{"id":6800,"date":"2022-07-04T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-04T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=6800"},"modified":"2022-07-03T17:56:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-03T16:56:18","slug":"closedown-of-big-beat-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/closedown-of-big-beat-radio\/","title":{"rendered":"Closedown of Big Beat Radio"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1650\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-6800-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/19860808_Big_Beat_Radio_closedown_1700-1800.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/19860808_Big_Beat_Radio_closedown_1700-1800.mp3\">https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/19860808_Big_Beat_Radio_closedown_1700-1800.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\/2022\/06\/19860808_Big_Beat_Radio_closedown_1700-1800.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=6800-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/19860808_Big_Beat_Radio_closedown_1700-1800.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"19860808_Big_Beat_Radio_closedown_1700-1800.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"701\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20201224_00002_001_1-1024x701.jpg\" alt=\"Closedown of Big Beat Radio\" class=\"wp-image-6801\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20201224_00002_001_1-1024x701.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20201224_00002_001_1-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20201224_00002_001_1-768x526.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20201224_00002_001_1-1536x1052.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20201224_00002_001_1.jpg 1697w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>Peter Walsh on Big Beat Radio in 1986 (photo Brian Greene). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Big Beat Radio is especially important to us as it involved both co-founders of Pirate.ie, Brian Greene and John Walsh. The station began broadcasting on June 17<sup>th<\/sup> 1986 in a room belonging to the community centre on the seafront in the suburb of Baldoyle in northeast Dublin. There were six founders, all of whom were 16:&nbsp;Brian Greene&nbsp;(Bobby Gibbson* on air), D\u00f3nal Greene, Michael Redmond, Peter Walsh, Brian Hegarty and Mark Tynan. John Walsh was a year younger and joined as a newsreader and occasional DJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Big Beat was on air for seven weeks of the summer school holidays. The original plan was to go on AM with the copper wires running along the seafront behind the studio but the station ended up on FM. Around the same time, the Carroll\u2019s Irish Open Golf tournament was held across the estuary in Portmarnock about 400 metres from the studio. RT\u00c9 set up a dedicated radio station for the tournament on 96.6 FM, forcing Big Beat to move down to 96.2 at the last minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"598\" height=\"677\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/big_beat2.jpg\" alt=\"Closedown of Big Beat Radio\" class=\"wp-image-6819\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/big_beat2.jpg 598w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/big_beat2-265x300.jpg 265w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px\" \/><figcaption>Brian Greene (top) and Mark McGuinness set up the studio (from Brian&#8217;s collection). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Power was about 15 watts but the mast wasn\u2019t more than 20 feet off the ground and therefore the signal didn\u2019t travel far. Audio quality was poor with levels very uneven. The single microphone was wrapped in a cloth to prevent popping and taped to a wooden banister which protruded from a scratchy mixer dating from the 1960s. Two turntables, a cassette deck and headphones completed the studio set-up.<\/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=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220623_154118-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Closedown of Big Beat Radio\" class=\"wp-image-6804\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220623_154118-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220623_154118-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220623_154118-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220623_154118-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20220623_154118-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>A radio theme prevails at the site in 2022. The studio was through the door (photo John Walsh).  <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The studio heated up easily and the door to the green outside was usually left open, with a result that passing buses were often heard during shows. The room was invariably crammed with friends of the DJ so keeping people quiet during links was a challenge. News was presented from 11am until 6pm each day and was lifted from RT\u00c9, BBC and other pirates. The newsroom was in a stifling disused toilet with no window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was no phone at Big Beat, so the telephone box across the road was used for requests. The postal address was 3A Brookstone Road, Baldoyle where co-founder Peter Walsh lived. Sunshine Radio engineer Peter Gibney (RIP) visited one evening because of interference caused to the transmitter in Portmarnock a few kilometres to the north. Big Beat also ran discos for visiting Spanish students at the community centre next door. &nbsp;<\/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\/2022\/06\/phone-box.jpg\" alt=\"Closedown of Big Beat Radio\" class=\"wp-image-6810\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/phone-box.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/phone-box-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/phone-box-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>2016 reunion at the phone box. L-R: D\u00f3nal Greene, Brian Greene, Peter Walsh, Mark Tynan, Michael Redmond, Brian Hegarty (photo John Walsh). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Big Beat closed suddenly at 6pm on Friday August 8<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;with&nbsp;<em>Don\u2019t You Forget About Me<\/em>&nbsp;by Simple Minds. This recording is of the final hour from that day. Two of the Big Beat founders, Brian Greene and Peter Walsh, went on to set up Centre Radio, another part-time station that operated from Baldoyle and neighbouring Bayside from Christmas 1986 to the end of 1988. For more memories of Big Beat, see <a href=\"https:\/\/wirelessflirt.wordpress.com\/2016\/08\/26\/big-beat-radio-a-reunion-after-30-years\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>* No, it\u2019s not a typo: the extra \u2018b\u2019 in Gibbson was deliberate because the name was fake.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Big Beat Radio is especially important to us as it involved both co-founders of Pirate.ie, Brian Greene and John Walsh. The station began broadcasting on June 17th 1986 in a room belonging to the community centre on the seafront in the suburb of Baldoyle in northeast Dublin. There were six founders, all of whom were &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/closedown-of-big-beat-radio\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Closedown of Big Beat 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":[152],"tags":[536,129,43,153,22],"class_list":["post-6800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-full-recordings","tag-536","tag-big-beat-radio","tag-brian-greene","tag-dublin","tag-hobby-station"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Closedown of Big Beat 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\/closedown-of-big-beat-radio\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Closedown of Big Beat Radio - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Big Beat Radio is especially important to us as it involved both co-founders of Pirate.ie, Brian Greene and John Walsh. The station began broadcasting on June 17th 1986 in a room belonging to the community centre on the seafront in the suburb of Baldoyle in northeast Dublin. There were six founders, all of whom were &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Closedown of Big Beat Radio&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/closedown-of-big-beat-radio\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-04T05:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-03T16:56:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20201224_00002_001_1-1024x701.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=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/closedown-of-big-beat-radio\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/closedown-of-big-beat-radio\/\",\"name\":\"Closedown of Big Beat Radio - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/closedown-of-big-beat-radio\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/closedown-of-big-beat-radio\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20201224_00002_001_1-1024x701.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-04T05:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-03T16:56:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/closedown-of-big-beat-radio\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/closedown-of-big-beat-radio\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/closedown-of-big-beat-radio\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20201224_00002_001_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/20201224_00002_001_1.jpg\",\"width\":1697,\"height\":1162},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/closedown-of-big-beat-radio\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Closedown of Big Beat 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":"Closedown of Big Beat 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\/closedown-of-big-beat-radio\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Closedown of Big Beat Radio - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","og_description":"Big Beat Radio is especially important to us as it involved both co-founders of Pirate.ie, Brian Greene and John Walsh. The station began broadcasting on June 17th 1986 in a room belonging to the community centre on the seafront in the suburb of Baldoyle in northeast Dublin. 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