{"id":4699,"date":"2021-08-20T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=4699"},"modified":"2021-08-19T16:43:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T15:43:51","slug":"sunshine-radio-at-the-heart-of-a-political-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-at-the-heart-of-a-political-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunshine Radio at the heart of a political storm"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_8955\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-4699-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/19821123_Sunshine_Radio_101fm_Robbie_Dale_SG_192.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/19821123_Sunshine_Radio_101fm_Robbie_Dale_SG_192.mp3\">https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/19821123_Sunshine_Radio_101fm_Robbie_Dale_SG_192.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\/08\/19821123_Sunshine_Radio_101fm_Robbie_Dale_SG_192.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=4699-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/19821123_Sunshine_Radio_101fm_Robbie_Dale_SG_192.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"19821123_Sunshine_Radio_101fm_Robbie_Dale_SG_192.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"928\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Robbie-Dale-Sunshine-Review-1985-CU-928x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Sunshine Radio at the heart of a political storm\" class=\"wp-image-3935\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Robbie-Dale-Sunshine-Review-1985-CU-928x1024.jpg 928w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Robbie-Dale-Sunshine-Review-1985-CU-272x300.jpg 272w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Robbie-Dale-Sunshine-Review-1985-CU-768x847.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Robbie-Dale-Sunshine-Review-1985-CU.jpg 1058w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>Robbie Dale as pictured in the Sunshine Review, 1985 (courtesy of DX Archive). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>There was a complex relationship between the political class and pirate radio: on the one hand, politicians did not want to be seen to legitimise unlicensed stations but on the other, they needed local publicity at election time. Political instability during this period was a contributing factor to the free-for-all on the airwaves and two general elections were held in 1982, in February and November. Sunshine Radio went as far as to endorse Fianna F\u00e1il, then in opposition, in the February election because of that party&#8217;s support for broadcasting legislation. However, Sunshine quickly found itself in hot water over interviews it broadcast with politicians before the November election.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few weeks previously, in an attempt to weaken the influence of the pirates, RT\u00c9 said it would ban politicians who were interviewed on unlicensed stations. On 22<sup>nd<\/sup> November, two days before the election, interviews with TDs Albert Reynolds of Fianna F\u00e1il and Michael Keating of Fine Gael were aired by Sunshine, causing consternation in political circles and making the front pages of all the daily newspapers.  Station boss Robbie Dale (Robinson) took to the air the following day to explain that the interviews had in fact been recored in February before the RT\u00c9 ban came into effect, and apologised to the politicians involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this recording, Robbie Dale explains the background to the case and criticises the media coverage of the story. He also takes several callers live on air, who give their views about the controversy. The recording was made from 100.5 FM from 1130-1200 on 23<sup>rd<\/sup> November 1982 and was donated by Shay Geoghegan.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There was a complex relationship between the political class and pirate radio: on the one hand, politicians did not want to be seen to legitimise unlicensed stations but on the other, they needed local publicity at election time. Political instability during this period was a contributing factor to the free-for-all on the airwaves and two &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-at-the-heart-of-a-political-storm\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Sunshine Radio at the heart of a political storm&#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":[152],"tags":[498,153,493,191,47],"class_list":["post-4699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-full-recordings","tag-498","tag-dublin","tag-politics","tag-robbie-robinson","tag-sunshine-radio"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sunshine Radio at the heart of a political storm - 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\/sunshine-radio-at-the-heart-of-a-political-storm\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sunshine Radio at the heart of a political storm - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There was a complex relationship between the political class and pirate radio: on the one hand, politicians did not want to be seen to legitimise unlicensed stations but on the other, they needed local publicity at election time. Political instability during this period was a contributing factor to the free-for-all on the airwaves and two &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Sunshine Radio at the heart of a political storm&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-at-the-heart-of-a-political-storm\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-20T06:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-19T15:43:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Robbie-Dale-Sunshine-Review-1985-CU-928x1024.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\/sunshine-radio-at-the-heart-of-a-political-storm\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/sunshine-radio-at-the-heart-of-a-political-storm\/\",\"name\":\"Sunshine Radio at the heart of a political storm - 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