BLB Archives - Page 3 of 4 - 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.

1st January 202010th November 2020

Interview: Dave Reddy (Radio Sandymount)

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In this interview, Dave Reddy recalls his involvement in ARD (Alternative Radio Dublin) and Radio 257 at the end of the 1970s. Dave would go to to establish what would today be called ‘pop-up’ community stations, starting with Radio Sandymount in 1982.

Radio Sandymount went on air as part of a community festival in that area and Dave Reddy explains that the model was soon to be requested by community groups elsewhere, leading to similar short-term stations in Ringsend, Donnybrook and Wicklow. Dave was also founder of the first Christmas station Radio Snowflake, which is now run by David Baker who himself broadcast on the 1980s pop-up stations and many other pirates.

The interviewer is Eolann Aitken. You can listen to recordings of Radio Donnybrook here.

30th December 201930th December 2019

Panel: Bray Local Broadcasting (BLB)

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Bray Local Broadcasting (BLB) was a pioneer in Irish community radio and spent almost ten years on air from 1979 to 1988. Based in the north Wicklow town, it focused on local speech content and specialist music in contrast with other stations broadcasting pop music. BLB’s innovative approach inspired other stations in Ireland and it also attracted interest in community radio circles abroad. The station broadcast on AM (837 kHz and later 657) and FM and could be heard well beyond Bray in its later years. You can read more about BLB here.

This fascinating panel discussion features three founding members of BLB: Mark Quinn, Michael Gray and Doug Bel-Maguire. The interviewer is Eolann Aitken.

29th December 201925th March 2023

Interview: Kildare pirates

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Despite its proximity to Dublin, Kildare had its own pirate stations down the years, including Radio Cill Dara (Naas), Kildare Community Radio (Naas) and KLB Community Radio (Newbridge). In this interview, Liam Kett and Anthony McAllister reminisce about their involvement in Kildare stations as well as a stint spent at Radio Dublin. They recall that in the early years, there were fall-back transmitters and premises across the county in the case of raids and they remind us that high-profile RTÉ broadcasters Ray D’Arcy and Ronan Collins cut their teeth in the Kildare stations. Liam Kett is now a presenter on the local Kildare station KFM.

The interviewer is Eolann Aitken and the interview was recorded at a meet-up organised by Pirate.ie in Dublin in 2018 to commemorate the 30^th anniversary of the closedowns.

30th December 20187th August 2021

Promo: ‘Shout to the Top’ on Bray Local Broadcasting

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Bray Local Broadcasting (BLB) was one of the leading community broadcasters of the 1980s and put out a strong signal on 657 kHz AM from Bray in Co. Wicklow. In this promo from 1987 which includes the voice of Minister for Communications Jim Mitchell, BLB extols the virtues of community radio in anticipation of the new licences. Although many of those involved in BLB were behind the licensed Horizon Radio in 1989, that station was to merge with another more commercially-focused broadcaster in Wicklow and community radio proper was not licensed until the mid 1990s. You can read more about Horizon Radio on the Wireless Flirt blog.