This is an airchecked recording of daytime and evening programming on Boyneside Radio from Drogheda on Good Friday, 3rd April 1983. It includes excerpts from the breakfast show with Dara Nelson, Dave C.’s Golden Oldies Show, sports news at 6.30pm, Country Convoy with Seán Neilon and Nightbeat with Neil O’Brien. The voices of Eddie Caffrey, Dave C., Dermot Finglas, Daire Nelson and Áine Ní Ghuidhir are heard on adverts. One spot for the Augustinian religious order stands out from the more familiar ads for local businesses! The selection from different times of the day gives a good flavour of the variety heard on Boyneside at the time.
Anoraks Ireland cassette label (the correct date is 3rd April).
The recording was made from 98.1 FM in mono and is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson. It was recorded originally by Kieran Murray. Further material from this collection can be found on Radiowaves and the Irish Pirate Radio Archive.
Ken Regis in the Capital Radio studio c. 1982 (courtesy Ken O’Sullivan).
Cork’s Capital Radio began broadcasting in February 1979. The station was a breakaway from ABC which was starting to fragment and eventually closed. According to the Capital Radio magazine issued at Christmas 1980, Peter James, Dave Stewart, Con McParland and Pat Anderson decided that Cork needed a local station that would inform people about what was happening in the city. Con had operated his own small stations in Cork in the early 1970s and had previously been engineer for CBC, Cork’s first full-time pirate station.
The original plan was to locate Capital in Oliver Plunkett Street, but a change of plan meant that the studio was built over a chip shop next to the city library. The aerial was a long wire suspended between two poles around 50 feet apart on the roof of the building. The frequency initially used was around 1323 kHz, announced as 233 metres. Capital broadcast daily from 0800-2000 with a variety of music, although at one point it changed to a strict Top 40 format which caused some dissent amongst the station staff, so the format reverted to the original.
Capital veterans at a reunion in 2015. L-R: Dave Stewart (Jim Collins), Chris Edwards (Matt McAuliffe), Ken Regis (Ken O’Sullivan) and Tony ‘T. C.’ Clarke (Tony Whitnell) (courtesy Ken O’Sullivan).
A team from Free Radio Campaign Ireland visited Capital on 2nd September 1979 and reported that the station was now broadcasting from Tuckey Street in the city centre, above a shop. The studio and transmitter were located on the top floor of the building. The equipment consisted of a pair of disco decks and a transmitter using 813 valves and a power output of about 75 watts. The aerial was a long wire supported by two five foot poles. The sound quality was reported as ‘a little below average, but not bad by any standard’. By this time Capital was on the air from 0800-0200 and non-stop at weekends.
The frequency used varied, for example in August 1979 they were noted as 1312 kHz, in June 1980 on 1336 kHz and in December 1980 on 1308 kHz. When DX Archive visited in August 1981, Capital were on 1305 kHz and in January 1982 they were heard in Scotland during the early hours on 1314 kHz.
Ian Biggar remembers: ‘I visited Cork in March 1982 and Capital Radio was still on the air, but there had been a split which resulted in Leeside Community Radio starting transmissions on 102.3 MHz. Pat Anderson, ex-Capital was the driving force behind that. When I arrived in Cork to work on ERI in July 1982, Capital Radio was still on, but nearing its end. As far as I know, it along with Radio City, it had gone by the end of the summer’.
We bring you two short recordings of Capital, both featuring evening request shows. The first recording above is an undated clip from 1980 featured some of the Teatime Express with Tony Clarke (Tony Whitnell). The clip below is of Seán Murphy and is undated but probably also from 1980.
Thanks to Ian Biggar and Pat Galvin (Pat Anderson) for background and to Pat for the recordings.
This short recording of Big Brother Radio was made sometime early in 1981 near the beginning of the station’s short run. Big Brother began broadcasting on 88.6 FM but in this recording ‘Philip G’ (presumably founder Philip O’Connor) announces that the station is to add 220 metres medium wave (approximately 1359 kHz) the following Monday. FM broadcasting was still underdeveloped so obviously Big Brother felt that it needed to be AM also. On the same day, the station was to would introduce all-day programming and required additional DJs. The AM transmitter was located at the snooker club in Blackpool but didn’t last long due to a weak signal. Thanks to Pat Galvin for the donation.
Some of the original CCLR DJs (courtesy of Lillian O’Donoghue).
