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Early Cork series: Radio City enters its second month on air

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Early Cork series: Radio City enters its second month on air
The late Henry Condon (Alan Reid on air) at Radio City in 1980 (courtesy Lilian O’Donoghue).

In October 1980, the new Cork pirate station Radio City entered its second month on air, offering a variety of programmes from 0700-0200 each day presented by many of the DJs who had cut their teeth on the emerging Cork scene since the late 1970s.

The first part of this recording was made on 1st October 1980 and features Noel Evans (Welch), Alan Reid (the late Henry Condon, known later as Henry Owens on other pirates) and Tony Allen (Walsh). The second part was made on 10th October and features Tony Allen, Luke Ward and Pete Andrews (O’Neill). Adverts are sparse after a month on air, underlining the financial challenges involved in sustaining a full-time pirate station at the time.

Audio quality is poor as most of the recording was made by placing a tape recorder against a radio. It was recorded from 1512 kHz AM, announcing 199 metres, and is courtesy of Lilian O’Donoghue.

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Border series: Saturday morning on Donegal’s Radio North

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Border series: Saturday morning on Donegal's Radio North

The Donegal pirate Radio North relaunched in 1999 with a new format of mostly American country music, calling itself ‘the new Radio North’. The station focused on FM and ran a parallel religious service Gospel 846 for part of the day on AM.

This recording of a Saturday morning show from autumn that year features presenter Donna Reeves, although the emphasis is on the music with only short links and a tighter station formatting. The voice of station manager Paul Barnett (RIP) is heard on station idents and adverts. As usual there are long commercial breaks featuring small businesses from Donegal, Antrim and Derry.

The tape was made on 2nd October 1999 between 1005-1056 from 846 kHz AM and is courtesy of Ian Biggar. Presumably Gospel 846 was not on the air at the time, with Radio North broadcasting on both AM and FM.

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Border series: ‘the new Radio North’ from 1999

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Border series: 'the new Radio North' from 1999

After the shortlived change to Radio North 2000 in 1998, the Donegal pirate dumped the reference to the millennium and relaunched itself as ‘the new Radio North’ in 1999. Owner Paul Barnett (RIP) maintained the focus on American country music and the station developed a more polished sound and concentrated on FM (103.9 and 104.4), while running a parallel AM service for religious music and programming, Gospel 846.

This recording from summer 1999 gives a flavour of the new Radio North, complete with a slick advertising promo and a huge number of adverts from both sides of the border, many of them voiced by Paul Barnett. The DJ is Steve Marshall, who had been involved in previous Irish pirate stations in the 1980s. Among the straplines used are ‘the northwest’s fasting growing station’ and ‘the only station that’s increasing its audience’. There’s also a syndicated news service from IRN at the top of the hour.

The tape is courtesy of Ian Biggar and was made on Tuesday June 1st 1999 between 1405-1535 from 103.9 FM.

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Early Cork series: samples from a week on Radio City

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Early Cork series: samples from a week on Radio City
Geraldine O’Connor typing up the news in 1980 (courtesy Lillian O’Donoghue).

This post features recordings of Radio City Cork made over a week during the station’s first month on air in September 1980. It begins with Paul Cassidy presenting an evening show on 22nd September, who is followed by Pat O’Rourke (Smurf) with Sounds Around Midnight. Pat previously had a big following on CBC. Pat O’Rourke is then heard from 24th September signing off in the early hours followed by the national anthem. He is followed by Noel Evans (Welch) later on drivetime later that day. Next up from 25th September is Noel Evans on drivetime, followed by John Rice. The final snippets were recorded on 29th September and feature Ed Harris with the Afternoon Delight programme followed by Geraldine O’Connor and Noel Evans.

Early Cork series: samples from a week on Radio City
Paul Cassidy at Radio City in 1980 (courtesy Lillian O’Donoghue).

Audio quality is poor throughout as the recording was made by placing a tape recorder against a radio instead of using a radio-cassette recorder. Despite our best efforts, there is also some wobble on the cassette after many decades. The tape was made from 1512 kHz AM, announcing 199 metres. Thanks to Lilian O’Donoghue for the donation.

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Daphne Mitchell on Radio Leinster

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Daphne Mitchell on Radio Leinster
Daphne Mitchell on Radio Leinster in 1982 (courtesy David Baker).

Radio Leinster was a talk and specialist pirate station broadcasting to Dublin from 1981-1983. This recording from a snowy day in winter 1981 shows how, with a fraction of the resources, Radio Leinster mounted a credible challenge to RTÉ Radio 1 during its time on air. The recording begins with the final few minutes of a lunchtime show presented by show band and cabaret singer, Sonny Knowles (RIP). He is followed at 1500 by the much-loved Daphne Mitchell, whose afternoon programme is sponsored by Apollo 1 Discount Store in Dublin’s Moore Street. Daphne’s popular show includes a featured artist, country interlude, poet’s corner, single of the week, horoscopes, a song from the musical and a classical corner. There are references also to other specialist shows on Radio Leinster and a charitable appeal by the presenter of a religious programme, Fr Michael Culloty. News headlines at half past the hour are read by Gordon Sommerville and Daphne is followed at 1630 by Mick McKenzie.

The recording was made from 738 kHz AM, announcing 406 metres, between 1448-1651 on Tuesday 8th December 1981, and is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection. There is increasing co-channel interference as night falls.