Piracy by Radio

There is a new kind of pirate on the high seas--the radio buccaneer. His prey is a country with a state radio loaded with classical music, edifying lectures and a ban on commercials. All that is necessary is an old freighter equipped with a radio transmitter, a safe anchorage beyond the three-mile territorial limit, and a supply of jazz and popular records. Since there are invariably more lowbrows than highbrows in any given country, the pirate soon has an eager army of listeners, and a flock of sponsors eager to press money upon him for commercials.

Latest radio pirate is Radio Nord, an American-owned, 20-kilowatt pirate radio station operating from a converted German freighter named the Bonjour anchored just off Stockholm. After one month of illicit broadcasting into Sweden. Radio Nord is doing a beaming business. Listeners bored with Radio Sweden's staid fare are sending Radio Nord more than 1.ooo fan letters a day, and such companies as Westinghouse, Max Factor, Vespa (motorscooters) and B.M.W. (midget cars) have snapped up time for spot commercials. A boat maker who ran a contest on Nord got 5,000 entries in five days. Radio Nord's charge for a primetime, 60-second spot: $40. The Bonjour is owned by a wheeler-dealer Texan, Dallas Tycoon Robert F. Thompson, whose other interests include seven U.S. radio stations, five U.S. TV stations, and a sometime partnership with Millionaire Clint Murchison Jr. Radio Nord's programs are taped in downtown Stockholm and delivered regularly to the Bonjour by motor launch, along with the plugs from eager sponsors. The whole deal has proved so successful that Thompson is already considering putting pirate ships off Goteborg and in the Mediterranean, off France.

Radio Nord is only the latest radio pirate to steal onto the airways. The Swiss-owned Radio Mercur began broadcasting to Danish listeners from a freighter off Copenhagen three years ago, now takes in some $700,000 annually, boasts some 300,000 listeners, recently expanded to a bigger, better ship. A year ago, Radio Veronika began pirate broadcasts into Holland from an old German lightship, is still going strong, even tried an abortive beaming into England (they stopped because Dutch listeners complained, wanted all the programs in Dutch).

Though international convention bars broadcasting from international waters, and the targeted countries always voice official protest, nothing much is done to halt the pirates. Reason: the pirate programs are too popular. Fortnight ago, Sweden issued an edict that it would confiscate Radio Nord's transmitting equipment if it came into Swedish waters. But authorities did not revoke the export permit that allows Nord to ferry its tapes out to the ship. Though Danish officials rail in print against Radio Mercur. the government's official newspaper, Aktuelt, sells the pirates its news service.

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