A
border blaster is a licensed commercial
radio stationRadio broadcasting is an audio broadcasting service, broadcast through the air as radio waves from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast common programming, either in syndication or simulcast or both...
that transmits at very high power from one nation to another. Border Blasters should not be confused with
international broadcast stations. [However this term does not only apply to licensed stations, though that may be where the phrase originates: For example in Ireland, during the 90's and 00's border busters/blasters was a phrase used to refer to pirate FM stations setting up on high ground in the Irish Republic with medium powered transmitters (100w+) in order to enable them to transmit into northern Ireland where the UK governing body (OfCom) have jurisdiction. The laws in the republic at the time were a lot more relxed than in NI]
The term is perhaps most widely used in the United States of America to describe radio stations broadcasting from various
MexicanThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
cities near the border.
With broadcasting signals far more powerful than U.S. stations, the Mexican Border Blasters could be heard over large areas of the U.S. from the 1940s to the '70s, often to the great irritation of American radio stations, whose signals could be overpowered by their Mexican counterparts. These are also sometimes referred to as
X Stations for their call letters: Mexican stations are assigned callsigns beginning with X, whereas American stations begin with the letters W or K and Canadian stations with C or VO.
On November 9, 1972 in Washington, D.C., the United States and Mexico signed an "Agreement Concerning Frequency Modulation Broadcasting in the 87.5 to 108 MHz Band". Since then, in the FM band power levels and frequency assignments have been set by mutual agreement between the two countries.
AM radioAM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation.-History:AM was the dominant method of broadcasting during the first eighty years of the 20th century and remains widely used into the 21st....
border-blasters still exist, though they are largely ignored due to the decline of AM radio in the U.S. There are several such stations licensed by Mexico's
Secretary of Communications and Transport using transmitters with an
effective radiated powerIn radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains...
similar to those of major licensed commercial stations located within the USA.
In 1973 the border blaster XERB became world famous when
George LucasGeorge Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, director and chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the epic sci-fi franchise Star Wars and joint creator of the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
featured the station as the source for the musical soundtrack of his motion picture
American GraffitiAmerican Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age comedy-drama film co-written/directed by George Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
.
Background
In contrast to
pirate radioPirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. Its etymology can be traced to the unlicensed nature of the transmission, but historically there has been occasional but notable use of sea vessels – fitting the most common perception of a pirate – as broadcasting bases...
stations which broadcast illegally, border blasters are licensed by the government upon whose soil they are located. Pirate radio stations are freebooters from offshore, outside the
territorial watersTerritorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most twelve nautical miles from the baseline of a coastal state...
of the nation they serve, or ones that are illegally operating in defiance of national law within its sovereign territory.
A similar situation developed in Europe, beginning with
Radio LuxembourgRadio Luxembourg is a commercial broadcaster in many languages from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is nowadays known in most non-English languages as RTL ....
after World War II. The
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
government identified these stations as
pirates because the Sunday broadcast was reserved for British listeners (deliberately coinciding with the BBC Sundays of religious programmes). The broadcasts were considered illegal on British soil as these stations were breaking the monopoly of the non-commercial
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
. Listening to the broadcasts was technically a violation of UK radio-license laws of the day. The same radio périphérique, or "peripheric radio", phenomenon existed in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
from the 1930s until the legalization of private broadcasting in the early 1980s, which allowed
Radio LuxembourgRadio Luxembourg - 1933-1939 and 1951- is the name of a Long Wave commercial radio station that began broadcasting from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 1933 as a daytime and evening service in the French language from Monday to Saturday and until 12 Noon on Sundays.The station closed down at the...
from
LuxembourgLuxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a small, landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany...
, Radio Andorre and Sud Radio from
AndorraAndorra , officially the Principality of Andorra , also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, is a small landlocked country in southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. It is the sixth smallest nation in Europe having an area of ...
, Radio Monte Carlo from
MonacoMonaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a small sovereign city-state located in South Western Europe on the northern central coast of the Mediterranean Sea, having a land border on three sides only with France, and being about away from Italy. Its size is just under 2 km² with an...
, and Europe 1 from
SaarlandSaarland is one of the 16 federal states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest of the German Flächenländer , i.e., those that are not city-states...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
to begin legally broadcasting signals across international borders.
