A Shamrock Radio QSL from 1985 (courtesy of @ukdxer / piratememories.blogspot.com)
Continuing with our mini-series of pirate shortwave stations of the 1980s, today is the turn of Shamrock Radio International from the southside of Dublin. Shamrock was a sporadic operator, most active on Sunday mornings in 1985. Anoraks UK first logged the station on 6293 kHz (later 6245 kHz) on 7th October 1984 but there was no mention of the station again until the summer of 1985. It was logged most weeks from June to September 1985 on 6295 kHz and again on 2nd March 1986 on 6300 kHz but there is no sign of it after that.
This recording was made from 6295 kHz from 0900-0945 on 18th August 1985. The unidentified presenter plays music and says that Shamrock are on a test transmission. He asks for reception reports to be sent to 136 Sandyford Road, Dublin 16.
For more information about the shortwave pirates see the DX Archive and Pirate Memories websites. This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Skywave Radio International broadcast a shortwave station in the 1980s from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin.
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 28th July 1985 on 6260 kHz and they were first logged by Anoraks UK on August 11th. The address was 58 Seagrange Road, Baldoyle, Dublin 13 and later and later PO Box 1686, Dublin 1.
A rear view of 58 Seagrange Road, Baldoyle from where Radio Skywave broadcast (photo for house sale in 2020 as advertised by Movehome Estate Agents on myhome.ie).
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 12th 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 17th May 1987 when noted on a new frequency of 6850 kHz.
In the Skywave days, there was a long wire down this garden, which contained a 6×4 shed (photo from myhome.ie).
An Anoraks UK report of 31st 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 23rd 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 12th June 1988. We thank Ian Biggar from compiling this station history.
This recording is from 6260 kHz from 1045-1200 on 2nd 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.
The Radio Carlow mast in 1981, faintly visible in the distance (photo courtesy of Ian Biggar).
Radio Carlow began broadcasting in 1981 on 1413 kHz. A report dated 19th 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’.
Radio Carlow transmitter in 1981 (photo courtesy of Ian Biggar/DX Archive).
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 19th 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.
Radio Carlow studio (photo courtesy of Ian Biggar).
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 4th 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.
A winter shot from Aberystwyth promenade with Constitution Hill in the background (photo by John Walsh).
‘Hello Again’, Part 3 of Leon Tipler’s acclaimed documentary series The Irish Pirates was based on a return visit to Dublin in September 1983. The episode features an AM and FM bandscan from Aberystwyth on the west Wales coast, recorded by Tipler in August 1983. Having climbed Constitution Hill to the north of the town, Tipler gave himself the best chance of picking up radio signals from Ireland a mere 150km away.
This is the original, unedited bandscan as recorded by Tipler on both AM and FM from his perch overlooking the Irish Sea on a sunny Saturday afternoon, 13th August 1983. The pirates heard include Arklow Community Radio, Kilkenny Community Radio, Sunshine Radio and Radio Dublin. RTÉ Radio 1, Radio 2 and Raidió na Gaeltachta are all received loud and clear on FM. There are snippets of unidentified UK stations as well as occasional police communications, which up to the mid-1980s used the middle of the FM band.
This recording is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England.
Capitol Radio 226 newspaper advert (courtesy of Alan Russell).
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.
Kathy Doran at Capitol Radio in 1979. She had previously worked on radio in Boston (photo courtesy of Alan Russell).
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.
Alan Russell in Capitol Radio studio in 1980. Published in 2013 book ‘Where The Streets Have 2 Names’ (photo by Patrick Brocklebank, courtesy of Alan Russell).
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.
