{"id":10643,"date":"2025-04-03T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=10643"},"modified":"2025-04-02T07:54:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T06:54:38","slug":"afternoon-shows-on-radio-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/afternoon-shows-on-radio-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Afternoon shows on Radio West in the early days"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_4526\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-10643-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/8134AI-West-192.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/8134AI-West-192.mp3\">https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/8134AI-West-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-West-192.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=10643-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/8134AI-West-192.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"8134AI-West-192.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"601\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ireland_mullingar_west_early_290_flyer.jpg\" alt=\"Afternoon shows on Radio West in the early days\" class=\"wp-image-10644\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ireland_mullingar_west_early_290_flyer.jpg 700w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ireland_mullingar_west_early_290_flyer-300x258.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An early Radio West flyer giving the 290m wavelength (courtesy DX Archive).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Mullingar-based pirate Radio West grew from humble origins in early 1982 into a large regional station by 1987, even rebranding itself as West National Radio 3 and claiming coverage of 22 of the 26 counties. Our short recording was made not long after its launch and features snippets of afternoon programmes. First up is John Flood (if we heard the name correctly), who is followed by Mike Young with the <em>Solid Gold<\/em> show. News is read by Orla Francis. The strapline of &#8216;the mighty 290&#8217; is used but Radio West in fact broadcast on 1071 kHz at the time, which was closer to 280 metres. Such flexibility in announced frequencies was common in the days before digital displays on radios. The recording is of note because it shows how Radio West developed from a relatively amateur local service into a much larger regional operation during its 6 years on air. Its footprint was transformed after it acquired a 10 kW transmitter that gave it widespread coverage, leading it to claim national coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This airchecked recording of Radio West was made from shortly before 1500 on 12th April 1982 from 1071 kHz AM. The tape was recorded by Kieran Murray and is from the Anoraks Ireland Collection. Audio is of DX quality as Radio West was on low power at the time and the tape was made outside the core listening area in Westmeath.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mullingar-based pirate Radio West grew from humble origins in early 1982 into a large regional station by 1987, even rebranding itself as West National Radio 3 and claiming coverage of 22 of the 26 counties. Our short recording was made not long after its launch and features snippets of afternoon programmes. First up is John &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/afternoon-shows-on-radio-west\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Afternoon shows on Radio West in the early days&#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":[498,46,564,89,764,71,303],"class_list":["post-10643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airchecks","tag-498","tag-am","tag-anoraks-ireland-collection","tag-dx","tag-mike-young","tag-radio-west","tag-westmeath"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Afternoon shows on Radio West in the early days - 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\/afternoon-shows-on-radio-west\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Afternoon shows on Radio West in the early days - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mullingar-based pirate Radio West grew from humble origins in early 1982 into a large regional station by 1987, even rebranding itself as West National Radio 3 and claiming coverage of 22 of the 26 counties. 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