AM Archives - Page 61 of 66 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

Concord Community Radio promotes politics of community radio — Concord Community Radio flyer (Alan MacSimoin Collection).

This recording features Jack Byrne of Concord Community Radio and John Murphy of Bray Local Broadcasting on Dateline Dublin on 337 metres/890 kHz at 1800 on 27^th March 1983, not long before Concord began broadcasting to northeast Dublin. Conor Cullihy is the presenter of this programme promoting the politics of community radio. At 30 minutes there is a recording credited to BLB. The 10-minute piece makes the case for locally owned community radio and explains the other versions of commercial local and state-run community radio that were being considered in Ireland in the early 1980s.

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

9th April 20204th September 2025

Rockabilly on Concord Community Radio (Dublin)

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From 890 kHz/337 metres, this is Concord Community Radio from the Artane/Coolock area of Dublin on 27th March 1983 from 1900. Boppin’ Billy is on air. Billy went on to be manager at Concord’s successor North Dublin Community Radio (NDCR), was on Radio Caroline Dublin for 10 years in the 90s, worked for Beaumont Hospital Radio and these days he is on Dublin City FM on Fridays from midnight to 2am. Still playing rockabilly!

30th March 202010th April 2024

First day of Liberties Local Community Radio

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This is a recording of the first day of Liberties Local Community Radio (LLCR) from 4^th April 1986. The presenter is Paul Barrett and this is aircheck includes jingles and a helpful interjection from Brian Greene who informs us that the FM transmitter on 96.7 was running 50 watts. There’s a change in sound quality half-way through, when it seems the source was switched from FM to the AM transmitter on 1035 kHz.

LLCR broadcast from Weaver Square in the Liberties until the end of 1988 during which time it changed format and name several times. You can hear LLCR jingles here. This recording is from the Pirate.ie collection.

14th September 20194th September 2025

Documentary: history of Community Radio Youghal

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In the summer of 2019, Community Radio Youghal celebrated 40 years since it began broadcasting as a pirate from the east Cork town. CRY was licensed as a community radio station in 1995 but its history stretches back to 1979 when it began broadcasting without a licence. See the DX Archive site for more photos and history of CRY’s pirate days. You can listen to the current CRY here.

A special documentary, Born in the USA, aired by CRY on July 4^th 2019 to mark its 40^th birthday, was funded by the then Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. We thank CRY Manager Darragh Parker and Programme Director Justin Maher for granting us permission to share this.

12th July 201912th July 2019

Interview: Declan Meehan (part 2: 1982-1989)

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In the second part of our extended interview, long-time broadcaster Declan Meehan discusses his move from Sunshine to Radio Nova in 1982 which was by then the biggest station in Dublin. He tells us how Chris Cary copied the sound of KIIS FM in Los Angeles to bring a new broadcasting style to Ireland. Despite his love for Radio Nova, Declan left the station because of the bitter NUJ strike in 1984. Although he moved into licensed radio in the UK and Ireland after that, Declan’s involvement with the pirates didn’t quite end there. The interview concludes with Declan’s thoughts on the pirate legacy and his views on the state of radio today.

You can hear the first part of this interview here.