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Interview: Kildare pirates

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Interview: Kildare pirates

Despite its proximity to Dublin, Kildare had its own pirate stations down the years, including Radio Cill Dara (Naas), Kildare Community Radio (Naas) and KLB Community Radio (Newbridge). In this interview, Liam Kett and Anthony McAllister reminisce about their involvement in Kildare stations as well as a stint spent at Radio Dublin. They recall that in the early years, there were fall-back transmitters and premises across the county in the case of raids and they remind us that high-profile RTÉ broadcasters Ray D’Arcy and Ronan Collins cut their teeth in the Kildare stations. Liam Kett is now a presenter on the local Kildare station KFM.

The interviewer is Eolann Aitken and the interview was recorded at a meet-up organised by Pirate.ie in Dublin in 2018 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the closedowns.

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Interview: Declan Meehan (part 1: 1970-1982)

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Interview: Declan Meehan (part 1: 1970-1982)
Declan Meehan and John Walsh at the studios of East Coast FM in Bray, where Declan has worked since 1994.

We met one of Ireland’s most experienced broadcasters Declan Meehan recently to discuss his significant contribution to Irish pirate radio history and Irish radio in general over the past 50 years.

In the first part of a long interview, Declan discusses the early years of his involvement in the Dublin pirate scene spanning small stations such as Radio Vanessa and Radio Milinda and larger, more professional operations like ARD. He describes his unhappy move to the new RTÉ Radio 2 in 1979 and how he went on to work for the first of the superpirates, Sunshine Radio, where he met Chris Cary.

The interview includes references to many of the best-known names in Irish radio over the past half-century.

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Interviews: launch of pirate radio exhibition

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In 2018 broadcast historian Eddie Bohan launched his exhibition of Irish pirate radio history. The exhibition is travelling around Ireland during 2018 and 2019 to commemorate the end of the pirate era and the start of licensed radio.

Here’s an interview with Eddie Bohan about the exhibition and the importance of pirate radio history. The exhibition was launched at the South Dublin County Library in Tallaght in May 2018. The interview was first broadcast on Wireless on Flirt FM in April 2018.

Here’s a selection of interviews with some of those who came along to the launch of the exhibition in Tallaght: Jimmy McCabe (Radio Milinda), Dermot Butler (Radio Dublin and KIC FM), Chris Murray (Radio Dublin and now LMFM) and Eric Moore (LLCR and Smile FM and now RTÉ Gold). This report was first broadcast on Wireless on Flirt FM in May 2018.

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Advert: The Red Corner Shop

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Sometimes the ads ran for so long they became famous. The Red Corner Shop on Dorset Street advertised heavily on the Dublin pirates. This recording is from Radio Dublin in 1987.

Advert: The Red Corner Shop
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Aircheck: Dusty’s Trail on Radio Dublin

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Aircheck: Dusty’s Trail on Radio Dublin
Radio Dublin car sticker (courtesy of DX Archive).

Dusty’s Trail was a popular programme on Radio Dublin presented by Gerry Jones aimed at teenage listeners. Trailers, as they were called, wrote into the programme requesting music and even met up at organised gatherings every weekend at the band stand at Stephens Green (it wouldnt be allowed nowadays with GDPR and all the regulations of safety). In this recording from 1985, a listener sends in a copy of a response she received from Minister of State for Broadcasting Ted Nealon to her letter expressing concern that stations such as Radio Dublin would be shut down. Audio quality was never great on Radio Dublin but is worse on this recording due to a loud heterodyne. This is from our own collection.