{"id":11356,"date":"2026-03-09T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=11356"},"modified":"2026-02-22T16:27:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T16:27:32","slug":"final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown\/","title":{"rendered":"Final hour of BLB before 1983 closedown"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_8895\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-11356-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AI1190-B-192.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AI1190-B-192.mp3\">https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AI1190-B-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\/2026\/02\/AI1190-B-192.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=11356-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AI1190-B-192.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"AI1190-B-192.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1007\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bray-Local-Broadcasting-27-08-1986-1-1007x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Final hour of BLB before 1983 closedown\" class=\"wp-image-11360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bray-Local-Broadcasting-27-08-1986-1-1007x1024.jpg 1007w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bray-Local-Broadcasting-27-08-1986-1-295x300.jpg 295w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bray-Local-Broadcasting-27-08-1986-1-768x781.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bray-Local-Broadcasting-27-08-1986-1.jpg 1143w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This is part of the final hour of Bray Local Broadcasting (BLB) before it closed voluntarily following the raids on the larger Dublin pirates in 1983. At the microphone is a familiar voice on BLB, Mark Quinn, who is joined by other presenters including Shay Byrne (now with RT\u00c9), Sally Byrne and Terry Daniels. They reminisce about the station since it began on 22<sup>nd<\/sup> August 1979. There are also calls of support from listeners and messages of goodwill from community groups, showing how respected BLB was in the north Wicklow town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The recording was made from 96.7 FM between 2255-2341 on 19<sup>th<\/sup> May 1983. BLB also broadcast on 657 kHz, announcing 456 metres. Along with most other pirates, it returned to the airwaves after a short time once the immediate shock of the raids had passed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is part of the final hour of Bray Local Broadcasting (BLB) before it closed voluntarily following the raids on the larger Dublin pirates in 1983. At the microphone is a familiar voice on BLB, Mark Quinn, who is joined by other presenters including Shay Byrne (now with RT\u00c9), Sally Byrne and Terry Daniels. They &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Final hour of BLB before 1983 closedown&#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":[152],"tags":[501,171,707,564,86,24,216,814,395],"class_list":["post-11356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-full-recordings","tag-501","tag-1983-raids","tag-19th-may-1983","tag-anoraks-ireland-collection","tag-blb","tag-community-radio","tag-mark-quinn","tag-shay-byrne","tag-wicklow"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Final hour of BLB before 1983 closedown - 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\/final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Final hour of BLB before 1983 closedown - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is part of the final hour of Bray Local Broadcasting (BLB) before it closed voluntarily following the raids on the larger Dublin pirates in 1983. At the microphone is a familiar voice on BLB, Mark Quinn, who is joined by other presenters including Shay Byrne (now with RT\u00c9), Sally Byrne and Terry Daniels. They &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Final hour of BLB before 1983 closedown&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-09T06:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-22T16:27:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bray-Local-Broadcasting-27-08-1986-1-1007x1024.jpg\" \/>\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\/final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown\/\",\"name\":\"Final hour of BLB before 1983 closedown - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bray-Local-Broadcasting-27-08-1986-1-1007x1024.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-09T06:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-22T16:27:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bray-Local-Broadcasting-27-08-1986-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bray-Local-Broadcasting-27-08-1986-1.jpg\",\"width\":1143,\"height\":1162},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Final hour of BLB before 1983 closedown\"}]},{\"@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":"Final hour of BLB before 1983 closedown - 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\/final-hour-of-blb-before-1983-closedown\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Final hour of BLB before 1983 closedown - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","og_description":"This is part of the final hour of Bray Local Broadcasting (BLB) before it closed voluntarily following the raids on the larger Dublin pirates in 1983. At the microphone is a familiar voice on BLB, Mark Quinn, who is joined by other presenters including Shay Byrne (now with RT\u00c9), Sally Byrne and Terry Daniels. 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