Radio Veronica

Initially, advertisers were reluctant to buy airtime, but those that did reported increases in sales and the station's revenue improved gradually.Although short-lived, CNBC was presented by professional broadcasters who were able to give invaluable technical advice to Veronica's Dutch staff.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 designed to keep it correctly oriented.Radio Nordsee International (RNI), owned by two Swiss businessmen, initially broadcast German and English programmes from its ship MV Mebo II anchored off the Dutch Coast.In a television interview, Verweij claimed he had paid a man to tow the Mebo II into Dutch waters so that the ship would be seized.Radio Veronica broadcast a top 40 format during the daytime, but in the evenings and late at night some specialist shows were aired, some in Indonesian.As the Dutch government drew up its legislation Veronica organised a major rally that was due to take place in The Hague on 18 April 1973, and planned to broadcast special programmes in support.In the summer of 1973 Britain's Independent Broadcasting Authority began test transmissions on 557 kHz from an antenna at Lots Road Power Station in west London.Meanwhile, Caroline, which had helped Veronica in April 1973, offered it new rivalry in July, in the form of Belgian millionaire Adriaan van Landschoot's Radio Atlantis, which hired airtime on the Mi Amigo.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".After some bureaucratic obstruction, which one critic described as a mini-Watergate, the VOO was finally granted a licence and was invited to open the new Hilversum 4 radio network on 28 December 1975.This ended in 2001; in 2000 it sold its shares, and in 2001 the television station V8 was renamed Veronica TV, which began broadcasting on 20 September 2003.