In Mexico and the United States, while the federal government of the United States did not particularly like them, the stations were allowed to flourish. A Texas governor would even use the stations as a part of his election campaign. The U.S., unlike the UK, has never required a license to listen to broadcast radio or television, and the only restriction placed upon border-blasters was a law which prohibited studios in the U.S. from linking by telephone to border-blaster transmitters in Mexico. This law, part of the
Brinkley ActThe Brinkley Act is the popular name given to . This provision was enacted by the United States Congress to prohibit broadcasting studios in the U.S. from being connected by live telephone line or other means to a transmitter located in Mexico.Prior to World War II, Dr. John R...
, was introduced in the wake of
John R. BrinkleyJohn Romulus Brinkley was a controversial American medical doctor who experimented with xenotransplantation of goat glands into humans as a means of curing male impotence, and an advertising and radio pioneer who began the era of Mexican border blasters.-Early life:Brinkley was born to John...
's flirtation with
fascismFascism, , comprises a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology and a corporatist economic ideology developed in Italy. Fascists believe that nations and/or races are in perpetual conflict whereby only the strong can survive by being healthy, vital, and by asserting themselves in...
prior to World War II on XERA. The Brinkley Act is still on the books in the U.S., but licenses under that act are now routinely granted as long as the station follows applicable U.S. and Mexican regulations.
The British government created a similar measure after World War II, the state-owned telephone monopoly prevented studios in Britain from linking by telephone to the transmitters of Radio Luxembourg. These restrictions were mostly lifted following the privatisation and demonopolisation of the UK telephone system.
Signals of many U.S. and Canadian radio, and to a lesser extent television, stations cross over into neighboring territory. These stations are usually not considered "border blasters" as the programming is not primarily targeted at listeners and viewers on the other side of the border. U.S. and Canadian stations have always adhered to similar maximum power levels and the overspill is regarded as unintentional and largely unavoidable. One possible exception to that overall rule was
CKLWCKLW is a 50,000 watt AM radio station broadcasting on 800 kHz and located in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and serving Windsor and Detroit. Additionally, its signal can be heard clearly in Toledo and Cleveland, Ohio....
in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit. While licensed as a normal Class I-B station and always operating in full compliance with the technical specifications of its CRTC license, CKLW's 50,000 watt directional signal blanketed Michigan and northern Ohio east to Cleveland. American-owned until 1970 as part of the RKO General chain (along with such other top 40 powerhouses as
KHJKHJ may refer to:* KHJ , a radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States* KRTH, a radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States, which formerly used the call sign KHJ-FM...
in Los Angeles and
KFRCKFRC may refer to:* KFRC-FM, a radio station carrying a simulcast of KCBS-AM, an all-news station, licensed to San Francisco, California* KFRC , a radio station carrying an Oldies format licensed to San Francisco, California...
in San Francisco) it functioned essentially as a Detroit-market station during the 1960s and 1970s. Its Motown-flavored personality top 40 format made it one of the most highly-rated stations in the Midwestern US. The decline of AM radio as a music source in the 70s, combined with new Canadian government rules imposing
minimum domestic music contentCanadian content refers to the controversial Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to...
, made it difficult for CKLW to continue to compete for listeners with American FM music stations which offered clean stereo sound and faced no program content or music playlist restrictions. So CKLW abandoned top-40 and largely abandoned its efforts to compete in the Detroit market in the 80s, and today is a news/talk station aimed specifically at an Ontario audience.
The mythology surrounding the history of the border blaster stations in Mexico is extensive and many conflicting reports have been written about them. The following geographical list shows where these stations are or were located. Where possible, multiple sourced references have been consulted, and will be cited in order to eliminate conflicting and error-driven reports.
Programming
Most border blaster stations today program Spanish-language programming targeted at the Mexican side of the border. Some of the Spanish language border blasters target the growing Latino audience living in the southwestern US. Some target both.
As was the case between the 1930s and the 1970s, some border blaster stations in areas near larger American border cities such as San Diego are leased out by American broadcasting companies and air English-language programming targeting American audiences, although the AM stations have sometimes been supplanted by FM signals just over the border and able to reach major American cities like San Diego or El Paso with city-grade signals. During those decades border radio was used by preachers who solicited donations, and advertisers who sold products of dubious value. The American side leases the station from the Mexican station owners/licence holders and feeds programming from their American studios to the Mexican transmitters via satellite.
