Full recordings Archives - Page 101 of 116 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

24th August 20207th August 2021

Full recording: Radio Skywave International

We are processing hundreds of hours of recordings made by Radio Skywave International on an ongoing basis, and the Skywave Tapes Collection is one of the largest donations made to Pirate.ie.

Today we feature Radio Skywave International itself, as part of a mini-series this week on shortwave pirates of the 1980s. Like the many Irish shortwave pirates, Skywave was a part-time operation, usually on air on Sunday mornings. the first broadcast on was 28^th July 1985 on 6260 kHz and they were first logged by Anoraks UK on August 11^th. The address was 58 Seagrange Road, Baldoyle, Dublin 13 and later and later PO Box 1686, Dublin 1.

Skywave broadcast almost every Sunday for the rest on 1985 on 6260 kHz and into 1986. There were occasional forays onto other shortwave frequencies. On 12^th October 1986 the station was noticed relaying the religious programme Good News Radio on 6261 kHz which appeared to become part of their regular Sunday schedule from then on. Skywave seemed to take a break for a few weeks around April 1987 and was not logged until 17^th May 1987 when noted on a new frequency of 6850 kHz.

An Anoraks UK report of 31^st May 1987 included a letter from station operator Michael Caine (Hegarty) stating that shortwave was being suspended in order to concentrate on an FM station called Downtown Radio. It had a 50-watt transmitter operating on 88 MHz and aimed to be a community station serving Dublin’s north inner city. There was another operation called the Irish Radio Relay Service that carried mostly an English pirate called Falcon Radio (which also used the PO Box in Dublin). This mainly used 6850 kHz, but Skywave appeared there on 23^rd August 1987 and became regular towards the end of the year. The station continued into 1988 but was not logged every week. The final logging was on 6850 kHz on 12^th June 1988. We thank Ian Biggar from compiling this station history.

This recording is from 6260 kHz from 1045-1200 on 2^nd November 1986 and features Dominic Dillon on air, who beings his programme with the Radio Dublin theme song. For more information about the shortwave pirates see the DX Archive and Pirate Memories websites.

22nd August 202011th June 2022

Full recording: Radio Carlow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Radio Carlow began broadcasting in 1981 on 1413 kHz. A report dated 19^th July 1981 by local radio enthusiast John Dowling gave its location as Ballyhide, Co. Carlow but Ballyhide is actually just across the border in Laois. He went on: ‘This station has been on the air three or four months from a rented house two miles from Carlow town. A 70 feet high mast is used to support the aerial. The day’s programmes run from 0630 to 1900 hours GMT’.

DX Archive visited Radio Carlow in 1981 as part of a tour of Ireland. They recorded the station and took the photos featured here. The recording above was made from 1454-1610 on 19^th August 1981 and features John Dempsey on air. Radio Carlow added FM at a later stage and was on air until 1986. Thanks to Ian Biggar for donating the recording and for background information.

Leon Tipler recorded the station from 104 FM as he passed through Carlow in September 1983, on his way to Kilkenny. A snippet of that recording is included in ‘Hello Again’, part 3 of his documentary The Irish Pirates. The original recording, including ads, links a jingle and music, was made on 4^th February 1983 and can be heard below. Other than the date, we have no further information.

This recording is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England.

19th August 202011th December 2023

Chris de Burgh interviewed on Capitol Radio (226)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Capitol Radio began broadcasting on the 2nd of August 1975, from Rathmines on the southside of Dublin. In its first incarnation, the station operated at weekends only on low power. It played chart music but also featured album tracks and other styles, as well as interviews with singers and musicians. Capitol was raided by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs on the 21st December 1975 and went off the air for more than two years with the exception of sporadic test transmissions. Capitol Radio returned to the air with full programming in February 1978 from studios on Bachelor’s Walk in Dublin city centre, continuing until 1981.

The recording above was made shortly before the raid on the 14th of December 1975 and features Alan Russell on air interviewing the singer/songwriter Chris de Burgh. The multilingual ident used by the ship-based Capital Radio, which operated from international waters off the coast of the Netherlands in 1970, is heard at the end.

The recording below is from 9th February 1979 and features part of a show presented by Ed McDowell, one of the founders of Capitol. It contains jingles and links as recorded off air, but the original music played has been replaced with studio versions of the same tracks, starting with ‘Thunder Child’ from the album Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds. The fully instrumental version was used as the intro for Capitol’s ‘Night Flight’ programming from 9pm, featuring various specialist & contemporary rock and new wave programmes.

A longer, original version of this broadcast is available here. Thanks to Alan Russell for information and for donating both recordings. A tribute site to Capitol is available here.

10th August 20206th August 2021

Full recording: North East Radio (Dundalk)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

North East Radio (NER) was a short-lived station in 1979 and 1980 set up directly in competition with the new Radio Carousel in Dundalk. Based in the Imperial Hotel in the town centre, NER had a hopeful start with a fresh style, professional presenters and plenty of advertising. However, disagreements over pay, interference and transmitter problems brought it down by the end of August 1980.

This recording is from the end of NER’s run, 31^st July 1980, and features Phil Llewelyn on air from 1350-1450. It was recorded from 1197 kHz (announced as 257 metres) and, we suspect, at a distance from the transmitter so quality is fair at best and there is plenty of electrical interference. Phil mentions a gig by British band Dexy’s Midnight Runners in the Imperial Hotel that night. There seem to be audio problems as the presenter’s links are low and there is some variation in levels in the music. Advertisements have dropped off also although evidence of the core listening area is provided by an ad for a nightclub in Kingscourt, Co. Cavan, 30km from Dundalk. We thank Gary Hogg for sharing this recording which was made originally by Dave Small.

5th August 202019th February 2025

Northeast series: Radio Carousel Northern Ireland

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In addition to the main station in Dundalk, at its height in the early 1980s, Radio Carousel had three satellite stations in Drogheda, Navan and right on the border. Radio Carousel Northern Ireland broadcast from Carrickcarnon on AM and FM, all aimed at capturing the northern market. A 1982 leaflet claimed that the Northern Ireland coverage area was ‘north to Belfast, west to Armagh City, Portadown, and Craigavon. The newest of Radio Carousel’s satellite stations which effectively covers 3/4 of Northern Ireland with a strong signal on the 212 medium wave. For four and a half years we have been aware of the vast listenership that Radio Carousel has in Northern Ireland’. In 1986 the northern service was broadcast on 1071 kHz but it moved to 1260 kHz in 1987.

This recording was made from 1260 kHz on 21st April 1987 from 1115-1200 and 1208-1253. The first presenter is Stevie Mack with Irish music and requests and he is followed by Carousel boss Hugh Hardy’s Country Call programme. There are plenty of advertisements from Newry, suggesting that this is the northern service which then relays Country Call from Dundalk. Radio Carousel Dundalk was ordered to leave the air in January 1987 following claims of interference by the authorities and closed its studio in the town’s shopping centre. The northern and Navan stations continued but programmes from Dundalk resumed from February. This was the beginning of the end for Carousel and by early 1988 only the Navan station was broadcasting as normal.

Audio quality is fair as the recording was made on the move from AM. There is a sense of a station in decline with a stale style, erratic audio levels on advertisements and references to ‘medium wave and VHF’ at a time when many stations were plugging ‘FM stereo’. Some presenters from KLAS, Hugh Hardy’s easy listening station in Dublin, can be heard voicing ads including a very young John Walsh of Pirate.ie. We thank Gary Hogg for sharing this recording.