Richard Kenny (Crowley) in the CRD studio on Baymore Road in 1982 (courtesy of Ken Baird).
Drogheda’s two pirate radio stations, the original Boyneside Radio and the breakaway Community Radio Drogheda continued to battle it out through the second half of 1981 and into 1982. As the brochure below illustrates, the CRD team included several presenters who would move on to Radio Leinster in Dublin such as Richard Kenny (Crowley), Gavin Duffy and Ken Murray while Eddie Caffrey and Dermot Finglas would eventually return to Boyneside.
Community Radio Drogheda brochure (courtesy Ian Biggar/DX Archive).
Community Radio Drogheda brochure (courtesy Ian Biggar/DX Archive).
Sunday Journal, 05.12.1981 (courtesy Ian Biggar/DX Archive).
The final page of the brochure above includes news editor Michael O’Dowd, whose brother Fergus is now a Fine Gael TD for Louth. Another brother Niall is a well-known Irish-American journalist. Tony Clayton-Lea, who would become a well-known rock critic and writer, is also among the presenters.
Community Radio Drogheda was among the pirates whose schedules were published in the Sunday Journal (see left). As we can see, many of the presenters did two shows per day and there were more specialist programmes at the weekend.
The long recording above was made from 1250-1420 on 7th April 1982 and features Gavin Duffy with a packed Lunchtime Special show. He interviews excited local teenagers about their school opera, reads letters from listeners and introduces various features. News at 1.15 is read by Richard Kenny (Crowley), who would eventually work as a journalist with RTÉ. Niall McGowan follows Gavin’s show at 2pm.
The shorter recording below is an airchecked version of part of Ken Murray’s afternoon show on 26th March 1982.
We thank Ian Biggar and Eddie Caffrey for the recordings.
Community Radio Drogheda sticker (courtesy Ian Biggar/DX Archive).
Today we bring you the history of the split in Boyneside Radio in July 1981 and the new station Community Radio Drogheda (CRD), courtesy of Ian Biggar. Following the split, premises were found for CRD and studios and an office were set up at 15 Fair Street. CRD commenced a 24-hour broadcast using the Boyneside medium wave transmitter that was owned by Eddie Caffrey (although he had been accused of stealing it!). This was located at a good site, the former Rosnaree Hotel on the Dublin Road.
Meanwhile, Boyneside Radio continued on 98.1 and 99.2 FM, but soon added a medium wave transmitter in Donaghy’s Mill, built by Peter Gibney. This was originally on 1314 kHz, only two channels next to CRD. This, combined with the fact the transmitter was not operating properly, meant that Boyneside could barely be heard in the town. To compound this, CRD put a second transmitter on 1323 kHz, meaning Boyneside was sandwiched between the two transmitters.
This was the situation when the DX Archive team arrived in mid August 1981. Boyneside Radio was desperate for some technical help to resolve the situation with the AM transmitter and was having difficulty in tracking down Peter Gibney. During this visit another FM transmitter appeared on 102 MHz with non stop music that soon began transmitting the CRD programming. By mid-September 1981 Boyneside Radio had obtained a new transmitter built by Con McParland from Cork. This was operating on 1262 kHz with an output of no more that 200 watts. An agreement was reached with CRD resulting that Boyneside was able to move that transmitter to the better channel of 1323 kHz. Throughout all this, both Boyneside Radio and Community Radio Drogheda announced they were broadcasting on 225 metres.
CRD brochure from 1981 (courtesy of Eddie Caffrey).
There commenced a battle with each station trying to outdo the other. Firstly, Boyneside tried to break into the Navan market in October 1981, spurred on mainly by the opening of a new shopping centre. This was just as Radio Carousel had opened their new station located in the Navan Shopping Centre. An aerial was erected at the greyhound track in the town and a transmitter was installed by Con McParland on 1404 kHz. A studio of sorts consisting mainly of disco gear was installed above a hairdressers. The station would relay the Drogheda service with some opt-outs for Navan. This service was short lived and was off the air within a month or so.
Boyneside Radio and Television sticker (courtesy of Ian Biggar/DX Archive).
The next project was Boyneside Television. A 10-watt television transmitter was obtained from Italy and aerials erected at Donaghy’s Mill. A studio was built consisting of Betamax machines with no mixing facilities but buttons used to switch between programme sources. The equipment was basic but due to the skill of the staff a sterling effort was made to put something credible together. The station came on air in November 1981 with transmissions usually commencing around 4pm which featured the on air DJ presenting his radio programme. This lasted until 6.15pm when there was a news bulletin presented by Áine Ní Ghuidhir followed by sport with Eric Vaughan. This lasted until around 6.45pm when a local film would be broadcast until closedown around 7.30pm. Although reception could be patchy around the town, a small amount of advertising was obtained.
Boyneside TV listing, Sunday Journal, April 1982 (courtesy Eddie Bohan)
Programmes were extended over time with a lunchtime broadcast on Saturdays featuring a discussion programme with Dermot Kierans. Into 1982 and daily programmes had been extended as seen in the printed schedule from the Sunday Journal (see left). All TV programmes were relayed on Boyneside Radio due to interference which could not be eliminated.
The station was used by local politicians, especially during the general election of February 1982. This seemed to worry the authorities enough to place a mobile jamming transmitter behind the main post office in Drogheda. This was discovered by the Boyneside staff who surprised the occupants!
Meantime CRD had been focussing on bringing a local radio service to Drogheda, as well as experimenting on various medium wave frequencies. The December 1981 edition of Short Wave News notes reception of CRD on 1071 kHz and the March 1982 issue notes them on 1197 kHz (Telstar Community Radio in Dundalk were off the air at this point). These were of course in parallel with the main transmitter on 1305 kHz.
Around the end of 1981 some staff left Boyneside Radio with a view to starting a rival to Radio Carousel in Navan. The CRD staff provided some technical support to this station to be called Radio Tara. The station had obtained the transmitter used by Radio Meath in 1979 and intended to use it on 255 metres medium wave. An advertisement for prospective staff appeared in one of the Sunday newspapers. However, Eddie Caffrey remembers the transmitter did not function properly and there was great difficulty in setting it up. There were reports of Radio Tara being heard on air, but the station did not last long due to these technical problems.
Radio Tara ad courtesy of Eddie Bohan.
Ken from the DX Archive visited Drogheda at the end of March 1982. He found that CRD had moved premises from the town centre to a house on the Baymore Road. A second AM transmitter was operating from that location on 1233 kHz as well as an FM on 98.6 MHz linking to the main transmitter at the Rosnaree.
Both stations had entered 1982 battling for advertising, with each trying to undercut the other. Boyneside Radio had the advantage of a wealthy businessman owner, whereas CRD was very much dependant on income from advertising sales. The situation had to reach breaking point, which it did in the second half of April 1982. CRD had pretty much run out of money and left the air. Gavin Duffy and Richard Kenny (Crowley) headed to Dublin and Radio Leinster. After negotiations, others like Eddie Caffrey and Dermot Finglas rejoined Boyneside Radio. As the promos said, Boyneside and CRD are ‘back together again’ as Boyneside Community Radio. At this point Boyneside could be heard on 1305, 1314, 1323 and 1332 kHz! Boyneside Television continued for a short time following the merger but a transmitter fault put the station off the air in early summer 1982 and it never returned.
An announcement of the Boyneside-CRD merger on 2nd May 1982, recorded by Ken Baird in Scotland.
The long recording above is an aircheck of the 13th August 1981 from 0853-1330 on CRD featuring Dermot Finglas, Richard Kenny and Gavin Duffy. We thank Ian Biggar for his donation of the these recordings and will bring you more about this period of Boyneside and CRD in the coming week.
L-R: Ken Murray, Eric Vaughan, Gavin Duffy & Eddie Caffrey at Boyneside in 1981 (photo courtesy Eddie Caffrey)
In this interview, journalist Ken Murray recalls his memories of pirate radio in Louth and Dublin in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1979, he began working with Local Radio Drogheda which evolved into Boyneside Radio.
While in Drogheda, Ken set up ‘The Green Scene’ which is now the longest running programme on Irish commercial radio, presented on LMFM by Eddie Caffrey. Ken then moved to the Dublin station Radio Leinster which closed down suddenly in 1983 during the period of raids against the larger stations Sunshine Radio and Radio Nova. He went on to work as a journalist for RTÉ, LMFM and Independent Radio News and is now editor of EC Radio Ireland. Ken is interviewed by Mary Ryan.
The former site of Boyneside Radio in Mill Lane, Drogheda
Eddie Caffrey was himself a leading figure in the Louth pirates of the 1970s and 1980s. Listen here to him in a panel about the Louth pirates and here to an individual interview about his involvement in shortwave pirates.
Here is the second part of our interview with one-time broadcaster and long-time Irish pirate radio enthusiast Ian Biggar, recorded at his home in Harrogate in England.
In this part, Ian remembers his involvement with ERI in Cork and Zee 103 in Omeath, Co. Louth in the 1980s. He also tells us how he recorded thousands of hours of Irish pirates over the past 40 years and gives his views on the radio scene today.
We met one time broadcaster and long time enthusiast of Irish pirate radio Ian Biggar in Harrogate recently to discuss his love of the medium and his involvement in Irish stations.
John Walsh interviewing Ian Biggar
In the first part of a long interview, Ian talks about how he first got into pirate radio while still a child in Scotland. He then describes how he discovered the Irish scene and went on to work in the Co. Louth stations Boyneside Radio and Radio Carousel.
Doing some MW DXing with the help of a loop
Ian recorded thousands of hours of valuable Irish pirate radio and has contributed significantly to the DX Archive site. We’re very grateful to Ian for his time and hospitality during our visit to Harrogate and for his life-long dedication to preserving Irish pirate radio memories.
