Broadcasting in defiance of a new Act outlawing pirate stations with the threat of huge fines and imprisonment, Radio Dublin fill the void on a just-emptied MW dial.
Just two days since all other Dublin stations disappeared, in the first recording we join Radio Dublin with live programming from 4.42pm on January 3rd 1989, and then from 6.36pm in the second recording.
Radio Dublin continued broadcasting in 1989 in defiance of a new law threatening huge fines and possible imprisonment for anyone involved with a pirate broadcast.
From late night January 6th this recording was made off 101FM.
Radio Retro: archiving Irish radio broadcasts since 2002
Radio Dublin continued broadcasting in 1989 in defiance of a new law threatening huge fines and possible imprisonment for anyone involved with a pirate broadcast. The authorities had also indicated that they would cut power supply and phone lines being used by any pirate who was on the air after December 31st 1988.
This recording is from Radio Dublin on the morning of January 19th 1989. It ends abruptly – reasons explained in that afternoon’s newspapers.
9.25am
Cooke managed to get power restored and here’s the station back on the air in the afternoon…
3.28pm
These recordings are courtesy of DX Archive
Radio Retro: archiving Irish radio broadcasts since 2002
Donegal station Northside Radio was a result of a split in the Radio North camp following the mass pirate closedowns at the end of 1988.
This recording is from January 20th 1989 and starts at 9.20am. John Watt is on the air from 10am and he’s followed at 1pm by ‘DJ Wes’ running through to 4pm. It was taken from their 846kHz medium wave outlet.
The newspaper clipping on the right is from the Donegal Democrat from January 20th 1989 and gives a little background to the station.
9.20am
10am John Watt
1pm Wes
This recording is courtesy of Ken Baird / DX Archive
Radio Retro: arching Irish radio broadcasts since 2002
Based at the border in Co Louth, Border Weekend Radio was born just a few weeks following the closedowns at the end of 1988. It was operated by presenters who had been involved with Rainbow Radio and broadcast at weekends.
This recording is from 6pm on January 21st 1989 and features Johnny Walker on air.
Originally recorded by Rodney Neill
Radio Retro: archiving Irish radio recordings since 2002
This is Radio Dublin from the afternoon of January 22nd 1989. The recording starts at 1pm and features Brian Paige, who then introduces that week’s Captain’s News, in a week that the station had been in the wars with the authorities.
Listen
This recording is courtesy of DX Archive
Radio Retro: archiving Irish radio broadcasts since 2002
Recorded off 103.25MHz this is Zee 103, the border-blasting pirate station located in Omeath, Co Louth. The station had ceased broadcasting ‘for good’ at the end of 1988 with the introduction of a new Broadcast Bill but decided to make a return not long into the new year.
From a Sunday evening at the end of January 1989 this is Mike Miller from 11pm.
This recording was made by Rodney Neill
Radio Retro: archiving Irish radio recordings since 2002
The Gerry Byrne Show on Radio Star Country broadcasting from Co Monaghan on 981kHz shortly after legislation forced the rest of the country’s pirates off the air. This recording starts at 8.19am.
This is the legendary Don Allen defiantly broadcasting on Radio Star Country just a few weeks after the introduction of tough new measures against pirate broadcasters. The date is February 16th 1989 and Don is on the air for the morning show from just after 9am.
This recording is by kind courtesy of Ken Baird / DX Archive
Radio Retro: archiving Irish radio recordings since 2002
This is close to a full day’s programming from Premier Radio in April 1989. At this stage, the Dublin station broadcast on Sundays only for just 2-3 hours.
On this particular day, Greg Townsend opens the station at 3pm for a two hour stint on the mic. He is followed at 5pm by Dave Jackson..
Greg Townsend
Dave Jackson
Radio Retro – archiving Irish Radio broadcasts since 2002
From 4pm on April 30th 1989, Millennium Radio’s final day, the team take a look back at some of the highlights of the station’s 13 months of broadcasting to Dublin.
Millennium Radio was ran by RTÉ to celebrate Dublin’s millennium year in 1988.
This recording is by kind courtesy of Dave O’Connor, with help from Kieran Murray.
This is Dave Felton on the air for the Dublin station KFM from the uncertain summer of 1989 – uncertain because a new Bill had been introduced at the start of the year outlawing pirates and allowing for the licensing of a new breed of independent stations. The recording was taken from 103.9MHz.
Listen
Radio Retro – archiving Irish Radio broadcasts since 2002
This is a recording of Premier Radio, one of the very few pirate radio stations who had been around before the 1989 Broadcasting Act was introduced.
