A rock radio station that broadcasts to a large part of Europe from a terraced house in the North-East has plans to expand.

Pipeline Radio, which reaches listeners around the world who tune in through the Internet and the Sky satellite service, recently launched Wednesday night medium wave broadcasts from a 7,000-watt transmitter in Lithuania.

The transmissions, aimed at Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, have proved a success and the contract to use the transmitter has been extended for a further two months. Talks are continuing to give the station air time for a year.

The station's parent company, Scandinavian Media Ltd, is owned by station manager and presenter Tom Mackenzie and based at his home in Seaham, County Durham.

He said: "We are also hoping to hire short wave equipment so that we can run a world service, probably on Sundays, from February.

"Also, a licence holder in Sweden is willing to put on a service there and we are talking to them about that. It would be an AM station for Stockholm.

"We are growing. There is a plan to go on to digital radio in two years' time."

The station has 20 presenters in Britain - including Andy Lewis, in Redcar, Dave Gallagher, of Seaham, and Barry Jones, from Stockton. There are also presenters in the US who record their shows at home and send them via the Internet for editing in Holland.

Mr Mackenzie, 27, started the station as a land-based medium wave pirate in the London area, in the mid-1990s, after working for a year with the pioneering offshore pirate station Radio Caroline, when it was granted a restricted service licence.

The link with the station, which broadcast from a mooring in the North Sea from 1964, has been maintained, as Caroline presenter Tom Lodge, who also managed Tony Blackburn, is joining the Pipeline crew.

"All our presenters are former independent radio or BBC presenters and it is a professional station," said Mr Mackenzie, who added that the company was not for profit.

The station, which has had responses from across eastern Europe to its medium wave broadcasts, also promoted upcoming bands and was helping to spread knowledge of Seaham and the North-East, he said.

He said it was easier and cheaper to broadcast from abroad - although Pipeline can be heard in Britain - because of regulations and the cost of applying for a licence.

The station can be heard on 1386Khz, from 10pm on Wednesdays, following the close of China Radio International and also, 24 hours a day, on www.pipelineradio.org