction of having broadcast from offshore for the longest continuous period - more than fourteen years.
(Radio Caroline broadcast offshore over a longer period - more than twenty-six and a half years - but this included non-consecutive periods totalling around eight and a half years off the air.)
After the closure of the radio station some of its staff applied for a broadcasting licence and continued the name as a legal organisation.
The station became the most popular radio station in the Netherlands, broadcasting from a former lightship Borkum Riff anchored off the Dutch coastline. The ship was fitted with a horizontal antenna between fore and aft masts, fed by a 1 kilowatt transmitter. The majority of programmes were pre-recorded in a studio in Amsterdam.
For a short time the station also commenced an English language service under the call letters of CNBC (Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company.)
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[edit] Expansion and competition
The station faced its first serious competition in 1964 when Radio and TV Noordzee began broadcasting from the REM Island, a purpose-built artificial structure. The Dutch Government passed a law banning broadcasts from such structures and raided the REM Island, but left Veronica alone because of its popularity.
In 1965 the station acquired a new ship, a converted trawler named MV Norderney, and equipped it with a more efficient antenna and a 10 kilowatt transmitter, as well as a sophisticated anchoring system designed to keep the ship and its antenna correctly oriented. The Norderney took over Veronica's broadcasts in May of that year and the Borkum Riff was subsequently sold for scrap.
During the 1960s the station was also influenced by English-language pirates like Wonderful Radio London and adopted a more fast-moving format with jingles. When another UK-based pirate, Swinging Radio England, went bankrupt it was briefly replaced by two Dutch-language successors, Radio Dolfijn and then Radio 227, which deliberately targeted Veronica's audiences, but this competition was again short-lived because of the British Marine Offences Act which closed most of the British stations by August 1967.
[edit] Veronica versus RNI
The arrival of a more powerful rival was to cause serious repercussions for Veronica. Radio Nordsee International (RNI), owned by two Swiss businessmen, initially broadcast German and English programmes from its ship MV Mebo II anchored off the British coast in early 1970 but was jammed by the British Government. The jamming stopped when the ship moved to the Netherlands, eventually taking up position just one mile from the Norderney. Dutch language programming replaced German by day and English programmes continued at night.
The Mebo II was equipped with a 100 kilowatt AM transmitter as well as FM and shortwave equipment. Although raw power did not guarantee RNI an audience, Radio Veronica's management were sufficiently worried about loss of advertising revenue that they devised a plan to put RNI off the air.
On September 24, 1970 RNI closed down, claiming that they were doing so in an attempt to prevent the Dutch Government from passing legislation that might force Veronica, "so dearly loved by the peoples of Holland", to close. In fact Veronica had paid RNI 1 million guilders to go off the air for two months, and in order to enforce this agreement Veronica replaced the Mebo II's crew with their own staff.
RNI's management became increasingly unhappy with this arrangement, and once the two months were up one of RNI's Swiss directors, Erwin Bollier, attempted to refund the money. Veronica refused, claiming the right to renew the contract. On January 5, 1971 Bollier boarded the Mebo II, dismissed the Veronica-appointed captain, and took command himself. It was claimed that Veronica's staff had sabotaged RNI's equipment, but by February 1971 RNI was back on the air. In March Veronica sued RNI for breach of contract. The court eventually found in favour of RNI, and the court case tarnished Veronica's previously scandal-free reputation.
Worse was to come. On the night of May 15 three men in a rubber dinghy set a fire on board the Mebo II which caused serious damage to the stern of the ship. RNI broadcast frantic mayday calls and listeners jammed emergency switchboards all over Europe. Eventually all those on board were rescued and the fire was extinguished. The studios and transmitters were undamaged and RNI went back on the air the following morning.
On May 17 Veronica's advertising director Norbert Jurgens was arrested in connection with the attack, and the following day Veronica's director Bull Verweij was also arrested. In a television interview Verweij claimed that he had paid a man to tow the Mebo II into Dutch territorial waters so that the ship could have been seized legally. Verweij denied any intention to endanger the lives of RNI's crew, but was subsequently found guilty together with Jurgens and the crew of the dinghy and all five were sentenced to a year in prison.
Tha damage to Veronica's reputation was incalculable, and just as the 1966 Radio City shooting had motivated the British Government to pass anti-pirate legislation, the RNI fire similarly motivated the Dutch Government.
Both Veronica and RNI continued to broadcast without further incident, but as the Government began to draw up plans for anti-pirate legislation so the two stations began to campaign against it.
In September 1972 the two radio ships were joined by Radio Caroline's MV Mi Amigo, which anchored directly between the Norderney and Mebo II as if in a gesture of conciliation.