They usually broadcast for a few hours on Sundays and in this recording Dave Jackson is on the air from 5pm on July 2nd 1989.
Listen
This recording is with thanks to Chris Ridley
Radio Retro – archiving Irish Radio broadcasts since 2002
This is a recording of the launch of Capital Radio, the first licensed independent commercial station in Ireland. The station came on air at 8am on July 20th 1989.
Still on air today as FM104, the Dublin station opened on July 20th 1989 at 8am with a ceremony from the city centre, followed by Colm Kayes on Breakfast.
Launch and Colm Hayes (image)
Scott Williams from 10am
The difficult early days of Irish independent radio
IRISH TIMES July 18th 2014
Patsy McGarry: Twenty-five years ago, the State’s first independent radio station, Capital Radio, began broadcasting. I was there. It did not go smoothly
The first song played on independent radio in Ireland was Phil Lynott’s Old Town. I know, I was there, on the roof of St Stephen’s Green shopping centre in Dublin, where Ireland’s first independent station, Capital Radio, began broadcasting 25 years ago on July 20th, 1989.
It was launched at a breakfast at the Berkeley Court Hotel, attended by, among others, then minister for communications, Ray Burke, and Dublin’s lord mayor, Seán Haughey.
Burke’s appointment had been a huge relief to the hundreds involved in pirate radio, as it indicated the stalemate over legal independent radio was at an end. Long suffering had made a stone of many pirate hearts where the 1982-1987 coalition was concerned. Labour wanted independent radio to be under State control, which Fine Gael opposed.
I knew Burke from my days as head of news (1983-1987) at the pirate Sunshine Radio in Portmarnock, Co Dublin, his electoral terrain. I was also on a National Union of Journalists delegation that met him to discuss the introduction of independent radio. By then we at Sunshine’s “news corner” were members of the NUJ, and our news-gathering had for the previous four years been in line with the union’s code of conduct. I was also father of the NUJ chapel (shop steward) at Sunshine and got fired and reinstated three times in disputes over staff wages.
We were so poor. In February 1986, four of us, accompanied by Labour councillor Bernie Malone, met then tánaiste Dick Spring to plead the case for legal independent radio. Afterwards we invited Malone for coffee. We discovered that, between us four pirates, we hadn’t enough money to buy coffee for five. Malone paid, graciously, while we melted into our seats.
The last time I was fired, in 1987, I was reinstated on condition that I accepted voluntary redundancy. I accepted, being sick up and fed, to use a friend’s expression.
Before being head-hunted in 1989 to set up the newsroom at Capital (now FM104), I had freelanced for the Irish Press, the Sunday World and Magill magazine.
With the 1988 Broadcasting Act, Burke established the Independent Radio and Television Commission. All pirates had to be off air by midnight on new year’s eve 1988 or forfeit any chance of getting a licence. It worked.
By February 1989 all independent radio licences had been allocated. That was followed by a pause as new licencees baulked at the costs involved, particularly where news was concerned. The legislation demanded 20 per cent airtime for news and current affairs, almost five hours a day. The pause became a vacuum. Pirates abhor a vacuum, and so they emerged again.
The government was anxious to get new stations on air. An agreement was reached between the IRTC and Capital to allow the station a derogation of one month from fulfilling the 20 per cent news requirement over the 24 hours, but it would meet it between 7am and 7pm. IRTC thinking was “get one station on air and the rest will follow”. It proved correct.
So there we were that bright, blue Thursday morning on the roof of St Stephen’s Green shopping centre, the city below us glittering in the smokeless air as Phil Lynott sang of his broken heart “in the old town”. Bliss was it to be alive.
It passed. There were four of us in the newsroom and two part-timers, mostly ex-Sunshine. We were determined to emphasise Dublin news. But it was July 20th, silly season, with nothing happening. We needed a strong Dublin story to start. There was none. Soon we were desperate.
Then someone spotted the front page of that day’s Irish Independent. It had a report by Brian Dowling about calls for an inquiry into planning corruption in Dublin. Eureka. I was familiar with the story, having reported on it for the Irish Press and Sunday World.
Further problems. Party spokespeople were on holidays. We were at the end of our tether when Eamon Gilmore, Workers’ Party spokesman on the environment, answered the phone. He was in blistering form. It did not escape us that the first politician we put on air on independent radio in Ireland was a member of the only political party that had completely shunned us throughout our pirate days. Needs must. It would have more serious implications.
After the Berkeley Court breakfast, Burke and Capital director Mike Hogan arrived at our Portakabins. Hogan was whey-faced. He took me aside and asked, “What the f*** is going on here?” They had heard the news en route in the ministerial car and, apparently, the minister was not happy about our story regarding planning corruption in Dublin.
