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It
had been on air for less than a week on July 17th when transmissions
were interrupted by 'Cheeta' losing her anchor and ending up
aground outside Malmo. After necessary repairs she returned
to her original position and recommenced broadcasting on August
2nd. To prevent interference with a Swedish land-based radio
station the frequency was changed to 89.55MHz on August 29th
and two days later, with increased power, 'Cheeta' also made
experimental broadcasts in Swedish under the name of SKANES
RADIO MERCUR. It had been realised by then that this small boat
was completely unsuitable and the owners started to make arrangements
to acquire a second, larger boat.
During November 1959 a group of people including Gordon McLendon,
Bob Thompson and Jack Kotschack acquired the ex-cargo boat 'Olga'
( previously called 'Margarethe' ) from which they planned to
operate a Swedish commercial radio station to be called RADIO
NORD. The project experienced many setbacks and for various
reasons took over a year to get onto the airwaves. From late
November 1959 a company called Anstalt Veronica ( the name was
derived from the original project title VRON which stood for
Vrije Radio Omroep Nederland ) had also been converting a vessel,
the ex-German lightship 'Borkum Riff', for radio broadcasting.
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