Full recordings Archives - Page 73 of 118 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

15th December 20213rd January 2022

The Anoraks Ireland Digitisation Project

Anoraks Ireland was a one-stop resource for Irish radio enthusiasts of the 1980s and early 1990s allowing them to buy or swap cassette recordings and other materials relating to the hundreds of pirate radio stations that existed back then. The organisation extensively documented the unique golden era of pirate radio in the form of photographs, magazines, detailed bandscans, station surveys and much more.

Earlier this year, Anoraks Ireland founder Paul Davidson agreed to donate his vast collection of Irish radio materials to the Irish Pirate Radio Archive at Dublin City University. The materials, primarily from the pirate radio era of the 80s, offer a fascinating insight into the Irish broadcasting landscape of the time and consist of thousands of cassette recordings, photos of DJs, studios and transmitter sites, advertising rate cards, newspaper cuttings along with lots of other materials. The Irish Pirate Radio Archive, in association with ourselves at Pirate.ie and with Radiowaves.fm, are in the process of digitising the huge collection and are about to start archiving it across the three websites. We all look forward to making this invaluable collection available to historians, students and visitors to our websites. The digitisation teams are John Walsh and Brian Greene of Pirate.ie, Eddie Bohan of the Irish Pirate Radio Archive and Irish Broadcasting Hall of Fame and John Fleming of Radiowaves.fm.

We kick off with recordings of Cork super-pirate ERI from 1456-1542 on Thursday 3rd November 1988. On air are Pamela Wilson, previously of WLS in Galway and Radio West in Mullingar, and Joe Reilly on news. These were recorded from 97.7 FM in stereo and ERI also broadcast on 1305 kHz (announcing 225 metres). The recording above runs from 1456-1542 and the one below from 1543-1629.

2nd part of Pamela Wilson recording.

These recordings are from the Anoraks Ireland Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson.

26th November 202126th November 2021

The economics and technology of pirate radio

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This is a recording of part the Anoraks Show on West National Radio 3 from December 1988, towards the end of the popular show’s run as the pirates prepared to close down. Station boss Shaun Coyne interviews radio engineer Gerry Reilly from Co. Cavan, who reckons that he set up between 30 and 40 pirate stations in the 1980s.

The discussion gives a fascinating insight into the economics and technology of the pirates and there are nuggets of information about how certain stations made big profits and provided much needed work in their areas. There’s also plenty of speculation about the new licensed era in 1989. Following the Anoraks Show we hear part of the final edition of the weekly farming programme Landlink.

This recording was made from 1052-1141 on Sunday 11^th December 1988 from 100.1 FM. We thank John Breslin for the donation. Listen to our own interview with Gerry Reilly in 2018 here.

24th November 202123rd November 2021

Don Allen on the Radio West Anoraks Show

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One of the presenters of the Radio West Anoraks Show was the late Don Allen, himself a veteran of the offshore pirate scene and an accomplished broadcaster on the Irish pirates of the 1980s. Here he is presenting the Anoraks Show in 1987 with station boss Shaun Coyne, who talks about the station’s expansion into Galway on both AM and FM. There are adverts for Anoraks Ireland and Anoraks UK and discussion of a pirate radio magazine that was being prepared at the time, although it seems it never materialised.

This recording was made from 1045-1145 on Sunday 19^th July 1987 from an unspecified FM frequency. It was donated to us by Ian Biggar.

22nd November 202129th November 2021

Radio West Anoraks Show from 1986

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Radio West broadcast from Mullingar from 1982 until the end of 1988 and achieved wide coverage after it began using the former Radio Nova 10kW transmitter on 765 kHz and later 702 kHz. It was popular with radio watchers because of the lively and often unpredictable Sunday morning Anoraks Show presented by station owner Shaun Coyne and others. A diet of radio gossip, colourful rumours and regular updates from anoraks throughout the country made the show essential listening each week.

This edition of the Anoraks Show was recorded in Dublin from 765 kHz from 1100-1230 on 8^th June 1986 and features Philip Hilton with Shaun Coyne. There’s a promise of link-ups with ABC in Waterford and WKLR in Cork but these don’t materialise and the presenters joke that these stations are blacklisted! The Anoraks Show is followed at midday by the first half hour of the traditional music programme Céilí Lár Tíre.

This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Skywave Radio International broadcast a shortwave station in the 1980s from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin.

18th November 202119th November 2021

Rónán Ó Dubhthaigh (RIP) on Bray Local Broadcasting

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We were saddened to learn of the death on 17^th November 2021 of Rónán Ó Dubhthaigh, a pioneering broadcaster with Bray Local Broadcasting (BLB) in the 1980s. After developing Irish language programmes on BLB, Rónán went on to be the manager of the licensed Irish language station Raidió na Life in 1993.

BLB was one of the leaders in local community broadcasting during the pirate era and played a key role in the National Association of Community Broadcasters (NACB) which lobbied for licensed community radio. It began broadcasting in 1979 and continued until the closedowns at the end of 1988, making it one of the country’s longest-running pirate stations. As a community station, BLB prided itself on catering for minority groups and audiences served poorly by mainstream radio, including Irish speakers in its catchment area of north Wicklow and south Dublin. Irish was marginal on pirate radio, particularly among commercial stations, but community radio across the country regularly broadcast programmes in Irish. There were also Irish language pirate stations such as Saor-Raidió Chonamara in the Connemara Gaeltacht in 1970 (which led to the establishment of Raidió na Gaeltachta) and Raidió an Phobail in Dublin in 1979.

Mar stáisiún pobail, chuir BLB roimhe freastal ar ghrúpaí mionlaigh agus daoine nach raibh freastal mar is ceart á dhéanamh orthu ag na stáisiúin mhóra raidió, ina measc cainteoirí Gaeilge i dtuaisceart Chill Mhantáin agus deisceart Bhaile Átha Cliath. Bhí an Ghaeilge imeallach ar an raidió bradach, go háirithe ar na stáisiúin tráchtála, ach craoladh cláracha Gaeilge ar stáisiúin raidió pobail ar fud na tíre. Bhí stáisiúin bhradacha Ghaeilge ann chomh maith, ina measc Saor-Radio Chonamara i nGaeltacht Chonamara in 1970 (a thug ann do Raidió na Gaeltachta) agus Raidió an Phobail i mBaile Átha Cliath in 1979.

This is an extract from the final half hour (2030-2100) of one of BLB’s Irish language programmes Timchuairt Bhré (a trip around Bray), presented by Rónán Ó Dubhthaigh on 9^th November 1983. Rónán went on to present Irish language programmes on the successor licensed station to BLB, Horizon Radio (John Walsh of Pirate.ie also worked on those programmes) and he became the first manager of the licensed Raidió na Life in 1993. The recording features Irish traditional and folk music and is followed by the station closedown at 2100.

Seo í an leathuair an chloig deireanach (2030-2100) de cheann de chláracha Gaeilge BLB, Timchuairt Bhré, á chur i láthair ag Rónán Ó Dubhthaigh ar 9 Samhain 1983. Lean Rónán air ag cur cláracha Gaeilge i láthair ar Horizon Radio, an stáisiún ceadúnaithe a tháinig i gcomharbacht ar BLB. D’oibrigh John Walsh ó Pirate.ie ar na cláracha sin chomh maith. Ceapadh Rónán ina chéad bhainisteoir ar an stáisiún ceadúnaithe Raidió na Life in 1993. Ar an taifeadadh seo, cloistear ceol Gaelach agus traidisiúnta agus ina dhiaidh sin dúntar an stáisiún ar 2100.

This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Skywave Radio International broadcast a shortwave station in the 1980s from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin.