Needle time was created in the United Kingdom by the Musician's Union and Phonographic Performances Ltd., in order to restrict the amount of recorded music (by placing needles into the grooves of a phonographic record), that could be transmitted by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) during the course of any 24 hour period.

Contents

1 Needle time notice 1.1 Radio Luxembourg 1.2 The "pirate stations" 1.3 Phonographic Performances Ltd

Needle time notice

Unlike American records, British records carried a warning message around the edge of the record label in the center of the record itself. It stated words to the effect that: "Unauthorised public performance or broadcasting of this record is strictly prohibited."

Radio Luxembourg

Although the record industry in Britain wanted the public to buy its records, it had to give them some air time in order for the public to know that they existed. To that end the record industry used the commercial nighttime signals from Radio Luxembourg whose powerful AM signal could be heard in the UK. The "208" shows on Luxembourg were mainly fifteen minutes to thirty minutes in length and presented under names such as the Decca Records Show or the Capitol Records Show. These prerecorded programs resembled what later became known as Infomercials, because they only featured part of the record which came with heavy plugging for the record name and even its number.

The "pirate stations"

Unlike the BBC or Radio Luxembourg, the offshore pirate radio stations of the 1960s operated not only outside of the three miles limit of territorial waters, but they also operated in a grey area of the law. Because the studios and transmitters were located on board of the ships or offshore structures, the personnel on board were only under the authority of the captain of that ship or structure. In the case of ship stations such as Wonderful Radio London which introduced top 40 radio to Britain, the ship was actually registered in a foreign country and therefore subject to the laws of that country, which of course did not recognize "needle time".

Phonographic Performances Ltd

This company was created by interests in the American recording industry which had suffered the onslaught of commercial radio that demolished record company sales during the period prior to World War Two. Because the British record industry was controlled by these same interests and because British law permitted forms of censorship not possible in the USA, they formed an international enforcement cartel in Benito Mussolini's fascist Italy during the 1930s, of which Phonographic Performances Ltd was merely its British arm. Its name shows its origin since a phonograph in the UK related to a cylinder recording, whereas a flat disc was called a gramophone record. However, as is common with many words and expressions in the English language, the reverse interpretation is true in the United States where the words phonograph record means a flat disc.