Leon Tipler Collection Archives - Page 12 of 14 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

22nd November 202022nd November 2020

The Pirate.ie Podcast #2

We’re delighted to announce episode #2 of the Pirate.ie podcast which explores themes covered in our growing archive of Irish pirate radio.

AM broadcasting, widely used by the pirates up to the end of the 1980s, allowed radio signals to travel far and wide beyond the borders of the state. Even small stations could be carried long distances thanks to the magic of night-time AM propagation but dozens of pirates along the border deliberately beamed their signals northwards. With 50 kW of power at its peak, the Dublin super-pirate Radio Nova aimed specifically at the northwest coast of Britain. Ireland also had many hobby shortwave pirates which could be heard thousands of miles from home.

In episode #2, John Walsh and Brian Greene explore how AM spillover, both accidental and deliberate, brought the Irish pirates to a bigger audience.

11th September 20206th August 2021

Full recording: Community Radio Fingal

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Community Radio Fingal (CRF) broadcast from Swords and then Skerries in north Co. Dublin from 1982 to 1988. It began with a 300 watt transmitter but then increased it to 1 kW, and moving from 1584 to 1575 kHz (announced as 189 metres) improved its reception, particularly on the west coast of Britain. Leon Tipler visited CRF in 1982 on one of his visits to Ireland and you can hear an interview with the owner of CRF Brian Matthews here in which he gives information about the station’s history and technical set-up.

Our recording was made from 1575 kHz from 1922-1952 on 1^st July 1983, apparently on the west coast of Britain as it sounds like daytime groundwave reception. Des Lee is on the air with music and community notices. He mentions that CRF is broadcasting from the Castle Shopping Centre in Swords, Co. Dublin and also refers to an FM transmitter on 90 MHz. Audio quality deteriorates towards the end as the cassette has degraded with the passage of time.

This recording is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England.

22nd August 202011th June 2022

Full recording: Radio Carlow

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Radio Carlow began broadcasting in 1981 on 1413 kHz. A report dated 19^th July 1981 by local radio enthusiast John Dowling gave its location as Ballyhide, Co. Carlow but Ballyhide is actually just across the border in Laois. He went on: ‘This station has been on the air three or four months from a rented house two miles from Carlow town. A 70 feet high mast is used to support the aerial. The day’s programmes run from 0630 to 1900 hours GMT’.

DX Archive visited Radio Carlow in 1981 as part of a tour of Ireland. They recorded the station and took the photos featured here. The recording above was made from 1454-1610 on 19^th August 1981 and features John Dempsey on air. Radio Carlow added FM at a later stage and was on air until 1986. Thanks to Ian Biggar for donating the recording and for background information.

Leon Tipler recorded the station from 104 FM as he passed through Carlow in September 1983, on his way to Kilkenny. A snippet of that recording is included in ‘Hello Again’, part 3 of his documentary The Irish Pirates. The original recording, including ads, links a jingle and music, was made on 4^th February 1983 and can be heard below. Other than the date, we have no further information.

This recording is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England.

21st August 202022nd July 2024

Bandscan: Irish radio as heard in Wales in 1983

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‘Hello Again’, Part 3 of Leon Tipler’s acclaimed documentary series The Irish Pirates was based on a return visit to Dublin in September 1983. The episode features an AM and FM bandscan from Aberystwyth on the west Wales coast, recorded by Tipler in August 1983. Having climbed Constitution Hill to the north of the town, Tipler gave himself the best chance of picking up radio signals from Ireland a mere 150km away.

This is the original, unedited bandscan as recorded by Tipler on both AM and FM from his perch overlooking the Irish Sea on a sunny Saturday afternoon, 13^th August 1983. The pirates heard include Arklow Community Radio, Kilkenny Community Radio, Sunshine Radio and Radio Dublin. RTÉ Radio 1, Radio 2 and Raidió na Gaeltachta are all received loud and clear on FM. There are snippets of unidentified UK stations as well as occasional police communications, which up to the mid-1980s used the middle of the FM band.

This recording is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England.

8th July 20202nd May 2024

Late-night Radio Nova as heard near Birmingham

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This recording was made by the British radio enthusiast Leon Tipler at his home in Kidderminster in the English midlands. The tape label states that it was made from 819 kHz from 2217-2305 on the 17th of September 1982, but there is a jingle for ‘the mighty 890’ and the news ident at the top of the hour announces 846 kHz. According to the November 1981 edition of Short Wave News, Nova returned to 846 after briefly trying 891. Based on Anoraks UK logs, it seems the move to 819 kHz happened between the 7th and the 23rd of September 1982. It is possible, therefore, that Nova had very recently moved by the time of this recording but the ident had not yet been updated. Thanks to Ian Biggar for confirming details.

The DJ in this recording is Eddie West and news is read by Bryan Dobson, a senior RTÉ journalist until 2024. Audio quality ranges from poor to fair as there is plenty of skywave interference. At about 300km from Dublin, Kidderminster is well outside the coverage area of Nova’s 10 kW transmitter. During the recording, Eddie West wishes Sunshine Radio a happy 2nd birthday and also mentions Leon Tipler. That clip was used in Leon’s acclaimed documentary series The Irish Pirates, which is available on this archive.

This recording is from the Leon Tipler Tapes Collection, donated to us by Steve England.