Contribution to International Radio Report

When Mercury got wings
Radio Mercur in memoriam 50 years later

By Henrik Noergaard, Denmark (www.radio-mercur.dk)

Offshore radio broadcasting did not begin in Denmark. But the concept of broadcasting popular music programs from international waters directed towards an audience in a country with a state monopoly on radio transmissions came from Radio Mercur, a Danish commercial radio station that existed from 1958-62.

The year was 1958 and the scene is Denmark. Since the early days of radio broadcasting in the 1920’s the Danish radio listeners had been used to the fact that the choice was easy made when deciding what to listen at from your radio receiver. The national broadcasting company had a law-enforced monopoly on transmitting radio signals, and there were only two programs to choose from. The concept was to educate and enlighten the audience and entertainment and modern music was almost banished. Or at least only in minimized quanta a few hours per week. On good days you were able to catch transmissions from Radio Luxemburg in a fairly good quality. Otherwise there was only the State Radiofonia (“Statsradiofonien”).
But on August 2 1958 a new sound was in the air and heard in the loudspeakers: From international waters between Denmark and Sweden, just a few miles from Copenhagen, a floating radio station began to transmit music and commercials in a way that had never been heard before in Denmark. The new station was called Radio Mercur. Within a few years the idea had spread to other countries like Sweden, Netherlands and UK. Radio Mercur has since been known as the pirate radio, which gave inspiration to a whole number of pirate radios or offshore radios.
This is a look back at the start of Radio Mercur in 1958 to celebrate the 50 years jubilee of the first pirate radio.

The idea behind
The founding father of Mercur was Peer Jansen, a young man in Copenhagen. He had the same interest for new music as many other young people in Denmark. He tuned in on Radio Luxemburg to catch the latest hits and did occasionally listen to American Forces Network. But on the national radio he rarely found the music he fancied.
On a travel to the south of Europe he discovered that USA used a military ship in the Mediterranean Ocean to transmit to the Soviet-alliance countries in Eastern Europe. Peer Jansen got the idea that something like Radio Luxemburg could be combined with a floating transmitter into a totally new kind of radio station in Denmark. What he didn’t know, was how to realize the idea. But he had a good network to draw on in order to find out.
First of all: Danish national laws didn’t allow such a thing as a private radio station. But how about international regulations? Peer Jansen had a cousin, Boerge Agerskov, who was a law student at the University of Copenhagen. Boerge Agerskov tells: “There were a lot of adventure in Peer. He was very good at inspiring people. While I was finishing my studies I spent a lot of time researching radio conventions – whether it was possible at all, and it was in some way.” No one had thought of the possibility, that a radio station could be anchored in international waters and broadcast to a specific country without having permission.
Secondly: What about the technical side? Peer had a brother in law, who was a radio enthusiast. He knew of another radio enthusiast named William Petersen. Normally he was a bike repairer but he also was very skilled in making radio transmitters. William Petersen took up the challenge to build a FM-transmitter and an antenna that could be used for the purpose.
Thirdly: The idea was costly and there was a need for financing. Peer Jansen was working in a family owned silverware company in Copenhagen, run by Ib Fogh. Peer presented his idea to his boss, and soon Mr. Fogh was keen on the idea and willing to invest in the project together with Peer Jansen.
From that point around summer 1957 things went fast with the establishing of a brand new radio station. A year later Radio Mercur was ready to go on air with recording studios in a mansion in a suburb of Copenhagen, a station big band, a floating transmitting station and a lot of enthusiastic people working as technicians, speakers and crew on the ship.

New music and rising youth culture in a conservative landscape
How could anyone succeed in setting up a new radio station in a country with a monopoly on broadcasting radio, being unquestioned for decades? Denmark in the mid 1950’es was a traditional society. Young people were expected to follow in the footsteps of the parents, and you were expected to obey authorities. But a new culture was rising – slowly but clearly. Talking about 1968 as a breakthrough in changing the society, the path was already made many years before.
A new kind of music – the rock’n’roll – came to Denmark from England and USA. Many young people were welcoming movies like “Rock Around the Clock” with Bill Haley and The Comets, shown in cinemas in Copenhagen in August 1957. Tommy Steele gave a concert in Copenhagen. Dance schools introduced rock’n’roll dancing. The new music had arrived in different ways.
But among the older generation it caused a lot of worries. Rock’n’roll music was thought to lead to a loose and weak moral among the young generation, especially with underlying sexual messages in lyrics and stage performance – just think of the movements of the hips of Elvis Presley! A leading dancer described the effect of the music in the newspaper Aftenbladet (The Evening Paper) on September 12 1956: “It’s in the music. Performed rightly it is hypnotizing and narcotic like primitive drums on Indians and cannibals. It begins monotonous. After a while it excites more and more. At the end they are in the wildest ecstacy.” And the later program director of the national radio said: “On the question of rock’n’roll it is my opinion that it cannot be the task of The National Radio to promote knowledge of it, when we are told that it’s all about mass hysteria.”
The young generation wanted to hear to the music anyhow in spite of what their parents and the authorities said. They listened to Radio Luxemburg on tiny transistor receivers, the reception usually in a poor quality due to the long distance. Therefore Radio Mercur had success with a concept putting emphasis on the popular music – both from records and with live transmissions of young Danish bands, that were invited to be recorded and broadcasted through the new radio station.

