Radio Dublin on June bank holiday 1977

Radio Dublin on June bank holiday 1977
Radio Dublin badge (courtesy Brian Greene).

In September 1977, Radio Dublin broke the mould of pirate broadcasting in Dublin by broadcasting non-stop for 36 hours. It was a change that spurred the professionalisation of the scene and encouraged round-the-clock broadcasting. Before then, the pirates were part-time operations, coming on the air for short periods at night or during the weekend.

This recording is from bank holiday Monday, 6th June 1977, when the station called itself ‘the new Radio Dublin’ and announced a line-up of four DJs, no doubt in preparation for longer broadcasting hours later in the year. In this airchecked recording from that afternoon, Jimmy St. Leger, DJ Sylvie, Johnny Day and Alistair Mac take plenty of requests from listeners by phone and promote Radio Dublin t-shirts and a march in favour of local radio the following weekend. An address in Crumlin, Dublin 12 is given.

Radio Dublin on June bank holiday 1977
Original cassette label from Anoraks Ireland Collection.

The cassette label says that the wavelength was 251 metres (somewhere around 1196 kHz before the frequency changes of 1978) but most of the links refer to 253 metres (1187 kHz), where Radio Dublin would remain until the 1990s. Radio Dublin closed down permanently in 2002 following the conviction of its owner Eamonn Cooke for sexually abusing children. He was jailed in 2003 and again in 2007 and died in 2016 while on temporary release. If you require support with this issue, you can contact the organisation One in Four.

This recording is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson.

Irish ballads and country on Radio na nGael

Irish ballads and country on Radio na nGael
Radio na Gael car sticker (courtesy DX Archive).

Radio na nGael (meaning literally ‘radio of Irish speakers’) broadcast from 1984 to 1986 from the village of Montgorry near Swords in north Co. Dublin and specialised in Irish music including ballads, traditional and country. Some of the output was in Irish. The station was launched on 92.2 FM on 2nd February 1984 and soon added 1350 kHz AM and 6340 kHz shortwave. Radio na nGael claimed to be the only Irish station broadcasting on shortwave 24 hours a day and boasted of serving the Irish diaspora but the frequency suffered from a lot of interference. A station leaflet from 1984 gave the FM output as just 10 watts, with 200 watts on medium wave and 500 watts on shortwave.

As in the sticker above, the station sometimes misspelt its name as ‘Radio na Gael’. Broadcast historian Eddie Bohan was written that it was closed down in 1986 after RTÉ took out an injunction, objecting to the similarity with the name of the national Irish language station Raidió na Gaeltachta. The only medium wave frequency logged was 1350 kHz, but the cassette label accompanying this recording notes 217 metres, which is closer to 1377 kHz. In any case, splatter from an adjacent station can be heard in this recording, which is most likely BBC Radio Ulster on 1341 kHz. It was made from 1300-1345 on 7th June 1984.

The recording consists of continuous music only with no station identification but gives a good flavour of the Radio na nGael musical style. It is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Skywave Radio International was a shortwave station broadcasting from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin in the 1980s.

Mid-morning with Pete O’Neill on South Coast Radio

Mid-morning with Pete O'Neill on South Coast Radio
Pete O’Neill in the South Coast studio (courtesy Lillian O’Donoghue).

Pete O’Neill was a popular DJ on various Cork pirates in the late 1970s and 1980s, including one of the city’s big stations, South Coast Radio. This is a recording of his mid-morning show beginning at 1000 on Tuesday 4th May 1982. Pete thanks Alan Reid (aka the late Henry Condon/Henry Owens) for the breakfast show and presents his usual mix of music, chat and information. There are promos for Wheelchair Awareness Week and local concerts, daily horoscopes and birthdays, an adult education diary, what’s on file and lost and stolen section. A studio guest from the Tony Quinn Yoga Club talks about relaxation. The listener’s Top 5 just after 12 noon features the choice of loyal South Coast fan Lillian McCarthy (O’Donoghue). News on the hour is read by Mark Lawrence but is cut.

Part 1 above runs from 1000-1135 and part 2 below from 1150-1250.

Part 2 from 1150

Audio quality is mixed as the recording switches between 104 FM and 1557 kHz AM. Thanks to Lillian O’Donoghue for the donation and photo.

News bulletin on Capitol Radio

News bulletin on Capitol Radio
Alan Russell in the Capitol studio in 1979.

Capitol Radio (220 and later 226 metres) was a mixed-format station broadcasting from Dublin in 1975 and then from 1978-1981. The station had many specialist music programmes as well as news and current affairs and provided evidence, from the beginning of the pirate era, that not all stations played chart hits only.

This news bulletin from 9th March 1979 is read by one of Capitol’s founders, Alan Russell. Stories include a Supreme Court judgement in favour of former Garda Commissioner Ned Garvey who was dismissed by the government in 1978.

It also includes a defence by RTÉ presenter Bunny Carr of the television quiz show Quicksilver, then under fire from critics.

Alan Russell went on to set up stations in Galway in the 1980s. We thank him for donating this recording and the photo.

ABC Radio following 1983 raids

ABC Radio following 1983 raids
ABC studio (from former tribute site abcradio-dublin.com, no longer online).

ABC Radio was one of the smaller Dublin stations of the early 1980s, operating from 1981 until the autumn of 1983. Broadcasting from the Ivy Rooms Hotel (now the Gate Hotel) on Parnell Street, ABC was an offshoot of Radio Dublin Channel 2 and eventually merged with another small station, Westside Radio, to form Radio Annabel. It was one of three stations that remained on air in Dublin following the infamous raids on Sunshine Radio and Radio Nova in May 1983.

This recording runs from 1123-1143 on Friday 20th May and is from FM in mono, although we don’t have a frequency. ABC also broadcast on 981 kHz AM around this time, announcing 312 metres. Ger Parks jokes that the DJs had been out late the previous night, no doubt related to the raids. There’s also mention of a protest march in favour of pirate radio to be held the following week.

This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Radio Skywave International was a shortwave station from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin in the 1980s.