Open Free Radio Archive
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In this interview, John Walsh visited Limerick and spoke with anorak Liam Byrne who has all the details on the old Limerick pirate radio scene from the late 1970s to the pirate Radio Limerick One in the 1990s and beyond. This interview was first broadcast on Wireless on Flirt FM.
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David Baker was a well-known voice on Irish pirate radio in the 1980s and worked in or managed a large number of stations including ARD, Radio City, Radio Leinster, the Community Broadcasting Co-operative, KISS FM, Heartbeat and KLAS.
In this interview, John Walsh caught up with David Baker and talked about his pirate days, with a particular focus on the easy listening station KLAS. John worked with David in KLAS from 1986-1988.
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On October 18th 2018, Dave Daly spoke to Brian Greene about his pirate radio past, his love of radio as a medium and the stations he was involved with, in particular KELO in Swords, Co. Dublin. KELO went on air on March 16th 1981 and broadcast on 1233 kHz. Images are courtesy of Dave Daly.
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On October 20th 2018 over 100 radio anoraks gathered in the Ballsbridge Hotel Dublin. The purpose was to meet and record oral history of the pirate radio era. Terry and Dermot Leydon talk to John Walsh about Northwest Radio, a station in Drumshanbo in Co. Leitrim. Northwest broadcast on about 1602 kHz but as Terry and Dermot explain, their transmitter would drift up and down the band as the evening progressed!
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Co. Louth was an important county in Irish pirate radio history, with several successful commercial stations often beaming their signals across the border. In this panel discussion on the Louth pirates, Richard McCullen, Michael Hughes and Eddie Caffrey share their memories of the county’s lively pirate scene. Stations featured include Radio Dundalk, Radio Carousel and Boyneside Radio. The interviewer is John Walsh and the discussion was recorded on the 20th of October 2018 at a special event held in Dublin to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the closure of the pirates.