{"id":2156,"date":"2020-06-30T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=2156"},"modified":"2020-06-29T20:23:53","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T19:23:53","slug":"interview-jon-richards-wls-county-sound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/interview-jon-richards-wls-county-sound\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Jon Richards (WLS, County Sound)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_8494\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2156-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20200622_Jon_Richards_interview.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20200622_Jon_Richards_interview.mp3\">http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20200622_Jon_Richards_interview.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20200622_Jon_Richards_interview.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=2156-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20200622_Jon_Richards_interview.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"20200622_Jon_Richards_interview.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jon Richards has been a familiar voice on Galway radio for 35 years and is currently Programme Director of <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/galwaybayfm.ie\/\" target=\"_blank\">Galway Bay FM<\/a>. He cut his teeth in the pirates beginning with WLS Music Radio in 1985 before moving in 1987 to County Sound, first in its home base of Tuam, and subsequently in Galway after it moved into the city in 1988. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/County-Sound-3-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Interview: Jon Richards (WLS, County Sound)\" class=\"wp-image-2177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/County-Sound-3-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/County-Sound-3-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/County-Sound-3-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/County-Sound-3-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/County-Sound-3-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>County Sound broadcast from the building on the right, above what is now an auctioneers (photo by John Walsh). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this interview, Jon shares his pirate memories of both stations, including transmitters and studio equipment, programme content and the colourful characters on both sides of the microphone. He recalls many near misses, including falling asleep on air during his first shift and missing a vital lift from Galway to Tuam! Jon remembers fondly his overnight shifts in the pirate days and laments the lack of live nighttime programming on radio today. He also consider the pirate legacy and gives his views on the health of the current radio scene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20200226_122223-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Interview: Jon Richards (WLS, County Sound)\" class=\"wp-image-1983\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20200226_122223-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20200226_122223-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20200226_122223-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20200226_122223-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20200226_122223-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>Galway Bay FM&#8217;s main on-air studio (photo by John Walsh). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We thank Jon Richards warmly for his contribution to this archive. You can listen back <a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/feature-pirate-ie-discussed-on-galway-bay-fm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a> to a feature about Pirate.ie on Galway Bay FM. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jon Richards has been a familiar voice on Galway radio for 35 years and is currently Programme Director of Galway Bay FM. He cut his teeth in the pirates beginning with WLS Music Radio in 1985 before moving in 1987 to County Sound, first in its home base of Tuam, and subsequently in Galway after &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/interview-jon-richards-wls-county-sound\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Interview: Jon Richards (WLS, County Sound)&#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":[14],"tags":[326,322,345,364,323],"class_list":["post-2156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","tag-county-sound-galway","tag-galway","tag-galway-bay-fm","tag-jon-richards","tag-wls"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Interview: Jon Richards (WLS, County Sound) - 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\/interview-jon-richards-wls-county-sound\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview: Jon Richards (WLS, County Sound) - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jon Richards has been a familiar voice on Galway radio for 35 years and is currently Programme Director of Galway Bay FM. He cut his teeth in the pirates beginning with WLS Music Radio in 1985 before moving in 1987 to County Sound, first in its home base of Tuam, and subsequently in Galway after &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Interview: Jon Richards (WLS, County Sound)&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/interview-jon-richards-wls-county-sound\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-30T06:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/County-Sound-3-1024x768.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\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pirate.ie\\\/archive\\\/interview-jon-richards-wls-county-sound\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pirate.ie\\\/archive\\\/interview-jon-richards-wls-county-sound\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"John Walsh\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pirate.ie\\\/archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00\"},\"headline\":\"Interview: Jon Richards (WLS, County Sound)\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-30T06:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pirate.ie\\\/archive\\\/interview-jon-richards-wls-county-sound\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":210,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pirate.ie\\\/archive\\\/interview-jon-richards-wls-county-sound\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/pirate.ie\\\/archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/County-Sound-3-1024x768.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"County Sound (Galway)\",\"Galway\",\"Galway Bay FM\",\"Jon Richards\",\"WLS\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Interviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pirate.ie\\\/archive\\\/interview-jon-richards-wls-county-sound\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pirate.ie\\\/archive\\\/interview-jon-richards-wls-county-sound\\\/\",\"name\":\"Interview: Jon Richards (WLS, County Sound) - 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