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Westside Radio International returns for New Year’s Eve 1989

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Westside Radio International returns for New Year's Eve 1989
Westside operator Prince Terry in May 1983 (Anoraks Ireland Collection).

Westside Radio International was a long-running shortwave pirate broadcasting on Sunday morning from Dublin between 1975 and 1989 with later appearances under different names including Ozone Radio. The station was set up by the late Don Moore and was taken over by Roger Lloyd (Prince Terry on air) in 1977. It was steeped in the pirate spirit and created a real sense of community among free radio enthusiasts in Ireland and abroad. The station closed down on 31st December 1988 along with the vast majority of Irish pirates but returned for a special commemorative broadcast exactly one year later.

This airchecked recording was made between 1123 and 1253 on 31st December 1989 from 6280 kHz shortwave. Prince Terry announces that Westside has returned just for that day to mark the first anniversary of the pirate closedowns and says that it is also broadcasting on FM and medium wave. There are greetings to well-known radio anoraks and news about the small number of remaining pirate stations, including Radio Dublin which is said to have switched back on its AM transmitter.

Audio is fair to poor with deep fading but is an authentic representation of how Westside sounded on shortwave in the west of Ireland at the time. The recording was made in Co. Clare by John Breslin, who we thank for the donation.

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Radio Dublin flies the pirate flag into 1989

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Radio Dublin flies the pirate flag into 1989
Brian Greene’s Radio Dublin 253 badge.

Radio Dublin was one of just three stations to continuing broadcasting without interruption into 1989, the others being Radio Star Country in Monaghan and Hospital Radio in Portrane, Co. Dublin. For the first few days, Radio Dublin relied on taped content but soon resumed live programming and within days other pirates crept back on the air. However, few could match the longevity of Radio Dublin or indeed Radio Star Country, which is still broadcasting today.

The eyes of the press were on Radio Dublin because of its high-profile position in the capital and the defiant stance of its owner Eamonn Cooke, announced during his ‘Station News’ on Christmas Day 1988. This recording of Radio Dublin is one of the earliest from 1989 and gives a sense of the excitement at the station as it carried on in defiance of the new broadcasting law. It was made from 1148-1233 on Tuesday 3rd January 1989 and features Mike Wilsom on air, who has plenty of requests and messages of support from the public. One listener to phone in his support is Kevin Branigan from Stillorgan who closed down his own pirate Kiss 106 on New Year’s Eve. The second recording below was made the same day from 1239-1321. Both were recorded from 1188 kHz in Scotland and are donated kindly by Ian Biggar.

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Short-lived Waterford pirate Laser 89

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Short-lived Waterford pirate Laser 89
Waterford quays in 1990. Photo credit: By Tom Courtney, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=533302

Laser 89 was a short-lived pirate that broadcast to Waterford City for a few weeks in January 1989 in defiance of the new broadcasting laws. According to the Anoraks UK Weekly Report, it carried out tests between 9th and 11th January and began with lived and recorded programmes on 12th January on 88.6 FM. The station broadcast from above a pub in the Ballybricken area of the city. It was set up by former staff of ABC, an earlier Waterford pirate that closed down at the end of 1988, but DJs from another local station NCR/Crystal City Sound were also involved. Described by Anoraks UK as ‘very slick and professional’, Laser featured some familiar and some new voices and used some of the jingles of the British 1980s offshore pirate Laser 558. The music choice was pop and country with some 12-inches and Laser 89 broadcast from 8am to 8pm daily. Despite only putting out 40 watts of power, the signal covered the city well in stereo. On February 3rd, local newspapers announced that Laser had ceased broadcasting after causing television interference. However, some of the ABC people were reportedly worried that having a pirate on air would sully their application for a licence and decided to pull the plug.

The first recording above is of Ron Lundy from 1316-1401 on Wednesday 18th January 1989. The second below is from Friday 20th January 1989 from 1639-1724 and is labelled Dan Ingram but in is mostly just non-stop music with a few time checks. Lundy and Ingram were popular DJs on New York station WABC in the 1970s and 1980s and must have inspired these Waterford pirate broadcasters.

