In the 1960's most commercial TV and radio was owned by the BBC. The BBC usually looked more into news, information, light entertainment and children programs. This leaves a big gap of media for teenagers. The growing Rock 'n Roll movement was practically banished from British media.
This started the Pirate Radio Rebellion. Disc Jockeys (DJ's) would start business, illegal radio's, which they would reassemble old fishing ships and they would play Rock 'n Roll music and broadcast to the public. One of the most famous Pirate Radio ships were Radio Caroline, it played non-stop pop music. The DJ's were usually young and single and were treated as pop stars on shore. Rules were strict girlfriends were not allowed on the ship over night and in bad weather conditions DJ's could be stranded on the ship for months at a time. Pirate Radio's gave exposure to new artist which became now widely known such the Stones and The Dave Clark Five. The Pirates also played commercials for profit, which was very rare in Britain at the time. These Pirate Radio stations weren't just about music and love but also good old fashioned profit. Actually the two biggest pirate stations were run by American's and Irish who were trying the find a loophole through Britain's refusal to give radio licences to commercial broadcasters. In 1967, it became illegal to supply music, food, fuel and water to offshore broadcaster ships, this put an end to many pirate ships. But their significance was noticed and about one month after the law was set, BBC launched it's first pop station called BBC 1, actually many of the DJ's who previously worked on pirate ships ended up working for BBC 1.
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