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

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.

Interview: Tom Hardy (Radio Nova, KISS FM 102.7, KISS FM Monaghan)

Interview: Tom Hardy (Radio Nova, KISS FM 102.7, KISS FM Monaghan)
Tom Hardy at Radio Nova on 19th May 1983, the day of the official closedown (courtesy Joe King).

In this interview the late Tom Hardy speaks to John Walsh about his memories of Radio Nova including the raid of 1983, Nova’s sister station KISS FM 102.7, KISS FM (Monaghan) and his views about the current state of radio.

The interview was conducted on October 20th 2018 when over one hundred radio anoraks gathered in the Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin. The purpose was to meet and record oral history of the pirate radio era.