Britt Wadner
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Britt Wadner (16 January 16, 1915 - 13 March 1987 Båstad) was a Swedish pirate radio manager.
Early life
[edit]Britt Wadner was born on 16 January 1915 in Linköping to Tyra and Martin Wadner, the oldest of five daughters. Her family were well-off, her father was in the military, a second lieutenant in Första livgrenadjärregementet, when her parents married.[1] Wadner grew up in Östermalm in Stockholm and attended the French school there. Her mother, Tyra Wadner, founded of the ‘lotta’ Swedish Women’s Voluntary Defence Organisation movement in the 1920s. Wadner modelled the very first ‘lotta’ uniform, made for her by her mother, in the Swedish press. When Wadner was in her teens, her family relocated to Växjö, but she missed Stockholm, moving back age 17 and working as an office clerk for Postgirot.[2]
Career
[edit]Britt Wadner was hired as an ad salesperson in 1959 for Skånes Radio Mercur, the first commercial "pirat" radio station in Sweden that Nils-Eric Svensson had started in December 1958. Svensson left management and sold his interest to Britt Wadner in 1959. She changed the name to Radio Syd in 1962, the same year the Pirate Radio Act (also called "Lex Radio Nord") was introduced in Sweden, which banned ownership of radio transmitters and also prohibited broadcasts from international waters if they disrupted Swedish Radio. She purchased the boat Cheeta I from the Danish Radio Mercur, and continued broadcasting violating the new law. Radio Syd continued broadcasting until 1966.[3][4]
In 1966, she moved to the Gambia, where she was involved in radio and tourism and was also allowed to broadcast from land.[2]
Imprisonment
[edit]Wadner was sentenced three times for violation of the law, the last time being given three months in prison. The sentence was served at the Hinseberg women's prison.[5][6]
Further reading
[edit]- Karén, Fredric (1999). Piratdrottningen : boken om Britt Wadner och Radio Syd (in Swedish). Lund: Boström. ISBN 91-7231-037-5. OCLC 186165043. [7]
- Lind, Kalle (2018). Snedtänkt : boken som handlar om det inga andra böcker handlar om (in Swedish). Stockholm: Forum. ISBN 978-91-37-15148-9. OCLC 1103922902.
- Britt Wadner at Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "skbl.se - Tyra Elisabeth Wadner". skbl.se. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
- ^ a b "Britt Wadner". Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon. Archived from the original on 2020-03-23. Retrieved 2020-03-23.
- ^ "Radio Syd History". www.offshoreradiomuseum.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-03-23.
- ^ "Wadner, Britt (1915-1987), entreprenör, piratradiochef – Kulturportal Lund" (in Swedish). Retrieved 2020-03-23.
- ^ "Sveriges kvalitetssajt för nyheter". SvD.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 2020-03-23.
- ^ "Scandinavian Offshore Radio: Radio Syd (3)". www.icce.rug.nl. Archived from the original on 2021-09-28. Retrieved 2020-03-23.
- ^ "Piratdrottningen - boken om Britt Wadner och Radio Syd". Piratförlaget (in Swedish). Retrieved 2020-03-23.