UK Radio Fun & Anomalies Before 14th August 1967 …

Did you know that the Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Act which came into effect in Britain on 14th August 1967 did NOT in fact outlaw the offshore radio stations themselves?
The legal status of stations like Radio Caroline, Radio London, 390, 270, Scotland, and others did not change on that date.

Instead the new law criminalised UK citizens and companies, forbidding them to supply, advertise or work for these radio stations.

Incredible but true, in the 1960s and earlier, according to the UK’s 1949 Wireless Telegraphy Act, it was illegal for anybody in Britain to listen to Radio Caroline or any of the other unlicensed offshore “pirate” stations!

The absurdity of prosecuting millions of UK radio listeners for listening to music was not lost on the stations themselves and many will remember promotions they broadcast, such as this one in which a magistrate is sentencing a listener to have to listen to the BBC Light Programme for the rest of their life!

Radio’s Future : Let the Listeners Decide – Not Politicians Nor Engineers

Here’s a worthwhile article from radioinfo.com.au entitled “A lesson in radio’s future from 1941” about how governments of different countries of the world are variously cajoling, encouraging or even forcing radio listeners to move away from AM and FM receivers over to DAB, DAB+ and other ways to listen.

But if the listener doesn’t find the new product desirable or better adapted to their needs, no amount of “encouragement” from above will succeed…
https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/lesson-radio%E2%80%99s-future-1941

 

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