Laser announces ‘commercial-free music’ for Waterford but no phone number is given out and there are no requests from listeners. We thank Ian Biggar for his donation of these recordings.  

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‘Galway’s Super Q’: Quincentennial Radio

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'Galway's Super Q': Quincentennial Radio
Quincentennial Radio was based behind Paddy’s Bar near Eyre Square in the city centre (photo by John Walsh)

This is the second of two recordings of Quincentennial Radio, the short-lived Galway pirate that returned to the air on 2nd January 1989 in breach of the new Wireless Telegraphy Act. The law came into effect at midnight on New Year’s Eve and silenced most of the country’s pirates including Coast 103, one of the two big Galway stations. However, Quincentennial Radio was essentially a reincarnation of Coast involving many of the same people including engineer Keith York (RIP) and DJs Steve Marshall, Tony Allan (RIP) and Shane Martin. It was located behind the Gallows bar (now Paddy’s Bar) on Prospect Hill, just off Eyre Square in the city centre, where Coast had been located for its final few months.

The recording is of Shane Martin’s show from 1827-1912 on 13th February 1989. It includes liners and promos voiced by Tony Allan, including one that cheekily compares Quincentennial to Millennium Radio in Dublin and Cork Local Radio, both local RTÉ services. There are also community announcements, a letter from a listener criticising another unnamed radio station and a crackly Valentine’s Day phone call from London.

We don’t have an exact date but it appears from Anoraks UK logs that Quincentennial Radio closed down sometime in March 1989 after a warning from the authorities. We thank Ian Biggar for his donation of this rare recording and Steve Marshall and Shane Martin for background information.

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Galway’s Quincentennial Radio in 1989

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Galway's Quincentennial Radio in 1989
A wintry Eyre Square in Galway near where Quincentennial Radio was based (photo by John Walsh)

Quincentennial Radio was a shortlived Galway pirate that broadcast for about two months at the start of 1989. It consisted of ex-Coast 103 broadcasters Steve Marshall, Shane Martin and Tony Allan (RIP) as well as engineer Keith York (RIP). According to Steve Marshall, Quincentennial – named after the 500th anniversary of Galway City in 1984 – started broadcasting on January 2nd 1989, just a day after most of the country’s pirates left the airwaves. The studio gear was formerly used by Coast 103 and consisted of Gates B77 turntables with Gray Research tonearms, an Alice 828 mixer and a pair of Accessit compressor units for sound processing. Quincentennial Radio began by just playing music and liners by Tony Allan and the first live voice was Shane Martin. Shane remembers that it didn’t have the same feel as Coast 103 as there was no money, no paid ads and no competition: ‘It just felt very empty. The buzz was gone’. The studio was located at the back of the Gallows Bar (now Paddy’s Bar) in the courtyard of Prospect House near Eyre Square, where Coast 103 had been based.  

The Anoraks UK Weekly Report of 18th February 1989 mentioned Quincentennial Radio on 98.4 FM, a frequency chosen to match the city’s quincentennial year in 1984. It was on air 24 hours a day broadcasting a variety of music. The station was logged throughout February and into March but on 22nd April, Anoraks UK reported that the authorities had ‘instructed Quincentennial to cease broadcasting some time ago which they duly did’. After the station closed, it became a training facility for DJs.

Galway's Quincentennial Radio in 1989
The Quincentennial bridge was built in 1984 to mark Galway’s 500th anniversary (photo by John Walsh)

We bring you the first of two recordings of Quincentennial Radio from Monday 13th February 1989. Today’s recording was made from 1738-1824 and features the end of Steve Marshall’s programme. Tony Allan’s voice is heard on liners and there is one ad just before 6pm when Shane Martin takes over. A phone number for requests is given out and the station is referred to a few times as ‘Galway’s Super Q’. We thank Ian Biggar for this rare recording of a short-lived station which defied the new laws in 1989. Thanks also to Steve Marshall and Shane Martin for background information.