{"id":3964,"date":"2021-04-29T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=3964"},"modified":"2024-05-12T11:36:19","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T10:36:19","slug":"launch-of-radio-leinster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/launch-of-radio-leinster\/","title":{"rendered":"40 years since the launch of Radio Leinster"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_3320\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3964-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/19810429_Radio_Leinster_launch_aircheck_Ger_Roe_via_IB.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/19810429_Radio_Leinster_launch_aircheck_Ger_Roe_via_IB.mp3\">https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/19810429_Radio_Leinster_launch_aircheck_Ger_Roe_via_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\/04\/19810429_Radio_Leinster_launch_aircheck_Ger_Roe_via_IB.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=3964-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/19810429_Radio_Leinster_launch_aircheck_Ger_Roe_via_IB.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"19810429_Radio_Leinster_launch_aircheck_Ger_Roe_via_IB.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"744\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/radioleinster640x744px.png\" alt=\"40 years since the launch of Radio Leinster\" class=\"wp-image-3957\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/radioleinster640x744px.png 640w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/radioleinster640x744px-258x300.png 258w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Revamped Radio Leinster logo for a planned relaunch in 2020 (courtesy of David Baker), <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>After a fortnight of tests, Radio Leinster launched its new service for Dublin at 7am on Wednesday 29<sup>th<\/sup> April 1981, announcing a frequency of 738 kHz or 406 metres. The first presenter was Eugene Elliott on the breakfast programme who promised competitions, quizzes and a news service in the coming days and weeks. There was easy listening music for the first hour but the style was more varied after 8am. Sports news and a Dublin and European weather forecast also featured. The music policy was fairly mixed in the early days and took a while to settle into the easy listening format for which Radio Leinster became well-known for most of its two-year existence. Formatting was not common in Irish pirate radio at the time but that would soon change with the introduction of strict playlisting by super-pirates such as Sunshine Radio and Radio Nova.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The short airchecked recording above was made in Dublin and includes some of the links in the first show. The longer recording below was made from 0656-0821 but is of poorer quality as it was recorded in Scotland. There is some fading, electrical interference and a heterodyne whistle as the transmitter was slightly off channel in the early days. An FM transmitter on 93 MHz was added at a later stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/19810429_Radio_Leinster_738_opening_0656-0821_eugene_elliot_KB.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The airchecked recording was made in Dublin by Ger Roe and the longer version was made in Scotland by Ken Baird. Thanks to Ian Biggar for sharing these with us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a fortnight of tests, Radio Leinster launched its new service for Dublin at 7am on Wednesday 29th April 1981, announcing a frequency of 738 kHz or 406 metres. The first presenter was Eugene Elliott on the breakfast programme who promised competitions, quizzes and a news service in the coming days and weeks. There was &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/launch-of-radio-leinster\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;40 years since the launch of Radio Leinster&#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":[486,46,153,89,37],"class_list":["post-3964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airchecks","category-full-recordings","tag-486","tag-am","tag-dublin","tag-dx","tag-radio-leinster"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>40 years since the launch of Radio Leinster - 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\/launch-of-radio-leinster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"40 years since the launch of Radio Leinster - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After a fortnight of tests, Radio Leinster launched its new service for Dublin at 7am on Wednesday 29th April 1981, announcing a frequency of 738 kHz or 406 metres. The first presenter was Eugene Elliott on the breakfast programme who promised competitions, quizzes and a news service in the coming days and weeks. 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