Afternoon Delight on Boyneside Radio

Afternoon Delight on Boyneside Radio
Boyneside flyer (courtesy Ian Biggar).

This is a recording of daytime programming on Boyneside Radio from Drogheda in 1986. Made on Monday 28th April from 99.1 FM, it begins with the end of Dave C’s lunchtime show, followed by Eddie Caffrey with Afternoon Delight from 2pm. Eddie’s show contains the Golden Hour, racing results, the Take 5 quiz and Boyneside’s birthday bubble. News at 3pm is read by Áine Ní Ghuidhir.

Afternoon Delight on Boyneside Radio
Cassette label from Anoraks Ireland Collection

The first part of the recording above runs from 1345-1341 and the second below from 1437-1523.

Part 2 of the recording

Both are from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson. Further material from this collection is available on Radiowaves and the Irish Pirate Radio Archive.

Teatime on Boyneside Radio

Teatime on Boyneside Radio
Boyneside QSL postcard from 1982 (courtesy Ian Biggar).

In July 1981, a split in Boyneside Radio led to the breakaway station Community Radio Drogheda and the town had two rival stations for the best part of a year. This recording was made in July 1982, shortly after the two stations merged once again. There was some variation in the name around this time: the cassette label refers to Boyneside Community Radio and ‘Boyneside/CRD’ was used on air until the late summer, when the station reverted to Boyneside. Read more about Community Radio Drogheda here.

Teatime on Boyneside Radio
Cassette label referring to ‘Boyneside Community Radio’.

The recording was made from 1500-1535 on 19th July 1982 from 99.5 FM in mono. The presenter is Boyneside stalwart Eddie Caffrey with the afternoon ‘teatime’ slot and a lost-and-found section. News is read by Gerry Malone, another well-known Boyneside voice. There is some wobble on the cassette due to deterioration over the decades.

Teatime on Boyneside Radio
1982 letter from Eddie Caffrey to a Swedish DXer (courtesy Ian Biggar).

This recording is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson. Further material from this collection can be found on Radiowaves and the Irish Pirate Radio Archive.

Eddie Caffrey on Boyneside Radio in 1980

Eddie Caffrey on Boyneside Radio in 1980
Eddie Caffrey in Boyneside Radio in 1982 (courtesy of Eddie).

Returning to our Northeast Series, this is a recording of Eddie Caffrey (aka Heady Eddie) presenting his afternoon show on Boyneside Radio from Drogheda. It was made from 1420-1506 on 14th March 1980. Áine Ní Ghuidhir reads news at 3pm and there are plenty of Mother’s Day requests from listeners for the coming Sunday. The recording is in mono but is a studio copy, so there are no details of a frequency. An airchecked version was posted previously on our site here.

Eddie Caffrey on Boyneside Radio in 1980
The cassette label giving details of the recording (courtesy Anoraks Ireland).

This recording is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson. More material from this collection is available on Radiowaves and the Irish Pirate Radio Archive.

Closedown of Boyneside Radio as heard on shortwave

Closedown of Boyneside Radio as heard on shortwave
Boyneside sticker (courtesy Ian Biggar).

Boyneside Radio, based in Drogheda in Co. Louth, was a successful local and eventually regional radio station broadcasting to the northeast of Ireland and beyond from 1978-1988. This is a recording of the final few hours of Boyneside on the afternoon of its last day on air, 31st December 1988. Rather than its familiar medium wave and FM frequencies, this was taken from 6231 kHz shortwave, the transmitter of Radio Rainbow International which was linked to Boyneside and used specially for the occasion. Reception ranges from fair to poor with a heterodyne in the second half of the recording but it gives a sense of how shortwave listeners, especially those outside Ireland, experienced the closedown.

Closedown of Boyneside Radio as heard on shortwave
Eddie Caffrey pictured in 1986 (courtesy of Eddie himself).

The recording runs from 1348-1502 and features Eddie Caffrey on air with a host of Boyneside DJs and other staff. There are also plenty of farewell messages from loyal listeners who will miss their local station. We thank John Breslin for the donation.

The history of Boyneside is already well documented on this site and all recordings of the station can be found here. For a comprehensive account of the 1988 closedowns, see the Radiowaves site.

Final Radio West Anoraks Show

Final Radio West Anoraks Show
A Radio West flyer from its days on 765 kHz (courtesy Ian Biggar).

This is the final edition of the popular weekly Radio West Anoraks’ Show a short time before the station’s closure at the end of 1988. Broadcast from Mullingar every Sunday morning, the programme was fronted by station boss Shaun Coyne and a variety of presenters including the late Don Allen, himself a veteran of the offshore stations. Both Shaun and Don are heard on this show along with Willie Harte, Michael Tiernan, Gerry Reilly, John Gartlan, Myles Johnson and Eddie Caffrey. There’s plenty of nostalgia about the pirate era that is about to end and speculation about the new legal regime due to come into effect. Essential listening!

This programme was recorded from 1053-1145 on Sunday 18th December 1988 from 100.1 FM and has been donated kindly by John Breslin.