We’re delighted to return to our Early Cork Series with a number of recordings of Cork City Local Radio (CCLR). CCLR was launched as Cork City Radio in February 1978 in competition with the Cork Broadcasting Company (CBC), which had begun broadcasting in January of that year. According to The Jolly Roger: Pirate Radio Days in Cork, CCLR was set up by Dubliner Shay Curran, who moved to Cork to set up a record store on Patrick Street. Pirate radio was a natural progression, and Curran remembered climbing across roofs near Paul Street of Half Moon Street to set up an antenna and being questioned by a Garda. The station was initially called Radio Shandon, a reference to another city centre district, because its signal was not travelling far.
‘There was a great buzz about it but, for me at least, a certain amount of paranoia because of the threat of Department of Posts and Telegraphs and Garda raids. There was a certain amount of fear involved’, Curran said. Initially CCLR was announcing 199 metres although its exact frequency is not known. From 1979 it announced 261 metres and frequencies around 1143 kHz were noted. The station was logged by DXers on more than one occasion in 1980 operating around 1119 kHz.
One of those involved with CCLR in the early days was John Creedon, now a well-known broadcaster on RTÉ. Using the on-air name of Jill St Clair, Patricia Deeney was one of the few women to be heard on pirate radio in Cork at the time. Another DJ, Philip Johnston (Philip Knight), remembered getting involved when a sales rep from CCLR came into the clothes shop where he worked. Neil Prendeville (Jim Lockhart) recalled doing outside broadcasts from gigs in 1979-80. Other CCLR presenters who would go on to have careers in the media were Paul Byrne, PJ Coogan, Ken Tobin, Trevor Welch, Rob Allen, Ken O’Sullivan and Colin Edwards.
Former CCLR DJs at a reunion in recent years (courtesy of Lillian O’Donoghue).
Based originally on Sheares Street, CCLR later moved to French Church Street within a short distance of CBC. In September 1982 the station introduced FM transmissions on 95.6 MHz for the first time in its existence. At this time, CCLR was still being run by two full-time people without any major backing.
Ian Biggar remembers: ‘Whilst working at ERI we heard that there had been a cash injection to CCLR. This was around Christmas 1982. Sure enough, new jingles by CPMG were introduced as well as a new transmitter. The transmitter site was around Glanmire where, strangely enough, the ERI DJ house was. The signal strength was massive in that area, but modulation was low. If I remember correctly, the medium wave transmitter had always been at the studio site in the city centre and the power was low, probably around 100 watts. I seem to remember being told the new transmitter was running around 500 watts.
The station revamped its programming during 1983 and introduced new station management. CCLR now included a lot more community items in its programming, rather than being just another jukebox. CCLR closed on 4th November 1983 and in the December issue of Offshore Echos, it was reported that it was off the air due to problems with the medium wave transmitter. They had done some tests on FM, but the feeling was that the station was set to close. And so, with ERI and South Coast cleaning up in the city and beyond and using much higher powered transmitters, CCLR was destined to join the likes of Capital Radio and Radio City, both of which closed during 1982.
Karl Johnson (Dan Noonan) pictured at another pirate CBC in 1979 (courtesy Lillian O’Donoghue).
This recording was made in January or February 1980 and features Karl Johnson (Dan Noonan) with the Sunday ‘Afternoon Delights’ show from 1615 until about 1700 but airchecked. Audio quality is poor and there is some background noise as this was recorded by placing a tape recorder up to a radio. Thanks to Lillian O’Donoghue for the donation. CCLR was featured in Leon Tipler’s documentary about the Irish pirates.
Westside Radio International QSL (courtesy Ian Biggar).
This is a recording of the closedown of the long-running shortwave pirate Westside Radio International on December 31st 1988. Westside was set up by the late Dr Don (Don Moore) in 1975 and broadcast on Sunday mornings before Radio Dublin came on the air. It was taken over by Prince Terry (Roger Lloyd) in 1977 and remained a stalwart on the 49-metre band every Sunday for the following eleven years. Westside embodied the pirate spirit and was popular with anoraks because of its regular updates about radio in Ireland and abroad.
This airchecked recording was made from 6280 kHz between 1200 and 1348 on New Year’s Eve. Prince Terry and Gary Lewis present music and discuss the radio scene as the new legal regime was about to come into effect. There are hints that Westside may return in 1989 and in fact the station was heard again under various guises in 1989 and continued to broadcast as Ozone Radio for many subsequent years.
Reception is poor and is of DX standard in places but but this gives a sense of how many shortwave listeners experienced the closedown of Westside Radio International. We thank John Breslin for his donation.
