Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

7th May 20257th May 2025

Border series: Interview with Francis Callaghan of Radio North

This interview with Radio North founder Francis Callaghan was conducted in mid-1991, almost two and a half years after the Donegal station defied the new broadcasting laws and decided to stay on the air. Francis gives a short station history, describing how Radio North receives reception reports from listeners throughout Europe and explaining the change of name to Northside Radio in 1989. He also refers to the new breakaway station, North Atlantic Radio, which was at the time broadcasting from the old Radio North location in Carndonagh. Radio North was at the time focusing on serving listeners in Northern Ireland.

This interview was conducted by DX Archive during a visit to Radio North in the village of Muff in May 1991 and was donated by Ian Biggar.

5th May 202530th March 2025

Sunday afternoon on Community Radio Fingal

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Community Radio Fingal (CRF) broadcast to the region of Fingal in north Co. Dublin between 1982 and 1988. A mostly community-oriented service, it was based initially at the Rockabill Hotel in the coastal town of Skerries and then moved to founder Brian Matthews’ house in the village of Loughshinney. At a later stage the station was based at the Swords shopping centre. CRF began broadcasting on 1584 kHz but later moved to the better channel of 1575 kHz. 189 metres was announced throughout.

This short airchecked recording from summer 1982 begins with an unidentified DJ and is followed by a double-hander with Debbie and Damien presenting a music and requests show. There are adverts for small businesses around Swords but in very low audio. The recording was made by Kieran Murray from 1584 kHz on Sunday 18^th July 1982 and is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection.

2nd May 202530th March 2025

Sunday programmes on Capitol 98 FM

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Capitol Radio on 98 FM broadcast for a few months in the summer of 1982 and had big plans to develop a classic rock format for Dublin, based on a popular American format that many pirates tried to emulate. Despite the involvement of some big names on the Dublin radio scene, the experiment failed due to financial problems and Capitol closed down in September.

This recording from shortly after the launch on Capitol begins with a snippet of a new afternoon magazine programme presented by David Paul, who is followed by Steve Patterson. Adverts are scarce but there is an advertising promo that sounds like it was voiced by George Long (Henry O’Donovan, RIP). The twice-daily Capitol Car Chase feature is a mystery to us!

This airchecked recording was made by Kieran Murray from on Sunday 18^th July 1982 from 98 FM and is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection.

29th April 202529th April 2025

Border series: Saturday evening show on Radio North

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This recording of Donegal station Radio North is of a Saturday evening show from the autumn of 1990. DJ Neil Sweeney has plenty of inane chatter and plays pop/chart music and oldies for the first half-hour, followed by a tribute to American country singer Marty Robbins. The feature includes recordings of WIL FM in Nashville. There are plenty of adverts from Donegal, Derry and Antrim and an advertising promo claims that Radio North has coverage of 5 counties. Syndicated news headlines from ITN in London are broadcast at 1730 and 1800 and a PO box number in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, is given out as the station address.

There was cut-throat competition between the Donegal pirates at this time, and Radio North was no doubt feeling the pressure from loss of advertising revenue to rival station North Atlantic Radio, set up by former Radio North DJs in November 1989. This recording was made from 98.8 FM on 22^nd September 1990 between 1729-1850 and is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection.

28th April 202530th March 2025

Late-night rock show on Island Radio

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Island Radio was a short-lived pirate station broadcasting from the suburb of Dalkey in south Dublin in late 1981 and early 1982. Based in the Cliff Castle Hotel opposite Dalkey Island, the station had big plans to develop as an FM-only operation, novel for the time due to the dominance of AM in radio listening. However, one of its founders, Michael McMahon said that Island Radio closed after a few months due to opposition from local residents.

This recording is of a late-night rock show with Mick Taylor recorded early in 1982. It features plenty of long tracks and triple sets, including of early U2. Mick mentions the iconic McGonagle’s late-night venue in Dublin, which would later become the home of Capitol/Nitesky 96, a popular alternative/indie music pirate in the late 1980s. There are sung jingles in this recording but no adverts. Audio quality is fair with an unprocessed signal and some interference at times. The recording was made on Monday, 4^th January 1982 from 98.2 FM between 2220-2356 and is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection.