The Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company (CNBC) was an

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

pirate radio Pirate radio is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license, whether an invalid license or no license at all. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are rec ...

station which hired airtime for a few hours each day from the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

pirate

Radio Veronica Radio Veronica was an offshore radio station that began broadcasting in 1960, and was on air for over fourteen years. It was set up by independent radio, TV and household electrical retailers in the Netherlands, to stimulate the sales of ra ...

in 1960–1961. Programmes were pre-recorded at Veronica's

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

studio together with the Dutch programmes, and broadcast from the Veronica ship ''Borkum Riff''. The address for prospective advertisers was given as Ross Radio Productions Ltd, 23 Upper Wimpole Street, W1. CNBC has the distinction of being the first pirate station to broadcast to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, almost four years before

Radio Caroline Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Allan Crawford, initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopol ...

, although few British listeners ever heard it as its signal originated from the Dutch side of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

and did not penetrate very far inland. After only a few months Veronica terminated its contract because the

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

revenue from

programming was more lucrative.{{cite book , last1=Leonard , first1=Mike , title=From International Waters 60 Years of Offshore Broadcasting , date=1996 , publisher=Forest Press , isbn=9780952768401 , page=53, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WEG4AAAAIAAJ&q=%22radio%20caroline%22%20%22keith%20martin%22

References

External links

Remembering CNBC Radio
Offshore radio

See also

References

External links