Due to Mexican government regulations, these stations, like all radio stations in Mexico, must air
La Hora Nacional a/k/a
The Mexican National Hour on Sunday evenings (usually 8pm or 10pm, depending on where the station is located) and "
Himno Nacional MexicanoThe National Anthem of Mexico was officially adopted in 1943. The lyrics of the national anthem, which allude to Mexican victories in the heat of battle and cries of defending the homeland, were composed by poet Francisco González Bocanegra in 1853, after his fiancée locked him in a room. In 1854,...
" (The Mexican National Anthem) at 12 midnight and 5am. In addition, they must also give station identification in Spanish. This is usually done softly or during commercial breaks so the listeners on the American side won't usually notice it.
TijuanaTijuana , is the largest city of the Mexican state of Baja California, situated on the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to its sister city of San Diego, California. Tijuana is the westernmost city in Mexico, however, the westernmost population center is located in Isla Guadalupe...
/ Rosarito
- XEPRS-AM: This is the radio station, formerly known as XERB, featured in the George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, director and chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the epic sci-fi franchise Star Wars and joint creator of the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
movie American GraffitiAmerican Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age comedy-drama film co-written/directed by George Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
starring Wolfman JackRobert Weston Smith was a gravelly-voiced, American disc jockey who became world famous in the 1960s and 1970s under the stage name of Wolfman Jack.-Early career:...
as the disc jockeyA disc jockey is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, dis
k referred to phonograph records, while dis
c referred to the Compact Disc, and has become the more common spelling...
. He moved to this station following his work on XERF.
- XETRA-FM
XETRA-FM is an English language, Mexican-owned modern rock music station broadcasting from Tijuana, Baja California on 91.1 MHz. The studios are located in the Kearny Mesa area of San Diego. The station is operated by Finest City Broadcasting, Inc...
- XETRA-AM
- XEBC-AM
- XEAK-AM
XEWW-AM are the call letters of a border-blaster radio station licensed to the Tijuana / Rosarito area of Baja California, Mexico, with additional studio facilities in Burbank, California, United States. They are a high-power station, with their 77,500 watt signal sometimes reaching as far as the...
- XELO-AM
- XHITZ-FM
XHITZ-FM is a commercial Top 40 station in Tijuana, Baja California/San Diego California broadcasting on 90.3 MHz.- External links :*...
- XHMORE-FM
XHMORE-FM or ESPN Radio FM 98.9 & AM 800 is a sports talk radio station serving the San Diego-Tijuana radio market. The station, whose city of license is Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico and broadcasts at 98.9 MHz with an ERP of 50,000 kW, is operated by MEC Communications, with its license and...
- XHOCL-FM
XHOCL-FM is a Mexico-based radio station, currently programmed by MVS. From January 5, 2004 until August 31, 2005, the format was Oldies known as KOOL 99.3. At 6 a.m., September 1, 2005, the format flipped to Spanish language oldies known as La Preciosa . Before XHOCL was KOOL, it was XHCR...
- XHRM-FM
XHRM-FM or Magic 92.5 is an Rhythmic adult contemporary outlet licensed in the Mexican state of Baja California and is operated by Finest City Broadcasting of San Diego, California, United States broadcasting on 92.5 MHz.-External links:* *...
- XETV-TV
NogalesHeroica Nogales, more commonly known as Nogales, is a city and its surrounding municipality on the northern border of the Mexican State of Sonora. The municipality covers an area of 1,675 km², and borders to the north the city of Nogales, Arizona, United States, across the U.S.-Mexico border...
- XELO-AM
- XHSN-FM A top 40/ reggaeton mix station that features songs in both English and Spanish. The signal can be picked up as far away as Tucson
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States, located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. As of July 1, 2006, a Census Bureau estimate puts the city's population at 541,811, with a metropolitan area population at...
.
Ciudad AcuñaCiudad Acuña, also known simply as Acuña, is a city located in the Mexican state of Coahuila, at and a mean height above sea level of 280 meters...
