{"id":3649,"date":"2021-02-22T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=3649"},"modified":"2025-10-26T11:52:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T11:52:24","slug":"early-radio-dublin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/early-radio-dublin\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirate Pioneers: the early days of Radio Dublin"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_7224\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3649-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/19690000_Radio_Baile_Atha_Cliath_IB.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/19690000_Radio_Baile_Atha_Cliath_IB.mp3\">https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/19690000_Radio_Baile_Atha_Cliath_IB.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\/2021\/02\/19690000_Radio_Baile_Atha_Cliath_IB.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=3649-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/19690000_Radio_Baile_Atha_Cliath_IB.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"19690000_Radio_Baile_Atha_Cliath_IB.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"829\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/1972-RD-poster-829x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"Pirate Pioneers: the early days of Radio Dublin\" class=\"wp-image-3650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/1972-RD-poster-829x1024.jpeg 829w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/1972-RD-poster-243x300.jpeg 243w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/1972-RD-poster-768x949.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/1972-RD-poster-1243x1536.jpeg 1243w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/1972-RD-poster-1657x2048.jpeg 1657w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Radio Dublin leaflet from 1972 (courtesy of Ian Biggar). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Radio Dublin or \u2018Radio Baile \u00c1tha Cliath\u2019 started as a technical point to point experiment by Ken Sheehan (Kenneth Edwards) in 1966 from his home in Drimnagh in Dublin. At about 10 watts, power was too low to travel further than about a mile but over the next three years, the transmitter was modified and power doubled to 20 watts. A new transmitter was installed in 1969 and regular taped music programmes were broadcast, normally on Sunday afternoons. The above information sheet from 1972 gives a\u00a0flavour\u00a0of the early history of the station. It&#8217;s interesting to see &#8216;Big D&#8217; being used, years before the split that led to the breakaway station of that name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our first recording above of the early days is undated but&nbsp;may be&nbsp;from 1969. It features Radio Baile \u00c1tha Cliath on its early&nbsp;217 metre&nbsp;wavelength. We\u2019re not certain who the&nbsp;DJ&nbsp;is, nor was Ken Sheehan when he heard the recording. The second recording is of Ken Sheehan himself and although again undated, is probably from 1971. By now Radio Dublin was the station name and the wavelength had changed to the&nbsp;well-known&nbsp;253&nbsp;metres. The address given was that of the Brighton Independent Radio Movement in England and was used by most of the Irish pirates of the period. There is a short taped insert from \u2018Mark Welby\u2019 who might be Mark T. Story, later to be very involved in the early pirate scene, and a home-made sung jingle. This is pirate gold at its best! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/19710000_Radio_Dublin_0000-0000_KenEdwards_IB.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>These unique recordings were supplied by Roger Lloyd (Prince Terry) who was an integral part of the pioneering days of Radio Dublin. Thanks to Ian Biggar for the research and for sharing the recordings with us. You can hear an interview with Ken Sheehan <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/ken-sheehan-speaks-about-radio-dublin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Radio Dublin or \u2018Radio Baile \u00c1tha Cliath\u2019 started as a technical point to point experiment by Ken Sheehan (Kenneth Edwards) in 1966 from his home in Drimnagh in Dublin. At about 10 watts, power was too low to travel further than about a mile but over the next three years, the transmitter was modified and &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/early-radio-dublin\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Pirate Pioneers: the early days of Radio Dublin&#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":[15,152],"tags":[522,533,46,153,82,479,9,192],"class_list":["post-3649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airchecks","category-full-recordings","tag-522","tag-533","tag-am","tag-dublin","tag-ken-sheehan","tag-pirate-pioneers-series","tag-radio-dublin","tag-roger-lloyd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pirate Pioneers: the early days of Radio Dublin - 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\/early-radio-dublin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pirate Pioneers: the early days of Radio Dublin - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Radio Dublin or \u2018Radio Baile \u00c1tha Cliath\u2019 started as a technical point to point experiment by Ken Sheehan (Kenneth Edwards) in 1966 from his home in Drimnagh in Dublin. 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