Onde libere e rock ‘n’ roll : La rivoluzione delle emittenti offshore

This article describes the complex phenomenon of offshore and pirate radio broadcasts, its development throughout recent history and its cultural, social and political implications. Using as a starting point the history of British offshore radio stations, with special attention to Radio Caroline and the mythical narratives it gave rise to such as the film The Boat that Rocked, the article explores influences of offshore and pirate broadcasting in different countries of Europe, focusing on the protagonists of this story: managers, DJs, and listeners. The first part analyzes the foundation and the development of Radio Caroline and other offshore radios in UK, from the early offshore days, to the crisis after the Marine Offences Act, to the late Seventies. The second part takes into account various examples of non-official broadcasting in Europe that are linked in various degrees with Radio Caroline: –The Voice of Peace, a pacifist radio ship off the coasts of Israel, during the conflicts in the Middle East between 1966 and 1993. –Unofficial radio stations in post-war Italy and their influence on politics at a local level, referring especially to the anti-mafia protests launched by Peppino Impastato and Radio Aut in 1977. –Listening to foreign radio and music, and the development of underground movements in the Soviet Union from the Sixties to the Soviet Rock of the Eighties. –The history of Radio Brod as an experiment of a radio station super partes during the Balkan Wars in 1993. The analysis of these examples leads to a mapping of how the new way of communication born off the North Sea shores could act in completely different social and political contexts. It is argued that unofficial radio broadcasting enabled for the first time restricted and marginal cultural groups to reach massive numbers of people. Even though offshore radios were born from the pressures of American lobbying, their reach in the still divided Europe was far more than merely commercial. The free radio model which radio Caroline bravely fought for sponsored the idea that music could be an instrument of freedom and peace crossing borders. The need to control these radios showed the authoritarian face of European and Soviet countries. Free radio represented a new way to resist authoritarianism, in different contexts, from Italy in the so-called Years of Lead and student movements, to the Balkan and Middle Eastern wars, to Soviet censorship. Free offshore radio could also today be a valuable instrument to overcome conflicts and borders dividing the countries facing the Mediterranean Sea.