Full recordings Archives - Page 39 of 113 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

14th March 202317th May 2023

Border series: Radio Star Country’s use of FM

Although Radio Star Country has long been associated with medium wave only – and remains one of the few stations in Ireland to rely on this band today – the station used both FM link transmitters and higher powered FM rigs in the past. In a letter to Ian Biggar on 15^th July 1991, Sean Brady – who would soon become a presenter on the station – wrote that he believed that Radio Star Country was relaying its 981 AM service on 103.7 MHz FM. A friend of his in Craigavon, Co. Armagh could receive the transmission but Sean could not hear it in Oldcastle, Co. Meath, so he presumed that the signal was being directed northwards. On 22^nd July 1992, Sean wrote to Ian Biggar to say that Radio Star Country was broadcasting from a caravan at Aughagaw, Smithboro, which is situated some ten miles from Monaghan. The link transmitter was on 106.55 MHz with the AM transmitter located about seven miles away. Sean was unsure where exactly the AM transmitter was situated, but thought it was somewhere near the border with Fermanagh.

According to Rodney Neill in a contribution to issue 2 of Playback magazine, Radio Star Country in 1994 turned on a new FM transmitter aimed at Fermanagh and Armagh. It was first noted on 17^th March and was said to be putting out quite a strong signal across the border. This was the first time that Radio Star Country broadcast a high power signal into Northern Ireland since its 103.7 transmitter was removed by a Department of Communications raiding party in the spring of 1991. Between March 1994 and March 1996, Radio Star Country’s studio link was logged by Playback on 106.6 FM and from April 1996 to November 1999, on 105.4. The power on occasion was reported to be 150 watts. In an email to Ian Biggar on 5^th March 2001, Sean Brady reported that Radio Star Country was now broadcasting from a site close to its AM transmitter and used links on 101.2 MHz and 103.7 MHz. They had been heard on air announcing these two frequencies but Sean presumed it must have been very low power as he could not hear the station on FM in Oldcastle, Co. Meath.

On 13^th January 2002, Sean Brady told Ian Biggar that Radio Star Country was now using the world’s first self-contained 100 percent solid state transmitter which produced a 1 kilowatt carrier at any designated frequency in the range 520-1610 kHz, with full redundancy built into a single unit. Some designs have a degree of redundancy built into the power amplifier stage, but the Eddystone B6038E has 100 percent redundancy from the supply to the RF output. Sean wrote that the transmitter was an ex-IBA unit. It was used on 828 kHz medium wave as the main transmitter for Townland Radio (later Gold Beat) in Cookstown, County Tyrone. It apparently took months of long nights and hard work to get the transmitter up and running again and then ages to get it working on 981 kHz. In relation to the Radio Star Country FM transmitters, Sean added that they were both ex-IBA Norsk Marconi transmitters designed by the BBC and licensed to Marconi. 101.2 MHz was the link frequency to the main transmitter on 103.7 MHz. However, after the raids and visits, it was thought best to abandon the transmissions on FM and concentrate on medium wave.

Today’s recording is from 1997 and features DJ Gerry Martin with an afternoon show. Eight years after the pirates were supposedly silenced for good, the station is still carrying a large number of adverts, including a promotion for the Radio Star Country Club in Armagh, a country sports fair in Armagh and linedancing classes in a nightclub in Belfast. There are giveaways of concert tickets and an event sponsored by Radio Star Country in Tyrone. The tape was made on 10^th May 1997 from 981 kHz in Scotland. Part 1 above runs from 1357 and Part 2 below from 1445.

Part 2 from 1445.

Thanks to Ian Biggar for the donation and for assistance with the text.

11th March 202322nd April 2023

Henry Owens on Q102

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Henry Owens (real name Henry Condon) was heard on various pirate stations in the 1980s, including Q102, Radio Nova and South Coast Radio in Cork, where he was known as Alan Reid. In this recording from 1986, he presents an afternoon show on Dublin super-pirate Q102. Along with plenty of agency adverts, there’s also a competition to win a trip across the skies of Dublin in the Eye in the Sky helicopter, from which Q102 delivered its traffic reports each morning. News is read by Anne Cassin at two minutes to the hour, an innovation allowing the station to claim that it was first to bring the news to Dublin listeners.

Henry went on to enjoy a long career on licensed radio in Ireland and UK up to his untimely death in 2013. Anne Cassin is now a presenter of Nationwide on RTÉ. This tape was recorded on Tuesday 11^th March 1986 from 102.1 FM. Part 1 above runs from 1519 and Part 2 below from 1618.

Part 2.

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

8th March 202310th March 2023

Sunday on Radio Valleri International

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Radio Valleri was a pioneering pirate station broadcasting from Dublin in the 1970s and 1980s. One of the early hobby operations in the city, it was set up in 1972 by Derek Jones and Mike Anderson and broadcast initially on medium wave from a garden shed in Drumcondra. In 1973, Radio Valleri switched to shortwave and was heard sporadically, often on Sunday mornings, on various frequencies in the 49-metre band over the following years. In the 1980s, the station became one of many to broadcast regularly on shortwave on Sunday mornings, by which time it had settled on 6400 kHz.

