{"id":2428,"date":"2020-08-12T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=2428"},"modified":"2021-08-07T14:52:08","modified_gmt":"2021-08-07T13:52:08","slug":"airchecks-northern-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/airchecks-northern-radio\/","title":{"rendered":"Airchecks: Northern Radio"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5725\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2428-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/19800130_1410-1615_Northern_Radio_1278khz_Andrew_Gold.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/19800130_1410-1615_Northern_Radio_1278khz_Andrew_Gold.mp3\">http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/19800130_1410-1615_Northern_Radio_1278khz_Andrew_Gold.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\/08\/19800130_1410-1615_Northern_Radio_1278khz_Andrew_Gold.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=2428-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/19800130_1410-1615_Northern_Radio_1278khz_Andrew_Gold.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"19800130_1410-1615_Northern_Radio_1278khz_Andrew_Gold.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Northern-Radio-logo-CU-1024x576.jpeg\" alt=\"Airchecks: Northern Radio\" class=\"wp-image-2435\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Northern-Radio-logo-CU-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Northern-Radio-logo-CU-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Northern-Radio-logo-CU-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Northern-Radio-logo-CU-1536x863.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Northern-Radio-logo-CU.jpeg 1971w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>A Northern Radio letterhead (courtesy of Ian Biggar\/DX Archive). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Northern Radio broadcast from 1980 to 1982 from Omeath, just a few kilometres south of the border. We bring you a synopsis of the station\u2019s history written by Ian Biggar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Northern Radio was set up to serve listeners in the northeast border counties and attract advertisers from those areas. Most of the advertising seemed to come from Newry and Rostrevor. The man behind the station was Marty Donnan, who later went on to work for Downtown Radio and BBC Radio Ulster. Disc jockeys included Andrew Gold and Davy Hamill, both of whom subsequently worked for other stations around this part of the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first note we have of the station is from January 1980 when it was announced as operating on 1278 kHz or 230 metres. However, any logs I have seen of the station have given the actual frequency as 1296 or 1298 kHz. The transmitter was built by Bill Ebrill from Dublin and would give around 300 watts output. The station was located in what was described as a \u2018ramshackle caravan\u2019 beside the Park Hotel in Omeath, a location that according to some was not the best for getting a signal out.<\/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\/08\/Park-Hotel-from-road-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Airchecks: Northern Radio\" class=\"wp-image-2432\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Park-Hotel-from-road-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Park-Hotel-from-road-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Park-Hotel-from-road-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Park-Hotel-from-road-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Park-Hotel-from-road-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>A distant shot of the Park Hotel on a wet day, from the main road (photo by John Walsh). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In the early days Northern Radio seemed to have quite a full schedule, including a country and western programme. The schedule became more erratic with the passage of time, if and when someone turned up to do a programme. Anoraks Ireland visited the station in February 1982, only to find it deserted with a pre-recorded tape running. Northern Radio may have been off the air for a period as in the July 1982 edition of <em>Short Wave News<\/em>, Paul Davidson notes the station on 1314 kHz and asks: \u2018is it back on air?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a further visit in August 1982, Paul Davidson was told that programmes were live whenever transport was laid on for the DJs to come from Rostrevor, otherwise it was tapes from 0800-1800. This August visit was probably towards the end of the station\u2019s life because in the October edition of <em>Short Wave News<\/em>, Paul Davidson reported that Northern Radio had closed. Marty Donnan and other staff joined Boyneside Radio\u2019s new border station which started broadcasting on 1233 kHz in early autumn 1982.<\/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\/08\/Park-Hotel-sign-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Airchecks: Northern Radio\" class=\"wp-image-2431\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Park-Hotel-sign-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Park-Hotel-sign-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Park-Hotel-sign-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Park-Hotel-sign-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Park-Hotel-sign-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>A sign indicating renovations to the Park Hotel in 2020 (photo by John Walsh). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The recording above is an aircheck of Andrew Gold\u2019s show on 30<sup>th<\/sup> January 1980 from 1410-1615. It features ads from Newry and Warrenpoint and Andrew with plenty of chatter, birthday requests, horoscopes and even references to dogs and cattle in and around the studio. As darkness falls, co-channel interference from an overseas station is heard. The shorter recording below is an aircheck from 2<sup>nd<\/sup> February 1980 and features Hugh Farrell with news, Des Carson\u2019s country music show and Andrew Gold with music and sports results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio aligncenter\"><audio controls src=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/19800202_0000-0000_Northern_Radio_1278khz.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption>Various presenters on Northern Radio, 2nd February 1980.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Northern Radio broadcast from 1980 to 1982 from Omeath, just a few kilometres south of the border. We bring you a synopsis of the station\u2019s history written by Ian Biggar. Northern Radio was set up to serve listeners in the northeast border counties and attract advertisers from those areas. Most of the advertising seemed to &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/airchecks-northern-radio\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Airchecks: Northern Radio&#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":[490,383,258,260,154,384,544,382],"class_list":["post-2428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airchecks","tag-490","tag-andrew-gold","tag-bill-ebrill","tag-border","tag-louth","tag-marty-donnan","tag-northeast-series","tag-northern-radio"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Airchecks: Northern Radio - 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\/airchecks-northern-radio\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Airchecks: Northern Radio - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Northern Radio broadcast from 1980 to 1982 from Omeath, just a few kilometres south of the border. We bring you a synopsis of the station\u2019s history written by Ian Biggar. Northern Radio was set up to serve listeners in the northeast border counties and attract advertisers from those areas. Most of the advertising seemed to &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Airchecks: Northern Radio&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/airchecks-northern-radio\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-12T06:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-07T13:52:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Northern-Radio-logo-CU-1024x576.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=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/airchecks-northern-radio\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/airchecks-northern-radio\/\",\"name\":\"Airchecks: Northern Radio - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/airchecks-northern-radio\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/airchecks-northern-radio\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Northern-Radio-logo-CU-1024x576.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-12T06:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-07T13:52:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/airchecks-northern-radio\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/airchecks-northern-radio\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/airchecks-northern-radio\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Northern-Radio-logo-CU-1024x576.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Northern-Radio-logo-CU-1024x576.jpeg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/airchecks-northern-radio\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Airchecks: Northern Radio\"}]},{\"@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":"Airchecks: Northern Radio - 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\/airchecks-northern-radio\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Airchecks: Northern Radio - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","og_description":"Northern Radio broadcast from 1980 to 1982 from Omeath, just a few kilometres south of the border. 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