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Jingles: WBEN

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Jingles: WBEN
Image courtesy of DX Archive

WBEN was founded in October 1985 by Pete O’Neill and Romano Macari. O’Neill had helped set up Radio City Cork in 1980 and later the original South Coast Radio. WBEN specialised in playing mainly American Top 40 and initially had no presenters. It broadcast on low-power FM in the city centre and therefore coverage was limited, although the station gained a following from shops looking for background music. In summer 1986 they replaced the automated style with presenters and introduced a medium wave transmitter on 1386 kHz.

Pete O’Neill left Ireland temporarily in late 1986 and the station continued under Macari but changed format to mixed oldies, pop, showbands and an infamous late-night phone show presented by Macari himself. WBEN was eventually changed to South Coast Radio using the jingle package from the original station of that name and the station continued until December 31st 1988. O’Neill remains influential in Cork radio circles, having recently put Juice FM on the trial DAB service. He works as a lecturer in radio at CSN College of Further Education, Cork. This jingle package came from the original WBEN in Buffalo, New York.

With thanks to Martin O’Brien for the donation and Gearóid Quill for background information.  

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Jingles: Liberties Local Community Radio

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Jingles: Liberties Local Community Radio
Image courtesy of DX Archive

Liberties Local Community Radio (LLCR) began broadcasting in April 1986 from Weaver Square in Dublin 8. It was run by Sammy Prendergast who was well known for installing aerials for pirate stations. LLCR broadcast on 1035 kHz AM using the old Capitol Radio rig which had been on 1017 kHz until shortly before then. It was also heard on 104 FM at a later stage.

Although LLCR began by emphasising its community roots in the Liberties, it never sounded like long-standing community stations such as BLB and NDCR. There was a lot of chopping and changing in Weaver Square during its two years on air but the station had its followers nonetheless. One of its most popular programmes was a hip-hop show presented by Tony Christie.

There was a lot of variation in the station’s name as these jingles and idents indicate, from LLCR to Liberties Radio to Liberty Radio. The station also announced Liberty 104 for a while and was known as Gold 104 in the second half of 1988. The poor-quality jingles for ‘Super Rock 104’ seem to be from that period.

Various LLCR jingles from 1986
Top of the hour ident (1987) announcing Liberties Radio
Top of the hour ident (1988) announcing Liberty Radio

You can hear an aircheck of Teena Gates reading news on Liberty 104 here.

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Stephen Davitt on Centre Radio

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Stephen Davitt on Centre Radio
Centre Radio logo courtesy of Brian Greene.

Centre Radio began as a hobby station on December 19th 1986 from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin and came on air during school holidays. Brian Greene of Pirate.ie was one of the original founders and the other founder of this site John Walsh was also involved. By 1987 the station had developed into a youth project and was training up to 80 young people in radio. From February 1988 Centre was on air every evening and weekend from Bayside. It was one of the last stations in Dublin to close down at midnight on New Year’s Eve 1988.

This recording is from 94 FM a few days prior to closedown, 27th December 1988, and features a youthful Stephen Davitt (aka Daragh O’Sullivan) on air. You can read more about the history of Centre here.

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Jingles: Boyneside Radio

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Jingles: Boyneside Radio
Image courtesy of DX Archive

Boyneside Radio from Co. Louth was one of the largest and most successful regional stations in Ireland during the 1980s. It broadcast for 10 years from 1978 to 1988 from Drogheda. During that decade Boyneside developed a series of additional transmitters and opt-out services in Navan, Kells, north Dublin and along the border aiming into Northern Ireland. Here’s a selection of jingles including a series of cuts introduced by station engineer Eddie Caffrey.

‘Bubbling Boyneside Radio … in touch with you!’
Jingle cuts introduced by Eddie Caffrey

You can hear a panel discussion on the Louth pirates here and a separate interview with local veteran broadcaster Eddie Caffrey here. We also have a recording of how Boyneside covered the controversy about Radio Tara (to become Atlantic 252) in Co. Meath.

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Feature: highlights of Pirate.ie archive to date

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Feature: highlights of Pirate.ie archive to date

In January 2019 Wireless on Flirt FM, a programe/podcast about radio broadcast on Flirt FM in Galway, did an hour-long special feature on Pirate.ie. The programme included highlights of the historical recordings and extracts from some of the interviews with those involved. You can listen to the special here.