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Radio Noordzee |
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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.
Radio and TV Noordzee was founded in 1963 with land-based offices and broadcast from the sea. The artificial island was built in the harbor of Cork, Ireland. It was towed to its location and anchored in cement on the seabed. On August 12, 1964 a test broadcast was performed and on August 15 regular broadcasting started.
REM stands for Reclame Exploitatie Maatschappij ("advertising exploitation company"). The company intended to broadcasting commercial radio and TV. Dutch law did not authorize such broadcasts but the island was outside territorial waters. Other stations, such as Radio Veronica, used a ship.
Dutch authorities were unhappy but they could not prevent the broadcasts. On December 12, 1964, the government passed the REM law, which split the North Sea into continental sections. The sea bed under REM Island, to which the structure was attached, was declared Dutch territory. Five days later, Royal Marines boarded the platform and ended broadcasting.
A year after the raid, Radio Noordzee resumed transmissions legally under the name TROS. After REM Island was used by the government to measure sea temperature and salt concentration. After an attempt to sell the island in 2004, the government dismantled it with a goodbye radio event on the platform on June 8, 2006.