Eddie Caffrey in the Radio Dundalk studio in 1978 (photo courtesy of Eddie himself).
This is our final recording of Radio Dundalk shortly before the station’s closure due to financial difficulties. It was made on 21st August 1979, just a week before the station left the air for good on 28th August and consists of airchecks of various daytime presenters including PJ the DJ, Brick Wallace and Eric Vaughan. There are adverts, plenty of requests, a competition to win a £1 note, a notice about a lost watch and a news bulletin at 1pm. By this time, the station was calling itself Independent Radio Dundalk or IRD Radio, possibly influenced by other stations such as Alternative Radio Dublin (ARD) or Independent Radio Galway (IRG).
Radio Dundalk letterhead courtesy of Ian Biggar.
It’s possible to hear a station in the background in part of the recording which we assume was Manx Radio as they were pretty much on the same frequency. The station announced 220 metres or 1367 kHz, although they were also logged on 1360 kHz. We thank Ian Biggar for background information and for sharing this recording with us.
WCCR’s studio, presenter unknown , 1982 (photo courtesy of Gary Hogg, DX Archive).
West Coast Community Radio (WCCR) broadcast on 1125 kHz (announced as 265 metres) from February or March 1982 until July 1983. It was the first relatively large Galway station since the closure of Independent Radio Galway (IRG) in July 1979. Some of those involved with IRG set up Radio Eyre in 1982 but this failed after six weeks and otherwise the city had only small, local hobby stations between 1979 and 1982. WCCR’s transmitter came originally from WKCR in Newbridge. Co. Kildare. The aerial was originally installed at Cloonacauneen Castle north of Galway and the station later moved to a cold storage unit in the eastern suburb of Roscam. Output power was initially 80-100 watts but the coverage area would be extended due to technical changes. One of those involved with WCCR was Keith Finnegan, who went on to become CEO of Galway Bay FM.
The WCCR transmitter (photo courtesy of Gary Hogg, DX Archive).
TheConnacht Sentinel of 1st of June 1982 reported that WCCR was distributing flyers in housing estates in Galway in a big publicity campaign. Spokesman Gerry Delaney claimed they had a range of 50 miles (80 km) with an aim to increase it to 85 miles (135 km). He said that leading shops in the city were advertising on WCCR. The paper reported that the supermarket chain Quinnsworth had taken out advertising because they had a local promotion and found the radio station ‘handy’.
Outside the WCCR studio, 1982 (photo courtesy of Gary Hogg, DX Archive).
This recording of WCCR is from Saturday 23rd of October 1982 from 1942-2009 and features Seán Murphy on air. There are no adverts and one generic jingle just at the end. Audio quality isn’t great and the transmitter seems to drift off channel a bit, but recordings of WCCR are rare so we are delighted to bring you a flavour of this early Galway station. Many thanks to Ian Biggar of DX Archive for the donation. Listen here to Tom Breen’s memories of WCCR.
Tom Breen (Ieft) with Brendan Mee and Gary Hardiman in Radio Renmore, 1983 (photo thanks to Gary Hardiman).
We’re delighted to bring you an interview with Tom Breen about his memories of the early years of the Galway pirates from 1980-1984. Following the closure of IRG in 1979, Galway relied on small, low-powered pirates such as Claddagh Community Radio (in the Claddagh just west of the city centre) and Tom’s own Radio Ballybane located in the eastern suburb of the same name. He also recalls another short-lived station calling itself Radio Eyre (named after Galway’s Eyre Square), involving Liam Stenson and others formerly involved with Independent Radio Galway. The Connacht Sentinel reported that Radio Eyre came on the air at the beginning of June 1982.
Tom remembers his involvement with West Coast Community Radio (WCCR) which broadcast from March 1982 until July 1983, first from near Cloonacauneen Castle north of Galway and then from a frozen chicken factory in the eastern suburb of Roscam. WCCR was the largest station in Galway since the closure of IRG and became a full-time operation. It received its AM transmitter from a station called WKRC in Newbridge, Co. Kildare and while quite low-powered (80-100 watts), managed to boost its signal to cover the city and beyond. Tom was also one of those who set up Radio Renmore/Renmore Local Radio, which broadcast on very low power on 101 FM from the Renmore area to the east. Thanks to Ian Biggar for additional information.
IRG on the day it closed: Fionnuala Concannon (back), Liam Stenson, Mary Hyland and Mike Mulkerrins in the studio (photo courtesy of Joe O’Shaughnessy, City Tribune).
Independent Radio Galway (IRG) was arguably the closest Galway got to having a full-time community station during the pirate era. Some of the larger Galway stations of the 1980s provided variety in their schedule and carried community news. However, there was no long-term station embedded firmly in the community radio ethos represented by the National Association of Community Broadcasters which included pioneering stations such as BLB and NDCR.
IRG began test transmissions on the 15th of April 1978 with a full service planned from the 17th of April. Similar to many other similar stations, the pirate venture followed an RTÉ local radio experiment in Galway and in fact planned to use the same frequency, 202 metres (1485 kHz). According to the Connacht Tribune of the 14th of April, IRG was planning a light entertainment service with no news bulletins and a minimal amount of interviews due to a lack of equipment. The start-up cost was only £400 and IRG initially broadcast for just four hours a day from a one-room studio in a shopping centre in William Street in the city centre. In the end the frequency was 199 metres and jingles including ‘199’ were famously sung by the choir of University College Galway (now the National University of Ireland, Galway).
Liam Stenson and Kieran Muldoon in the studio (photo courtesy of Joe O’Shaughnessy, City Tribune).
In June 1978 IRG was raided and equipment confiscated by officials of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs but the station soon returned with a standby transmitter. On the 20th of July 1979 the Tribune reported financial problems at IRG and the threat of closure was mooted, with the owners attributing a major loss in advertising revenue to the arrival of RTÉ Radio 2 the previous May. IRG closed officially at 8pm on the 29th of July 1979, thereby ending Galway’s short-lived community radio experiment.
The late Deirdre Manifold, who presented a religious programme, in the IRG studio (photo courtesy of Joe O’Shaughnessy, City Tribune).
This partially airchecked recording is possibly from two separate undated days in May 1979 from around 11.00am. The presenter is Chris Williams and ‘Auntie Mamie’ dispenses advice to expectant mothers, recommends discipline for children and promotes buying Irish produce. There are references to other presenters Paul Jones (Mike Mulkerrins) and Billy McCoy (Liam Stenson). We thank Ian Biggar for his donation of this recording (originally made by Dave Small, Liam Stenson for information and Joe O’Shaughnessy for the photographs.
On the 12th of June 2020, John Walsh spoke to Keith Finnegan of Galway Bay FM about the recent series about Galway pirates on Pirate.ie. The interview includes a rare jingle from Independent Radio Galway (1978-1979), sung by the choir of University College Galway (now the National University of Ireland, Galway). Keith, now CEO of Galway Bay FM, remembers his own involvement in West Coast Community Radio (WCCR). The interview finishes with a montage of jingles and idents from the Pirate.ie series on Galway.
Galway Bay FM headquarters at Sandy Road (photo by John Walsh).
Many of those at Galway Bay FM cut their teeth in the Galway pirates of the era. Licensed in 1989 as Radio West, one group involved in the successful consortium was the original pirate Radio West from Mullingar. The station changed its name to Galway Bay FM in 1993.
We thank Galway Bay FM for their interest in Pirate.ie and hope that the interview will encourage more people in Galway to come forward to memories and recordings.