[edit] Frequency change and RNI2
Veronica had been experiencing interference on its long-established frequency of 1562 kHz (192 metres) from the Beromünster transmitter in Switzerland. Originally allocated a power of 10 kW on 1562 kHz, Beromünster had upgraded to 160 kW and was planning a further increase to 300 kW. Veronica had been considering a new frequency since the late 1960s, and the threat of increased interference made it imperative.
At noon on September 30 1972 Veronica broadcast a half-hour retrospective documentary. The station then closed at 12:30 PM (a time chosen to symbolise the station's 12½ years on the air), announcing that it would reopen at 1:00 PM on its new frequency of 557 kHz (539 metres, announced as 538).
A moment after Veronica went off the air, listeners were surprised to hear RNI's theme tune on 1562 kHz. RNI DJ Tony Allan, in Dutch, thanked Veronica for its 12½ years of broadcasting and reminded listeners of Veronica's new frequency, then welcomed them to the new sound of "RNI2". RNI's management claimed that the new service had been launched to prove that RNI could broadcast additional frequencies in case of emergency, but it was widely seen by listeners as a tongue-in-cheek act of rivalry aimed at poaching some of Veronica's listeners.
Veronica returned to the air on 557 kHz as scheduled. Listeners in the Netherlands and Belgium reported improved reception, but this was not the case in Britain.
September 30 was an eventful day for offshore radio enthusiasts. That day also saw the Mi Amigo began test transmissions in preparation for Radio Caroline's return.
Meanwhile RNI2 broadcast for a few weeks and then went off the air.
[edit] 1973-4 : Co-operation and rivalry
As the Government drew up its legislation Veronica organised a major rally that was due to take place in The Hague on April 18, 1973, and planned to broadcast special programmes in support. Unfortunately on April 2 the Norderney lost its anchor in a storm and ran aground on Scheveningen beach. The ship suffered no serious damage and the crew were taken ashore safely, but it seemed unlikely that the ship could be refloated in time for the rally. RNI offered its facilities, but Veronica refused because of the bad blood between them. Caroline, although off the air with technical problems, also made an offer and Veronica accepted.
Working around the clock, Caroline's technicians put the Mi Amigo back on the air on April 11, transmitting Radio Veronica programmes on Caroline's frequency of 1187 kHz (253 metres, announced as 259). Meanwhile work on refloating the Norderney continued. This took several days, but the ship was in fact back at sea on the 18th and soon returned to the air. Thereafter the Mi Amigo relayed Veronica programmes from the Norderney for a few days.
In the summer of 1973 Britain's Independent Broadcasting Authority began test transmissions on 557 kHz from an antenna at Lot's Road Power Station in west London. In October that year Capital Radio was launched on the same frequency. These broadcasts caused serious interference to Veronica in Britain and Belgium, although Dutch listeners were largely unaffected.
Meanwhile Caroline, which had helped Veronica in April, offered it new rivalry in July, in the form of Belgian millionaire Adriaan van Landschoot's Radio Atlantis which had hired airtime on the Mi Amigo. This lasted until October. Radio Atlantis subsequently resumed broadcasting from its own ship, while from the Mi Amigo a new Dutch/Flemish station Radio Mi Amigo was launched on January 1, 1974.
[edit] Final broadcast
Despite all of the pro-Veronica campaigning, the Dutch Government passed its anti-pirate legislation and announced that the law was to come into effect on September 1 1974. Veronica chose to close down at 6 PM on August 31. The final hour was presented live from the ship, accompanied by a ticking clock. The station's owner Bull Verweij was on board, but his farewell speech was pre-recorded as he knew he would have been too overcome by emotion to deliver it live. In his final speech DJ Rob Out claimed that with Veronica a piece of democracy was also dying. Following the Dutch National Anthem, a Veronica jingle was played and the transmitter was switched off halfway through. Photos of the scene in the studio show grown men openly weeping.
Radio Atlantis and RNI also closed on the evening of August 31. Radio Caroline had already decided to continue, as it had in 1967, and after some debate Radio Mi Amigo also decided to stay on the air. After Veronica's closure Radio Mi Amigo "borrowed" many of Veronica's programming formats.
[edit] Veronica applies for legal status
After 1974 some of Veronica's staff set up the VOO (a Dutch abbreviation for Veronica Broadcasting Company) in the hopes of applying for a broadcasting licence. After some bureaucratic obstruction, which one critic described as a mini-Watergate, the VOO was finally granted a licence and was invited to open the new Hilversum 4 radio network on December 28, 1975. Hilversum 4 was a classical music service, and the irony was not lost on Veronica, which began its first legal programme by "accidentally" playing a snatch of Beatles music at the start.
The VOO was part of the Dutch State broadcasting System, but during the 1990's Veronica became an independent broadcasting station in the Netherlands.
For further information see Veronica (television channel).
