Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

29th July 202629th July 2026

Highlights of Radio West Anoraks Show (1986 & 1987)

The weekly Radio West Anoraks’ Show from Mullingar was essential listening for radio enthusiasts far and near. Fronted by station boss Shaun Coyne, it was unscripted and unpredictable and relied heavily on juicy gossip and rumours about the pirate radio scene. Shaun was joined by another presenter each week – including the late Don Allen – but the second person often struggled to get a word in.

This recording contains highlights of the Anoraks’ Show from 1986 and 1987, with a focus on stations outside Dublin, in particular the west and southwest. It captures the rivalry and volatility in the pirate radio world as well as the continued dominance of AM outside Dublin well into the 1980s. The list of snippets is as follows:

2^nd November 1986: Limerick information from a contributor.

16^th November 1986: Limerick information from William Leahy, who went on to a career in RTÉ radio.

30^th November 1986: Galway information from Noel Dooley.

27^th November 1986: Raidió Luimní as heard on 1125 kHz when Radio Carousel was temporarily off the air.

7^th December 1986: Paul Davidson of Anoraks Ireland with information from Limerick, Tipperary and Cork.

7^th December 1986: Sligo information from James Headd.

1^st February 1987: Further Limerick information from William Leahy.

1^st February 1987: Further Galway information from Noel Dooley.

12^th April 1987: Paul Davidson of Anoraks Ireland with information from around the country.

10^th May 1987: Information about Tipperary (Nenagh) from a contributor.

10^th May 1987: Joe Cashin from Kilkenny with local information.

10^th May 1987: Galway and Mayo information from a contributor.

17^th May 1987: Promo for interview with Owen Barry (Larkin) from Zee 103, who went on to work in Century Radio and Downtown Radio in Belfast.

24^th May 1987: Owen Barry (Larkin) from Zee 103.

24^th May 1987: Don Allen jokes about a statute being put up in honour of Heady Eddie (Eddie Caffrey), pioneer of pirate radio in Co. Louth.

24^th May 1987: Nigel Gordon with Kildare information (Naas).

Undated 1987: Interview with Scottish anorak Jock Wilson of Radio Stella International who wishes to broadcast on shortwave from the Republic of Ireland.

26^th July 1987: Keith York from Galway about Coast 103.

26^th July 1987: David Baker from KLAS in Dublin about his recent short stint on offshore station Radio Caroline.

The recordings were made from 702 kHz AM in Scotland by Ian Biggar. DX groundwave reception by day meant variable audio quality due to the distance from Mullingar.

27th July 202626th July 2026

OId Gold Retold on Radio Caroline Dublin

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Old Gold Retold was a long-running oldies show on Radio Caroline Dublin (1989-2000) presented by Derek Jones, one of the pioneers of pirate radio in the city. Featuring music from the 1950s-1970s, the show aired each Sunday morning on the Sutton-based station. This recording contains plenty of requests so clearly Old Gold Retold had built up a good following by that time.

The recording was made on from 102.5 FM on Sunday 2^nd November 1997 between 0911-1031 and is courtesy of Ian Biggar. There is interference in places and some cassette wobble due to deterioration.

24th July 202623rd July 2026

Evening show on alternative free radio service Radioactive

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Radioactive was a free radio experiment broadcasting from Dublin city centre between 1992 and 1996. It was based on the philosophy of media democratisation and resistance to commercial broadcasting expressed in the pamphlet Radio is my Bomb: A DIY Manual for Pirates (1987). Therefore, Radioactive never took commercial advertising income, avoided a format or management and was run democratically by a group of volunteers.

Radioactive was set up on 12^th July 1992 in the bedroom of a flat in the north inner city with a limited studio and basic 20-watt transmitter fed into a homemade half-wave dipole erected on the fire escape. After a few days of testing, the station announced itself as Radioactive and said it was welcoming contact from people or groups who wanted to use the airspace. At the start Radioactive only had two DJs broadcasting from 6pm to midnight with a loop tape machine covering the rest of the time. By the end of 1992 about 30 DJs had become involved leading to a fuller live schedule. Reflecting ongoing attempts to suppress pirate radio, raid procedures were developed and distributed to DJs, but Radioactive was never actually raided.