- XER: "Sunshine Station between the Nations" broadcasting on AM
Amplitude modulation is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the information being sent...
at 735kHz. This was the original station licensed to Dr. John R. BrinkleyJohn Romulus Brinkley was a controversial American medical doctor who experimented with xenotransplantation of goat glands into humans as a means of curing male impotence, and an advertising and radio pioneer who began the era of Mexican border blasters.-Early life:Brinkley was born to John...
in MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
as the Villa Acuña Broadcasting Company. It first signed on August 18, 1932 with a 50 kW transmitter and claimed 75kW ERP via an omnidirectional antenna. The engineering was by Will Branch of Fort Worth who had engineered WBAPWBAP is a news and talk formatted-AM radio station in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. WBAP broadcasts on 820 kHz with 50,000 watts and its omnidirectional nighttime signal can be heard throughout Texas with C-QUAM AM Stereo at night ....
for Amon Carter, owner of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. It was shut down by the Mexican authorities on February 24, 1933 and the Villa Acuña Broadcasting Company was dissolved.
- XERA: In September 1935 Dr. Brinkley gained a new license for Villa Acuña from the Government of Mexico with new call letters of XERA. His new operating company was Cia Mexicana Radiofusori Fronteriza and the station came on the air from the same location as the old XER but with a directional antenna. His new transmitter power was 500 kW, but with his new antenna he claimed an output of 1MW. XERA called itself "the world's most powerful broadcasting station" and Variety
Variety is a weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the Daily...
magazine claimed that it could be heard in New York City. Following the signing of various treaties, the Government of Mexico revoked the license of XERA in the closing days of 1939.
- XERF-AM: from 1947. The station that made Wolfman Jack
Robert Weston Smith was a gravelly-voiced, American disc jockey who became world famous in the 1960s and 1970s under the stage name of Wolfman Jack.-Early career:...
world famous for his disc jockeyA disc jockey is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, dis
k referred to phonograph records, while dis
c referred to the Compact Disc, and has become the more common spelling...
and sales presentations between 1962 and 1964. This station came on the air long after the era of both XERA and Dr. Brinkley, but it initially used his old facilities although the powerful transmitter of XERA had been dismantled and shipped elsewhere. The station later moved to a new building where a 250kW RCARCA Corporation, founded as Radio Corporation of America, was an electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. Currently, the RCA trademark is owned by the French conglomerate Thomson SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Thomson...
main transmitter was installed.
Piedras NegrasPiedras Negras is a city and seat of the surrounding municipality of the same name in the Mexican state of Coahuila. It stands at the northeastern edge of Coahuila on the U.S.-Mexico border, across the Río Bravo from Eagle Pass in the U.S. state of Texas...
- XEPN-AM was sister station to XER/XERA, and was also controlled by Dr. John Brinkley.
- XELO-AM
MonterreyMonterrey Monterrey Monterrey (also known as "Sultana del Norte" (Sultan of the North), is the capital city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León
It has the third largest metropolitan area in Mexico, after Mexico City and Guadalajara. In 2005, the city...
- XEG-AM: In 1950 the advertising time of this station came under the control of Harold Schwartz of Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
, who also came to represent XERB near Tijuana/Rosarito (the station made famous in the movie American GraffitiAmerican Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age comedy-drama film co-written/directed by George Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
.)
- XET-AM
Nuevo LaredoNuevo Laredo is a city located in the Municipality of Nuevo Laredo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The city lies on the banks of the Río Grande, across from the United States city of Laredo, Texas. The 2005 census population of the city was 348,387 and that of the municipality of which it...
- XENT-AM
XENT-AM is the callsign of a radio station in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico.-History of the XENT call sign:XENT-AM were the call letters of a border-blaster radio station licensed to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas....
: Operated by Norman G. Baker from 1933 until forced off the air in 1940; "The Calliaphone Station" (for an air-operated calliopeA calliope is a musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or more recently compressed air, through large whistles, originally locomotive whistles....
invented by Baker) promoted a cancer-cure clinic of Baker's, essentially continuing his former station KTNT ("Know The Naked Truth") of Muscatine, IowaIowa is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland." It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of...
, as was itself forced off the air in 1932. Brochures for the clinic urged patients to "phone 666 upon arrival in Laredo," attracting many complaints to the American Medical Association as invoked reference to Revelation 13:18, citing 666 as the Mark of the Beast. XENT-AM later moved to La Paz, Baja California SurLa Paz is the capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur and an important regional commercial center. The city had a 2005 census population of 189,176 persons, but its metropolitan population reaches roughly 200,000 persons because of surrounding towns like el Centenario, el Zacatal...
