Clive Derek outside the caravan in 1982 with Andy Ellis looking out (courtesy DX Archive).
Continuing our series marking the 40th anniversary of Waterford super-pirate ABC, this is another recording made in the first few weeks of the station in March 1982. ABC was set up by four English DJs, Clive Derek, Andy Ellis, Stuart Clark and Kevin Turner. Kevin had worked previously with Waterford pirate Suirside Radio but parted company after a few weeks. Other DJs from the Voice of Peace and Dublin pirates including Nigel Roberts and Steve Marshall joined ABC in spring and summer 1982 as the station began to expand.
In the book Radio Blaa Blaa, one of ABC’s DJs, Andy Linton, remembers the lifestyle associated with the station:
Yes, we were a commune of sorts! We had the radio station that we all broadcast from but we also rented that house in Tramore that we all ended up in. The ‘full-time’ staff of ABC lived there. The radio station paid for everything (rent, laundry, food) and gave us £15 per week, which was basically fag money (though I didn’t smoke). We didn’t even have a TV so we’d listen to the radio, have a beer and chat. One big happy family!
This recording of Clive Derek’s ‘School’s Out’ programme was made from 1515-1603 on Tuesday 30th March 1982. News is read by Kate Davis and most adverts are from Tramore, reflecting the limited coverage area. The recording was made from 101.3 FM and is courtesy of Ian Biggar and DX Archive. Thanks to Brian Kennedy for permission to use the quotation.
This is another recording of the early days of Waterford super-pirate ABC, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its humble beginnings in March 1982. The recording was made from 12 noon on 30th March 1982 on a drive towards Tramore from Waterford City and begins with a crackly signal on 729 kHz AM. Transmitter power was low and covered only a few miles but the recording later switches to a patchy 101.3 FM and reception improves as Tramore is reached. One of the station founders Clive Derek has just finished his show and reads news headlines at midday before handing over to another of ABC’s instigators, Andy Ellis. The station was located in a caravan in Tramore for the first two years of its existence and moved into Waterford in mid-1984. It went on to become one of Ireland’s most popular and successful pirates of the era.
ABC is discussed by author Brian Kennedy in Radio Blaa Blaa, a history of Waterford pirate radio published in 2012. An extract from the book gives a flavour of how the new station shook up the local radio scene:
Straight away the station’s approach to broadcasting made people sit up, if only for the fact of hearing foreign voices over local airwaves. The structure of ABC in those early days was a format brought over from stations like Radio Caroline and the Voice of Peace which the guys had been part of. Everything would be playlisted, bar some weekend shows, which worked perfectly. Nobody could go off on a tangent or deviate from what they were required to play for fear of losing the crucial listenership which was so important starting a new radio station.
Several hundred LPs and 45s would be purchased whilst local man Dick Cole, the owner of Buywise Carpets, donated his old singles collection. With money needed for equipment, vinyl, rent and food the four guys were soon down to the bare bones. There was a single £20 note in the kitty when the lads obtained their very first advert from Heffernan’s Fuel Centre in Tramore.
Andy Ellis by the aerial at the caravan (courtesy Brian Kennedy).
One DJ, Andy McCloskey remembers:
ABC certainly had its own sound. We were playing Bryan Adams’ ‘Reckless’ album before they started pumping singles off it. We created a huge buzz. Again you were talking about the American import singles that we mail-ordered from the States (you needed an adaptor when you put the 7” single on the deck.) It was just one example of us picking singles left, right and centre before the songs actually became huge hits and got airplay from other stations. On that album we had tracks like ‘Run to You’, ‘Somebody’, ‘Summer of 69’ in constant rotation before they truly hit over here. And that album was huge, one of the biggest sellers of 1984. So it actually gave us a good bit of credibility.
Thanks to Ian Biggar and DX Archive for the recording and Brian Kennedy for permission to use quotations and photos.
One of ABC’s founders Andy Ellis in the caravan (courtesy DX Archive).
ABC is recognised as one of Ireland’s super-pirates, broadcasting from Co. Waterford from 1982 to 1988. Its humble beginnings were in a caravan beside a carpet warehouse in the coastal resort of Tramore west of Waterford City. ABC was set up by four English DJs who had been on the Voice of Peace and British pirates, Andy Ellis, Stuart Clark, Clive Derek and Kevin Turner, the latter formerly of Suirside Radio in Waterford. ABC used a jingle package from WABC in New York, with the ‘W’ cut out. It began testing on 1st March 1982 on 729 kHz (before RTÉ Radio began using that frequency in Cork) and was launched on 3rd March but the signal barely reached Waterford City where advertisers were located. However, ABC announced ‘AM’ and ‘kHz’ from the start, marking out its sound as different from other stations still referring to metres and medium wave.
