{"id":2893,"date":"2020-10-26T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=2893"},"modified":"2021-08-07T14:59:17","modified_gmt":"2021-08-07T13:59:17","slug":"northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international\/","title":{"rendered":"Northeast series: Radio Rainbow International (1985-1986)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_7483\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2893-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/19860400_Radio_Rainbow_FRC_Kieran_Murray.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/19860400_Radio_Rainbow_FRC_Kieran_Murray.mp3\">https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/19860400_Radio_Rainbow_FRC_Kieran_Murray.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\/2020\/10\/19860400_Radio_Rainbow_FRC_Kieran_Murray.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=2893-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/19860400_Radio_Rainbow_FRC_Kieran_Murray.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"19860400_Radio_Rainbow_FRC_Kieran_Murray.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"680\" height=\"698\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rainbow-3-KM.jpg\" alt=\"Northeast series: Radio Rainbow International (1985-1986)\" class=\"wp-image-2896\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rainbow-3-KM.jpg 680w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rainbow-3-KM-292x300.jpg 292w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><figcaption>Eddie Caffrey with the Radio Rainbow International transmitter (photo courtesy of Kieran Murray).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Radio Rainbow International was a high-powered shortwave pirate operated by Boyneside Radio DJ and engineer Eddie Caffrey from the summer of 1985 until the end of 1988. It was first logged by Anoraks UK in the west midlands on 21<sup>st<\/sup> July 1985 on 6240 kHz with a strong signal and continued to be heard regularly on Sunday mornings from 1000-1300 for the next three and a half years. In contrast with other shortwave pirates from Ireland operating on low power, Radio Rainbow International put on a transmitter of more than 1 kW with plenty of compression and modulation. Reception reports were received from all over Europe and from as far away as Russia. As well as Eddie Caffrey, other Boyneside DJs Jim Agnew and Kieran Murray were also involved, with Kieran presenting a popular weekly FRC show giving the latest news about the Irish radio scene. In an <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/interview-kieran-murray-part-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">interview<\/a> with Pirate.ie, Kieran described Radio Rainbow as the \u2018Radio Nova of shortwave\u2019, such was its large coverage area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rainbow-logo-CU-1024x576.jpeg\" alt=\"Northeast series: Radio Rainbow International (1985-1986)\" class=\"wp-image-2903\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rainbow-logo-CU-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rainbow-logo-CU-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rainbow-logo-CU-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rainbow-logo-CU-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rainbow-logo-CU.jpeg 1966w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>Radio Rainbow logo as seen on a QSL from 1986 (courtesy of Ian Biggar). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As well as shortwave, Radio Rainbow broadcast on 1521 kHz AM with up to 1 kW output and there were also local FM broadcasts. From 1987 onwards, the station relayed the output of other pirates such as WLR in Scotland and Radio Sovereign in London. In 1988, Eddie Caffrey also relayed another UK station, Radio Fax, on 6220 kHz by day and 1611 kHz by night from another transmitter in the Drogheda area. You can hear an interview with Eddie about his involvement with shortwave stations <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/interview-eddie-caffrey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The recording above is part of Kieran Murray\u2019s FRC show from 6<sup>th<\/sup> April 1986. Below is a recording of Jim Agnew from August 1985 reading out a reception report from West Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/19850800_Radio_Rainbow_Jim_Agnew.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The second clip below is of a Radio Rainbow jingle and multilingual station idents in French and German.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Radio_Rainbow_jingles.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We thank Eddie Caffrey for sharing these recordings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Radio Rainbow International was a high-powered shortwave pirate operated by Boyneside Radio DJ and engineer Eddie Caffrey from the summer of 1985 until the end of 1988. It was first logged by Anoraks UK in the west midlands on 21st July 1985 on 6240 kHz with a strong signal and continued to be heard regularly &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Northeast series: Radio Rainbow International (1985-1986)&#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":[15,16],"tags":[488,536,46,119,243,154,544,141,140,34],"class_list":["post-2893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airchecks","category-jingles","tag-488","tag-536","tag-am","tag-eddie-caffrey","tag-kieran-murray","tag-louth","tag-northeast-series","tag-radio-fax","tag-radio-rainbow-international","tag-shortwave"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Northeast series: Radio Rainbow International (1985-1986) - 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\/northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Northeast series: Radio Rainbow International (1985-1986) - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Radio Rainbow International was a high-powered shortwave pirate operated by Boyneside Radio DJ and engineer Eddie Caffrey from the summer of 1985 until the end of 1988. It was first logged by Anoraks UK in the west midlands on 21st July 1985 on 6240 kHz with a strong signal and continued to be heard regularly &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Northeast series: Radio Rainbow International (1985-1986)&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-26T07:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-07T13:59:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rainbow-3-KM.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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international\/\",\"name\":\"Northeast series: Radio Rainbow International (1985-1986) - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rainbow-3-KM.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-26T07:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-07T13:59:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rainbow-3-KM.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Rainbow-3-KM.jpg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":698},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Northeast series: Radio Rainbow International (1985-1986)\"}]},{\"@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":"Northeast series: Radio Rainbow International (1985-1986) - 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\/northeast-series-radio-rainbow-international\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Northeast series: Radio Rainbow International (1985-1986) - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","og_description":"Radio Rainbow International was a high-powered shortwave pirate operated by Boyneside Radio DJ and engineer Eddie Caffrey from the summer of 1985 until the end of 1988. 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