Radio Veronica
Encyclopedia
- This article is about a historical Dutch radio station, not the current oldies station with the same name.
Radio Veronica was an offshore radio
Offshore radio
Offshore radio is radio broadcasting from ships or fixed maritime structures, usually in international waters. The claimed first wireless broadcast of music and speech for the purpose of entertainment was transmitted from a Royal Naval craft, the HMS Andromeda, in 1907...
station that began broadcasting in 1960, and broadcast from offshore for over fourteen years. It was set up by independent radio, TV and household electrical retailers in the Netherlands to stimulate the sales of radio receivers by providing an alternative to the Netherlands state-licensed stations in Hilversum
Hilversum
is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Located in the region called "'t Gooi", it is the largest town in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller villages...
.
Broadcasts began on 21 April 1960. The station announced itself as VRON (Vrije Radio Omroep Nederland; Free Radio Station [of the] Netherlands) but changed to Radio Veronica, after the poem "Het Zwarte Schaap Veronica" — The Black Sheep Veronica — by the children's poet Annie M. G. Schmidt
Annie M. G. Schmidt
Anna Maria Geertruida "Annie" Schmidt was a prolific Dutch writer, especially cherished for her children's books—"the most versatile and most talented children's book author in the Netherlands." She is called the mother of the Dutch theatrical song and the queen of Dutch children's...
.
After the station's closure. some of its staff applied for a broadcasting licence and continued as a legal organisation
Veronica (television channel)
Veronica is a commercial TV channel in the Netherlands, owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media . Other channels of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG in the Netherlands are SBS6 and NET 5....
with the same name.
The original Radio Veronica became the most popular station in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. It broadcast from a former lightship
Lightship
Lightship may refer to:* Lightvessel, a permanently moored ship that has light beacons mounted as navigational aids* Light displacement, a displacement figure that measures a ship complete in all respects, but without consumables, stores, cargo, crew, and effects*Lightship, a type of blimp operated...
Borkum Riff
Borkum Riff
Borkum Riff is a brand of pipe tobacco manufactured in Denmark by Swedish Match.-History:Originally, 'Borkum Riff' was a lighthouse located at 53° 58' N, and 6° 22' E in Heligoland Bay off the Dutch coast in the North Sea. It was a landmark for seafarers and was well-known to...
anchored off the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
coastline. The ship was fitted with a horizontal antenna between the fore and aft masts, fed by a one-kilowatt transmitter. Most of its programmes were recorded in a studio on the Zeedijk in Hilversum. At the end of the 1960s the studios and offices moved to bigger premises on the Utrechseweg in Hilversum.
For a short time the station also ran an English-language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
service under the call letters CNBC
Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company
The Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company was an English language pirate radio station which hired airtime for a few hours each day from the Dutch pirate Radio Veronica in 1960–1961. Programmes were pre-recorded at Veronica's Amsterdam studio together with the Dutch programmes, and broadcast...
(Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company). Later the Borkum Riff was replaced by a former trawler, the MV Norderney.
Expansion and competition
The station faced its first serious competition in 1964 when Radio Noordzee and TV Noordzee began broadcasting from the REM IslandREM Island
REM Island was a platform built in the Republic of Ireland and towed off the Dutch coast in 1964 as the pirate broadcasting home of Radio and TV Noordzee. Both stations were dismantled by armed forces of the Netherlands. It was six miles off Noordwijk....
, an 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 August 1964 the station acquired a new ship, a converted fishing trawler named MV Norderney, and equipped it with a more efficient antenna and a 10-kilowatt transmitter, as well as an anchor
Anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...
designed to keep it correctly oriented. The Norderney took over Veronica's broadcasts in November that year and the Borkum Riff was sold for scrap.
During 1965 the station was influenced by English-language pirates like Radio London
Wonderful Radio London
Radio London, also known as Big L and Wonderful Radio London, was a top 40 offshore commercial station that operated from 16 December 1964 to 14 August 1967, from a ship anchored in the North Sea, three and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England...
and adopted a faster format with jingle
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
s. When another UK pirate, Swinging Radio England
Swinging Radio England
Swinging Radio England was a top 40 offshore commercial station billed as the "World's Most Powerful" that operated from 3 May 1966 to 13 November 1966 from a ship in the North Sea, three and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England...
, went bankrupt it was briefly replaced by two Dutch-language successors, Radio Dolfijn and then Radio 227, which targeted Veronica's audiences, but competition was short-lived because of the British Marine Offences Act which closed most of the British stations by August 1967.
Veronica versus RNI
The arrival of a more powerful rival was to cause repercussions for Veronica. Radio Nordsee InternationalRadio North Sea International
Radio North Sea International also known as Radio Nordsee International in German and Radio Noordzee Internationaal in Dutch, was a European offshore radio station, run by the Swiss firm Mebo Telecommunications, jointly owned by Swiss engineer, Edwin Bollier, and his business partner, Erwin Meister...
(RNI), owned by two Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
businessmen, initially broadcast German and English programmes from its ship MV Mebo II anchored off the Dutch Coast, but later moved to the British coast in early 1970 but was jammed
Radio jamming
Radio jamming is the transmission of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal to noise ratio. Unintentional jamming occurs when an operator transmits on a busy frequency without first checking whether it is in use, or without being able to hear stations using the frequency...
by the British government. The jamming stopped when the ship returned to the Netherlands, taking up position just one mile from the Norderney. The German programmes were subsequently replaced by all English programmes.
The Mebo II was equipped with a 100 kW AM transmitter as well as FM
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
and shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
equipment. Although power did not guarantee RNI an audience, Radio Veronica's management were sufficiently worried about loss of advertising revenue that they planned to put RNI off the air.
On September 24, 1970 RNI closed, claiming it was trying to stop the Dutch government from passing legislation that might force Veronica, "so dearly loved by the peoples of the Netherlands", to close. In fact Veronica had paid RNI 1 million guilders to go off the air for two months, and to enforce this agreement Veronica replaced the Mebo II's crew with their own staff.
RNI's management became 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 sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
d RNI's equipment, but by February 1971 RNI was back on the air, with a Dutch as well as an English service. In March Veronica sued RNI for breach of contract
Breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party's performance....
. The court found in favour of RNI and the case tarnished Veronica's reputation.
Worse was to come. On the night of May 15 three men in a rubber dinghy started a fire on the Mebo II which damaged the stern. RNI broadcast mayday
Mayday (distress signal)
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications. It derives from the French venez m'aider, meaning "come help me"....
calls. All 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 and the following day Veronica's director Bull Verweij
Bull Verweij
Hendrik "Bull" Verweij was one of the founders of the Dutch offshore radio station Radio Veronica and was president of the station from its start in 1959 until 1975. He was born in Hilversum.- Controversy :...
was also arrested. In a television interview Verweij claimed he had paid a man to tow the Mebo II into Dutch waters so that the ship be seized. Verweij denied any intention to endanger the lives of RNI's crew but was found guilty together with Jurgens and the crew of the dinghy and all five were sentenced to a year in prison.
The damage to Veronica's reputation was incalculable, and just as the 1966 Radio City
Radio City (pirate radio station)
Radio City was a British pirate radio station that broadcast from Shivering Sands Army Fort, one of the abandoned Second World War Maunsell Sea Forts in the Thames Estuary.- Origins :...
shooting had motivated the British government to pass anti-pirate legislation, the RNI fire similarly motivated the Dutch.
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
Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline is an English radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly...
's MV Mi Amigo, which anchored between the Norderney and Mebo II.
Frequency change and RNI2
Veronica had been experiencing interference on 1562 kHz (192m) from the BeromünsterBlosenbergturm
The Blosenbergturm is a transmitting tower in Beromünster, Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland, built in 1937 for the German language radio station DRS and radiating at an AM frequency of 531 kHz marking the bottom end of the official mediumwave broadcasting range. The Blosenbergturm has a height of...
transmitter in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. Originally allocated 10 kW on 1562 kHz, Beromünster had upgraded to 160 kW and was planning 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 12:30pm, a time chosen to symbolise the station's 12½ years on the air, announcing it would reopen at 1pm on its new frequency of 557 kHz (539m, announced as 538).
A moment after Veronica went off the air, listeners heard RNI's theme tune on 1562 kHz. RNI DJ Tony Allan
Tony Allan
Tony Allan was a British broadcaster and voice over artist. He broadcast almost exclusively on pirate radio stations and was highly regarded for his professionalism, his distinctive voice and clear diction, and for his ability to produce highly professional commercials and...
, 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 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 rivalry aimed at poaching Veronica's listeners.
Veronica returned to the air on 557 kHz as scheduled. Listeners in the Netherlands and Belgium reported improved reception.
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.
Radio Veronica broadcast a top 40 format during the daytime, but in the evenings and late at night some specialist shows were aired. Especially following its move to 538 metres Veronica became famous for its superbly crafted jingles and commercials. News summaries were broadcast each hour, at 2 minutes to the hour.
Meanwhile RNI2 broadcast for a few days and then went off the air.
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 HagueThe Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
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
Independent Broadcasting Authority
The Independent Broadcasting Authority was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television - and commercial/independent radio broadcasts...
began test transmissions on 557 kHz from an antenna at Lots Road Power Station
Lots Road Power Station
Lots Road Power Station is a disused coal and later oil-fired power station on the River Thames at Lots Road in Chelsea, London in the south-west of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which supplied electricity to the London Underground system...
in west London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. In October that year Capital Radio
Capital Radio
Capital London is a London based radio station which launched on 16 October 1973 and is owned by Global Radio. On 3 January 2011 it formed part of the nine station Capital radio network.- Pre-launch :...
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
Radio Atlantis
Radio Atlantis was a Belgian-owned offshore pirate radio station which operated between 1973 and 1974 from the coast of The Netherlands. Belgium had passed a law outlawing offshore broadcasting in 1962, but because its neighbour The Netherlands had not yet passed a similar law, there was nothing...
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.
Final broadcast
Despite all 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, like most of Veronica's programmes, pre-recorded in the station's studios in Hilversum. However the station's final news bulletin was read live from the news studio on board the MV Norderney. A number of the station's directors, including Bull Verweij and his brother Jaap, were on board the ship during the final hour, as were many of the staff. In his final speech DJ Rob Out said "Part of the democracy in the Netherlands is dying with the closure of Radio Veronica and that is a tragedy for the country". 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 (although as a precaution the ship moved to a new anchorage to reduce the likelihood of a "raid" by Dutch authorities), 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.
Veronica applies for legal status
After 1974 some of Veronica's staff set up the VOO (a Dutch abbreviation for Veronica Broadcasting Organisation) in the hopes of applying for a broadcasting licence. After some bureaucratic obstruction, which one critic described as a mini-WatergateWatergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
, the VOO was finally granted a licence and was invited to open the new Hilversum 4
Radio 4 (Netherlands)
Radio 4 is an NPO public-service radio network in the Netherlands. It chiefly broadcasts classical music.Radio 4 began transmissions on 28 December 1975 under the name Hilversum 4. Its first programme was produced by the Veronica broadcasting association...
radio network on December 28, 1975. Hilversum 4 was a classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
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 in 1995 Veronica became an independent broadcasting station in the Netherlands.
For further information see Veronica (television channel)
Veronica (television channel)
Veronica is a commercial TV channel in the Netherlands, owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media . Other channels of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG in the Netherlands are SBS6 and NET 5....
.
Radio Veronica deejays
DJs on Radio Veronica included:- Ad Bouman
- Joost de Draaier
- Klaas Vaak
- Lex Harding
- Tineke
- Will Luikinga