{"id":8300,"date":"2023-01-15T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-15T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=8300"},"modified":"2023-05-17T21:27:48","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T20:27:48","slug":"early-radio-star-country-broadcasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/early-radio-star-country-broadcasts\/","title":{"rendered":"Border series: early Radio Star Country broadcasts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_397\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-8300-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/1988_05_12_thu_star_927am_gerrybyrne_test_tape-gh624.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/1988_05_12_thu_star_927am_gerrybyrne_test_tape-gh624.mp3\">https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/1988_05_12_thu_star_927am_gerrybyrne_test_tape-gh624.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\/2023\/04\/1988_05_12_thu_star_927am_gerrybyrne_test_tape-gh624.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=8300-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/1988_05_12_thu_star_927am_gerrybyrne_test_tape-gh624.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"1988_05_12_thu_star_927am_gerrybyrne_test_tape-gh624.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/IMG_2565-1024x730.jpg\" alt=\"Border series: early Radio Star Country broadcasts\" class=\"wp-image-8302\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/IMG_2565-1024x730.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/IMG_2565-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/IMG_2565-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/IMG_2565-1536x1095.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/IMG_2565-2048x1460.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>Early Radio Star flyer (courtesy Ian Biggar). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcome to our special series on Monaghan station Radio Star Country, one of the longest-running Irish pirates ever. The country music station has been on the air more or less continuously since 1988 to the present day. It broadcast initially on 927 kHz, then 891 kHz, and finally (and today) 981 kHz. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Radio Star Country\u2019s first test transmission took place on Wednesday 11<sup>th<\/sup> May 1988 at 1.30pm on 927 kHz AM (324 metres medium wave) and 103.2 MHz FM, and consisted of continuous country music. The station was broadcasting from the Swan Lake Hotel in Monaghan Town and the man behind the new venture was Gerry Byrne, who had also worked on Telstar Community Radio (Dundalk), Big M Community Radio (Castleblayney) and Northern Star (Monaghan).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The recording above is the earliest known tape of Radio Star Country shortly before it began broadcasting officially. The test broadcast on 12<sup>th<\/sup> May 1988 (no times were logged) consists of continuous country and Irish music and links every few records by Gerry Byrne, who invites potential DJs to apply for positions at the station. The address of the Swan Lake Hotel is given, as well as a Monaghan phone number. Both 103.3 and 103.5 FM are mentioned at different times in the broadcast.  The recording below is of Gerry Byrne&#8217;s morning show from 0823-1023 on 9<sup>th<\/sup> June 1988. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/1988_06_09_thu_star_927am_0823-1023_gerrybyrne_DX_edit.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption>Gerry Byrne as heard in Blackpool on 9th June 1988. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Both tapes were made in Blackpool, England and suffer from electrical interference at times. Audio levels are variable in the test broadcast. The recordings are courtesy of DX Archive.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to our special series on Monaghan station Radio Star Country, one of the longest-running Irish pirates ever. The country music station has been on the air more or less continuously since 1988 to the present day. It broadcast initially on 927 kHz, then 891 kHz, and finally (and today) 981 kHz. Radio Star Country\u2019s &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/early-radio-star-country-broadcasts\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Border series: early Radio Star Country broadcasts&#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":[487,46,260,282,624,259,477],"class_list":["post-8300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-full-recordings","tag-487","tag-am","tag-border","tag-country-music","tag-gerry-byrne","tag-monaghan","tag-radio-star-country"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Border series: early Radio Star Country broadcasts - 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-star-country-broadcasts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Border series: early Radio Star Country broadcasts - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Welcome to our special series on Monaghan station Radio Star Country, one of the longest-running Irish pirates ever. The country music station has been on the air more or less continuously since 1988 to the present day. It broadcast initially on 927 kHz, then 891 kHz, and finally (and today) 981 kHz. Radio Star Country\u2019s &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Border series: early Radio Star Country broadcasts&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/early-radio-star-country-broadcasts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-15T06:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-17T20:27:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/IMG_2565-1024x730.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\/early-radio-star-country-broadcasts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/early-radio-star-country-broadcasts\/\",\"name\":\"Border series: early Radio Star Country broadcasts - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/early-radio-star-country-broadcasts\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/early-radio-star-country-broadcasts\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/IMG_2565-1024x730.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-15T06:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-17T20:27:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/early-radio-star-country-broadcasts\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/early-radio-star-country-broadcasts\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/early-radio-star-country-broadcasts\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/IMG_2565-1024x730.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/IMG_2565-1024x730.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/early-radio-star-country-broadcasts\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Border series: early Radio Star Country broadcasts\"}]},{\"@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":"Border series: early Radio Star Country broadcasts - 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\/early-radio-star-country-broadcasts\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Border series: early Radio Star Country broadcasts - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","og_description":"Welcome to our special series on Monaghan station Radio Star Country, one of the longest-running Irish pirates ever. 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