L-R: Sybil Fennell, Declan Meehan and Bob Gallico at the Radio Nova closedown in 1983 (photo by Joe King).
This is a recording of veteran newscaster the late great Bob Gallico reading the lunchtime news on New Year’s Day 1988 on Dublin super-pirate Energy 103. Bob’s voice was one of the most familiar and iconic of the 1980s Dublin pirates.
Image courtesy of dxarchive.com
Energy 103 emerged from the ashes of Radio Nova on 29th April 1986 and broadcast until 11th March 1988, when it closed suddenly. Within hours its frequencies were taken over by Q102. Bob Gallico died in 2013 at the age of 83 in Massachusetts. You can read tributes here.
Radio West compliments slip, courtesy of DX Archive.
Radio West was one of the large regional stations of the pirate era and even renamed itself ‘West National Radio 3’ in 1988 as it claimed to be broadcasting nationwide. Its 10kW transmitter on 765 kHz (later 702) gave it good coverage over a wide area and an infill AM on 711 kW was added for Galway in 1988. Radio West also had a chain of low-powered FM relays from Dublin to Galway but it was stretching the imagination to claim national coverage.
This recording is of the end of the Mike Young breakfast show from 0918-1003 on 2nd February 1984, recorded from 765 kHz in Dublin. There is some electrical interference with audio dropout from time to time and there seems to be some drift off channel by the end of the recording. Ads are heard from across the midland counties, some of which feature the voice of station owner Shaun Coyne. Idents are voiced by Tony Allan and interestingly the 10.00 news is a relay of Bob Gallico on Radio Nova in Dublin. We don’t know if there was ever a formal agreement with Nova to rebroadcast its news or if this is an example of piracy by one pirate from another – smaller stations were known to relay news from bigger stations and Radio Dublin infamously rebroadcast bulletins from RTÉ for a time.
This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Skywave Radio International broadcast a shortwave station in the 1980s from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin.
Magic 103 (103.5 FM and 1521 kHz AM) was one of the many short-lived sister stations of Radio Nova, and was on air from Leeson Street in Dublin for a few months in 1985. The station began broadcasting on April 29th and promised ‘easy listening and information for Dublin’. Presenters were journalists, most of whom were in dispute with station owner Chris Cary, and ‘ABC Network News’ was shared between the two stations. Magic 103 was gone by September 22nd, as the Radio Nova empire began to unravel.
This recording is of Mark Weller (Mark Costigan) from 3.25pm on 19 June 1985, featuring a studio discussion about stock car racing, including a forthcoming competition between teams from Radio Nova and Sunshine Radio! There’s also a comedy extract featuring iconic Nova voices such as Bob Gallico, John Clarke and Tony Allan. The 4pm news bulletin shared by both stations features international, Irish and British news. When the simulcast ends there is additional Irish news on Magic 103, evidence that Nova catered to a much larger broadcast area than just Dublin. Mark Costigan went on to work as a journalist for national independent station Radio Ireland/Today FM in the 1990s and 2000s and was eventually appointed Head of Government Information Services.
This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Skywave Radio International broadcast a shortwave station in the 1980s from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin.
Declan Meehan and John Walsh at East Coast FM in Bray where Declan has worked since 1994.
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.