, power adjusted to 5kW Day / 750W Night.
XEXO-AM moved to Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas power adjusted to 5kW Day / 500W Night.
ReynosaReynosa is a city in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. It is located across the Rio Grande from McAllen in the U.S. state of Texas...
- XED-AM: The first radio station in Mexico to be considered a border-blaster. XED was originally located at Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and was under the advertising sales management of the International Broadcasting Company. Located across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas, the station broadcast with a power of 10 kilowatts that was the most powerful transmitter in Mexico at that time.
- XEAW-AM: Another station that came under the management control of Dr. John R. Brinkley
John Romulus Brinkley was a controversial American medical doctor who experimented with xenotransplantation of goat glands into humans as a means of curing male impotence, and an advertising and radio pioneer who began the era of Mexican border blasters.-Early life:Brinkley was born to John...
. (See XER and XERA.)
See also
- List of international radio broadcasters and List of international television broadcasters – Such as the BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is one of the most widely-recognised international broadcasters, currently broadcasting in 32 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays. It is politically independent, non-profit and...
and Voice of AmericaVoice of America is the official external radio and television broadcasting service of the United States federal government. Its oversight entity is the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio, TV and the Internet around the world in...
.
- List of international religious radio broadcasters and International religious television broadcasters
International religious television broadcasters broadcast from a host nation to another nation or nations. Such operations are mostly operated from the United States of America in conjunction with a religious organization having links to many churches who produce their own programs...
– A list of religious broadcasting organizations (with links to specific entries), whose intended audience is international in scope. Examples include the broadcasting services of Gene Scott and Trans World RadioTrans World Radio is a multinational Christian evangelistic broadcaster. TWR broadcasts from 14 countries using mediumwave or high-powered AM transmitters, shortwave as well as through local radio stations, cable, satellite, and the Internet to reach millions of people in 160 nations in their own...
which has specialized in broadcasting religious radio messages to various countries closed to U.S. missionairiesA missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who proselytizes. The word "mission" is derived from the Latin missioninimus A missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith;...
and radio preachers; it has operated in Europe from Monte CarloMonte Carlo is one of Monaco's administrative areas, sometimes erroneously believed to be a town or the country's capital, just as Monaco-Ville...
(until 2004) and various nations in Africa.
- Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. Its etymology can be traced to the unlicensed nature of the transmission, but historically there has been occasional but notable use of sea vessels – fitting the most common perception of a pirate – as broadcasting bases...
– An explanation of how one nation can license a station that another nation regards as a "pirate radio" signal. The traditional interpretation of "pirate radio" is where a station operates without a license from on land and within a sovereign nation in defiance of its broadcasting laws; or from offshore without a license (other than permission of the ship or marine structure registry) from outside of the territorial watersTerritorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most twelve nautical miles from the baseline of a coastal state...
of a sovereign nation, but directing its broadcasting signals into that nation. Radio LuxembourgRadio Luxembourg is a commercial broadcaster in many languages from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is nowadays known in most non-English languages as RTL ....
was regarded as a "pirate" station even though it broadcast with a license issued by the government of LuxembourgLuxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a small, landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany...
. The United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
never branded the border blasters along its international frontier with MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
as pirates, but it did regard them as a problem which it attempted to resolve in part by the introduction of the Brinkley ActThe Brinkley Act is the popular name given to . This provision was enacted by the United States Congress to prohibit broadcasting studios in the U.S. from being connected by live telephone line or other means to a transmitter located in Mexico.Prior to World War II, Dr. John R...
. The United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
adopted the same response with regards to Radio Luxembourg.
- Atlantic 252
Atlantic 252 was a long wave radio station broadcasting to Ireland and Britain on 252 kHz from its 1988 purpose built transmission site Clarkstown radio transmitter, which provided service to Atlantic 252 from 1989 until 2002. The station's studios were located just 12 km away in Mornington...
. A border blaster into the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, from the neighbouring Republic of Ireland.
- city of license
A city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting, is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.- History :...
- rimshot (broadcasting)
A rimshot is a radio and television broadcasting term for a signal that attempts to reach a larger media market from a distant suburban, exurban, or even rural location. The term is primarily used with FM stations, and mainly in North America...
External links