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Final day of Centre Radio (Dublin), New Year’s Eve 1988

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Final day of Centre Radio (Dublin), New Year's Eve 1988
Brian Greene in the original Centre Radio studio, Christmas 1986. Kim Wilde was popular with the DJs!

Today we begin a series of recordings to mark the closedown of Centre Radio on 31st December 1988. Centre was a youth radio station broadcasting from Baldoyle and Bayside in northeast Dublin during holidays from 19th December 1986 and each day from February 1988 until closedown. Although not widely known outside its small transmission area, Centre is important to this archive because both of the people behind Pirate.ie were involved as teenagers, Brian Greene as one of the station’s founders and John Walsh as a broadcaster.

Over the coming days, we’ll bring you various recordings from the final day of Centre Radio, one of only a handful of pirates still broadcasting in Dublin. This first clip is of Brian Greene (Bobby Gibbson) in the final hours of his overnight programme between 0500 and 0700 on the 31st. There’s a strong anorak feel as Brian talks about pirate history in Ireland, plays jingles from other stations and explains Centre’s plans for the rest of the day.

Final day of Centre Radio (Dublin), New Year's Eve 1988
Centre Radio flyer when the station was on 92.5 FM.

Listen here to Brian interview Radio Dublin on its last official day on air. Of course, Radio Dublin would defy the new legislation and continue after midnight on the 31st. Listen here to a bandscan presented by Brian and Eamonn Roe (Dave Evans) of the stations still on air on New Year’s Eve in Dublin.

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Youth radio for northeast Dublin: Centre Radio (1986-88)

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Youth radio for northeast Dublin: Centre Radio (1986-88)
Centre Radio, Christmas 1986. L-R behind: Mark McGuinness, Frank Decker. L-R front: John Walsh, Peter Walsh, Dónal Greene, Liam Ward.

Centre Radio may not be the most famous of pirates in the decade 1978-1988, but it was especially important for the founders of this archive. Brian Greene, known on air as Bobby Gibbson, was one of those who set up Centre Radio on 19th December 1986 at the Baldoyle Youth Club in Dublin 13. John Walsh was also involved and called himself Richard Taylor on air.

Youth radio for northeast Dublin: Centre Radio (1986-88)
Some of the original recordings of Centre Radio digitised for Pirate.ie.

The station broadcast during school holidays for the next year and by November 1987, it had teamed up with Bayside Youth Club to train up to 80 young people in radio. From February 1988 Centre was on the air every evening and all day at weekends from the Mid-Sutton Community Centre in Bayside, Dublin 13. The station broadcast a live concert in aid of charity on 30th December and broadcast through the night into its final day before the airwaves were silenced by the new broadcasting legislation.

Youth radio for northeast Dublin: Centre Radio (1986-88)
Ticket to a Centre Radio fundraising disco from 1986 (courtesy of Brian Greene).

Over the next few days we’ll bring you a selection from the final day of Centre Radio on 31st December 1988. But first, complete with plenty of reverb and clunky cassette edits, here’s a selection of jingles based on an Alfasound package and various station promos voiced by Brian and John. The final two refer to the fact that Centre carried the Radio Nova satellite service overnight.

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Dublin’s easy listening station KLAS 98

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Dublin's easy listening station KLAS 98
KLAS logo from 1987 (courtesy of Eddie Bohan).

KLAS was Dublin’s easy listening station, broadcasting on 98.5 FM from November 1986 until December 31st 1988. It was set up by Hugh Hardy who owned the Radio Carousel network and broadcast from a time from a garage behind his home in Sutton in Dublin. The station was renamed as Class 98 and managed by John May in its final months on air from studios in Harcourt Street in the city centre. It applied unsuccessfully in 1989 for one of the two Dublin city licences.

One of the founders of Pirate.ie, John Walsh, was involved in KLAS while still at school. Here is an aircheck of his programme between 1320-1400 on 21st December 1986 which includes agency ads and an ad for the Sunday World voiced by John himself.

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Tony Christie on Radio Dublin

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Tony Christie on Radio Dublin
Radio Dublin car sticker from the mid-1980s (courtesy of DX Archive).

Tony Christie was a familiar voice on many pirates in the 1980s including Liberty 104, Radio Dublin and KISS FM in Co. Offaly to where he moved in 1987. Here he is on Radio Dublin from 105 FM on Sunday 24th August 1986 from 1512-1600 with a show sponsored by the No Name Fashion Depot in Walkinstown. Along with regular live promos for No Name, the voices of Robbie Robinson and Tony Allan can be heard on ads. Tony Christie is now a broadcaster on Midlands 103.

This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Skywave Radio International was a shortwave station broadcasting from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin.

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The original Christmas station: Radio Snowflake

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The original Christmas station: Radio Snowflake
A Radio Snowflake flyer from c. 1986 (courtesy of Ian Biggar).

Radio Snowflake was the original Christmas station, set up by Dave Reddy of the Community Broadcasting Co-operative (CBC) in 1982. The CBC rang temporary festival stations around Dublin in locations such as Glasnevin, Ringsend and Donnybrook and also broadcast Radio Snowflake around Christmas each year.

This recording was made from 1512 kHz AM on 15th December 1984 from 1345-1430. David Baker, a well-known voice of CBC and other pirates, is on air with his usual mix of easy listening music and community news. There is plenty of co-channel mixing, possibly from Wicklow Community Radio on the same frequency. 1512 or 1530 were the usual AM frequencies for CBC with various low-powered FM channels in operation. 99.9 MHz is announced in this recording.

David Baker continued to run Radio Snowflake online until 2019, using many of the original presenters. Christmas FM comes on air every year on a temporary licence in various cities and towns across Ireland. The recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Skywave Radio International was a shortwave station broadcasting from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin.