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South Coast Radio was the first big station to shake up the Cork radio scene introducing a level of professionalism and slickness not heard on the smaller pirates that had sprung up since the late 1970s. The station was set up by Pete O’Neill and Peter Maher who had worked previously with Radio City and was on air by February 1982. South Coast was launched officially on March 3rd and the first voice heard was Peter Madison (RIP) who at various times presented on other stations such as Sunshine Radio, Radio Nova, Magic 103 and Boyneside Radio. South Coast was based at the Metropole Hotel in McCurtain Street until April 4th 1982 when it moved to Adelaide Place in St. Luke’s. On 26th September it moved again to a premises above Henchy’s Bar also in St. Luke’s. South Coast closed on 13th July 1984 and was revived briefly but didn’t last long.
This recording is of the late Keith York on South Coast’s official launch day, 3rd March 1982. It was recorded from 104 FM and runs from 1752-1855. The station also broadcast on 1557 kHz, announcing 194 metres. Keith had previously worked on the Voice of Peace, Radio Capitale in Brussels and in Dublin pirates Southside Radio and Island Radio. Thanks to Ian Biggar for the recording and Lillian O’Donoghue for the background information and photos.
Pete O’Neill remembers:
I came up with the name South Coast Radio and the concept in the summer of 1981 having travelled to Portmarnock in Co. Dublin to spend a few days visiting Sunshine Radio. I approached Peter Maher, a salesman with me at Radio City and he agreed to work with me on it. He quit his job with an insurance company and we both left Radio City to work on the project. We had to sell some of our record collection to fund coffee and scones!
Peter assembled six business men in the Imperial Hotel and they all agreed to commit to the initial tune of £25,000. I travelled to London as a late teenager and purchased Technics turntables, Revox PR 99s, AKG Mics, a Quad amp and Kef speakers at a London outlet Music Lab. I also purchased many vinyl records at several stores to have shipped back to Ireland for a record library. After a trip around Capital Radio with Michael Aspel, I went to Kent to visit a rep for Pams Jingles. While there, I went over my lyrics to a re-sing of a QRUU/Radio Luxembourg package. I then headed to Brighton where I visited the Alice Stancoil factory and purchased an STM-8 Mixer (the same one as Sunshine had), an Alice 2008P production mixer and Sonifex cart machines.
I can remember all the equipment stored in a warehouse on Patrick’s Quay. I wired up the Revox and speakers and John Ashford (John Buckley) and myself listened to the new jingle package on Ampex tape. Amazing! We used the Southern Advertising Agency to design our headphones logo and they also did the initial launch photos using models. We secured a medium wave TX site near the airport which would be used with a 1kW transmitter. The then head of air traffic control at Cork airport built our FM TX, having given me a shopping list of parts including a Phillips stereo generator. He constructed it in his garden shed and I can remember him showing me the progress as it was built into a filling cabinet!
One of our shareholders knew the managing director of the Metropole Hotel so we acquired two rooms which we converted to studio/production. Great fun was had here with room service for the presenters! We even recorded cheerleaders from the States over for the St. Patrick’s Parade for station imaging. We made the front page of The Irish Times on April 2nd 1982 after Peter Madison told listeners to retune to watch him on breakfast television as an April Fool’s joke. The NUJ Cork branch were not happy with a pirate located in the hotel and protested outside, so we were forced to relocate.
I brought on many of the best local presenters to the station including Henry Condon (Alan Reid RIP), Neil Prendeville (Jim Lockhart), John Buckley (John Ashford RIP), Luke Ward, Steve Douglas and George Long. Most were on weekends so I needed to find others for weekdays. I was hoping I could attract some from Sunshine in Dublin like Tony Fenton and Declan Meehan but they had moved on to the new Radio Nova. Siobhán Walls and Stevie Dunne came down as did Keith York (RIP), Hugh Browne (RIP), John Kenny, Peter Madison (RIP) and Nick Richards. Later the line-up included John Lewis, Don Stevens and Steve Marshall.
We eventually moved to 40 St Luke’s Cross after a short stint at a premises nearby. This was to be our permanent home and consisted of reception, advertising offices, record library, production, news, and on air studios and of course a pub downstairs! I talked a friend’s mother to agree to give us a part of her farm land at Dublin Hill and we put up a higher AM mast there. We also flew in a 10,000 watt AM TX which took some time to get up and running with the help of Keith, Terry Vacani and a relation of one of our directors from east Cork. The sound and coverage was amazing with the signal loud and clear in Dublin and the south coast of England and London by night.
I gave away a £1,000 summer splash-out on air and the initial response was so great that it blew many of the Telecom exchange lines. I had to re-run it a week later! South Coast’s signal, sound, quality and personality of presenters and imaging was amazing and it quickly became an instant hit. There were problems down the road though with our new competitor ERI and we had water put into our site generator and then the entire mast was cut down. This, coupled with a major fire at the site and RTE jamming of commercial breaks, led to a quick demise of the station. I left in early 1984 as the writing was on the wall. I’m very proud to have met and worked with so many talented people, and to be afforded the opportunity to put on an amazing station while still in my late teens. South Coast radio will always be one of my favourite achievements!