Wiktionary
n. broadcasting without having the necessary license that covers the territory where the signals are received.
Wikipedia
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission for entertainment or political purposes. While pirate just refers to the illegal nature of the broadcasts, there have also been notable pirate offshore radio transmissions.
Pirate radio generally describes the unlicensed broadcast of FM radio, AM radio, or short wave signals over a wide range. In some cases radio stations are deemed legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially when the signals cross a national boundary. In other cases, a broadcast may be considered "pirate" due to the nature of its content, its transmission format (especially a failure to transmit a station identification according to regulations), or the transmit power (wattage) of the station, even if the transmission is not technically illegal (such as a web cast or an amateur radio transmission). Pirate radio stations are sometimes called bootleg stations (a term especially associated with two-way radio), clandestine stations (associated with heavily politically motivated operations) or free radio stations.
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission.
Pirate Radio may also refer to:
- Pirate Radio or The Boat That Rocked, a 2009 British film
- Pirate Radio (album), a 2004 album by Mars Ill
- "Pirate Radio" (Danny Phantom), an episode of Danny Phantom
- KQLZ (defunct) ("Pirate Radio 100.3"), a Los Angeles radio station 1989–1992
- Pirate Radio, a 2006 boxed set by the Pretenders
- Season 5 episode of the 1987 TMNT cartoon
- WSOU (89.5 FM), the college radio station of Seton Hall University, known as "Pirate Radio" after the school's athletic teams
Usage examples of "pirate radio".
A second stone, a calcium oxalate crystal, to be precise, lodged in his ureter and, like a pirate radio station, went on the air with a sporadic signal and a musical format programmed by Nazi biologists and prelates from the Inquisition.
And 60,080 megaHertz was the frequency of Blackjack Goring pirate radio network!
It has HIV positive terrorism, pirate radio, Vietnamese-American culture in New Orleans.
Some people drove in promiscuous mode, collecting every song in every car on the turnpike, cruising the tunnels that riddled Boston like mobile pirate radio stations, dumping their collections to other drivers when it came time to quit the turnpike and settle up for their music at the toll booth.