How Spam Was Done 70 Years Ago

bitrex writes: "Modern Mechanix recently ran a reprint of a 1934 article describing the problem of offshore pirate radio stations broadcasting advertisements and drowning out local, licensed radio programs. 'The primary purpose of the unlicensed broadcast station was to advertise the gambling, liquor, and other dubious pleasure activities of the ship upon which it was built...they found other sundry rackets, such as a fortune telling program...After numerous unsuccessful attempts of a local nature, the floating broadcasting establishment was silenced, but only after the state department at Washington, D. C, had made diplomatic representations which forced a Central American country to cancel the ship's registry.'

The article also has a great artist's conception of what might be called a machine age "data haven" bobbing in international waters in the Gulf of Mexico."