Morning shows on Boyneside Radio

Morning shows on Boyneside Radio
Daire Nelson during his Radio West days (courtesy DX Archive).

This is a recording of morning programmes on Boyneside Radio from early 1983. Following the merger with the breakaway Community Radio Drogheda, the station was making headway again and advertising from the town was plentiful. Part 1 of the recording above was made from 98.4 FM in mono and runs from 0906-0954 on Friday 21st January 1983. It features Daire Nelson on the breakfast show and includes a comedy slot involving a call to the Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda as well as a weekly sentence in Irish. There are requests from Drogheda, Dundalk, Duleek and Navan. Dara is followed by the late Dave C. at 0930.

Morning shows on Boyneside Radio
Cassette label from the Anoraks Ireland Collection.

Part 2 below is from 0957-1045 and includes the One Minute of Pop quiz and news with Shane Harrison, who now works as BBC Northern Ireland’s Dublin correspondent.

Part 2 of the recording.

This recording is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson.

Teatime on Boyneside Radio

Teatime on Boyneside Radio
Boyneside QSL postcard from 1982 (courtesy Ian Biggar).

In July 1981, a split in Boyneside Radio led to the breakaway station Community Radio Drogheda and the town had two rival stations for the best part of a year. This recording was made in July 1982, shortly after the two stations merged once again. There was some variation in the name around this time: the cassette label refers to Boyneside Community Radio and ‘Boyneside/CRD’ was used on air until the late summer, when the station reverted to Boyneside. Read more about Community Radio Drogheda here.

Teatime on Boyneside Radio
Cassette label referring to ‘Boyneside Community Radio’.

The recording was made from 1500-1535 on 19th July 1982 from 99.5 FM in mono. The presenter is Boyneside stalwart Eddie Caffrey with the afternoon ‘teatime’ slot and a lost-and-found section. News is read by Gerry Malone, another well-known Boyneside voice. There is some wobble on the cassette due to deterioration over the decades.

Teatime on Boyneside Radio
1982 letter from Eddie Caffrey to a Swedish DXer (courtesy Ian Biggar).

This recording is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson. Further material from this collection can be found on Radiowaves and the Irish Pirate Radio Archive.

The Green Scene on Boyneside Radio and Television

The Green Scene on Boyneside Radio and Television
Boyneside Radio and Television sticker from 1982 (courtesy DX Archive).

This is a recording of Sean Neilon presenting the popular country and Irish show The Green Scene on Boyneside Radio in Drogheda on Saturday 20th March 1982. The first hour is all Irish music and there are also a few words of Irish to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day. Sean mentions a few times that they are also broadcasting on Boyneside Television, a reference to the short-lived television service that mostly relayed the radio programmes. The Angelus at 12 midday is followed by Dermot Kierans (RIP) with a programme about disability, which was progressive for the time and an example of how the pirates were about more than the Top 40. Dermot was a well-known figure in Drogheda who worked for many good causes in the town.

The Green Scene on Boyneside Radio and Television
Cassette label from the Anoraks Ireland Collection.

This recording was made from 99.2 FM in mono. The first part above runs from 1058-1145 and the second below from 1145-1231. More information about the background to Boyneside Television is available here. One of Boyneside’s founders, Eddie Caffrey, has been the main presenter of the Green Scene through the decades and is still heard every Saturday on local station LMFM. It is the longest running programme on Irish local radio. Thanks to Ian Biggar for additional information.

Side B of the recording.

These recordings are from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated by Paul Davidson. Other material from this collection is available on Radiowaves and the Irish Pirate Radio Archive.

Eddie Caffrey on Boyneside Radio in 1980

Eddie Caffrey on Boyneside Radio in 1980
Eddie Caffrey in Boyneside Radio in 1982 (courtesy of Eddie).

Returning to our Northeast Series, this is a recording of Eddie Caffrey (aka Heady Eddie) presenting his afternoon show on Boyneside Radio from Drogheda. It was made from 1420-1506 on 14th March 1980. Áine Ní Ghuidhir reads news at 3pm and there are plenty of Mother’s Day requests from listeners for the coming Sunday. The recording is in mono but is a studio copy, so there are no details of a frequency. An airchecked version was posted previously on our site here.

Eddie Caffrey on Boyneside Radio in 1980
The cassette label giving details of the recording (courtesy Anoraks Ireland).

This recording is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson. More material from this collection is available on Radiowaves and the Irish Pirate Radio Archive.

Hugh Hardy on KLAS 98

Hugh Hardy on KLAS 98
The late Hugh Hardy in the KLAS studios in Sutton in 1987 (courtesy DX Archive).

KLAS 98 (later Class) was an easy listening station which broadcast to Dublin from November 1986 until the closedowns of December 1988. It was set up by the founder of the Radio Carousel network, Hugh Hardy, and based first at a garage behind his home in Sutton in northeast Dublin. News bulletins from KLAS and overnight programming were relayed on occasion from Dublin to the Carousel stations in Navan and Dundalk. After Hardy stepped back in early 1988, KLAS moved to Dame Street in the city centre and was managed by David Baker. It then moved to Harcourt Street where it was taken over by television aerial salesman John J. May and relaunched as Class 98.

Hugh Hardy on KLAS 98
Original cassette label from Anoraks Ireland Collection.

This recording from 98.5 FM is of Hugh Hardy presenting on St. Stephen’s Day, 26th December 1986. News on the hour is read by a very young John Walsh, co-founder of Pirate.ie and the voice of the late Bob Gallico is heard on an advert. There are no time checks or references to St. Stephen’s Day in the links so this show could have been recorded for one of the automated 8-hour VHS tapes used by KLAS overnight. John Walsh has written his memories of KLAS here.

Part 1 of the recording above runs from 1637-1725 and Part 2 below from 1740-1828.

Part 2 from 1740.

The recording is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson.