Jingles for Twiggs FM in Galway

Jingles for Twiggs FM in Galway
Twiggs FM flyer (courtesy of Ian Biggar).

Twiggs FM broadcast from Salthill in Galway for about six months at the end of 1987 and beginning of 1988. It was based at the Eglinton Hotel on Salthill promenade and was called after the hotel’s popular nightclub. Twiggs FM regularly broadcast gigs from the club and there was a student vibe from the station with promos for events at University College Galway (now NUI Galway) and the Regional Technical College (now GMIT). The station was set up by local man Shane Martin and Alan Russell from Dublin who had established another Galway pirate, Atlantic Sound, in 1984. Sound engineer Roland Burke from Dublin was also hired. Many DJs were enticed away by the bigger and more professional station Coast 103 and Twiggs FM closed in March 1988 due to financial difficulties.

Here’s a set of clever Twiggs FM jingles and liners from 1987, featuring the voices of the late Roland Burke and Gerry Moore. Gerry Moore did voice-overs for many pirates in Dublin during the 1980s. We thank Alan Russell for this donation.

Hits and requests on Galway’s Coast 103

Hits and requests on Galway's Coast 103
Coast 103 flyer (courtesy of Ian Biggar).

Coast 103 (also Coast Hot Hits and Coast Power FM) was on the air for 18 months from mid-1987 until the end of 1988 and was one of Galway’s bigger pirate stations. Based on Prospect Hill just off Eyre Square, it was set up by Steve Marshall and the late Keith York. The station broadcast on 1566 kHz AM and on 103 and other FM frequencies. In April 1988 it merged with the Limerick station Hits 954 and became known as Coast Hot Hits. 954 kHz was used for a while and there was a chain of FM transmitters covering an area from Mayo to Limerick and even Cork City. In the summer of 1988 Coast had outside broadcasts from Galway and an official launch in Limerick City was planned.

Hits and requests on Galway's Coast 103
An ad for Coast Hot Hits in the Anoraks UK Weekly Report in July 1988. Note the AM frequency mentioned.

This recording is of Brian Davis from 1956-2045 on 9th December 1988, with pop hits and plenty of requests. It was made from 102.5 FM and is kindly donated by John Breslin. There are requests from Galway and Clare and the voice of Tony Allan is heard on sweepers and ads. A promotion worth £200 in association with local shops is also heard.

Full recording: County Sound (Galway)

Full recording: County Sound (Galway)
County Sound logo (thanks to Shane Martin for the enhancement).

This is the second part of a recording of Galway pirate County Sound, recorded from 101 FM on 2nd August 1988. From 0305-0600 the last few hours of Jon Richards can be heard on his overnight show. This is followed from 0600-0900 by the breakfast show presented by Tommy Kaye and by Jeff Collins from 0900-0930. This long recording gives a good sense of the popular Galway station and the styles of various presenters in the last few months of its existence.

For more recordings of this station, click on the County Sound tab. We thank Ian Biggar for his donation of this recording.

Full recording: County Sound (Galway)

Full recording: County Sound (Galway)
Jon Richards in the County Sound studio in 1988 (photo courtesy of Big Sam).

County Sound was one of the bigger Galway pirate stations and built up a considerable listenership during its relatively short period on air. County Sound began broadcasting on St. Patrick’s Day 1987 in the town of Tuam north of Galway before moving into the city in January 1988 where it continued until the end of 1988. There was fierce competition between County Sound and another large station Coast 103, which was located just a short distance away in the city centre. Both were professional operations and covered large areas of Co. Galway and beyond.

Jon Richards was County Sound’s overnight presenter and this recording features a segment of his show from midnight to 0240 on 2nd August 1988. Jon’s voice was also heard on many of the station’s ads and he went on to build a career in local radio from 1989 when Radio West (now Galway Bay FM) was licensed. Jon is currently Programme Director at Galway Bay FM and an interview with him can be heard here. Click on the County Sound tab if you want to hear other recordings of this station.

Tomorrow we’ll bring you the rest of this overnight programme and the breakfast show afterwards. Thanks to Ian Biggar for donating the recording.

Interview: Margaretta D’Arcy (Women’s Scéal Radio/Radio Pirate Woman)

Interview: Margaretta D'Arcy (Women's Scéal Radio/Radio Pirate Woman)
Margaretta D’arcy broadcasting on Radio Pirate Woman from her home in St. Bridget’s Terrace Lower in November 1991 (photo courtesy of Stan Shields, City Tribune).

No account of Galway pirate radio would be complete without the unique station set up by the writer and activist Margaretta D’Arcy from her home in the city centre. Women’s Scéal Radio broadcast irregularly from 1987 and was renamed Radio Pirate Woman in 1989 to reflect the new legislation which clamped down more severely on the pirates than previously. The station was set up to oppose censorship, including Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act (which banned interviews with members of Sinn Féin) and the ban on information about abortion. Women of various political persuasions would gather around the table and speak openly about these and other issues of relevance to them. The technical set-up was very basic, with little more than a microphone, tape recorder and and a cheap low-powered FM transmitter with a radius of 3km. Radio Pirate Woman also broadcast cassettes from WINGS (Women’s International News Gathering Service) and featured the voices of women from radio stations around the world.

Interview: Margaretta D'Arcy (Women's Scéal Radio/Radio Pirate Woman)
Margaretta D’Arcy at NUI Galway in 2017, when her papers were donated to the university (photo courtesy of Aengus McMahon)

In this interview, Margaretta D’Arcy, who recently celebrated her 86th birthday, explains her motivation for setting up the station, reading extracts from her book Galway’s Pirate Women: A Global Trawl (1996). She explains how women of very different ideological outlooks spoke on air from around her kitchen table, including the religious activist Deirdre Manifold who had earlier been involved with Independent Radio Galway. Margaretta also explains why she didn’t seek a licence in 1989 and discusses the various successes of Radio Pirate Woman. She doesn’t recall the last time the station was on the air, but it hasn’t been heard for a number of years and we estimate the last date to be c. 2010.

Interview: Margaretta D'Arcy (Women's Scéal Radio/Radio Pirate Woman)
L-R: Sabina Higgins, Mary Coughlan and Margaretta D’Arcy at the occasion of the donation to NUI Galway (photo courtesy of Aengus McMahon).

In 2017, Margaretta donated her papers and those of her late husband, playwright John Arden to the National University of Ireland, Galway. The donation included hundreds of cassette recordings of Women’s Scéal Radio and Radio Pirate Woman. You can hear a recording here. We are very grateful to Margaretta for sharing her memories of her unique pirate radio station with us.