Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

27th December 202127th December 2021

Closedown of Galway’s Coast 103

This is the final 90 minutes of one of the more popular and successful Galway stations towards the end of the pirate era, Coast 103. Launched in mid-1987, by 1988 it had merged with Limerick station Hits 954, was calling itself Coast Hot Hits and could be heard on a string of AM and FM transmitters covering an area from Mayo to Cork.

The final evening on 31^st December 1988 was broadcast from Richardson’s Bar in Eyre Square, Galway and featured various people dropping in to share their memories of Coast 103. Seán Costello is heard first and is followed by closedown host Barry Williams who is joined by Tommy Kelly, Tom Cuffe, Shane Martin, Brian Davis and Keith York (RIP). The first recording above is from 2232-2318 and the second below from 2318-0004. Both were recorded from 102.47 FM and are kindly donated by John Breslin. Thanks also to Shane Martin.

Final 45 minutes of Coast 103.

26th December 202114th November 2023

Hugh Hardy on KLAS 98

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KLAS 98 (later Class) was an easy listening station which broadcast to Dublin from November 1986 until the closedowns of December 1988. It was set up by the founder of the Radio Carousel network, Hugh Hardy, and based first at a garage behind his home in Sutton in northeast Dublin. News bulletins from KLAS and overnight programming were relayed on occasion from Dublin to the Carousel stations in Navan and Dundalk. After Hardy stepped back in early 1988, KLAS moved to Dame Street in the city centre and was managed by David Baker. It then moved to Harcourt Street where it was taken over by television aerial salesman John J. May and relaunched as Class 98.

This recording from 98.5 FM is of Hugh Hardy presenting on St. Stephen’s Day, 26^th December 1986. News on the hour is read by a very young John Walsh, co-founder of Pirate.ie and the voice of the late Bob Gallico is heard on an advert. There are no time checks or references to St. Stephen’s Day in the links so this show could have been recorded for one of the automated 8-hour VHS tapes used by KLAS overnight. John Walsh has written his memories of KLAS here.

Part 1 of the recording above runs from 1637-1725 and Part 2 below from 1740-1828.

Part 2 from 1740.

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

26th December 202119th December 2022

Closedown of Boyneside Radio as heard on shortwave

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Boyneside Radio, based in Drogheda in Co. Louth, was a successful local and eventually regional radio station broadcasting to the northeast of Ireland and beyond from 1978-1988. This is a recording of the final few hours of Boyneside on the afternoon of its last day on air, 31^st December 1988. Rather than its familiar medium wave and FM frequencies, this was taken from 6231 kHz shortwave, the transmitter of Radio Rainbow International which was linked to Boyneside and used specially for the occasion. Reception ranges from fair to poor with a heterodyne in the second half of the recording but it gives a sense of how shortwave listeners, especially those outside Ireland, experienced the closedown.

The recording runs from 1348-1502 and features Eddie Caffrey on air with a host of Boyneside DJs and other staff. There are also plenty of farewell messages from loyal listeners who will miss their local station. We thank John Breslin for the donation.

The history of Boyneside is already well documented on this site and all recordings of the station can be found here. For a comprehensive account of the 1988 closedowns, see the Radiowaves site.

26th December 202114th November 2023

Christmas on Capitol Radio

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Here’s a selection of Christmas jingles from Capitol Radio (226 metres) from 1980. Capitol’s first Christmas on air was in 1978 and Alan Russell has shared his memories of that period with us.

‘I have some memories of that particular December being our first Capitol Christmas. The founder of ALONE Willie Bermingham was a fireman based in the nearby Pearse Street fire station and I can recall several interviews with Willie in the run-up to Christmas encouraging folks to look out for elderly neighbours. On Christmas Day we had live programmes and presenters. Back in 1978, the buses were off until St. Stephen’s Day and taxis were non-existent. On tuning in after Christmas lunch at my family home, I was horrified to hear the presenter getting progressively drunker! I had forgotten a small bottle of Smirnoff left in the postal boxes for any guests or business associates and the presenter was availing of the Christmas spirit – literally. I was five miles from the city centre and with no immediate transport other than walking or hitching, it was a nightmare (though probably entertaining for some!) that continued for a while, until Chris Barry reached Bachelors Walk and restored normality. The weather was particularly wintry with heavy ice on the ground, so hopping on a cycle or even a motorcycle to reach the station in the city centre was not an option’.

The jingles were a package used by a Capitol Radio in South Africa, and were heard also on the later station of the same name in Dublin (1983-1988). Alan Russell remembers that a few days after they began using the jingles, two men purporting to be from the South African embassy called to Capitol, telling them to cease using them. ‘Although they never gained admittance to the studios and were kept outside the main door – reinforced with a steel plate and a barrier – I spoke to them and they weren’t Irish guys having a laugh. This was around the time of the anti-apartheid movement in Ireland and we had interviewed Kadar Asmal, so they seemed plausible. I noted their complaint and reminded them they were in Ireland not South Africa so the heavy attitude wasn’t going to work’.

These jingles were kindly donated by Alan Russell.

24th December 202124th December 2021

Closedown of Ballina’s Twin County Radio

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The town of Ballina in north Mayo got its first pirate radio station late in 1980 when Alternative Radio West (ARW) came on the air. A leading light in ARW – and later Ballina pirates such as Castle Radio and Westward Radio – was the late Tommy Murphy from Enniscrone in Co. Sligo. According to Magic and Madness, a history of Midwest Radio by James Laffey, Tommy famously checked with the Gardaí before switching on his transmitter so that he wouldn’t use the same frequencies! In fact, it is said that no-one ever considered raiding Tommy’s stations because he was so popular in Ballina.

Tommy’s final pirate outing was Twin County Radio, which came on the air in the spring of 1988 and served a large area of North Mayo and neighbouring Sligo, hence the name. TCR broadcast on 95 FM, was backed by local businessmen and had a full-time staff of six. It closed on New Year’s Eve 1988, along with all but the more daring pirate stations.

This is the final hour-and-a-half of TCR, recorded from 1640-1810 on 31^st December 1988. DJs Paul Stevens, Brenda Murphy, Siobhán Caffrey, Jimmy Whittington and John McIntyre say their goodbyes and Tommy Murphy hosts the final hour. There are several references to how the pirates launched the careers of many Irish country music stars in the 1980s. Twin County Radio closes down with the Angelus, a recorded message from Tommy Murphy and the national anthem. Tommy was also heard on Independent Radio Mayo and on the pirate and licensed Midwest Radio and died in 2012.

We thank John Breslin for his donation of this recording. For a comprehensive account of the 1988 closedowns, see the Radiowaves site.