Sound Channel broadcast from Limerick City from November 1986 to December 1988 and quickly gained a reputation as a professional operation. A rebranding in summer 1988 introduced the tagline ‘Power 98’ but in this recording both names are used, which seems to dilute the station’s identity. The DJ is Stuart Clark, formerly of the Voice of Peace and ABC in Waterford, who notes that a listener is ‘taping for posterity’, a reference to the fact that the 1980s pirate era was coming to an end. There’s mention of the Radio Nova satellite service from midnight, which was carried by many pirate stations overnight in 1988. News is from Independent Radio News in the UK and a £500 shopping voucher is given away during the show. Sound Channel/Power 98 closed down on 30th December 1988 in line with new broadcasting legislation.
Original cassette label from Anoraks Ireland Collection.
Our tape was made from 98.7 FM on Thursday 20th December 1988. Part 1 above runs from 1412-1457 and Part 2 below is from 1459-1544.
Part 2 from 1459.
The recording is from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson.
Stuart Clark in the ABC caravan in 1983 (courtesy DX Archive).
This is a recording of another of the founders of Waterford super-pirate ABC on the occasion of its 40th anniversary in March 2022. Stuart Clark was one of four English DJs with experience of the offshore or pirate scene who came to Ireland in early 1982 planning to set up a station somewhere in the southeast. The others were Andy Ellis, Clive Derek and Kevin Turner, who had previous local experience on Suirside Radio, and the four began testing from Tramore near Waterford City on March 1st 1982, with ABC launched two days later.
A view of the caravan and mast from 1982 (courtesy Brian Kennedy).
Part 1 of the recording above runs from 0749-0836 on 31st March 1982 and includes news ‘from Dublin’at 0800 which is in fact a recording of the 0730 RTÉ bulletin! Most pirates based their news directly on RTÉ and some occasionally rebroadcast bulletins but as the scene became more professional, ABC and other stations went on to develop respectable news services of their own. Part 2 below runs from 0849-0928 and includes Stuart himself reading the news. Both were made from 729 kHz AM in Waterford City and signal strength is fair as the receiver was at the edge of the small coverage area.
Part 2 from 0849.
After ABC, Stuart went on to work with other Irish pirates such as Hits 954 in Limerick. He has remained a close watcher of the pirate and radio scene over the years and is currently deputy editor of Hot Press magazine. Another ABC DJ, Steve Silby, shared his memories in the Radio Blaa Blaa book:
I don’t think ABC had a ‘mission’. It started on a wing and a prayer and stayed that way until the end, but behind it was a force of talented broadcasters who kept the show on the road no matter what. There were lots of technical firsts – live broadcasts from surrounding towns and one particular live broadcast direct from a roller coaster! In many ways ABC was different from most other stations in the country. It was a pirate run initially by imported radio fanatics who had deep links to UK commercial radio with stations like Radio Caroline and Laser 558 that had turned European broadcasting on its head – and all this knowledge was brought to Waterford City. Most of the time ABC sounded bloody great.
Thanks to Ian Biggar and DX Archive for the recording and to Brian Kennedy, author of Radio Blaa Blaa, for permission to use the quotation and photo.
One of ABC’s founders Andy Ellis in the caravan (courtesy DX Archive).
ABC is recognised as one of Ireland’s super-pirates, broadcasting from Co. Waterford from 1982 to 1988. Its humble beginnings were in a caravan beside a carpet warehouse in the coastal resort of Tramore west of Waterford City. ABC was set up by four English DJs who had been on the Voice of Peace and British pirates, Andy Ellis, Stuart Clark, Clive Derek and Kevin Turner, the latter formerly of Suirside Radio in Waterford. ABC used a jingle package from WABC in New York, with the ‘W’ cut out. It began testing on 1st March 1982 on 729 kHz (before RTÉ Radio began using that frequency in Cork) and was launched on 3rd March but the signal barely reached Waterford City where advertisers were located. However, ABC announced ‘AM’ and ‘kHz’ from the start, marking out its sound as different from other stations still referring to metres and medium wave.
Commenting on a 1982 visit to the station, DX Archive commented that ABC ‘was obviously struggling at this stage, with an English staff in a foreign land, trying to make the locals believe that this type of radio was the way to go. In fact, it was an uphill battle that ABC eventually won and as time went past, ABC was to become one of the most professional broadcasters in Ireland’.
Stuart and Andy on the first day of tests, 01.03.82 (courtesy Brian Kennedy).
There were problems with FM at the beginning but 101 MHz was added later. Adjustments to the AM rig caused it and the studio to go on fire in the summer of 1982 and it looked like ABC was finished but it returned to the air on low power and plans began to acquire a bigger transmitter. At a cost of $5,000, a considerable amount for the time, a Gates BC1G 1kW transmitter was shipped from the US and a crystal was bought for the relatively clear frequency of 1026 kHz. Andy Ellis remembers that the new coverage area was extensive across Waterford and beyond. In mid-1984, ABC was sufficiently successful to warrant a move to better premises than the caravan and it rented three floors of a building in the centre of Waterford City. The AM aerial remained in Tramore and FM masts were brought into the city.
FM was now more popular and from 1985 on, ABC extended its coverage on that band throughout the region. By 1987, ABC had moved premises again in Waterford and had a very professional set-up in terms of studio equipment and space. The station was now fully registered for VAT, paid taxes and music royalties and had a member of the NUJ working in its newsroom. The government published legislation to licence local radio at the end of the year and ABC continued to expand, adding additional AM and FM transmitters in Wexford. Andy Ellis recalls that just as it looked that the station would make a profit rather than break even, it was clear that the government meant business and that the pirates would have to close down. ABC left the air a few days before the deadline, at 3pm on 29th December 1988, with a special programme on the station’s 6-and-a-half year history and closing remarks by Andy Ellis. It applied unsuccessfully for the Co. Waterford licence, which went to former pirate WLR.
Former ABC staff were involved in smaller pirates following legalisation in 1989 including Laser 89 and ABC Power 104 and many went on to work in licensed stations in the region and beyond. Read Andy Ellis’s station history here. The first recording above was made from 1246-1310 and 1330-1350 on Monday 29th March 1982. The DJ is Andy Ellis and news is read by Kate Davis. The second recording below is from 1355-1440 on the same day.
Part 2 from 1355.
Both were made in Waterford City just a few miles from the transmitter but the signal is quite weak. Thanks to Ian Biggar for assistance with research and for the recordings. Photo credits are due to DX Archive and Brian Kennedy’s Radio Blaa Blaa group on Facebook.
On October 2nd 2018, it was announced that a large collection of press clippings and other documents and material from the pirate era would be donated to Dublin City University’s Media History Collection. The donation was announced at a press conference in Dublin, organised by broadcast historian Eddie Bohan and Brian Greene of this website. The press conference featured some well-known radio and media people who cut their teeth in pirate radio: Stuart Clarke of Hot Press, Declan Meehan of East Coast FM and Kevin Branigan of Radio Nova. This recording also includes Dr Mark O’Brien of DCU and Eddie Bohan. It was first broadcast on Wireless on Flirt FM.
