Flyer for Royal County Radio (courtesy of Ian Biggar).
Royal County Radio (RCR) broadcast from 1982 to 1984 from Navan in Co. Meath and was a rival to Radio Carousel, which was based in the town’s shopping centre. It was set up by Canadian ex-offshore DJ Don Allen (RIP) who was a familiar voice on the Irish pirates of the 1980s and had formerly worked with Carousel. RCR was launched on 8th October 1982 and broadcast from a shopping arcade in Navan town centre. The station used the former Southside Radio transmitter from Dublin and moved around the AM band before settling on 846 kHz. Navan was probably too small to support two pirates and RCR closed around the middle of 1984.
This recording is of Oliver Callan on his lunchtime show from 1145-1235 on 28th October 1982, only a few week’s after the station was launched. 305 metres is announced which is roughly equivalent to 981 kHz although the actual frequency may have been the slightly off-channel 1000 kHz where RCR was located for a time. The voice of Don Allen is heard on ads and promos and Peter reads news headlines at midday. We thank Ian Biggar for this donation.
Waterford Local Radio (WLR) was one of Ireland’s longest-running pirates, broadcasting from 1978 until the closedowns at the end of 1988. It was also one of the few to be granted a county licence under the new regime in 1989, and continues to broadcast to this day, using the same name.
In its pirate days, WLR broadcast on 1197 kHz AM (announced as 252 metres) and 88.8 FM. The origins of the station went back to 1972 when Rick Whelan and radio technician Egidio Giani managed to broadcast over a range of only a few hundred metres within Waterford City. The station began full-time broadcasting on 23rd June 1978 from Rick Whelan’s garage in Butlerstown to the west of the city and soon boosted its signal to cover a 20-mile radius. In September 1979, WLR moved into the city and linked its signal by FM to the AM site in Butlerstown. Rick’s brother Des became manager in 1978 and closed down WLR ten years later on 31st December 1988. The licensed WLR returned to the Waterford airwaves on 8th September 1989 and Des Whelan is still the managing director.
This recording was made from 88.8 FM on 24th March 1986 and is of part of a late night show presented by John O’Shea. It is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Skywave Radio International was a shortwave station broadcasting from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin. Listen here to an interview with Eoin Ronayne about his memories of the pirate WLR.
George Talbot and ERI engineer the late Robin Adcroft (Banks) in 1987 (photo courtesy of Ian Biggar).
Live overnight radio is a thing of the past with some stations automated from early evening. Pirates big and small were on air around the clock, with a early example being Radio Dublin’s famous marathon broadcast from 1977 which set a new standard for the capital’s growing radio scene.
Some of the Cork pirates did round-the-clock live programming also, as in this recording of Tony Ashford (Ciaran Brannelly) on the graveyard shift on ERI. Emer Lucey (Lucy Potter Coogan) is heard every hour with ‘ERI News Review’, a pre-recorded bulletin of the previous day’ top stories. The recording was made from 96.7 FM and runs from 0438-0602 on Wednesday 23rd October 1985. At the end of his shift, Ciaran hands over to Hugh Browne (RIP), a well-known name on many 1980s pirates.
ERI car sticker (courtesy of DX Archive).
ERI (1982-1988) also broadcast on 1305 kHz (announcing 225 metres) and could be heard over much of Munster and beyond. We thank Ciaran Brannelly for his donation.
Wicklow Community Radio (WCR) began broadcasting in the second half of 1982 on 1512 kHz AM (198 metres). It emerged from temporary festival stations set up in Wicklow Town, the first of which was by RTÉ in 1980. As happened in towns and villages across the country, the RTÉ community radio experiment spawned local pirates, and Wicklow was no exception.
In the summer of 1981, the Community Broadcasting Co-operative (CBC), which would run pop-up stations around Dublin throughout the decade, set up Wicklow Regatta Radio to coincide with a local festival. In a 1984 documentary, manager of WCR Leo Doyle said that the CBC station was more professional and popular than the scripted and controlled RTÉ experiment. As a result, he decided to set up a full-time station with two other locals.
Andy Scott (Scott Williams) on WCR (photo courtesy of DX Archive).
WCR was originally aimed at Wicklow Town and surrounding areas and was mostly a voluntary operation with a strong community focus. There was a breakfast show with various slots, music and chat and a mid-morning programme aimed at housewives featuring recipes and aerobics sessions. The station had extensive local news and sports coverage, specialist jazz, country, traditional and ballads shows and ‘The Young Ones’, researched, presented and produced by children with an average age of 12. Among the DJs were Andy Scott, later known as Scott Williams, who went on to become a big name on Dublin radio.
WCR was relaunched as WLCB (Wicklow Local Community Broadcasting) in the summer of 1985 with a larger coverage area and more commercial outlook. A 1.2 kW transmitter was installed on 1602 kHz and FM coverage improved due to a good hilltop site near Wicklow Town. WLCB changed its name again to Viking 105 in 1987 and continued until the end of the 1988.
This recording is from 1118-1203 on 10th April 1985 and features Mick Duggan followed by Jackie Scott on news. Sound quality is fair at best with some electrical interference and it seems the recording was made in Dublin outside the core coverage area. The recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Skywave Radio International was a shortwave station broadcasting from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin.
Ian Dempsey at the Crofton Airport Hotel (photo courtesy of Dave Reddy).
Radio 257 was the new name for Alternative Radio Dublin (ARD), a pioneering station of the late 1970s that itself had broken away from Radio Dublin. Radio 257 was launched on 4th January 1980 and based at the Crofton Hotel near Dublin Airport, but reverted to the former ARD name at a later stage. Household names of the future were among the early ARD/Radio 257 crew, including John Clarke, Mike Moran, Tony Allan (RIP), Paul Vincent and Ian Dempsey. The station closed in 1982, a casualty of super-pirates Radio Nova and Sunshine Radio, which had come to dominate the Dublin radio market.
Tony Allan (RIP) in ARD before the relaunch as Radio 257 (photo courtesy of DX Archive).
This recording is of edition #47 of the Free Radio Campaign show on Radio Rainbow International, presented by Kieran Murray on 5th April 1987. It begins with a 5-minute jingle sweep, followed by a recording of the launch of Radio 257 at 12 noon on 4th January 1980. Dave C is in the chair and the launch includes an interview with new breakfast DJ Ian Dempsey and the iconic Tony Allan 257 jingles. The show ends with a weekly round-up of free radio news from Ireland and abroad.
Radio 257 sticker (courtesy of DX Archive).
Radio Rainbow International was a hobby station set up by Boyneside Radio engineer Eddie Caffrey from his home in Co. Louth. It broadcast every Sunday on shortwave, AM and FM for three years from 1985 to the end of 1988. As well as the weekly FRC show, Radio Rainbow also leased airtime to British pirate stations at risk of being raided. We thank Eddie Caffrey for sharing this recording.
