Owen Larkin Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

Northeast series: Boyneside Radio — Ian Biggar at the former Boyneside Radio site at Mill Lane, Drogheda (photo by John Walsh).

Today we bring you two more recordings of Boyneside Radio made during the period of the split when the rival Community Radio Drogheda was also broadcasting from the town. The recording above was made on 4^th October 1981 and features Stuart Scott (Ian Biggar) and Niall McGowan on the pre-recorded overnight programming. There is a gap in the middle where the C120 cassette flips over in the auto-reverse machine.

The recording below is of Owen Barry (Larkin) on his evening show from 2310-2333 on 14^th August 1981. Thanks to Ian Biggar for the recordings, both of which were recorded originally from 98.1 FM in Dublin by Gerard Roe.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Northeast series: Boyneside Radio (1981) — Boyneside’s faulty replacement AM transmitter in August 1981 following the split (courtesy Ian Biggar/DX Archive).

After the departure of key staff to set up Community Radio Drogheda in July 1981, Boyneside Radio continued to broadcast, although it faced a serious challenge with poor AM reception in Drogheda. The problem was a faulty replacement transmitter after the original was brought to CRD, meaning that Boyneside could hardly be heard in the town. A better transmitter was obtained in September 1981 and an agreement with CRD allowed Boyneside to use the superior frequency of 1323 kHz.

This recording was made from 1347-1524 on 13^th August 1981 and features Owen Barry (Larkin) on air, followed by Daire Nelson. Daire announces a prize aimed at encouraging people to listen on FM, no doubt due to the problems with the AM transmitter. RTÉ Radio 2 also ran competitions in its early days to attract listeners to FM but AM would retain its dominance for another while.