Dublin Archives - Page 59 of 64 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

17th January 20194th December 2022

Stephen Davitt on Centre Radio

Centre Radio began as a hobby station on December 19th 1986 from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin and came on air during school holidays. Brian Greene of Pirate.ie was one of the original founders and the other founder of this site John Walsh was also involved. By 1987 the station had developed into a youth project and was training up to 80 young people in radio. From February 1988 Centre was on air every evening and weekend from Bayside. It was one of the last stations in Dublin to close down at midnight on New Year’s Eve 1988.

This recording is from 94 FM a few days prior to closedown, 27th December 1988, and features a youthful Stephen Davitt (aka Daragh O’Sullivan) on air. You can read more about the history of Centre here.

16th January 20193rd May 2022

Full recording: CAU FM

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CAU FM was a short-lived station broadcasting on 103.5 and later 104.2 FM from Foxrock in south Dublin from November 1987 until July 1988. It had its origins in low-power hobby stations set up by Locky Butler and evolved into Phoenix FM. Phoenix began on 25 watts but grew to a 250 watt transmitter before being ordered to close down by the Department of Communications in 1987. Within an hour of the order being delivered, the TX was moved to a site on Three Rock overlooking Dublin and CAU FM was born.

CAU had a good signal all over Dublin, professional sound and slick jingle package. We’re reliably informed that CAU stands for ‘clutterfree and you’ and certainly the station played a lot of uninterrupted music. This full-length recording from 1988 (unfortunately we don’t have a date) includes jingles, ads and links from Locky Butler’s show and gives a good flavour of the sharp on air sound. There’s also a promo for a holiday giveaway! CAU was sold to the religious station Hope FM in the summer of 1988.

Thanks to Locky Butler for additional background information. You can listen to an aircheck of this recording here.

5th January 20196th August 2021

Airchecks: Radio Nova

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There’s plenty of Radio Nova material available online already and we don’t intend to compete with that. Here is a selection from our own collection of airchecks of Radio Nova Dublin from 1984 to 1986. We also include two recordings from the Nova satellite service from the UK in 1988 which was relayed on FM in Dublin and used as an overnight service by some stations.

A Radio Nova holiday giveaway from 1985. The presenter is Dave Harvey.

The famous Radio Nova £10 giveaway from 1985. These two examples are followed by the top of the hour ident and a weather forecast from John O’Hara.

A promo for DJ Rick Dees of KIIS-FM in Los Angeles whose Weekly Top 40 was syndicated on Nova. This is from 1986.

A Bill Mitchell ident for the Radio Nova satellite service from the UK, as relayed on 94.9 FM in Dublin in 1988.

A top of the hour jingle and the IRN service followed by an aircheck from the Radio Nova satellite service as relayed on 94.9 FM in Dublin in 1988.

Listen to interviews with former Nova presenter Tom Hardy here and newsreader Bryan Dobson here. You can hear historian Eddie Bohan describe the growth of Radio Nova here.

5th January 20196th August 2021

Aircheck: Liberties Local Community Radio

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Liberties Local Community Radio (LLCR) began broadcasting in March 1986 from Weaver Square in Dublin 8. It was run by Sammy Prendergast who was well known for installing aerials for pirate stations. LLCR broadcast on 1035 kHz AM using the old Capitol Radio rig which had been on 1017 kHz until shortly before then. It was also heard on 104 FM at a later stage.

In this aircheck from our own collection made on 30th August 1988, Teena Gates announces ‘Liberty 104’ and reads the news. Teena can still be heard on radio in Dublin today.

You can hear jingles from LLCR here.

4th January 20196th August 2021

Aircheck: Radio Anita

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Radio Anita was a hobby station operated by Frank Williams (aka Frank Decker) from Howth in north Co. Dublin and broadcast sporadically in the late 1980s, taking advantage of the height offered by its site on Howth Head. Frank was also involved in Centre Radio in Bayside and Baldoyle, a youth station that operated mostly during school holidays from 1986 to 1988.

Here’s a short aircheck of Radio Anita from 1987 or 1988 (we don’t have a precise date) recorded from 94.6 FM. This is from our own collection.