By 1993, the station had set up monthly meetings to discuss policy, develop new ideas and decide how to raise money without advertising commercial products or events, a key policy of Radioactive. Benefit gigs where bands offered their services became an important source of revenue as well as allowing recruitment of new DJs. Another source of income was membership subscriptions paid by DJs themselves, the money generated being used to buy and maintain basic studio and transmission equipment. By summer 1993, as it celebrated its first birthday, Radioactive had a new 100-watt transmitter and a broadcast schedule of 50 DJs from 5pm to 3am 7 days a week, potentially the biggest free radio station in Europe at the time. It had to move premises around this time and lost some of its coverage area due to a lower height for the antenna at the new location. A commemorative website describes the set-up around this time:

Our studio is fairly common of Dublin pirates, a ten channel mixing desk with a sub mixer to handle four extra mics for interviews. We have two turntables for the techno DJs and two CD players for the rock DJs, we also have two cassette decks one capable of recording shows and an FM tuner to monitor the output.

Radioactive had no overt political policy but among those involved were anarchists, socialists, feminists, gay groups and environmentalists. Others just wanted to play their own music, which the station said was a political statement in itself due to the lack of diversity in the licensed radio scene of the 1990s. Radioactive closed down on 12^th July 1996, 4 years to the day after it began broadcasting. In a tribute, one of the founders Dónal Greene wrote:

Radioactive was democratically run by the volunteers who took part and in its four years only two members were asked to leave. The station never had a normal approach to running a radio service, and this to some extent worked. It had a policy of no advertising and all funds were raised by membership subscriptions and benefit concerts. This meant that the equipment that the station operated with was constantly in need of repair and the transmitters never gave blanket stereo coverage to Dublin. To me Radioactive was an experiment in free radio, and it many ways it succeeded and equally in many ways it failed, but most of all we had a good time and many great laughs.

This recording of Radioactive features an evening programme presented by the ‘ABC DJ’. The musical style is eclectic and the presentation style anarchic, as was the norm for the station. The recording was made from 100.9 FM between 2030-2200 on Wednesday 12^th January 1994. The DJ also announces a relay on 104.4 FM in Belfast. Audio quality is varied due to basic studio and transmission equipment as well as cassette deterioration over time. Thanks to Ian Biggar for the donation.

View the Radioactive tribute page here and its online station here.

22nd July 202620th July 2026

Sunny summer afternoon on Energy 103

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This recording of successful Dublin pirate Energy 103 was made on a warm and sunny day in the city in summer 1986. On air is popular DJ Gareth O’Callaghan in the drivetime slot. As well as chart tunes and classics, features include the TV teaser, a review of the evening newspapers, Listeners’ Top 10, traffic news, gig guide, a competition to win a holiday to Yugoslavia and information about upcoming sports events. News on the hour is read by George Long (Henry O’Donovan, RIP).

The recording was made from 103 FM on Wednesday 16^th July 1986 between 1636-1724 and 1740-1828 and is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection.

20th July 202619th July 2026

Old and new music on Radio Caroline Dublin

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This is another recording of Sunday programming on Radio Caroline Dublin (1989-2000), one of the longest-running pirates of the period following the new broadcasting legislation. On air is Stephen Davitt (Daragh O’Sullivan) in an afternoon slot with a mixture of old and new music from the 1980s and early 1990s. Daragh broadcast previously on Centre Radio (1886-1988), a precursor to Radio Caroline Dublin.

Radio Caroline Dublin was running a full evening and weekend schedule by late 1992, having begun as an occasional station in 1989. Although based in Sutton in northeast Dublin, in this recording a contact address in Lower O’Connell Street is given. The recording was made from 102.5 FM on Sunday 17^th January 1993 between 1640-1725 and is courtesy of Ian Biggar.