1984 Archives - Page 3 of 14 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

19th January 20247th August 2024

Northeast series: Summer shows on Boyneside Radio

This recording features excerpts from two shows on Boyneside Radio from Co. Louth in the summer of 1984. Boyneside was 6 years on the air at this stage and had grown into one of the largest regional radio stations in Ireland, with its main studios in Drogheda. The tape begins with an aircheck of Declan McGowan’s Saturday night show between 2000-2130 on 11^th August 1984. Requests are heard from both sides of the border along with plenty of adverts and a few clunky chopped-up jingles. Declan began presenting on Boyneside in 1982 when he was just 15 and he remained with the station until it closed at the end of 1988.

This is followed by an aircheck of Daire Nelson’s breakfast show from 0745-0930 on Monday 13^th August 1984. Some of the comments are a bit off by today’s standards but the recording also underlines Daire’s real talent as a broadcaster. News is read by Shane Harrison, who went off to work for BBC Northern Ireland. The tape was recorded from 98.1 FM by Kieran Murray and is part of the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection. Audio quality is generally very good but there is a buzz at the start, which may have been due to an issue with the recording device.

16th January 202415th January 2024

Northeast series: Radio Carousel Navan as heard in Donegal

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Radio Carousel Navan was one of four stations in the Carousel network at its height in the early 1980s. The original Dundalk operation was set up by the late Hugh Hardy in 1978 and later expanded to satellite stations for Drogheda (Co. Louth), Navan (Co. Meath) and Newry (Co. Armagh and Co. Down), with a short-lived experiment in Castleblayney (Co. Monaghan). The Navan station had a high-profile location in the middle of the town’s shopping centre. Hugh Hardy began winding down the Carousel network from late 1987 and the Navan station was the last to close in June 1988.

This recording of Radio Carousel Navan was made by from 1386 kHz by station manager Kieran Murray while on holidays in Carrick, Co. Donegal, about 170km to the northwest. As expected, the signal is weak but is nonetheless an interesting example of daytime groundwave reception on a busy pirate frequency, shared with Kilkenny Community Radio and North Cork Community Radio. The Carousel AM transmiter was situated in the Navan shopping centre and ran about 400 watts. On air is Tina Anderson (Christine Reilly) with a requests programme and the voices of Kieran Murray and another DJ Mike Ahern (Richard McCullen) are heard on adverts.

The tape was made from about 1100 on 3^rd July 1984 and is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson.

25th December 202330th December 2023

Christmas Day on Dublin Community Radio

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Dublin Community Radio (DCR) was an FM-only station set up in 1984. It was based in North Frederick Street in the city centre before moving to Foley Street. It later became KISS FM (1985-1986), which was located at the same address. This recording was made on Christmas Day 1984 and features Paul Martin followed by Fintan O’Hare. Interestingly, there are no Christmas tunes and the music consists mostly of oldies. Only a few adverts are heard but there is heavy promotion of an entertainment company specialising in DJs, discos and dancers.

The recording was made from 104.35 FM, announced as 105 between 1913-2053 on 25th December 1984. It is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson.

15th November 202315th November 2023

Radio Nova as heard in English midlands

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By the summer of 1984, Radio Nova was riding the crest of a wave. Having endured the storm of the RTÉ jamming, the station was now broadcasting a massive 50kW of power on AM, allowing it greater penetration of the northwest of Britain. After using various FM and AM frequencies to avoid the jamming, in May 1984 Nova switched to 738 kHz and 102.7 FM only, opened an advertising office in Liverpool and began including references to England in news, weather and traffic reports.

This recording was made in the English midlands near Birmingham, south of the area being targetted by Nova in the northwest of England, southern Scotland and the Isle of Man. There is plenty of co-channel interference from the Spanish broadcaster on the same frequency of 738 kHz and deep fading consistent with night-time propagation. Transmitter power would also have been turned down to 10kW at night to minimise interference. On air is Chris Barry, a well-known DJ from the pirate era and later licensed independent radio. News on the hour is read by another familiar Nova voice, Sybil Fennell.

The recording was made on 6^th July 1984 from 2137 to 2307 and is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England.

25th September 202323rd September 2023

Jason Maine on Radio Nova

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In the summer of 1984, things were looking up for Radio Nova following the end of RTÉ’s relentless jamming of the station for the early part of the year. A public backlash led to the jamming being called off but although the obstacles to reception of Nova had been removed, storm clouds were gathering due to a bitter industrial relations dispute with journalists laid off by Chris Cary.

This tape is of Jason Maine’s evening programme as heard in the English midlands around this time. It was recorded from the high-power transmitter on 738 kHz AM, which had recently become the only AM frequency following the end of the jamming. The weather forecast contains reference to the northwest of England as Nova was targetting that area at the time.

The recording features good skywave reception with fading and occasional co-channel interference from the Spanish station on the same frequency. It was made on Monday 28^th May 1984 from 2141-2211 and is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England.