page_title: Radio Veronica
section_title: 1973–1974: Co-operation and rivalry
hierarchical_section_title: Radio Veronica / 1973–1974: Co-operation and rivalry
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Zeezender Veronica, schip "De Norderney"
context_page_description: Radio Veronica was an offshore radio station that began broadcasting in 1960, and broadcast offshore for over fourteen years. It was set up by independent radio, TV and household electrical retailers in the Netherlands to stimulate the sales of radio receivers by providing an alternative to the Netherlands state-licensed stations in Hilversum.
  Broadcasts began on 21 April 1960. The station announced itself as VRON but changed to Radio Veronica, after the poem "Het Zwarte Schaap Veronica" — The Black Sheep Veronica — by the children's poet Annie M. G. Schmidt.
  After the station's closure, some of its staff applied for a broadcasting licence and continued as a legal organisation with the same name.
  The original Radio Veronica became the most popular station in the Netherlands. It broadcast from a former lightship Borkum Riff anchored off the Dutch coastline. The ship was fitted with a horizontal antenna between the fore and aft masts, fed by a one-kilowatt transmitter. Most of its programmes were recorded in a studio on the Zeedijk in Hilversum. At the end of the 1960s the studios and offices moved to bigger premises on the Utrechtseweg in Hilversum.
context_section_description: As the 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. Unfortunately on 2 April the Norderney lost its anchor in a storm and ran aground on Scheveningen beach. The ship suffered no serious damage and the crew were taken ashore safely, but it seemed unlikely that the ship could be refloated in time for the rally. RNI offered its facilities, but Veronica refused because of the bad blood between them. Caroline, although off the air with technical problems, also made an offer and Veronica accepted.
  Working around the clock, Caroline's technicians put the Mi Amigo back on the air on 11 April 1973, transmitting Radio Veronica programmes on Caroline's frequency of 1187 kHz (253 metres, announced as 259). Meanwhile, work on refloating the Norderney continued. This took several days, but the ship was in fact back at sea on 18 April and soon returned to the air. Thereafter the Mi Amigo relayed Veronica programmes from the Norderney for a few days.
  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. In October 1973 Capital Radio was launched on the same frequency. These broadcasts caused serious interference to Veronica in Britain and Belgium, although Dutch listeners were largely unaffected.
  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. This lasted until October. Radio Atlantis subsequently resumed broadcasting from its own ship, while a new Dutch / Flemish station Radio Mi Amigo was launched on 1 January 1974 from the Mi Amigo .
caption: Veronica ship "The Norderney", Scheveningen, 7 April 1973
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