Commenting on a 1982 visit to the station, DX Archive commented that ABC ‘was obviously struggling at this stage, with an English staff in a foreign land, trying to make the locals believe that this type of radio was the way to go. In fact, it was an uphill battle that ABC eventually won and as time went past, ABC was to become one of the most professional broadcasters in Ireland’.
Stuart and Andy on the first day of tests, 01.03.82 (courtesy Brian Kennedy).
There were problems with FM at the beginning but 101 MHz was added later. Adjustments to the AM rig caused it and the studio to go on fire in the summer of 1982 and it looked like ABC was finished but it returned to the air on low power and plans began to acquire a bigger transmitter. At a cost of $5,000, a considerable amount for the time, a Gates BC1G 1kW transmitter was shipped from the US and a crystal was bought for the relatively clear frequency of 1026 kHz. Andy Ellis remembers that the new coverage area was extensive across Waterford and beyond. In mid-1984, ABC was sufficiently successful to warrant a move to better premises than the caravan and it rented three floors of a building in the centre of Waterford City. The AM aerial remained in Tramore and FM masts were brought into the city.
FM was now more popular and from 1985 on, ABC extended its coverage on that band throughout the region. By 1987, ABC had moved premises again in Waterford and had a very professional set-up in terms of studio equipment and space. The station was now fully registered for VAT, paid taxes and music royalties and had a member of the NUJ working in its newsroom. The government published legislation to licence local radio at the end of the year and ABC continued to expand, adding additional AM and FM transmitters in Wexford. Andy Ellis recalls that just as it looked that the station would make a profit rather than break even, it was clear that the government meant business and that the pirates would have to close down. ABC left the air a few days before the deadline, at 3pm on 29th December 1988, with a special programme on the station’s 6-and-a-half year history and closing remarks by Andy Ellis. It applied unsuccessfully for the Co. Waterford licence, which went to former pirate WLR.
Former ABC staff were involved in smaller pirates following legalisation in 1989 including Laser 89 and ABC Power 104 and many went on to work in licensed stations in the region and beyond. Read Andy Ellis’s station history here. The first recording above was made from 1246-1310 and 1330-1350 on Monday 29th March 1982. The DJ is Andy Ellis and news is read by Kate Davis. The second recording below is from 1355-1440 on the same day.
Part 2 from 1355.
Both were made in Waterford City just a few miles from the transmitter but the signal is quite weak. Thanks to Ian Biggar for assistance with research and for the recordings. Photo credits are due to DX Archive and Brian Kennedy’s Radio Blaa Blaa group on Facebook.
John Kenny on 24.03.82 (courtesy Lillian O’Donoghue)
This is a recording of two night-time DJs on South Coast Radio in its early days in 1982. Recorded from 104 FM on 13th April, it runs from 2130-2305 and features John Kenny for the first hour, followed by the late Alan Reid (Henry Condon). John began broadcasting with Dublin pirates including Radio City and Big D at the end of the 1970s before moving to Cork in 1982. He worked with Q102 in Dublin in the mid-1980s and has been a journalist and broadcaster with RTÉ Sport since 1987.
After South Coast, Henry moved on to Dublin super-pirates Radio Nova and Q102 later in the 1980s where he was known as Henry Owens. After the pirate era he worked for longwave giant Atlantic 252 and UK stations over the next decade before returning to Ireland in 2001 to set up Cork station Red FM. He later worked for Cool FM and Downtown Radio in Belfast and died in 2013 at the age of 52.
Pete O’Neill blows out the candles on his birthday cake (courtesy Lillian O’Donoghue)
Today we feature three hours of afternoon programming on Cork super-pirate South Coast Radio from 1982, not long after it was launched. Pete O’Neill is on air with his usual mix of music and requests, including the Listener’s Top 5 after the 2pm news, the ‘3 at 3’ after the 3pm news and oldies spot ‘South Coast Supergold’. Station staff and loyal fan Lillian McCarthy (O’Donoghue) sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Pete who is presented with a cake in studio. The voice of legendary DJ Tony Allan is heard on ads and on a promo for South Coast Radio ‘jobline’, a service to advertise job vacancies. There’s also a promo for the American Country Countdown, a syndicated programme from the US, and Pete announces a new events spot ‘What’s on in Munster’ that will air every weekday afternoon.
The recording is divided into four segments, running from 1305-1610 on 25th March 1982. News on the hour is read by Mark Lawrence and Pete’s show is followed by the late Keith York.
Part 2 from 1353Part 3 from 1440Part 4 from 1525
The recording was made from 104 FM but is in mono. South Coast also broadcast on 1557 kHz AM, announcing 194 metres. Thanks to Lillian O’Donoghue for the recording and photo.
