Most mainstream (commercial & non-commercial) radio stations as we know them today, offering a wide range of music genres to a national and international audience have some pirate DNA.
Kiss FM for instance, now a household name, was launched on October 7 1985 as a pirate radio station in South London. They operated in a gray area until being granted a license on December 17, 1989 (after voluntarily suspending their operations on New Years’s eve 1988, watch the amazing documentary “The Last Pirates” for more info).
Originally they pioneered black & dance music on the airwaves (along with LWR, which unfortunately didn’t get a proper license and stopped broadcasting in 1990). Under the pressure of their investors, they moved to a more traditional mainstream / commercial format quickly after re-launching as a legal broadcaster on September 1st, 1990, on 100 FM.
Kiss, when still a pirate radio, launched the radio careers of Norman Jay, Trevor Nelson, Judge Jules and many others.
Read long features about Kiss, LWR and a bunch of other pirate radio stations on the AMFM.org website.