Our montage of the final minute of Nova with photos taken by Joe King.
Here’s the iconic announcement of the official closedown of Radio Nova at 6pm on Thursday, 19th May 1983, following the raid by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs on the station the previous morning. From the afternoon of the 19th as news of the imminent closure spread, a large crowd assembled outside the studios at 19 Herbert Street, Dublin 2 and Nova’s many listeners near and far heard the electric farewell broadcast. Watch a video of the dramatic closedown announcement voiced by Tony Allan, with photographs of the final day courtesy of Joe King. Listen below to the final 40 minutes of broadcasting from 1720-1800.
The final 40 minutes of Radio Nova on May 19th 1983.
This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Radio Skywave International was a shortwave station based in Baldoyle in northeast Dublin in the 1980s.
Charlie Sheehan on Radio Sandymount (courtesy Dave Reddy).
The 1983 raids on Radio Nova and Sunshine Radio rocked the Irish pirate scene, with many stations closing temporarily as a precaution. This recording is of temporary station Radio Sandymount on the morning of Thursday 19th May, not long after Sunshine Radio in Portmarnock was raided. Radio Nova had been put off the air the previous day but returned on the morning of the 19th on lower power. Charlie Sheehan is the presenter on Radio Sandymount, which was in the middle of its run to coincide with the Sandymount and Merrion Community Festival. There’s no mention of the raids but panic was spreading through the pirate world at the time.
The recording was made from 1512 kHz, announcing 199 metres. Radio Sandymount also broadcast on 99.9 FM. The station was part of the Community Broadcasting Co-operative that ran several temporary community stations in Dublin and surrounding counties between 1982 and 1988. This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Radio Skywave was a shortwave pirate broadcasting from northeast Dublin in the 1980s.
CRF studio in Loughshinny in 1984 (Anoraks Ireland Collection).
This recording of Community Radio Fingal (CRF) was made during the May 1983 raids on Irish pirate radio stations. CRF broadcast from various locations around north Dublin from March 1983 until the end of 1988, focusing on a local listenership but getting its signal out well due to its 1kW AM transmitter. CRF was based in the Castle Shopping Centre in Swords at the time, and many of the adverts feature businesses located there.
Our recording was made from 1575 kHz (announcing 189 metres) from 1040 on Thursday May 19th, just over an hour after the raid on Sunshine Radio less than 10km away in Portmarnock. As fears grew that more stations would be raided, DJ Jimmy Clarke makes an oblique reference to transmitters and laughs nervously.
This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Radio Skywave International was a shortwave station from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin in the 1980s.
Radio Leinster newspaper advert just a few weeks before it closed down (Anoraks Ireland Collection).
Radio Leinster was one of Dublin’s niche pirates, featuring an easy listening and chat format in contrast with the chart music played on many stations. It began on 29th April 1981 from an elevated site in Sandyford overlooking the city. A professional 1 kW transmitter on 738 kHz travelled well by day but was subject to interference at night.
These recordings are of interest because they are from the last day of Radio Leinster, 19th May 1983. Like many other stations, Radio Leinster was spooked by the raids on Radio Nova and Sunshine and closed down suddenly at lunchtime. The first recording above begins at 1020 and gives no impression of a crisis, with DJ Mike Moran even announcing a competition. News at 1100 is read by Anna Craig (Anna Chisnall, who would later work in RTÉ). Sadly, Radio Leinster was never to return but future pirates in the same easy listening vein would be Magic 103, KISS FM (for a period) and KLAS.
Radio Leinster presenters included many experienced broadcasters and launched the careers of others. One of the station’s presenters was Gavin Duffy who led the consortium to be awarded the local radio licence for counties Meath and Louth in 1989. Peter Mulryan’s book Radio Radio (1988) reports that in 1982 Duffy announced that he would interview senior Sinn Féin figures including Gerry Adams, in breach of Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act. The station received a warning from the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and Duffy was fired.
Original cassette label from the Anoraks Ireland Collection.
The recording below is part of Al Dunne’s final show on Radio Leinster from 1124-1159 on 19th May, who says he will be on air until 2pm. There are indirect references to the raids and Al plays Les Crane’s ‘Desiderata’, the song used by Sunshine Radio at closedown every night. Sunshine had been raided a few hours previously. Listen here to the sudden closedown of Radio Leinster at just after 1pm.
Al Dunne’s show from 1100.
These recordings were made from 93 FM and are from both the Skywave Tapes Collection and the Anoraks Ireland Collection.
KLAS 98 (later Class Radio) was an easy-listening music station serving Dublin from November 1986 until the end of 1988. Set up by Hugh Hardy, founder of the popular Dublin station Radio Carousel, KLAS stood out in a market dominated by chart music pirates vying for the youth audience. Aimed more at poaching listeners from RTÉ Radio 1 than Radio 2, KLAS broadcast a range of middle-of-the-road music and also featured jazz and classical. It was was first based in a garage behind Hugh Hardy’s home in the northeastern suburb of Sutton, but used the up-market Hume Street in the city centre as a postal address.
A contemporary photo of Hume Street, used by KLAS as a postal address (photo by John Walsh).
KLAS was later sold to television aerial salesman John May and rebranded as Class Radio, moving its operations to Harcourt Street in the city centre. Many high-profile presenters passed through its doors including David Baker, Pat Courtenay, Bryan Lambert, Chris Barry and Suzanne Duffy. Co-founder of Pirate.ie John Walsh was also a presenter and newsreader. In 1989, Class Radio was involved in an unsuccessful application for one of the Dublin licences.
Original cassette label from Anoraks Ireland Collection.
Our recording is of the early days of KLAS when the station was based in Sutton. It was made from 98.5 FM on Tuesday, 28th November 1986 and features Nick Adams presenting his lunchtime show and reading news. Nick would later be heard on RTÉ. Part 1 above runs from 1117-1205 and part 2 below from 1301-1349. There are plenty of agency advertisements, a sign of the promise of KLAS in its early days.
Part 2 from 1301
This recording is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson.
