Radio Syd ("Radio South") was a Swedish pirate radio station. It began life as Skånes Radio Mercur, the first "pirate radio" in Sweden, and started to broadcast in December 1958.
The station was started by a young Swede, Nils-Eric Svensson, who had studied radio and television in USA and had worked for a short period at the Swedish state run broadcasting company. "Skånes Radio Mercur" leased air time from the Danish pirate radio station Radio Mercur, that had started broadcasting a few months earlier from a Panama registered ship "Cheeta", anchored in international waters between Copenhagen, Denmark, and Malmö, Sweden. The broadcasts were on the FM band, and covered only the densely populated southwestern part of Sweden, Skåne, with the cities Malmö, Landskrona and Helsingborg.
In 1958, recorded music was limited to 60 minutes per day by Sveriges Radio, and pop music was represented by two or three recordings. The new radio station played only music, accenting pop music, and was an instant success, capturing 70 - 80% of the listeners during its limited broadcasting hours.
Skånes Radio Mercur was built on enthusiasm, without financial backing, and the start-up was difficult. To Nils-Eric's surprise, both the newspapers and the record companies boycotted the young station. The ad agencies were also slow to catch on, mostly because they were not equipped to handle this new media. Subsequently, the support came from small advertisers and small maverick record labels, which cashed in handsomely.
Nils-Eric Svensson stayed with his station for three years, until the Swedish Riksdag had introduced laws that made it impossible to continue the station as he saw it. He sold the station in 1961 to continue a career in the US, where he now lives in California. Britt Wadner, who was working in marketing on the station, took over. In 1962 Skaanes Radio Mercur bought the transmission vessel Cheeta Mercur from Radio Mercur, and the name was changed to Radio Syd to differentiate it from the other Swedish radio pirate, Radio Nord, close to Stockholm.