{"id":10615,"date":"2025-12-25T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=10615"},"modified":"2025-02-19T13:57:12","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T13:57:12","slug":"sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunshine Radio on Christmas Day 1981"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_3541\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-10615-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/8134AI-Sunshine-192.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/8134AI-Sunshine-192.mp3\">https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/8134AI-Sunshine-192.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/8134AI-Sunshine-192.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=10615-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/8134AI-Sunshine-192.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"8134AI-Sunshine-192.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"834\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Sunshine-group-shot-1980-834x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"Sunshine Radio on Christmas Day 1981\" class=\"wp-image-3150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Sunshine-group-shot-1980-834x1024.jpeg 834w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Sunshine-group-shot-1980-244x300.jpeg 244w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Sunshine-group-shot-1980-768x942.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Sunshine-group-shot-1980-1252x1536.jpeg 1252w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Sunshine-group-shot-1980-1669x2048.jpeg 1669w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Group shot of the early Sunshine crew in 1980 (from Sunshine Review 1985). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>This recording features snippets from Christmas Day 1981 on Dublin pirate Sunshine Radio,  by then one of the city&#8217;s two leading stations alongside Radio Nova. The station was still on 91.6 FM at that stage, as well as its AM frequency on 531 kHz. DJs in this airchecked recording from throughout the day are Declan Meehan, Stevie Dunne, David Lyons and John Lewis. News on the hour is read by a hungry Siobh\u00e1n Walls, who is dreaming of her Christmas dinner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The recording was made by Kieran Murray from 91.6 FM on December 25<sup>th<\/sup> 1981 and is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection. Audio quality is fair with some cassette wobble due to the passing of time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This recording features snippets from Christmas Day 1981 on Dublin pirate Sunshine Radio, by then one of the city&#8217;s two leading stations alongside Radio Nova. The station was still on 91.6 FM at that stage, as well as its AM frequency on 531 kHz. DJs in this airchecked recording from throughout the day are Declan &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Sunshine Radio on Christmas Day 1981&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[486,564,680,761,145,153,354,612,526,47],"class_list":["post-10615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airchecks","tag-486","tag-anoraks-ireland-collection","tag-christmas-day","tag-david-lyons","tag-declan-meehan","tag-dublin","tag-john-lewis","tag-siobhan-walls","tag-stevie-dunne","tag-sunshine-radio"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sunshine Radio on Christmas Day 1981 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sunshine Radio on Christmas Day 1981 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This recording features snippets from Christmas Day 1981 on Dublin pirate Sunshine Radio, by then one of the city&#8217;s two leading stations alongside Radio Nova. The station was still on 91.6 FM at that stage, as well as its AM frequency on 531 kHz. DJs in this airchecked recording from throughout the day are Declan &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Sunshine Radio on Christmas Day 1981&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-25T06:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-19T13:57:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Sunshine-group-shot-1980-834x1024.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Walsh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Walsh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981\/\",\"name\":\"Sunshine Radio on Christmas Day 1981 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Sunshine-group-shot-1980-834x1024.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-25T06:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-19T13:57:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Sunshine-group-shot-1980-834x1024.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Sunshine-group-shot-1980-834x1024.jpeg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sunshine Radio on Christmas Day 1981\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/\",\"name\":\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\",\"description\":\"Open Free Radio Archive\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00\",\"name\":\"John Walsh\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80a5b6baea2fd739c3be046233f2ad61?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80a5b6baea2fd739c3be046233f2ad61?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Walsh\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/author\/john\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sunshine Radio on Christmas Day 1981 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-on-christmas-day-1981\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sunshine Radio on Christmas Day 1981 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","og_description":"This recording features snippets from Christmas Day 1981 on Dublin pirate Sunshine Radio, by then one of the city&#8217;s two leading stations alongside Radio Nova. 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