The island’s two radio stations, Quay FM and the online station Riduna Radio, have been joined by a third ‘illegal’ radio station.

The pirate station has been broadcasting intermittently on the FM frequency for the past two to three years and is particularly active in the summer months, playing continuous 1970s pop music with no presenter and no adverts.

It variously identifies as Radio North Sea, or sometimes as Laser Radio, after two of the pirate radio stations which broadcast in the Thames Estuary during the 1960s.

The station has become a particular problem for Quay FM as it broadcasts close to its own 107.1FM frequency.

A spokesman for Alderney broadcasting, the Channel Islands’ broadcasting charity, said that while it believed there was room for a wide choice of content, listeners throughout the islands should tune into community radio with Quay FM.

‘We bring local information, national and international news as well as good music and chat,’ he said. ‘Unlicensed broadcasters are not subject to the myriad rules and regulations that properly licensed broadcasters have to follow, including high technical standards and strict regulatory requirements.’

He added that they paid hefty annual licence fees to Ofcom for FM and DAB licences.

‘We are also liable for significant amounts of copyright royalties to rights holders in order to have the legal right to play music on the air,’ he said, ‘none of which an unlicensed transmitter has to do.’

This is not the first time a pirate station has set up in Alderney.

In 1938, after questions were asked in the House of Commons, an Alderney pirate broadcaster was raided by the General Post Office.

The station run by Alderney Radio Ltd was prosecuted in Guernsey’s Royal Court, was fined £10 (equivalent to approximately £600 today) and had its equipment confiscated.

Penalties for unlicensed broadcasting are much more severe today, with those involved facing up to two years in prison or an unlimited fine under the UK’s Wireless Telegraphy and Communications Acts, which applies in the Channel Islands.