Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive
Open Free Radio Archive
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In this interview the late Tom Hardy speaks to John Walsh about his memories of Radio Nova including the raid of 1983, Nova’s sister station KISS FM 102.7, KISS FM (Monaghan) and his views about the current state of radio.
The interview was conducted on October 20th 2018 when over one hundred radio anoraks gathered in the Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin. The purpose was to meet and record oral history of the pirate radio era.
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On October 20th 2018 over 100 radio anoraks gathered in the Ballsbridge Hotel, Dublin. The purpose was to meet and record oral history of the pirate radio era.
Here we present a great panel of anoraks chatting to Dónal Greene: Liam de Siún (BLB), Roger Lloyd (aka Prince Terry of Radio Dublin and Westside Radio International), Ian Biggar (DX Archive), Eddie Bohan (Irish Broadcasting Hall of Fame) and Dr Don Moore (Westside Radio International and ARD).
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This is an aircheck of the northeast Dublin station Centre Radio recorded from 2300 on 30th December 1988 to 0530 on 31st, the final day of broadcasting before the pirates were silenced. On air overnight is Bobby Gibbson (aka Brian Greene). Centre had just finished broadcasting a live variety concert from its studio location at the Mid-Sutton Community Centre. The decision was taken to broadcast through the night for the last time before the closedown at midnight on the 31st.
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Radio Dublin was Ireland’s longest running pirate radio station. It broadcast from 1966 until 2002 and was at its peak in the early to mid 1980s on 253m/1188KHz and 6910 kHz shortwave. Here are a number of station idents and jingles from our collection, beginning above with two iconic 253 jingles from the late 1970s.
The clip below is a top-of-the-hour jingle from 1988. The FM transmitter had moved to 105 but Radio Dublin was still announcing 98.8.
Radio Dublin relayed other stations frequently during its long existence including World Music Radio. After midnight on 1st January 1989 when it defied the new law, it relied on WMR tapes for the first few days before resuming live programming. Here’s a WMR promo from 1987.
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There were many Centre Radio stations. This small pirate broadcast in Baldoyle and Bayside in northeast Dublin between 1986 and 1988. It closed on December 31st 1988 at 2359:59. Here is one of the station jingles. You can read more about Centre here.