This is a selection of clips from morning programmes on Boyneside Radio in 1985, recorded from its Drogheda FM transmitter on 98.1 MHz in stereo. First up is the 7am bulletin, seemingly pre-recorded and featuring news from Northern Ireland. This is followed by the Dara Nelson breakfast show, which includes an interesting promo covering all Boyneside’s frequencies, a Pause for Thought, news headlines at 8am with Áine Ní Ghuidhir and the Top 30 countdown. Next up is the mid-morning show presented by Dave C., including news at 10am, which reports a car bomb blast in Newry just a short time before.
Cassette label from Anoraks Ireland Collection.
This airchecked recording was made on 6th March 1985 between 0700 and 1000. It is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson. It was recorded originally by Kieran Murray. Further material from this collection can be found on Radiowaves and the Irish Pirate Radio Archive.
This is an airchecked recording of daytime and evening programming on Boyneside Radio from Drogheda on Good Friday, 3rd April 1983. It includes excerpts from the breakfast show with Dara Nelson, Dave C.’s Golden Oldies Show, sports news at 6.30pm, Country Convoy with Seán Neilon and Nightbeat with Neil O’Brien. The voices of Eddie Caffrey, Dave C., Dermot Finglas, Daire Nelson and Áine Ní Ghuidhir are heard on adverts. One spot for the Augustinian religious order stands out from the more familiar ads for local businesses! The selection from different times of the day gives a good flavour of the variety heard on Boyneside at the time.
Anoraks Ireland cassette label (the correct date is 3rd April).
The recording was made from 98.1 FM in mono and is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson. It was recorded originally by Kieran Murray. Further material from this collection can be found on Radiowaves and the Irish Pirate Radio Archive.
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.
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.
The late 1970s was a key period of growth for pirate radio in Dublin, with hot competition developing between Radio Dublin and rival breakaway stations ARD and the Big D. This recording from the medium wave band on 31st December 1979 gives a flavour of how the pirates rang in the new decade that would prove so crucial for Irish radio. It runs from 2351-0035 and switches between ARD on 273 metres, which was due to close down that night, and the Big D on 273 metres.
Paul Vincent winds down ARD in the company of the late Dave C and financial backer Bernard Llewellyn, who explains that the station is closing down in order to apply for a licence. Optimistically, he predicts that local radio will be legalised by June 1980. The late Don Moore, who invited Llewellyn into ARD, is also heard in the background and one of the DJs to say his goodbyes is none other than Ian Dempsey. ARD left the airwaves just after half past midnight but pretty much everyone involved in it – bar Llewellyn – returned in the form of Radio 257 within a few days.
The recording also includes snippets of the Big D’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, including a scratchy phone connection with Dennis Murray who is in the company of drunker revellers in the city centre. We thank Shay Geoghegan for his donation.
ARD’s studio at Belvedere Place in 1978 (photo courtesy of Dave Reddy).
ARD (Alternative Radio Dublin) was an important station in the history of Irish pirate radio, introducing professionalism and diversity to the Dublin radio scene. It was set up by Mark Story, Declan Meehan and Davitt Kelly (RIP) and made its first test broadcast on July 31st 1976 on 217 metres. Rivalry grew between the station and the original Radio Dublin but in his book Radio Radio (1988), Peter Mulryan writes that ARD was separated from the rest of the herd by its professionalism. In 1977, Radio Dublin changed its format and began experimenting with round-the-clock broadcasting, upping the ante further. A split at Radio Dublin caused Dr. Don (Moore) to join ARD and the station moved to 1161 kHz (announced as 257 metres), right next to its rival on 253 metres. Although additional advertising revenue was coming to ARD by the end of 1977, a key boost for the station was commercial backing from businessman Bernard Llewellyn who ran an electrical shop in Phibsboro on Dublin’s northside. In January 1978, ARD moved into a Georgian building in Belvedere Place in the city centre and the station held an official launch on January 23rd.
Following the investment, ARD became more professional and introduced specialist programmes, including a respected news service. According to Peter Mulryan, these shows were expensive and Llewellyn reverted to a more music-based policy in the first half of 1978. Two of the original station founders, Davitt Kelly and Declan Meehan also left around this time. Other frequencies used by ARD were 1152, 1143 and 1134 kHz and the station was an early FM pioneer among the Dublin pirates. It closed down on New Year’s Eve 1979 only to return as Radio 257 on New Year’s Day 1980 from the Crofton Hotel in north Dublin. By autumn that year, the station had reverted to the original ARD name. ARD closed for good in mid-1982 in the face of increased competition in the Dublin radio market.
The AM transmitter on 1161 kHz at Belvedere Place (photo courtesy of Dave Reddy).
In addition to the station’s founders, many talented broadcasters were heard on ARD/Radio 257, including John Clarke, Ronan Collins, Gerry Ryan, Mike Moran, Tony Allan, Paul Vincent, Ian Dempsey, Dave Kelly, Cathy Cregan and David Baker. The station also employed journalists such as Gene Kerrigan and Pat Brennan, both of whom went on to become established names. This airchecked recording of ARD was made between 1215 and 1522 on 23rd April 1978 and features Dave C (Cunningham) and Paul Downey with a lunchtime requests show, followed by Arno St. Jude (Declan Meehan), who announces that the station has to close down temporarily due to technical issues. We thank Eddie Caffrey for the donation of this recording, which was made in Co. Louth.
