1986 Archives - Page 15 of 20 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

24th August 20207th August 2021

Full recording: Radio Skywave International

We are processing hundreds of hours of recordings made by Radio Skywave International on an ongoing basis, and the Skywave Tapes Collection is one of the largest donations made to Pirate.ie.

Today we feature Radio Skywave International itself, as part of a mini-series this week on shortwave pirates of the 1980s. Like the many Irish shortwave pirates, Skywave was a part-time operation, usually on air on Sunday mornings. the first broadcast on was 28^th July 1985 on 6260 kHz and they were first logged by Anoraks UK on August 11^th. The address was 58 Seagrange Road, Baldoyle, Dublin 13 and later and later PO Box 1686, Dublin 1.

Skywave broadcast almost every Sunday for the rest on 1985 on 6260 kHz and into 1986. There were occasional forays onto other shortwave frequencies. On 12^th October 1986 the station was noticed relaying the religious programme Good News Radio on 6261 kHz which appeared to become part of their regular Sunday schedule from then on. Skywave seemed to take a break for a few weeks around April 1987 and was not logged until 17^th May 1987 when noted on a new frequency of 6850 kHz.

An Anoraks UK report of 31^st May 1987 included a letter from station operator Michael Caine (Hegarty) stating that shortwave was being suspended in order to concentrate on an FM station called Downtown Radio. It had a 50-watt transmitter operating on 88 MHz and aimed to be a community station serving Dublin’s north inner city. There was another operation called the Irish Radio Relay Service that carried mostly an English pirate called Falcon Radio (which also used the PO Box in Dublin). This mainly used 6850 kHz, but Skywave appeared there on 23^rd August 1987 and became regular towards the end of the year. The station continued into 1988 but was not logged every week. The final logging was on 6850 kHz on 12^th June 1988. We thank Ian Biggar from compiling this station history.

This recording is from 6260 kHz from 1045-1200 on 2^nd November 1986 and features Dominic Dillon on air, who beings his programme with the Radio Dublin theme song. For more information about the shortwave pirates see the DX Archive and Pirate Memories websites.

5th July 20206th August 2021

Jingles: WLS Music Radio (Galway)

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This is a jingles package from WLS Music Radio which broadcast from Galway from 1985-1987. WLS was one of the larger commercial stations in Galway during the pirate era. These re-cuts were based on a set from the Chicago station of the same name, which has been on air since the 1920s and continues to broadcast today. The voice of one of the station owners, Don Stevens, is heard before each jingle. We thank Brendan Mee for this donation.

You can read more about WLS and listen to full recordings here.

24th June 20206th August 2021

Jingles: Emerald Radio (Galway)

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Emerald Radio was a part-time hobby station broadcasting on 97.5 FM from the Shantalla area of Galway City in 1986 and 1987. It came on the air in June 1986 and was run by the 20-year-old Dónal Mahon. According to the Anoraks UK Weekly Report, Emerald was a summer operation running from June to September and closed down at the end of the school holidays. It described Emerald Radio as ‘surprisingly professional’ with ‘nice equipment and pleasant audio’. Emerald FM was included as an irregular operator by Anoraks Ireland in their listing of November 1986, with a plan to return at Christmas.

In February 1987, the Galway City Tribune reported that Dónal Mahon (named in the report as Dónal Murphy) intended to relaunch Emerald commercially following the success of the previous summer, but that 97.5 FM was being used by a country music pirate called WMAQ. When Emerald moved to other frequencies, Mahon complained that they were followed each time and jammed by WMAQ. According to the Tribune, he traced the offending signal to the address of the main Galway pirate WLS but the owner denied any involvement.

These jingles for Emerald Radio were unusual in that they were professionally produced by Alfasound with specific reference to the west of Ireland. There are also some generic jingles and idents for presenters including Gary Hardiman, one of the founders of Radio Renmore, and Dónal Mahon himself. We thank Brendan Mee for donating these jingles to the archive.

22nd June 202016th January 2023

Short-lived Zoom 103 replaces Radio Nova

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Zoom 103 was a short-lived station which came on air on 103.1 FM immediately following the final closure of Radio Nova on the 19th of March 1986. After a receiver was appointed to Nova Media Services, Nova’s FM service was replaced by continuous music just after 3pm on that day while continuing on 738 kHz AM until 6pm. Shortly after 10pm, the music service on 103.1 FM began identifying itself as Zoom 103. Programmes continued as normal the following day, with the usual line-up of Nova presenters but without Chris Cary and an AM service. Zoom broadcast from 144 Upper Leeson Street in the city centre but closed suddenly on Monday the 24th of March, after the Nova receiver reportedly seized the transmitter. A new station calling itself Energy 103 emerged from the ashes of Zoom on the 28th of April and continued until the 11th of March 1988, also from Upper Leeson Street.

This recording is from 1405-1450 on the second day of Zoom, the 20th of March 1986, and features Colm Hayes on air, who refers to Gary Hamill (Seán McCarthy) on news. There are no jingles, imaging or ads. It was made from 103.1 FM and despite the tape label, is in mono.

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

20th June 20207th August 2021

Full recording: County Sound (Dublin)

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We have featured the popular Galway station, County Sound (1987-1988) elsewhere in this archive, but Dublin also had a County Sound. This seems to have been a short-lived operation in 1986, broadcasting from the Rathgar/Churchtown areas of south Dublin. The station is first listed on 105.7 FM in the Anoraks UK Weekly Report on the 23rd of February 1986, shortly after this recording was made. An Anoraks Ireland list from April 1986 lists County Sound as a full-time station (0700-0300) and gives an address in Churchtown. The same month, Anoraks UK logged the station on 104.7 and then 104.9 and gave an address in Rathgar. It also published a full daily schedule which included Ray Stephens, Stephen O’Rourke, Paul Smith, Mike Evans, Derek Hennessy and John Taylor. Whether these names were real or assumed, we do not know. County Sound announced 1503 kHz AM also but this was not confirmed. The station moved around the top end of the FM band for a few months from February 1986 but there are no references to it in logs from July onwards. Although full-time for a period and using a professional jingle package, it seems to have been one of the many short-lived hobby stations increasingly common on FM at the time.

This recording is from 106.2 FM on the 21st of February 1986 from 1140-1225 and features Dan Malone (whose voice hadn’t yet broken!) followed by Brendan Dowling (who sounds a bit older). It is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Skywave Radio International broadcast a shortwave station in the 1980s from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin.