Radio Dublin letterhead from 1977 using the Ranelagh address (courtesy Ian Biggar).
This is a rare early recording of Radio Dublin (1966-2002) featuring the legendary Don Moore (RIP) on a test transmission in 1975. By this time, the Dublin pirate scene was quiet following a raid on Radio Empathy in 1974 and Radio Dublin had been off the air for a year. By 1975, pirate activity had shifted to shortwave, believed to be of less interest to the authorities than medium wave, and Dr Don was operating Radio Westside (later Westside Radio International). However, both he and Prince Terry (Roger Lloyd) were determined to put Radio Dublin back on medium wave and began testing with a new transmitter in October, covering the northside of the city on 30 watts. That summer, Capitol Radio had appeared on 1358 kHz (announcing 220 metres) and with the return of regular weekend broadcasts by Radio Dublin, the new activity ultimately paved the way for the rapid expansion of pirate radio in the late 1970s and 1980s.
In this short recording, Dr Don sends best wishes to Capitol Radio on 220 metres and also mentions that another shortwave pirate, Radio Valleri would return soon. Don signs off by saying that he will shortly be testing on his own shortwave station, Radio Westside. We estimate the date of this untimed recording to be Sunday 12th October 1985. It was made by Gary Hogg from 1183 kHz (off-channel, announcing 253 metres). Thanks to Ian Biggar for the donation.
Don Moore in 2015 (courtesy of Don’s Facebook page)
One of the early pioneers of pirate radio in Dublin and Ireland, Don Moore (Dr Don), died in 2021. Here is an early recording of Don on Radio Dublin on Sunday 28th December 1975 from 1400-1630. Don bemoans the fate of another Dublin pirate, Capitol Radio, which had been raided on 21st December and returned to the air on the 28th for a farewell broadcast. Clips from Capitol’s final broadcast are heard, featuring Alan Russell and Ed McDowell, and Don advises listeners to write to the newspapers and the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs to complain. He also refers to Radio Mi Amigo on 252 metres, and says that Radio Dublin is blocking reception of their signal locally. Later in the recording, Prince Terry (Roger Lloyd) reads out some letters from listeners including one in Irish which is translated by Dr Don. Skywave interference from Mi Amigo is heard towards the end of the broadcast.
We thank Ian Biggar for donating this recording, which was made originally by Kieran Murray.
Channel 70 was one of several Irish pirate pioneers in Dublin in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Although short-lived hobby stations with irregular hours and low power, they paved the way for the next generation of full-time pirates from the late 1970s.
Channel 70 was one such station, broadcasting regularly from Monkstown in Co. Dublin between 1970 and 1972. Operated by Jack O’Carroll, it broadcast on 1320 kHz (announcing 227 metres) using 100 watts into an inverted L. The station was heard over a wide area and was popular with DXers. It was usually on air around midnight on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
This is an undated recording (probably from 1971) of Channel 70 featuring ‘Gary Logan’ (aka Jack O’Carroll) on his regular soul music programme, beginning at about 0015. There is also a reference to the British offshore pirate Radio 255, which was heard in Dublin. Many thanks to Bill Ebrill for the donation.
Original demo tape box for Big D jingles (courtesy of Kieran Murray).
A few weeks ago, we featured the first Radio Dublin jingle package courtesy of Kieran Murray. Kieran has been researching the background to this package and has sent us the following report.
Radio Dublin was the very first pirate radio station in Ireland to play jingles. I heard these myself at the time. The jingles played on air referred to ‘WDEE – The Big D’. At that time, Radio Dublin used the tag line ‘The Big D’. So, having managed to locate my copy the Radio Dublin Jingles (The Big D) from the early 1970s, I set about trying to locate the original master recordings – the source of these iconic jingles – and also to find out a bit more about their origin and where they came from.
My search took me to jingle expert Norman Barrington. I downloaded his jingle database and set about searching for a radio station that used the call-sign ‘WDEE’ (you can hear this clearly on those jingles used by Radio Dublin in the early 1970s). Within a short time, I identified a set of jingles with just one listing on the jingle database matching ‘WDEE’. It transpires that a jingle company called SPOT Productions (located in Fort Worth, Texas, USA) was one of many jingle companies around that time that used to send out 5″ demo tape reels to various radio stations, touting for (jingle) business.
Image from Radio Dublin history published in 1972 with Big D tagline (courtesy of Ian Biggar).
The reels were generally recorded in mono, as they were only intended as a demo and also because most broadcast stations in the USA at that time were on AM. SPOT may have sent this particular ‘WDEE’ jingle demo to lots of radio stations and it is not even certain that WDEE-AM 1500 (a country music station in Detroit, USA, from 1969 to 1980) ever received a copy of this demo or even ordered a jingle package from SPOT.
Thanks to Bryan Lambert, I can now reveal what happened that 5″ jingle tape reel. He takes up the story:
‘It was Mark T. (Mark Story) who gave that tape reel to me as a present several years ago. The reel travelled to Wexford with me between 1992 and 2001 where I transferred it to cassette. The reel remained in the filing cabinet I used at South East Radio with my carts and some other tapes. I’m sorry to say I left all of these behind me so they were all probably thrown out after I went home to Dublin when my father became ill in 2001’.
So, now you know what happened to that jingle tape reel. However, the mystery continues. How did that 5″ demo tape reel from SPOT Productions, manage to make its way over to Ireland? Who brought this reel over? How come Radio Dublin chose to use this tape as their jingle ID? Plus … how did Mark T. (Mark Story) get possession of this demo tape reel?
Radio Empathy QSL card from 1973 (courtesy of John Dowling).
Late summer of 1972 was a busy period for pirate radio in Dublin. Kieran Murray remembered one particular day in September in the first edition of his FRC Ireland Newsletter.
Of course, such increased activity prompted a proportionate response from the P&T which culminated in the raid on Radio Milinda on December 17th. This pretty much silenced all the free radio stations in the city with the exception of one. Radio Empathy commenced broadcasts in early 1973 from the Churchtown area. The station operated on Sunday afternoons as well as some late-night transmissions on 1378 kHz. Station operator was Ed McDowell (Eoin McDonagh) who was also the main presenter on the station. Regular late night Saturday and Sunday afternoon transmissions continued every week with a power of around 100 watts. The station pioneered the use of FM in the city with broadcasts around 98 MHz.
With such a regular service it was only a matter of time before the P&T took action, which they did on April 4th 1974. The transmitter and studio equipment was confiscated. The resulting court case on October 4th 1974 was reported in the Irish Radio Movement’s Medium newsletter.
Ed McDowell would go to to found Capitol Radio which broadcast for the latter part of 1975 and again for three years from 1978. The recording above features Radio Empathy signing off one Sunday in 1973 or 1974 with Ed McDowell. 222 metres is announced which corresponds to 1350 kHz although presumably the actual frequency was around 1378 kHz. There were obviously some technical problems that day judging by the audio. Thanks to Ian Biggar for the text, Roger Lloyd for another gem of a recording and John Dowling for the QSL card, which was for daytime reception in County Carlow.
That concludes our mini-series on the pirate pioneers of the Dublin radio scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s, without whom the 1980s boom would never have happened. Thanks again to Ian Biggar for supplying much of the material and to all others who contributed recordings, images and information.
