Airchecks Archives - Page 12 of 38 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

10th June 20229th June 2022

Pete O’Neill and Hugh Browne on South Coast Radio

This is a recording of part of Pete O’Neill’s popular mid-morning show in the early days of the Cork super-pirate South Coast Radio. It’s a sunny Thursday morning, 13^th May 1982, and Pete has the usual bright and breezy mix of music, interviews and information. Regular slots include What’s On In Munster, the Adult Education Diary and the Listener’s Favourite 5 after the midday news. There are also announcements about community events such as a road race in Co. Clare (giving a sense of the station’s wide coverage on 1557 kHz AM) and an interview with a Cork band. Listeners are invited to call the Hitline and vote for their favourite record of the week and there are various promos for other shows including the Nightline with Nick Richards and Hit and Miss with John Kenny. Other promos of note include Flatline, an accommodation service, and Jobline, a vacancies slot.

Pete is followed by the late Hugh Browne, who has a competition for tickets to a forthcoming Don McLean concert. News is read by Mark Lawrence but is edited out of the original recording. Part 1 of the recording above runs from 1005. Parts 2 and 3 are below.

Part 2 from 1137

Part 3 from 1230

The recordings were made from 104 FM in stereo and are courtesy of Lillian O’Donoghue.

8th June 20228th June 2022

Capitol Radio featured on the BBC

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This is a recording of a BBC report on Irish pirate radio, featuring the specialist station Capitol Radio in Dublin (1975 and 1978-1981). It was broadcast on the BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat programme on 26^th November 1981 and on BBC World Service on shortwave around the world. One of Capitol’s founders Alan Russell is interviewed and speculates about the establishment of legalised commercial radio in Ireland. The report also includes a clip from Capitol DJ Chris Barry.

The interview was conducted in Dublin in February 1981 but not broadcast until November. Capitol had in fact closed the previous March and Alan speculates that the delay in airing the interview could have been because the BBC did not want to unduly antagonise RTÉ by featuring a pirate currently on air. Similarly, they may not have wanted to publicise Robbie Robinson of Sunshine Radio or Chris Cary of Radio Nova, both of whom had a history in UK offshore pirate radio. Capitol Radio had been known to the UK radio industry as a specialist station following a 1980 article in a British trade magazine Radio Month (see below). Alan believes that Capitol was one of the few Irish pirates, if not the only one, to get worldwide airtime on the BBC.

Thanks to Alan Russell for the donation of this recording and images.

6th June 20225th June 2022

Radio Dublin on June bank holiday 1977

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In September 1977, Radio Dublin broke the mould of pirate broadcasting in Dublin by broadcasting non-stop for 36 hours. It was a change that spurred the professionalisation of the scene and encouraged round-the-clock broadcasting. Before then, the pirates were part-time operations, coming on the air for short periods at night or during the weekend.

This recording is from bank holiday Monday, 6^th June 1977, when the station called itself ‘the new Radio Dublin’ and announced a line-up of four DJs, no doubt in preparation for longer broadcasting hours later in the year. In this airchecked recording from that afternoon, Jimmy St. Leger, DJ Sylvie, Johnny Day and Alistair Mac take plenty of requests from listeners by phone and promote Radio Dublin t-shirts and a march in favour of local radio the following weekend. An address in Crumlin, Dublin 12 is given.

The cassette label says that the wavelength was 251 metres (somewhere around 1196 kHz before the frequency changes of 1978) but most of the links refer to 253 metres (1187 kHz), where Radio Dublin would remain until the 1990s. Radio Dublin closed down permanently in 2002 following the conviction of its owner Eamonn Cooke for sexually abusing children. He was jailed in 2003 and again in 2007 and died in 2016 while on temporary release. If you require support with this issue, you can contact the organisation One in Four.

This recording is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson.

30th May 202229th May 2022

News bulletin on Capitol Radio

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Capitol Radio (220 and later 226 metres) was a mixed-format station broadcasting from Dublin in 1975 and then from 1978-1981. The station had many specialist music programmes as well as news and current affairs and provided evidence, from the beginning of the pirate era, that not all stations played chart hits only.

This news bulletin from 9^th March 1979 is read by one of Capitol’s founders, Alan Russell. Stories include a Supreme Court judgement in favour of former Garda Commissioner Ned Garvey who was dismissed by the government in 1978.

It also includes a defence by RTÉ presenter Bunny Carr of the television quiz show Quicksilver, then under fire from critics.

Alan Russell went on to set up stations in Galway in the 1980s. We thank him for donating this recording and the photo.

19th May 202231st May 2024

Northeast series: Royal County Radio during 1983 raids

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This recording of Co. Meath station Royal County Radio was made during the infamous raids by the Department of Posts and Telegraph on the super-pirates in May 1983. It was recorded on the morning of Thursday 19th May, a few hours after Sunshine Radio in Portmarnock was raided, and a day after Radio Nova was shut down.

Royal County Radio broadcast from Navan from October 1982 until the middle of 1984. In this recording, Al O’Rourke refers to a quiz coming up the following Monday but adds ‘fingers crossed’, a reflection of the nervousness among pirates at the time. Many stations closed down temporarily as a precaution in the days after the raids.

This extract begins at 1117 and is partially airchecked. It was recorded from 846 kHz, announcing 355 metres. Audio quality is fair to poor as the signal is groundwave reception recorded outside the Navan area. This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Radio Skywave International was a shortwave station broadcasting from northeast Dublin in the 1980s.