When it closed just before Christmas in 1988, Raidió Luimní brought ten unique and memorable years of broadcasting to a close. While many Limerick stations came and went, Raidió Luimní was a constant presence in the city throughout the pirate era and had a huge following due largely to the unconventional style of its owner, John ‘the Man’ Frawley. It also had listeners well beyond Limerick city, thanks to an efficient Irish-made transmitter on 1125 kHz.
The station closed down a week earlier than other the pirates at the end of 1988, leaving the air at 0130 on Christmas Eve. This recording is of the final half-hour of the station with Alf de Lacy who says a long goodbye to Raidió Luimní listeners and staff and even thanks local Gardaí for their hard work over Christmas! A few bars of Denis Allen’s song ‘Limerick, You’re a Lady’ are played and then the national anthem brings Raidió Luimní to the end of its colourful life.
The recording was made from 103 FM from 0100-0130 on 24th December 1988. We thank John Breslin for the donation. You can listen here to John the Man’s final show.
A comprehensive overview of the 1988 closedowns is available on the Radiowaves site.
Raidió Luimní was one of the longest-serving pirates in the country, broadcasting from Limerick City from 1978 to 1988. It had a large following of loyal listeners in counties Limerick, Tipperary and Clare due to the eccentric broadcasting style of its owner, the late John ‘the Man’ Frawley. Raidió Luimní was a community station with a difference featuring all sorts of local characters and unusual programming. It was also one of the first stations to feature death notices, a tradition that continues on local radio today.
This is part of John the Man’s final show on 23rd December 1988, the station’s last day of broadcasting. There are letters and requests from loyal listeners who are sad to see Raidió Luimní close and an emotional farewell from one of the more memorable pirate broadcasters of the 1980s.
The recording made from 1033-1118 from 103 FM and is kindly donated by John Breslin.
Limerick Broadcasting Company (LBC) was a late-1970s pirate based in Limerick City. Information is scant, but the station is included in an update on the Irish scene by John Dowling, published in Sounds Alternative in December 1979, which lists it on 270 metres medium wave or 1110 kHz, so off-channel. The report says: ‘LBC was very cautious when dealing with us and reluctantly allowed us a look around the studios. We were asked not to publicise any information about the station, especially its location’. LBC continued to be logged until the spring of 1981 but we have no further information about it.
This recording of LBC is from 1st August 1979 from 1623-1710 and features DJ Jeff Steele with music and requests. 270 metres and 1110 kHz are announced on air. Only one advert is heard in the entire recording, so it’s clear that LBC wasn’t operating on a commercial basis. The heyday of the 1980s was yet to come, and most Irish pirates were small or part-time operators at this time. There’s a break in audio towards the end but we’re not sure if this is due to a technical issue at LBC or a problem with the cassette.
We thank John Breslin for his donation of this recording.
Part of ‘The Irish Pirates’ from the Leon Tipler Collection (photo by Brian Greene).
Continuing with Part 3 of Leon Tipler’s documentary ‘The Irish Pirates’, we hear more from the Cork radio scene in 1983 and also learn about the Limerick pirates. The hour begins with a visit to the 10 kW South Coast Radio AM transmitter site in Cork in the company of John Lewis. That is followed by a visit to ERI and an interview with veteran broadcaster Don Allen. There is also a rare insight into the earliest days of the Cork pirates in an interview with Con McParland. Tipler then continues to Limerick where he calls into two local stations, Big L and Raidió Luimní. The episode concludes with interviews with Mike Richardson of Big L and the popular John ‘the Man’ Frawley of Raidió Luimní.
Big L logo, courtesy of DX Archive.
This recording is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England.
Coast 103 compliments slip courtesy of Ian Biggar/DX Archive.
Coast 103 was on air for 18 months in 1987 and 1988 and was the last of the large commercial Galway stations of the era. It emerged from WLS Music Radio and began testing on the 10th of July 1987 as Coast 100. The station was set up by Steve Marshall and Keith York (RIP) who had been involved in both WLS and an earlier station, Atlantic Sound. Coast was located at 24 Prospect Hill, the same address as WLS. It soon moved to 103 FM and added a 1 kW transmitter on 1566 kHz AM. According to the Anoraks UK Weekly Report, the backers were Keith York himself, another pirate station WKLR in Bandon and a number of Galway businessmen.
In April 1988 the Limerick station Hits 954 closed and merged with Coast 103, calling itself Coast Hot Hits and covering Galway, Clare and Limerick. The original Hits 954 AM transmitter was used to relay the Galway signal although there were problems with the antenna and power was never too high. There is poor audio quality on this promo for the new station, voiced by Stuart Clark, recorded from AM in Limerick.
Promo for the merged Coast Hot Hits, courtesy of Liam Byrne.
A chain of FM transmitters was installed between Galway and Limerick allowing FM reception to the south almost as far as Cork city and well into counties Kerry, Tipperary. The Galway FM transmitter, with an estimated maximum power of 3 kW ERP was brought to a higher location to allow improved reception to the north into Counties Mayo and Roscommon. The AM signal could be heard in Scotland but FM was the priority in the station’s last year. Coast Hot Hits was one of a number of stations to carry the satellite service Radio Nova International on overnights in 1988. It also made a number of successful outside broadcasts from Limerick and Galway. In the competitive Galway pirate scene of 1988, there was intense rivalry with the other big station County Sound. Coast presenters included Tony Allan, Steve Marshall, Stuart Clark, Brian Walsh, Ger Sweeney and Shane Martin. The station closed at the end of 1988 in line with the new broadcasting legislation. You can listen here to an interview with Ger Sweeney in which he remembers his time at Coast.
This recording, courtesy of Ian Biggar of DX Archive, is from the 1st of November 1988 from 1113-1200 and features Steve Marshall on air with Tony Allan’s voice on many ads and promos.
