Drogheda Local News, 17th April 1987 (courtesy of Ian Biggar).
After the merger things ran pretty smoothly for Boyneside Radio. The advertising log was healthy and the station was really establishing itself as one of the leading regional radio stations in Ireland. However, like a bolt from the blue all that changed. On the afternoon of Monday 13th April 1987 an official from the Department of Communications, along with three Gardaí, entered the station premises on Mill Lane. The staff were told to close all transmitters, cease broadcasting at once and never return to the air. The official said that interference was being caused, but refused to elaborate further.
The only transmitter that was thought might have caused the alleged interference was the FM link on 99.1 MHz, as this was the only transmitter located in a built-up area. This was taken out of service and replaced with a known and tested clean transmitter. In the meantime, unofficial contact had been made between a station representative and a head official in the Department. It was arranged that the official would check on the morning of Wednesday 15th if there was still interference. However, on that day at 1407 the raiding party arrived consisting of six Gardaí, one detective, and two Department officials. During the raid a local newspaper photographer had his camera snatched by a Department official. This was covered in the next issue of the paper (see above).
The officials then proceeded to remove all equipment from the studios as well as the FM transmitter and compressor. They used cutters rather than disconnecting the equipment. The station was instructed to switch off all transmitters and never return or another raid would take place.
The former Boyneside studios on Mill Lane, Drogheda (photo by John Walsh).
The officials left and headed back to Dublin. Meantime Boyneside Radio was back on the air by 1730 from a secret location. Programmes were pretty much as normal, although initially some technical breaks were experienced. By the end of April 1987 the station was back in the usual studios on Mill Lane and things returned to normal.
The recording above is of an interview with Eddie Caffrey about the incident on the Radio West Anorak Hour on the following Sunday, 19th April 1987. The recording below is of Boyneside shortly after the raid on 23rd April 1987, featuring automatic music from 0620-0700 and Mike Ahern (Richard McCullen) on the breakfast show from 0700-0936. It was made in Blackpool by Gary Hogg and the station’s output sounds perfectly normal. Of interest to DXers is the skywave propagation in the first hour when ERI in Cork, also on 1305 kHz, can be heard clearly at times. Many thanks to Ian Biggar for these recordings and for the research.
Eddie Caffrey at the controls in 1986 (photo courtesy of Eddie Caffrey).
The traditional Irish music show the Green Scene is the longest-running programme on commercial radio in Ireland and dates from the Boyneside Radio era. Presented by Eddie Caffrey, it was popular across the northeast of Ireland and further afield. This recording is from 1020-1105 on Saturday 27th September 1986 and features a huge number of requests from Louth, Meath, Armagh, Down, Dublin and even Blackpool. There’s also an ad for a céilí in Rochdale, Lancashire, evidence of how well the Boyneside signal travelled on AM across the Irish Sea. The show also includes the regular radio bingo slot with Dermot Finglas and news is read by Gerry Malone.
The Green Scene is still presented every Saturday by Eddie Caffrey on LMFM. This recording is from the Skywave Tapes Collection. Skywave Radio International broadcast a shortwave station in the 1980s from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin.
Eddie Caffrey in Boyneside Radio in 1982 (photo courtesy of Eddie Caffrey)
By 1983, the split in pirate radio in Drogheda was resolved, the short-lived television experiment was over and Boyneside was united again. This allowed it to focus on the core business of doing local radio at which it was best. Here are two short recordings giving a flavour of the station around that time.
The first recording is of an ad break during the popular traditional Irish ‘Green Scene’ show with Eddie Caffrey recorded on 30th October 1983. The ‘Green Scene’ is still presented by Eddie on LMFM and is the longest-running programme on Irish commercial radio. The second recording is from 30th November 1983 and counts down the weekly Boyneside Top 40.
Thanks to Eddie Caffrey for sharing these recordings.
Richard Kenny (Crowley) in the CRD studio on Baymore Road in 1982 (courtesy of Ken Baird).
Drogheda’s two pirate radio stations, the original Boyneside Radio and the breakaway Community Radio Drogheda continued to battle it out through the second half of 1981 and into 1982. As the brochure below illustrates, the CRD team included several presenters who would move on to Radio Leinster in Dublin such as Richard Kenny (Crowley), Gavin Duffy and Ken Murray while Eddie Caffrey and Dermot Finglas would eventually return to Boyneside.
Community Radio Drogheda brochure (courtesy Ian Biggar/DX Archive).
Community Radio Drogheda brochure (courtesy Ian Biggar/DX Archive).
Sunday Journal, 05.12.1981 (courtesy Ian Biggar/DX Archive).
The final page of the brochure above includes news editor Michael O’Dowd, whose brother Fergus is now a Fine Gael TD for Louth. Another brother Niall is a well-known Irish-American journalist. Tony Clayton-Lea, who would become a well-known rock critic and writer, is also among the presenters.
Community Radio Drogheda was among the pirates whose schedules were published in the Sunday Journal (see left). As we can see, many of the presenters did two shows per day and there were more specialist programmes at the weekend.
The long recording above was made from 1250-1420 on 7th April 1982 and features Gavin Duffy with a packed Lunchtime Special show. He interviews excited local teenagers about their school opera, reads letters from listeners and introduces various features. News at 1.15 is read by Richard Kenny (Crowley), who would eventually work as a journalist with RTÉ. Niall McGowan follows Gavin’s show at 2pm.
The shorter recording below is an airchecked version of part of Ken Murray’s afternoon show on 26th March 1982.
We thank Ian Biggar and Eddie Caffrey for the recordings.
Community Radio Drogheda sticker (courtesy Ian Biggar/DX Archive).
Today we bring you the history of the split in Boyneside Radio in July 1981 and the new station Community Radio Drogheda (CRD), courtesy of Ian Biggar. Following the split, premises were found for CRD and studios and an office were set up at 15 Fair Street. CRD commenced a 24-hour broadcast using the Boyneside medium wave transmitter that was owned by Eddie Caffrey (although he had been accused of stealing it!). This was located at a good site, the former Rosnaree Hotel on the Dublin Road.
Meanwhile, Boyneside Radio continued on 98.1 and 99.2 FM, but soon added a medium wave transmitter in Donaghy’s Mill, built by Peter Gibney. This was originally on 1314 kHz, only two channels next to CRD. This, combined with the fact the transmitter was not operating properly, meant that Boyneside could barely be heard in the town. To compound this, CRD put a second transmitter on 1323 kHz, meaning Boyneside was sandwiched between the two transmitters.
This was the situation when the DX Archive team arrived in mid August 1981. Boyneside Radio was desperate for some technical help to resolve the situation with the AM transmitter and was having difficulty in tracking down Peter Gibney. During this visit another FM transmitter appeared on 102 MHz with non stop music that soon began transmitting the CRD programming. By mid-September 1981 Boyneside Radio had obtained a new transmitter built by Con McParland from Cork. This was operating on 1262 kHz with an output of no more that 200 watts. An agreement was reached with CRD resulting that Boyneside was able to move that transmitter to the better channel of 1323 kHz. Throughout all this, both Boyneside Radio and Community Radio Drogheda announced they were broadcasting on 225 metres.
CRD brochure from 1981 (courtesy of Eddie Caffrey).
There commenced a battle with each station trying to outdo the other. Firstly, Boyneside tried to break into the Navan market in October 1981, spurred on mainly by the opening of a new shopping centre. This was just as Radio Carousel had opened their new station located in the Navan Shopping Centre. An aerial was erected at the greyhound track in the town and a transmitter was installed by Con McParland on 1404 kHz. A studio of sorts consisting mainly of disco gear was installed above a hairdressers. The station would relay the Drogheda service with some opt-outs for Navan. This service was short lived and was off the air within a month or so.
Boyneside Radio and Television sticker (courtesy of Ian Biggar/DX Archive).
The next project was Boyneside Television. A 10-watt television transmitter was obtained from Italy and aerials erected at Donaghy’s Mill. A studio was built consisting of Betamax machines with no mixing facilities but buttons used to switch between programme sources. The equipment was basic but due to the skill of the staff a sterling effort was made to put something credible together. The station came on air in November 1981 with transmissions usually commencing around 4pm which featured the on air DJ presenting his radio programme. This lasted until 6.15pm when there was a news bulletin presented by Áine Ní Ghuidhir followed by sport with Eric Vaughan. This lasted until around 6.45pm when a local film would be broadcast until closedown around 7.30pm. Although reception could be patchy around the town, a small amount of advertising was obtained.
Programmes were extended over time with a lunchtime broadcast on Saturdays featuring a discussion programme with Dermot Kierans. Into 1982 and daily programmes had been extended as seen in the printed schedule from the Sunday Journal (see above). All TV programmes were relayed on Boyneside Radio due to interference which could not be eliminated.
The station was used by local politicians, especially during the general election of February 1982. This seemed to worry the authorities enough to place a mobile jamming transmitter behind the main post office in Drogheda. This was discovered by the Boyneside staff who surprised the occupants!
Meantime CRD had been focussing on bringing a local radio service to Drogheda, as well as experimenting on various medium wave frequencies. The December 1981 edition of Short Wave News notes reception of CRD on 1071 kHz and the March 1982 issue notes them on 1197 kHz (Telstar Community Radio in Dundalk were off the air at this point). These were of course in parallel with the main transmitter on 1305 kHz.
Around the end of 1981 some staff left Boyneside Radio with a view to starting a rival to Radio Carousel in Navan. The CRD staff provided some technical support to this station to be called Radio Tara. The station had obtained the transmitter used by Radio Meath in 1979 and intended to use it on 255 metres medium wave. An advertisement for prospective staff appeared in one of the Sunday newspapers. However, Eddie Caffrey remembers the transmitter did not function properly and there was great difficulty in setting it up. There were reports of Radio Tara being heard on air, but the station did not last long due to these technical problems.
Radio Tara ad courtesy of Eddie Bohan.
Ken from DX Archive visited Drogheda at the end of March 1982. He found that CRD had moved premises from the town centre to a house on the Baymore Road. A second AM transmitter was operating from that location on 1233 kHz as well as an FM on 98.6 MHz linking to the main transmitter at the Rosnaree.
Both stations had entered 1982 battling for advertising, with each trying to undercut the other. Boyneside Radio had the advantage of a wealthy businessman owner, whereas CRD was very much dependant on income from advertising sales. The situation had to reach breaking point, which it did in the second half of April 1982. CRD had pretty much run out of money and left the air. Gavin Duffy and Richard Kenny (Crowley) headed to Dublin and Radio Leinster. After negotiations, others like Eddie Caffrey and Dermot Finglas rejoined Boyneside Radio. As the promos said, Boyneside and CRD are ‘back together again’ as Boyneside Community Radio. At this point Boyneside could be heard on 1305, 1314, 1323 and 1332 kHz! Boyneside Television continued for a short time following the merger but a transmitter fault put the station off the air in early summer 1982 and it never returned.
An announcement of the Boyneside-CRD merger on 2nd May 1982, recorded by Ken Baird in Scotland.
The long recording above is an aircheck of 13th August 1981 from 0853-1330 on CRD featuring Dermot Finglas, Richard Kenny and Gavin Duffy. We thank Ian Biggar for his donation of the these recordings.
