Marine Broadcasting Offences Act
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The Marine, etc, Broadcasting (Offences) Act was introduced in the UK in 1967, and, broadly speaking, prohibits broadcasting (i.e. transmitting with the express purpose of making the broadcast generally available) from ships, aircraft, or marine structures unless in possession of a Post Office Licence to do so. The Act extended to the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It was aimed at offshore pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline.
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[edit] The problem
In the United Kingdom, broadcasting was an official monopoly vested in the British Broadcasting Corporation. The first challenge occurred when Independent Television came into existence following the Television Act 1954. There was an extensive debate about whether this was warranted, and about the possible effect upon what was described as the "quality" of the BBC. At the time the BBC considered it necessary for all its announcers to present themselves as if they were visiting somebody in their own home, ie they had to dress formally in dinner-jacket or long dress. However, ITV was duly introduced, and it did not cause the end of civilisation as we knew it.
On the radio, the BBC offered the Home Service (1939), which was predominantly "talk" on medium wave and the Light Programme (1945) on long wave which was predominantly light music, with some "spoken" programmes, for example, the serial drama Mrs Dale's Diary. These names were applied to programming which had already existed before the War, but latterly the BBC had introduced the Third Programme or Network Three in 1946, which was predominantly classical music with some heavy drama, talks and discussion programmes,
As the 1950s progressed, musical tastes widened, but BBC programming, particularly the Light Programme, did not expand accordingly. The Light Programme covered a wide spectrum of non-classical music, but younger listeners wanted more contemporary music. As an alternative to the BBC there was Radio Luxembourg, a continental-based commercial radio broadcast which went out only in the evenings on 208 metres medium wave (1439 KHz). The principal advertisers were the record companies, which bought up slots of air-time to promote their own offerings.
The big pressure for change came when the introduction of transistor radios coincided with the genesis of rock and roll round about 1956, allied to greater spending-power for young people. The teenage market started to assume major importance for the record companies. The BBC was not able to fill the demand for record programmes, largely because they had agreements with the Musicians' Union to limit the amount of recorded music broadcast and maximise the output of "live" (or recorded for the purpose as-live) music. This was known informally as the "Needle time Agreement". Thus the teenage audience were not allowed to listen to records, they had to make do with arrangements of the songs played by an in-house dance-band with a vocalist - guitar, bass, drums and yakety-sax often being conspicuous by their absence. There were some bright spots, for example the morning show Saturday Club presented by Brian Matthew featured the up-and-coming beat groups with the added edge of "live" performance and is still remembered with affection.
In 1964, the pirate radio station Radio Caroline started to broadcast from the MV Fredericia (and later the MV Mi Amigo) moored off the Essex coast. It was joined by Radio Atlanta and Radio London later that year. The connotation of "pirate" was twofold: they were broadcasting illegally (not licensed) using frequencies which had not been allocated to them under international protocols, and they were using records for which they were paying no royalties to the record companies or artistes. The pirates gained immediate popularity. The attraction was the wide range of music which they broadcast. The BBC had difficulty in airing the most popular mainstream records, let alone reflect a genre which already included Herman's Hermits and Freddie and the Dreamers, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Bob Dylan and Cliff Richard and would shortly add Cream and Jimi Hendrix. Among the few programmes on the Light Programme to retain popularity was Pick of the Pops presented on Sunday afternoon by Alan Freeman, which was sure to feature all the hit records played all the way through (not cut short to cram in more discs as on Radio Luxembourg) on good quality (higher transmitter power) radio.
The main drawback of the pirates as far as the listening public was concerned was the weak signal. Being accommodated upon an (old) ship placed severe limits upon the amount of power which could be employed for transmitting. The pirates had a limited range. Most ships served the London area and the south-east of England. Services were launched to serve other areas, the north-west of England and the Midlands in particular, but pirate radio was not received at all over much of the country, and only dimly, amongst the extraneous noise and interference for which the medium waveband is notorious, over most of the rest. This was a marked contrast to the "border blaster" radio stations in North America, for example, XERF featuring Wolfman Jack, whose transmitters had the illegal power to cover large areas of the United States.
The chorus of disapproval was led by the BBC, who were alarmed at the fall-off in their listening audience. They found an unexpected ally in Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Wilson was sensitive to the criticism which the media directed towards his Administration in general and himself in particular. This era was the height of satirical programmes on the BBC, hosted by David Frost. Wilson was a frequent target, but criticism of him on television extended further than late night satire shows. It was suggested that Wilson promoted the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act as a lever to obtain better coverage from the BBC. However, this view overlooks the fact that the radio pirates were operating illegally, and that sooner or later, whoever was in power, measures would have to be brought in to deal with them.
[edit] The arguments against pirate radio
There were three main objections to the operations of pirate broadcasters.
[edit] Interference with maritime distress signals
A powerful argument alleged against pirate radio transmissions was that they had the potential to interfere with mayday signals broadcast by shipping in distress. This was particularly the view of the General Post Office, who were responsible for licensing and regulating radio at that time. The view was also propagated by the Seamen's Union.
In fact the pirates were using medium wave, which was remote from VHF, most commonly used and internationally-agreed for distress calls. The possibility of interference between the two is highly remote, and this disinformation was eagerly seized upon by proponents of pirate radio to discredit the authorities.
[edit] Ripping-off artistes and record companies
This was the main plank of the Musicians' Union opposition to pirate radio. Their line was that by playing records without making royalty payments, the pirates were denying income to the artistes and record companies.
On the face of it, this was a valid argument. However, at the time the Musicians' Union recruited very few rock and roll musicians. Big name acts were obliged to join, or they were not allowed on television or mainstream radio, but the Union made no effort to represent their interests, and was greatly resented as being a hindrance to careers rather than a help. Many musicians felt that, wheras the MU represented the old guard to whom nobody wanted to listen any more, the pirates gave the new boys exposure, as a result of which their recordings sold in much greater numbers that they would otherwise have done had they relied upon live gigs and the BBC. The pirates are credited by many musicians as being a driving force behind the growth in British acts and the "British Invasion" of the American market. In short, they were happy to forego the pennies and halfpennies per airplay in return for the chance of big sales, a view with which most of the recording industry concurred, albeit tacitly.
[edit] Poor quality programming
The BBC was peeved with pirate broadcasting, not only because it seduced a large proportion of their potential audience, but also because it was doing so with programming which they regarded as cheap, amateurish, populist and appealing to the lowest common denominator. Also, as pirates, no rules applied to them, for example any requirement for a public service content. In addition, the pirates used to steal the BBC news bulletins and weather forecasts and re-broadcast them as their own.
Part of this view reflected the middle class "Auntie Beeb" image of the BBC (indeed the word "Beeb" was allegedly coined by pirate DJ Kenny Everett during his Radio London days). However there was a significant contrast in programming style. On the BBC, "presenters" (never "disc jockeys", apart from David Jacobs) formally delivered a programme of music which had been assembled by a producer (or a committee of them) days in advance, wheras pirate programming was mainly ad lib based upon what was to hand in the studio. The exceptions, mostly weekly programmes, were often compiled (by the DJ) in advance but presented in an informal ad lib style. The obvious difference undoubtedly contributed to the popularity of pirate radio. The bottom line against the BBC's "quality" argument was the very fact that their listeners were defecting in great numbers in favour of rival programmes.
[edit] Legislation and beyond
The fact remains that, whatever the attractiveness of the pirates and their programming, they were operating illegally. They were an embarrassment to the government, who had obligations under international law. Legislation was inevitable. The Act made the broadcasting illegal, but it also made supporting the broadcasters illegal too. It was this which killed off the practice, as it became impossible to supply the ships from anywhere in the UK. Radio Caroline struggled on for a while, but it could not compete with Radio 1.
Looking back nostalgically usually involves rose-tinted spectacles. Pirate radio seems much more exciting than it really was, because it was illicit and subversive. But it really was cheap, amateurish, populist and appealing to the lowest common denominator.
The BBC was obliged to change its act. In place of the Light Programme it introduced Radio 1 to cover "pop" music, and Radio 2 for more middle-of-the-road material. It recruited many former pirate presenters and adopted many former pirate programme formats. The BBC secured MU agreement for an increase in needle time. However, one unforseen effect was that time was taken up by DJ chat and banter rather than live music played by MU members. The Third Programme kept its number (Radio 3) and the Home Service became Radio 4.
The early 1970s saw the introduction and widespread dissemination of FM broadcasting. The twofold advantages were enhanced, near to hi-fi, sound quality and stereo imaging, which the traditional AM signal could not provide. This combined with the more popular BBC programming to sound the death knell of Radio Luxembourg, which limped on, going stereo in 1989 on the Astra satellite. The sea-based pirate stations would not have competed effectively, and it is unlikely that they would have had access to satellite broadcasting.
The industry was not entirely satisfied, and pressure grew for officially-sanctioned commercial radio broadcasting in the UK. As a consequence, LBC and Capital Radio started broadcasting across London in 1973, soon followed by similar services elsewhere. In the beginning the music stations adopted a pirate-style ad lib approach, but it was not long before corporatism took over and formats became based upon the repetition of limited playlists.
A further development is the growth in community broadcasting across the country using low-powered local transmitters. The umbrella organisation is the Community Media Association based in Sheffield.
The wheel has turned full circle, as pirate radio is an essential part of Hip hop culture and other aspects of the modern urban youth lifestyle. The equipment is relatively cheap and portable, and there are plenty of tower-blocks which can be used to broadcast cutting-edge music to those people in the know. The medium is also allegedly used to transmit subversive and illegal material, which is why the current regulator Ofcom is particularly keen to find those responsible to prosecute and close down their operations.
