Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

9th June 20237th June 2023

’88 News’ on Radio Nova in 1981

This snippet of Radio Nova from 1981 gives a sense of the super-pirate after its first few months on air. Beginning testing on FM only at the start of June that year, Nova shook up the Dublin market due to its distinctive sound, professional standards and most importantly the significant investment of station founder and owner Chris Cary. The tape includes station idents and jingles, an advert for upmarket newspaper The Sunday Tribune and the ’88 News’ presented by Sybil Fennell. The news branding reflected Nova’s prioritisation of high quality stereo FM at a time when RTÉ’s use of the superior quality band was limited. In fact, the station did not begin broadcasting on AM until just a few days before this tape was made, adding a 10 kW transmitter on 846 kHz.

This airchecked recording was made from 88.5 FM on 13^th September 1981 by British radio enthusiast Leon Tipler during one of his many visits to Dublin in the early part of that decade. It is kindly donated by Steve England.

7th June 20233rd June 2023

Border series: non-stop Radio Star Country as heard in Norway

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This recording of Radio Star Country was made in Solsvik in western Norway, northwest of Bergen and facing the North Sea. It features non-stop music in early 1989, not long after all the Irish pirates were suposed to leave the airwaves in the new era of licensed radio. The automated programme includes a promo voiced by the late Don Allen announcing the frequency of 981 kHz or 305 metres, to which Radio Star Country had moved a few weeks previously. The Swan Lake Hotel in Monaghan Town is referenced as the station’s address and a number in Armagh is given for advertising. After 25 minutes the tape changes to another recording featuring a male DJ and adverts for businesses north and south of the border. It is not clear if this was recorded on the same day or on another occasion.

The press photo is from the newspaper Vestnytt on September 4^th 1996 and shows the donor of this recording, Svenn Martinsen with his receivers ESKA RX33 DX, Drake SPR-4, Hammarlund SP600 JX21 and Autophon E627. The headline translates as ‘Radioactive priest’, reflecting Svenn’s profession. He recalls: ‘I mostly used the Drake SPR-4 for listening to Radio Star Country 981, Radio North 846, North Atlantic 846, 954 and 1116 and other Irish stations’.

Due to the distance between the transmitter and receiver, there is deep fading at various points in the tape, with the Algerian station on the same frequency coming through underneath. The recording was made on 16^th February 1989 from 0745-0813 on a Drake SPR-4 receiver with a 200-metre Beverage antenna aimed towards the southwest from the western Norwegian coast. Many thanks to Svenn for the donation.

5th June 202327th May 2023

June bank holiday Monday 1985 on Q102

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Dublin’s new ‘super-pirate’ Q102 held an on-air charity auction on the June bank holiday 1985 in aid of the Burton Hall mental health charity. First up in this recording are Martin Block and Jason Maine taking bids from listeners and offers of prizes for auction from businesses around the city. Later Scott Williams and Anne Cassin announce the big auction prize of a 20 inch colour television. Adverts are aired for large businesses such as Nissan Windsor Motors, Brennan’s bread, the Evening Herald newspaper and USIT Holidays. News on the hour is read by Anne Cassin and Gary Hamill (aka Seán McCarthy), with sports headlines from John Kenny.

The recording was made from 102 FM on Monday 3^rd June 1985. Part 1 above runs from 1351 and Part 2 below from 1449.

Part 2 from 1449.

There is some wobble in the audio due to degredation of the cassette. The recording is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson.

3rd June 20236th June 2023

Religious programme on Radio Leinster

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Radio Leinster was a specialist Dublin station with an easy listening and talk format in contrast with the diet of pop preferred by most pirates. It broadcast from 29^th April 1981 until 19^th May 1983, closing down suddenly as panic spread following the raids on super-pirates Radio Nova and Sunshine Radio. Radio Leinster was situated on an elevated site in Sandyford with an excellent view of the city from its studios. The professionally-made 1 kW transmitter on 738 kHz (406 metres) gave good coverage by day but suffered co-channel interference after dark.

This short recording from Sunday 13^th September 1981 features part of a religious programme presented by Fr. Michael Conaghty, who reads headlines from the Catholic Universe. Some of Radio Leinster’s distinctive interval signals are also heard. The clip was recorded in Malahide, north Co. Dublin and is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England.

1st June 202314th August 2023

Border series: Radio Star Country heard near and far

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One of the joys of AM broadcasting is its propagation that allows radio waves to travel long distances beyond the core listening area during the hours of darkness. In our focus on border station Radio Star Country, today we begin a series of posts showing how the Irish pirate sounded on the west coast of Norway in the late 1980s and 1990s. Recorded over 1,200 km from the transmission site on the Monaghan/Tyrone border, these tapes capture the unique audio quality of skywave reception of distant radio signals at dawn and dusk between October and March.

The first such recording begins before 0900 on 17^th November 1988, a few months after Radio Star Country began broadcasting from the Swan Lake Hotel in Monaghan Town. On air is station founder and owner Gerry Byrne with a promo for the forthcoming Radio Star Country Music Awards in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone. The recording was made in Bud, western Norway from 891 kHz on a Hammarlund SP-600 JX1 receiver with a 500-metre Beverage antenna aimed towards the southwest. The antenna ran behind the barn to the left of the large white house (the rectory) on the right in the photo and received stations from Ireland, the UK, southwest Europe, Brazil and Argentina.

We thank Svenn Martinsen for his donation of these unique recordings.