DX Archives - Page 5 of 11 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

1st June 202314th August 2023

Border series: Radio Star Country heard near and far

One of the joys of AM broadcasting is its propagation that allows radio waves to travel long distances beyond the core listening area during the hours of darkness. In our focus on border station Radio Star Country, today we begin a series of posts showing how the Irish pirate sounded on the west coast of Norway in the late 1980s and 1990s. Recorded over 1,200 km from the transmission site on the Monaghan/Tyrone border, these tapes capture the unique audio quality of skywave reception of distant radio signals at dawn and dusk between October and March.

The first such recording begins before 0900 on 17^th November 1988, a few months after Radio Star Country began broadcasting from the Swan Lake Hotel in Monaghan Town. On air is station founder and owner Gerry Byrne with a promo for the forthcoming Radio Star Country Music Awards in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone. The recording was made in Bud, western Norway from 891 kHz on a Hammarlund SP-600 JX1 receiver with a 500-metre Beverage antenna aimed towards the southwest. The antenna ran behind the barn to the left of the large white house (the rectory) on the right in the photo and received stations from Ireland, the UK, southwest Europe, Brazil and Argentina.

We thank Svenn Martinsen for his donation of these unique recordings.

17th May 202314th November 2023

Border series: Radio Star Country on Christmas Eve 2010

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This recording of border station Radio Star Country was made on Christmas Eve 2010, during the coldest weather in decades. On air is Stevie King with copious requests from all over mid-Ulster and as far afield as Derry and Antrim. Adverts are heard for various country music stars and for businesses in Armagh, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone. An advertising promo thanks advertisers and listeners for their support during the year. Reflecting the mixed political or religious allegiances along the border, Stevie announces events linked to both sides of the community including a céilí and a concert by the Royal British Legion.

Due to a technical issue, no news bulletin from Sky is aired for the first few hours and there are several periods of dead air, which Stevie attributes to the adverse weather. The drivetime show is to be presented by Rita but given the continuous music after 4pm, it seems she did not make it through the snow. Reception is fair to poor as the tape was recorded in Blackpool in England and co-channel interference and fading increase as darkness falls. The recording was made from 981 kHz from 1208-1630 on 24^th December 2010 and is courtesy of DX Archive.

19th November 202119th November 2021

Pirate.ie in three minutes – transnational radio

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This three-minute clip includes highlights related to the transnational nature of Irish pirate radio in the late 1970s and 1980s. By accident or design, stations were heard beyond the borders of the Irish state on FM and especially on AM and there were also part-time shortwave operators aimed at international DXers.

The first segment is of Arklow Community Radio as heard by the late British radio enthusiast Leon Tipler on FM in Aberystwyth on the Welsh coast on 13th August 1983. This is followed by a night-time recording of Radio Nova playing a request for Leon at his home in Kidderminster in the English midlands on 17th September 1982.

The third segment is the iconic top-of-the-hour ident of Radio Nova recorded on 17th July 1984. This is voiced by station boss Chris Cary who stresses that Nova broadcasts from and not to Dublin on 738 kHz. The AM transmitter was using 50 kW at the time in order to reach the British market.

The fourth segment is of KISS FM, a high-powered FM and AM station based in Monaghan on the border and aiming its signal at the lucrative Belfast market. This was recorded in Scotland on 13th June 1988. The firth extract is an advert on the Louth station Boyneside Radio promoting a céilí in an Irish centre in Lankashire. Although recorded in Ireland, it is evidence that Boyneside had listeners across the Irish Sea. The final extract is from August 1985 and features one of the many Irish shortwave stations that aimed at international audiences. Radio Rainbow International broadcast on 6240 kHz but this is a studio recording.

Radio Rainbow letter from 1986 (courtesy Ian Biggar).

These recordings are from our various collections and are discussed in more detail in our podcast focusing on the transnational nature of Irish pirate radio.

14th August 202114th August 2021

Pirate Pioneers: late night Channel 70

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Channel 70 was one of several Irish pirate pioneers in Dublin in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Although short-lived hobby stations with irregular hours and low power, they paved the way for the next generation of full-time pirates from the late 1970s.

Channel 70 was one such station, broadcasting regularly from Monkstown in Co. Dublin between 1970 and 1972. Operated by Jack O’Carroll, it broadcast on 1320 kHz (announcing 227 metres) using 100 watts into an inverted L. The station was heard over a wide area and was popular with DXers. It was usually on air around midnight on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

This is an undated recording (probably from 1971) of Channel 70 featuring ‘Gary Logan’ (aka Jack O’Carroll) on his regular soul music programme, beginning at about 0015. There is also a reference to the British offshore pirate Radio 255, which was heard in Dublin. Many thanks to Bill Ebrill for the donation.

11th August 202111th August 2021

More Stevie Dunne on Sunshine Radio

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This recording is of veteran English DJ Stevie Dunne (Stevie Gordon) on Sunshine Radio from 1410-1456 on 12th February 1981. Stevie did stints with the offshore stations Voice of Peace and Radio Caroline and was the last voice to be heard from the Mi Amigo before it sank in 1980. After coming to Dublin, he used the radio name Stevie Dunne to avoid confusion with another English DJ, Steve Gordon, who worked with Radio Leinster and also presented on Sunshine and Radio Nova on a stand-in basis. Stevie Dunne went on to work at Nova and South Coast Radio in Cork before moving to Scandinavia. He is currently Programme Director of Radio Seagull, which broadcasts on AM in the Netherlands.

There is co-channel interference on this recording, as it was made in Scotland by Ken Baird, some distance from the transmitter on 531 kHz. We thank John Breslin for the donation.