North Carolina. Soon after, Eastland again found itself in the headlines when, as president of the local Rotary Club, and at the height of the Cold War, Pierson managed to convince the Deputy Soviet Ambassador to the United States, Vladimir Alkimov, to appear as the featured speaker at the club's weekly meeting. Pirate radio In 1964, his interests took him to the UK, after reading The Dallas Morning News. The newspaper carried a report of the start-up of Radio Caroline and Radio Atlanta from ships at that time anchored off the coastline of Southeast England. In a 1984 interview, Pierson said he was captivated by the fact that these two offshore stations were the first and only all-day commercial radio broadcasters serving the UK. Pierson compared this with the number of stations then serving the population of his native Northwest Texas and realized that a UK radio operation could generate a lot of money. He caught the next available "red eye" flight to London from Dallas Love Field. On arriving, he chartered a small plane and flew over the two existing radio ships in the North Sea. After taking some photographs, he returned to Texas determined to create a station bigger and better than either of them. The result was Radio London, which started transmitting on 16 December 1964 from the MV Galaxy, a former World War II United States Navy US Minesweeper. Radio London stopped transmitting 14 August 1967, when the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act came into effect in the United Kingdom. This law made it a criminal offence for any person to supply music, commentary, advertising, fuel, food, water or any other assistance (except for life-saving purposes) to any ship, offshore structure or aircraft used for broadcasting without a licence. Between 3 May 1966 and 13 November 1966, Pierson ran radio stations Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio from the MV Olga Patricia (later renamed MV Laissez Faire), a World War II vessel built in the US as a supply ship. The two stations shared a studio and transmitter. In the years that followed Don Pierson attempted to launch three more offshore radio station ventures. The first was off the coast of New York using the ship that had been the former home of Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio but under the call sign of Wonderful Radio London. He then engaged in plans to use a new