John Creedon (John Blake, Eric Hansen) Archives - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

Early Cork series: Various show on Radio City — L-R: Eric Hansen (John Creedon) and Alan Reid (Henry Condon, RIP) at Radio City (courtesy Lilian O’Donoghue)

This recording of Cork pirate Radio City features a variety of presenters and shows from its schedule in spring 1981. First up is Pete Andrews (O’Neill) who reads out a listener’s letter and previews various programmes coming up over the weekend. He is followed by Susan James and Karl Johnson (Dan Noonan). Of interest towards the end is Eric Hansen who under his real name of John Creedon continues to broadcast on RTÉ to this day.

The dates are unclear but we estimate the recording to be from 31^st January and 1^st and 2^nd February 1981. The tape was made from 95.7 FM and although 104 FM is also mentioned, Radio City’s AM transmitter was off the air at the time. Thanks to Lilian O’Donoghue for the donation.

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John Blake (aka Creedon) on ERI — John Creedon in the ERI studio at White’s Cross (photo courtesy of Ian Biggar).

John Creedon is a well-known RTÉ broadcaster and presents a nightly programme from Cork on Radio 1. Like so many high-profile broadcasters, he started his career in pirate radio and was known as John Blake on air. He joined the Cork super-pirate ERI in 1982.

This is a recording of the John Blake show during a frenetic outside broadcast from the Wilton Shopping Centre in Cork in 1983. The ERI stage is mobbed by excited kids, one of whom signs a station jingle to rapturous applause. There are mounds of requests from shoppers and listeners around Co. Cork, plenty of spot prizes and a charity event introduced by station boss Joe O’Connor.

The recording was made from 1305 kHz from 1503-1535 and 1638-1712 on 22^nd October 1983. It is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England. ERI was among the Cork stations featured in Tipler’s documentary series ‘The Irish Pirates’ which is available on our site here.