This tape is of one of Radio Valleri’s founders, Mike Anderson, with a Sunday show from 1200-1300 in April 1986 (the precise date is unknown). Mike announces broadcasting hours of 0900-1300 and gives a postal address in Baldoyle in northeast Dublin. That broadcast is to be followed by a QSO with another well-known Dublin shortwave pirate, Westside Radio, and Weekend Music Radio in Scotland.

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

6th March 202317th May 2023

Border series: Sean Brady on Radio Star Country

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Today’s recording of Radio Star Country features Sean Brady presenting an afternoon show in 1994. With experience on various 1980s pirates in the north Leinster region (Cavan Community Radio and Breffni Radio), Sean later joined Northern Sound Radio, the licensed service for Counties Cavan and Monaghan. He returned to the pirate fold in the form of Radio Star Country, where he spent more than four years. Sean shares his fond memories of that period:

I began hosting shows on Radio Star Country in January 1992, following a stint (May 1990 to December 1991) at Northern Sound. When I was at Northern Sound, Isobel Byrne (RIP), late wife of former Radio Star Country owner, Gerry Byrne, used to listen in and phone me, wondering if I’d like to join Radio Star Country.

When I joined Radio Star Country, the station was broadcasting on 981 kHz from a caravan near Smithboro in County Monaghan, but it did move – I’m not sure when – to Carrigans, Emyvale. I wasn’t informed of the move and drove on a Sunday morning to Smithboro to find the farmyard empty of its radio occupant! The move was related to some sort of family dispute!

I very much enjoyed working for Radio Star Country, as I could play the kind of music I loved, and still do to this day, country music, particularly American country music. I have to admit that station owner Gerry Byrne and I had a few heated arguments as to the amount of American country music I played on-air, but I was adamant that the material I featured was the correct format to adhere to. I spent a lot of time planning my shows, in the pre-internet days, researching country music artists, as I featured them on their respective birthdays. I had a quite extensive country music collection – I still do to this day, although it’s obviously been increased – on CD, vinyl and cassette, and I used to bring at least three carry cases of material with me, along with my handwritten country music notes.

I have to say that, while I was hosting shows on Radio Star Country, between January 1992 and March 1996, sitting in the caravan-based on-air studio, I never thought of, or was fearful of, a raid taking place. Perhaps I was a little naive, but I simply got on with the job in hand, playing the finest selection of country music, which no other radio station in the land was doing. I hosted the afternoon slot between 1.00pm and 6.00pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, and enjoyed it immensely, even though it involved a car journey of 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Although I departed Radio Star Country in March 1996, I’m so pleased to know that the station is still broadcasting today, but I feel that a move in frequency from 981 kHz should have been undertaken – the frequency, which is adequate for daytime coverage, does tend to suffer from co-channel interference at night. I always thought that 954 kHz would have been a more suitable AM frequency to use, as the medium wave band is now more uncluttered.

This recording of Sean was made on bank holiday Monday 29^th August 1994 from 1640-1740. Adverts are from Counties Armagh, Monaghan, Down, Tyrone and Derry and there are plenty of stations idents and jingles, many of which are still heard today. The station was sold on by Gerry Byrne in 1992 and a reference by Sean to the religious programme Showers of Blessings indicates an expansion to content beyond country music alone. Sponsored religious programmes have become increasingly prominent on Radio Star Country but, as Gerry Byrne recalls, listeners remain loyal to the station:

Radio Star Country changed ownership a couple of times and has now a number of religious features and gospel programmes. Over the years, it has had steady staff and a large loyal bunch of listeners, among them the late Big Tom who played Radio Star Country in his shed. I moved to London completely in 1992 even though I had been back and forth and began broadcasting with Spectrum Radio London on a Sunday night and later Saturday afternoon.

Today’s tape was made in Scotland from 981 kHz AM and is courtesy of Ian Biggar.

3rd March 202317th May 2023

Border series: Patsy Jordan on Radio Star Country

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This recording of Monaghan border pirate Radio Star Country features one of the station’s best known presenters, the late Patsy Jordan (McDonald). It was made on 19^th February 1993 from 0857-1030 and features Patsy on a long shift from early morning until 1pm. Patsy, who was from Newtownbutler in Co. Fermanagh, was a country musician whose band, Patsy Jordan and the Blue Train Line, gained huge success in the 1980s. In an obituary in Enniskillen newspaper The Impartial Reporter, it was stated that on the back of the band’s popularity, Cavan pirate station Erneside Radio invited Patsy to present his own show. That was very popular with listeners so it was natural that Patsy would continue to be heard on Radio Star Country after other pirates left the airwaves at the start of 1989. He died in 2016 and country musicians and radio colleagues were among those who attended his large funeral in Clonmaulin close to the border with Co. Monaghan.

On this tape of one of Patsy’s shows, there are copious adverts from Down, Tyrone, Armagh, Cavan and Antrim including Belfast. Plenty of requests are received from both sides of the border and even from the Isle of Man and various local country music singers are promoted. The recording was made from 981 kHz AM in Scotland by Gary Hogg of DX Archive. Thanks to Gary for the recording and to Ian Biggar for assistance with the text.