CRF studio in Loughshinny in 1984 (Anoraks Ireland Collection).
This recording of Community Radio Fingal (CRF) was made during the May 1983 raids on Irish pirate radio stations. CRF broadcast from various locations around north Dublin from March 1983 until the end of 1988, focusing on a local listenership but getting its signal out well due to its 1kW AM transmitter. CRF was based in the Castle Shopping Centre in Swords at the time, and many of the adverts feature businesses located there.
Our recording was made from 1575 kHz (announcing 189 metres) from 1040 on Thursday May 19th, just over an hour after the raid on Sunshine Radio less than 10km away in Portmarnock. As fears grew that more stations would be raided, DJ Jimmy Clarke makes an oblique reference to transmitters and laughs nervously.
This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Radio Skywave International was a shortwave station from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin in the 1980s.
Radio Leinster newspaper advert just a few weeks before it closed down (Anoraks Ireland Collection).
Radio Leinster was one of Dublin’s niche pirates, featuring an easy listening and chat format in contrast with the chart music played on many stations. It began on 29th April 1981 from an elevated site in Sandyford overlooking the city. A professional 1 kW transmitter on 738 kHz travelled well by day but was subject to interference at night.
These recordings are of interest because they are from the last day of Radio Leinster, 19th May 1983. Like many other stations, Radio Leinster was spooked by the raids on Radio Nova and Sunshine and closed down suddenly at lunchtime. The first recording above begins at 1020 and gives no impression of a crisis, with DJ Mike Moran even announcing a competition. News at 1100 is read by Anna Craig (Anna Chisnall, who would later work in RTÉ). Sadly, Radio Leinster was never to return but future pirates in the same easy listening vein would be Magic 103, KISS FM (for a period) and KLAS.
Radio Leinster presenters included many experienced broadcasters and launched the careers of others. One of the station’s presenters was Gavin Duffy who led the consortium to be awarded the local radio licence for counties Meath and Louth in 1989. Peter Mulryan’s book Radio Radio (1988) reports that in 1982 Duffy announced that he would interview senior Sinn Féin figures including Gerry Adams, in breach of Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act. The station received a warning from the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and Duffy was fired.
Original cassette label from the Anoraks Ireland Collection.
The recording below is part of Al Dunne’s final show on Radio Leinster from 1124-1159 on 19th May, who says he will be on air until 2pm. There are indirect references to the raids and Al plays Les Crane’s ‘Desiderata’, the song used by Sunshine Radio at closedown every night. Sunshine had been raided a few hours previously. Listen here to the sudden closedown of Radio Leinster at just after 1pm.
Al Dunne’s show from 1100.
These recordings were made from 93 FM and are from both the Skywave Tapes Collection and the Anoraks Ireland Collection.
Equipment removed from Sunshine Radio, 19 May 1983, with RTÉ crew filming (courtesy Joe King).
There was extensive coverage on RTÉ of the raids on Radio Nova and Sunshine Radio on 18th and 19th May 1983. This was unsurprising given that RTÉ’s income and standing was threatened by the popularity of the pirates. British radio enthusiast Leon Tipler recorded RTÉ coverage of the raids from Radio 1, listening on its medium wave transmitter on 567 kHz which got reasonably well into the English midlands.
This recording consists of several RTÉ news bulletins during that fateful week in 1983: the 6.30pm news and 10.00pm headlines on Wednesday 18th May; the newspaper review at 8.10am on 19th May followed by news from 1.00pm, 1.30pm and 6.30pm that day; the newspaper review at 9.05am on Saturday 21st May and the 1.00pm news programme on Sunday 22nd May. The final extract includes an interview with the Minister of State for Posts and Telegraphs, Ted Nealon, promising new radio legislation by the autumn of 1983. Optimistically, he predicted that local radio in the 1980s would be similar to rural electrification 40 years earlier. In fact, it would be another 5 and a half years before the pirates would be closed down and licensed radio introduced.
This recording is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England.
Christine Reilly and Kieran Murray in Radio Carousel Navan in 1982 (courtesy Kieran Murray).
Raids by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs on the super-pirates Radio Nova and Sunshine Radio on 18th and 19th May 1983 rocked the Irish radio scene. Panic spread throughout the country’s pirate stations in anticipation of further raids, and many stations took the precaution of closing down temporarily.
One of the larger stations, Radio Carousel in Dundalk, celebrated its 5th birthday around the same time, on 20th May 1983. Kieran Murray, who ran the Radio Carousel operation in Navan, Co. Meath, made recordings from RTÉ and other stations in the week of the raids. The first part of the recording above is from Wednesday 18th May and begins with part of the 1.15 lunchtime news from Boyneside Radio in Drogheda, followed by the 1.30 RTÉ Radio 1 report on the raids. Kieran then records a conversation with Hugh O’Brien of Radio Nova, who had been trying to reach Carousel boss Hugh Hardy all morning. The recording continues with extracts from Thursday 19th May: the report of the raid on Sunshine Radio on RTÉ and an interview by Radio Carousel’s Christine Reilly (Tina Anderson) with Bill McLoughlin of Sunshine Radio.
Original label from Anoraks Ireland Collection.
Part 2 below includes an interview with Hugh Hardy on Paul Clarke’s programme on BBC Radio Ulster on 19th May, followed by the 6pm news on Radio Carousel Navan. The recording ends with part of the RTÉ Radio 1 news at 6.30 on 22nd May.
Interview with Hugh Hardy, Radio Carousel Navan, RTÉ coverage.
These recordings are from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson.
Radio West car sticker (Anoraks Ireland Collection).
Despite the claims of its opponents, the Irish pirate radio era was about so much more than pop stations playing nothing but the Top 40. Around the country, many pirates became popular and credible sources of news and information in their own regions, offering a real local alternative to RTÉ. One area where pirate radio really had the edge was sports coverage, especially of local GAA matches.
This recording of popular midlands station Radio West was made in the summer of 1983 and is of a Saturday afternoon sports show with local results and interviews. One such interview features a GAA club in Longford and the recording is a good example of how many pirates, particularly outside Dublin, were templates for the licensed local radio of today. The presenters are unidentified and there are no timechecks but we know that the recording was made on Saturday 13th August 1983 from 765 kHz AM in Aberystwyth on the west Wales coast. The transmitter was capable of running up to 10kW of power at the time, and with Aberystwyth about 250 km from the Radio West site in Co. Westmeath, the recording shows that the station’s groundwave reception was good well beyond its core coverage area.
This recording is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England.
