Radio Leinster sticker from 1983 (courtesy Svenn Martinsen).
Radio Leinster was a specialist Dublin station with an easy listening and talk format in contrast with the diet of pop preferred by most pirates. It broadcast from 29th April 1981 until 19th May 1983, closing down suddenly as panic spread following the raids on super-pirates Radio Nova and Sunshine Radio. Radio Leinster was situated on an elevated site in Sandyford with an excellent view of the city from its studios. The professionally-made 1 kW transmitter on 738 kHz (406 metres) gave good coverage by day but suffered co-channel interference after dark.
This short recording from Sunday 13th September 1981 features part of a religious programme presented by Fr. Michael Conaghty, who reads headlines from the Catholic Universe. Some of Radio Leinster’s distinctive interval signals are also heard. The clip was recorded in Malahide, north Co. Dublin and is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England.
A 1980s view of Bud in Norway where Radio Star Country was received (courtesy Svenn Martinsen).
One of the joys of AM broadcasting is its propagation that allows radio waves to travel long distances beyond the core listening area during the hours of darkness. In our focus on border station Radio Star Country, today we begin a series of posts showing how the Irish pirate sounded on the west coast of Norway in the late 1980s and 1990s. Recorded over 1,200 km from the transmission site on the Monaghan/Tyrone border, these tapes capture the unique audio quality of skywave reception of distant radio signals at dawn and dusk between October and March.
Radio Star Country sticker from 1988 with the 891 kHz frequency (courtesy Ian Biggar).
The first such recording begins before 0900 on 17th November 1988, a few months after Radio Star Country began broadcasting from the Swan Lake Hotel in Monaghan Town. On air is station founder and owner Gerry Byrne with a promo for the forthcoming Radio Star Country Music Awards in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone. The recording was made in Bud, western Norway from 891 kHz on a Hammarlund SP-600 JX1 receiver with a 500-metre Beverage antenna aimed towards the southwest. The antenna ran behind the barn to the left of the large white house (the rectory) on the right in the photo and received stations from Ireland, the UK, southwest Europe, Brazil and Argentina.
We thank Svenn Martinsen for his donation of these unique recordings.
Radio Rainbow International was a high-powered shortwave pirate broadcasting on Sundays from Co. Louth between the summer of 1985 and the end of 1988. It was operated by Boyneside Radio DJ and engineer Eddie Caffrey and several other Boyneside presenters were also involved. In an interview with Pirate.ie, one such DJ, Kieran Murray, described Radio Rainbow as the ‘Radio Nova of shortwave’, such was its high power output in contrast with other Irish shortwave pirates of the era. Using the tagline ‘broadcasting from the east coast of Ireland’, Radio Rainbow put out about 1 kW of power on 6240 kHz in the 48-metre band. The station received reception reports from all over Europe during its three years on air.
Original cassette label from Anoraks Ireland Collection.
This is a studio recording of the first broadcast of Radio Rainbow International on Sunday 28th July 1985. The DJ is Jim Agnew on his first shortwave broadcast. There are no times and the tape is airchecked. It was made by Kieran Murray and is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated by Paul Davidson.
Bob Gallico in the Magic 103 studio (courtesy Paul Buckle).
Magic 103 (103.5 FM and 1521 kHz although AM was never announced on air) was set up by Radio Nova in 1985 and was one of many examples of Chris Cary’s innovation in splitting AM/FM services to expand programming. Magic was a mostly easy-listening and talk service in contrast to the chart music format of Nova. Its first full day on air was April 29th 1985.
Image courtesy of DX Archive
‘ABC Network News’ was broadcast on both Nova and Magic, and the journalists also presented programmes on Magic. These recordings of the opening day begin with the segment above from 0900 with the shared news bulletin, followed by the first hour with Dave Harvey who describes Magic as the ‘new chat and information station for Dublin’. He invites listeners to call in and give their opinions on joyriders but the callers are often off topic and some of the conversations sound staged. There’s a news bulletin on the half-hour and a round-up of British news, strange for a station that was aimed at Dublin.
Original label from Anoraks Ireland Collection.
Part 2 below runs from 0945 and includes news with Bob Gallico (RIP) and then Bob’s own show, ‘Morning Magic’ from 1000. He promises chat, easy listening music, racing news, recipes, features, film scores and news about events around town. The first two segments are from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson.
Part 2 from 0945.
Part 3 below is of the evening programme with Shane Mac Gabhann from 1823-1909. Listeners from around town send in their good wishes but one caller describes the musical selection as ‘ancient’ and wants more Lionel Ritchie. The main evening ABC Network News is read by Bernie Jameson and Mark Weller. Shane Mac Gabhann is now a newsreader on RTÉ, Mark Weller (Costigan) would become political correspondent on licensed national commercial station Today FM and Bernie Jameson continues to read news today. This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection and there is some breakthrough in the background, due either to a problem with recording or deterioration of the cassette.
Part 3 from 1823.
The final snippet is an undated airchecked recording of an evening show in the first few days of the station. Dave Johnson (aka Andrew Hanlon, later head of news at independent station TV3) is both presenter and newscaster. A listener in Co. Down says Magic is coming in ‘crystal clear’, evidence of how far the FM signal travelled on a relatively uncrowded band. Sound quality is variable on this recording (it may have been recorded from AM), which is from the Pirate.ie collection.
Part 4 from around 2000.
Magic 103 was short-lived and closed at the end of September 1985, citing financial difficulties. Its closure led to the worsening of a bitter dispute between the National Union of Journalists and Radio Nova that contributed to the main station’s demise in 1986.
Original cassette label from Anoraks Ireland Collection.
Smile FM began broadcasting from the suburb of Ballyfermot in west Dublin in January 1987 and continued until the pirate closedowns at the end of 1988. It was set up by former Radio Dublin manager Brian Paige and first noted around 94 FM by Anoraks UK in its Weekly Report of 11th January 1987. The edition of the following week reported that an easy listening format was planned originally but that Smile FM had opted for Top 40 music instead.
In this recording from about six weeks before the closedown of Smile FM, we hear airchecks of Saturday morning and evening shows. First up is Rob Davis from 10am with chart hits, adverts for small local shops and businesses and a community noticeboard. An announcement advises about the impending closedown of pirate radio and invites listeners to express their support for Smile FM. A promo is aired for a Sunday Anoraks Programme about the radio scene, a feature on various pirate stations of the era. Links from the drivetime show with Graham Turner are heard towards the end of the recording, featuring a more easy listening format. Station idents are voiced by Seán Ashmore.
This recording was made on 12th November 1988 from 94.3 FM by Kieran Murray, who is mentioned by the DJs. It is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson.
