Alan Edwards at Radio City in 1981 (courtesy Lilian O’Donoghue).
This recording of Cork pirate Radio City was made in spring 1981. The early Saturday evening show is presented by Alan Edwards, who was heard on earlier stations such as the Cork Broadcasting Company (CBC). Alan plays hits and memories and plugs discos and gigs around the city and county. Local businesses around Cork are featured in the commercial breaks and for the first time, there are sung station jingles.
The tape is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection and was made from 95.5 FM on Saturday 14th March 1981 between 1703-1858. There is some distortion on voiceovers and audio levels are variable in places. Thanks to Lilian O’Donoghue for the donation.
Alan Edwards in his CBC days in 1978 (courtesy Lillian O’Donoghue).
Long before the reality television series of the same name, Cork had its very own Big Brother Radio. This Cork station lasted for about 3-4 months at the start of 1981 and was operated from a garage on the Blarney Road. Experimenting with an American style, Big Brother Radio was owned by Philip O’Connor who had worked previously with the Cork Broadcasting Company (CBC). The FM signal on 88.6 MHz was in mono only but the signal was good in the city because of where the studio and dipole were located. An AM transmitter at the snooker club in Blackpool relayed the signal but was weak and didn’t last long. The studio was impressive and was nicely fitted out with professional record decks, cart machines and carpet tiles.
This recording of Big Brother Radio was made from 88.6 FM from 1729-1900 on 3rd February 1981. It begins with a sign-off from Captain Peacock who is followed by Alan Edwards. Alan, who had been a regular DJ previously on CBC, announces a competition for a £10 note. Thanks to Lillian O’Donoghue for the donation of the tape and to Rob Allen for background information.
L-R: Alan Edwards, Pete Andrews and Tony Allen at CBC, January 1979 (courtesy Lillian O’Donoghue).
Our final recording of CBC is of Alan Edwards on 21st August 1979. It is a partial aircheck of his show from 1930-2130 and begins with Alan thanking Noel Evans (aka Welch) who was on air before him. Of interest are the live-read and pre-recorded adverts for various businesses including Greg Anthony Fashions, Adam and Eve’s Restaurant and Cork Joinery. Requests include one ‘for the girl in the green blouse from the dancer’ at the Ballyphehane disco and another for ‘Miss Ballinacurra’, a village near Cork. People from Blackrock are asked to ring in requests and they duly do so, followed by listeners in Douglas and then Farranree. The next DJ Conor O’Sullivan can’t make it because he has no transport so Alan announces that CBC is to close down at 2130. At the end of the recording is an advert for the ‘Alan Edwards disco roadshow’, a sign of how pirate DJs relied on gigging around town to make ends meet. There’s also a request for Lillian McCarthy (O’Donoghue) and the recording is followed by two personal messages recorded for Lillian by Alan and Noel. The music is fantastic and Alan is an enthusiastic DJ who clearly has many loyal listeners.
As often happens in the world of pirate radio, there was a split in the CBC ranks which led to Stevie Bolger and Con McParland starting Alternative Broadcasting Cork (ABC) from the same building that originally housed CBC in Montenotte. ABC began testing in July 1978 on an announced 233 metres. This station continued into 1979, but again a split from ABC led to the formation of Capital Radio which was on air until 1982. Stevie went on to work with RTÉ Cork Local Radio. Thanks as ever to Lillian O’Donoghue for the photo and recording and to Gearóid Quill and Ian Biggar for background information.
Alan Edwards in the CBC studio in May 1979 (courtesy Lillian O’Donoghue).
This recording of Alan Edwards was made on 1st July 1979, a year to the day after he began working at CBC. Alan plays snippets from his first show on 1st July 1978 and comments on the difference in his voice over the past year. A birthday cake was delivered to the station by a loyal fan and Alan and his producer tuck in between records. It is announced that the station will close at 10pm instead of midnight because Barry Jones won’t be in for his show.
In the 1978 recording CBC’s frequency is given as 1327.52 kHz which is equivalent to almost 226 metres rather than the announced 230 metres. A year later, Alan announces 1303 kHz which is equivalent to 230 metres. This is a 40+ year-old cassette recorded from AM, with the 1978 inserts themselves recorded from AM, so audio quality is poor throughout. The recording above starts at around 7.30pm and is a partial aircheck. The recording below starts just before 9pm. Thanks to Lillian O’Donoghue for the donation.
Alan Edwards of CBC in May 1979 (courtesy Lillian O’Donoghue).
Brothers Noel and Trevor Welch were both DJs with the Cork Broadcasting Company (CBC) and remained involved with radio in Cork during the pirate era and beyond. They co-authored The Jolly Roger: Pirate Radio Days in Cork, which was published in 2015. In that book, Noel remembers that pirate radio ‘struck a blow for pioneering DJs everywhere when stations first hit the airwaves in Cork in the late 1970s. It was fresh, very risky and a bit of a novelty. We hadn’t heard anything like it before. The pirates of the airwaves set the tone for pop radio in this country’.
Noel Evans (Welch) of CBC in January 1979 (courtesy Lillian O’Donoghue).
Noel responded to an advert seeking DJs placed by CBC in The Evening Echo. He was working with the Echo at the time and remembers how the advert almost jumped off the page at him. Noel had worked previously in nightclubs but had no radio experience and even lacked the basic equipment to record a demo tape. He had to borrow his uncle’s radio-cassette player and recorded a demo spinning his favourite vinyl singles. Once offered a slot at CBC he had to keep his radio hobby a secret at work because of the suspicion between local press and pirate stations.
This recording of CBC features Noel Welch (known as Noel Evans on air) and Alan Edwards. The recording starts at around 1925 on 15th June 1979 and is partially airchecked. Audio quality is poor due to the age of the cassette and the fact that this was recorded on a tape recorder held up to an AM radio. Thanks to Lillian O’Donoghue for the recording and photos.