Big plans
The people behind Radio Mercur had very ambitious plans. A mansion that earlier housed the Embassy of Argentine in Copenhagen was transformed into radio studios with facilities for recording of commercials, programs and music.
A jazz orchestra of 16 persons was hired as a radio big band. The leader, Ib Glindemann tells about the first contact: “I was picked up on some phony address on the island of Amager (near to the center of Copenhagen). An agent took me in his car and told me, that I was going to participate in something completely legal, but not to talk about, because it had to be top secret. Well, he was a nice person, and I wanted a job for my orchestra. We drove to a big fancy villa in Gentofte, and I was shown into the high paneled rooms – it was incredibly beautiful, almost like an English country mansion. I was wellcomed by Arne Paaby, the artistic leader of the radio. Paaby explained that a commercial radio station was to be established – and that was hot stuff at the time. Until then there only had been one station – the royal monopolized steam radio, so it was truly unbelievable! They seemed to know what they were up to. But they needed some music. I was ‘in’ those days and had a wellknown orchestra. They wanted to hire the orchestra, and we were to get a fair salary.”
And so Ib Glindeman and his orchestra was the new big band of Radio Mercur. In the villa the dining room was transformed into a concert hall. Recordings of dance music began soon after to have programs on stock for later transmissions.
It was also Ib Glindemann who composed the jingle for Mercur with three trumpets and a voice announcing “You’re listening to Radio Mercur!”

A difficult start
The preparations on land went fine, but on sea things were more troublesome. During July 1958 Radio Mercur announced several dates for the official launch of transmissions, but all failed due to technical problems with the ship, Cheeta Mercur or with unexpected stormy weather in Oeresund between Denmark and Sweden.
At last on Saturday August 2 1958 at 6 PM the jingle sounded officially for the first time from the ship. Unfortunately the sound waves didn’t reach many radio receivers among listeners in Copenhagen and other places within the expected radius from Cheeta. Technical problems with the transmitter caused an output of only 1/3 of full power and strong winds made the ship move so much that the antennae didn’t point towards land but rather towards the sky or the sea.
Radio Mercur soon had more success with transmissions, and listeners rushed to stores in order to buy the specially made “Mercur Antennae”. But the companies buying advertisements were uncertain on how many listeners the station actually attracted. Therefore they were not eager to pay the amount of money requested by Mercur.
The situation turned out to be an economic disaster for the radio, though it got a lot of attention from newspapers and radio listeners. Employees had a hard time to get their salaries – technician Birger Svan remembers: “At that time we had to go to the office, and they asked: “How much can you live on this month?” We couldn’t get our salaries. Those with children got first, we bachelors then got what we could get through the month on. Later on we got our salaries, but for quite a while it went on like that – “I wonder how much I can get this month?””
In the winter 1958-59 Radio Mercur was close to wreckage because of poor economy. It had build up a huge debt, it had no longer a contract with the international federation of record companies, the big band signed off due to lack of payments of salaries etc. etc. Only a loan from a small bank, Finansbanken, saved the pioneer in offshore broadcasting from a sudden death in the ice cold winter storms.
Within half a year the situation had changed completely. Radio Mercur was able to pay back the loan to Mr. Alex Brask Thomsen of Finansbanken in August 1959 and from then on it was just more and more successful until the Danish authorities and the Parliament passed a bill in June 1962 making it illegal to assist in producing radio programs to offshore radios like Mercur. In reality the law made it impossible for Mercur to continue broadcasting. By the end of July 1962 Radio Mercur officially closed down transmissions. Three days of illegal broadcasting in August was brought to an end when Danish police went out to seize the ship and the transmitter.

The inspiration from Radio Mercur
Other people found the idea good and wanted to try it their own way. Radio Mercur was an example to follow for a whole fleet of pirate radios in international waters around Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium and UK.
From December 14 1958 the young Swede Nils Eric Svensson and his company Skaanes Radio Mercur began broadcasting to the southwestern part of Sweden from Cheeta Mercur in the hours when there was no broadcasting to Denmark. Later Radio Mercur began using ship number two in Denmark, which made it possible to broadcast in Swedish all day long from the first ship. Britt Wadner took over Skaanes Radio Mercur in 1961 and the station changed name to Radio Syd in 1962, when it bought Cheeta Mercur from Radio Mercur.
In April 1960 the Dutch station V.R.O.N. started broadcasting to Netherlands and Belgium from a ship off the coast of Netherlands. It was later better known as Radio Veronica. The people behind got inspiration from Radio Mercur. They got direct assistance on how to construct the company and on technical issues from the Danish pirate.
In March 1961 Radio Nord started transmissions towards Stockholm in Sweden. It was mainly inspired by american radio programs, but there had also been contacts between Radio Nord and Skaanes Radio Mercur.
Denmark got another pirate radio as Danmarks Commercielle Radio or DCR – founded by outbreakers from Radio Mercur – began transmissions on September 15 1961. The two stations fought each other and the national state radio and soon emerged into one company under the name Radio Mercur. Denmark was too small at that time for more than one commercial radio based on the expensive offshore concept.
Especially UK faced a number of offshore stations during the 1960’s starting with CNBC in 1960/61 and from 1964 Radio Caroline.
So even though Radio Mercur didn’t survive more than four years, the idea of offshore broadcasting or pirate radio lived long after.

Links on Radio Mercur:
In Danish: www.radio-mercur.dk
In English: http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/RP2/Scandinavian_offshore_radio.shtml