But as he greeted colleagues in our news Portakabin, he was charming. He asked for a word with me. We stepped outside, where he announced with heat: “Don’t you know that one of the reasons we are setting up these stations is because of those f***ers?”
I didn’t, but I knew what he was talking about. The disproportionate influence of the Workers’ Party in RTÉ was common knowledge. I had a choice: to drop the Dublin story or allow it a normal news life. It wasn’t really a choice, however: the idea that the first news story on the first news bulletin of the first independent radio station in Ireland would be dropped because it upset a minister was unthinkable. It was a case of continue and be damned. We were.
Prior to our going on air, there had been much interest in other media about how we would meet the 20 per cent news requirement. In this newspaper on July 12th, I explained we were being allowed a derogation for a month.
Interviewed on RTÉ Radio One after he had left us that morning, Burke was appalled. “It would be totally illegal for the IRTC to give such a derogation,” he said. Consternation once again at Capital.
Our immediate problem was how to fill that requirement for July 20th itself. We did so by three of us sitting around a microphone that night for 2½ hours talking about radio. A few weeks later, at a press conference to launch Century Radio, I interviewed Burke again.
Afterwards he said to me “I was listening to you guys that night,” referring to our marathon chat-in of July 20th. He appeared to be smiling.
FLYING THE JOLLY ROGER: PIRATES OF THE AIRWAVES
Until July 20th, 1989, the only legal radio in Ireland was controlled by RTÉ. However, a plethora of pirate stations came on air in the late 1970s and early 1980s and soon attracted loyal listeners. By the late 1980s there were an estimated 74 of these in the State.
In Dublin they included Radio Galaxy, Radio Dublin, Ard, Big D, Southside Radio, Radio Leinster, Radio City, and TTTR. There was ERI and South Coast Radio in Cork and Radio Carousel in Dundalk. In fact, there was hardly an urban centre in Ireland that didn’t have a pirate station.
The arrival in Dublin in the early 1980s of “super-pirates” Sunshine and Nova brought the issue of independent radio to a head. They had powerful FM transmitters and advertisers liked their “clutter-free” format. They were hugely popular with young people. The demand was evident.
By the end of February 1989, the Independent Radio and Television Commission had awarded 25 local radio licences and one national licence.
Radio Retro: archiving Irish Radio broadcasts since 2002
Capital Radio recordings courtesy of Rodney Neill
This is a recording of John O’Hara from 6pm on day three on air for Capital Radio, the first licensed independent commercial station in Ireland.
Still on air today as FM104, the Dublin station opened on July 20th 1989.
Radio Retro: archiving Irish Radio broadcasts since 2002
Capital Radio recordings courtesy of Rodney Neill
This is a recording of Jason Maine from 11pm on day four on air for Capital Radio, the first licensed independent commercial station in Ireland.
Still on air today as FM104, the Dublin station opened on July 20th 1989.
Radio Retro: archiving Irish Radio broadcasts since 2002
Capital Radio recordings courtesy of Rodney Neill
This is a recording of Gerry Stevens from 10.13pm on day six on the air for Capital Radio in Dublin, the first licensed independent commercial station in Ireland.
Still on air today as FM104, the Dublin station opened on July 20th 1989.
Radio Retro: archiving Irish Radio broadcasts since 2002
Capital Radio recordings courtesy of Rodney Neill
This is a recording of Weekend Breakfast with Ross Allen from 7.32am on day ten on the air for Capital Radio in Dublin, the first licensed independent commercial station in Ireland.
Still on air today as FM104, the Dublin station opened on July 20th 1989.
Radio Retro: archiving Irish Radio broadcasts since 2002
Capital Radio recordings courtesy of Rodney Neill
This is a recording of Scott Williams on Bee Bop Sunday on day eleven on the air for Capital Radio in Dublin, the first licensed independent commercial station in Ireland.
Still on air today as FM104, the Dublin station opened on July 20th 1989.
Radio Retro: archiving Irish Radio broadcasts since 2002
Capital Radio recordings courtesy of Rodney Neill
This is a recording of Liam Coburn in the early hours of day thirteen on the air for Capital Radio in Dublin, the first licensed independent commercial station in Ireland.
Still on air today as FM104, the Dublin station opened on July 20th 1989.
Radio Retro: archiving Irish Radio broadcasts since 2002
Capital Radio recordings courtesy of Rodney Neill
This is a full recording of the first day on the air from Atlantic 252.
It was made off 254kHz long wave and starts with test transmissions from 7.05am leading up to the launch with Gary King from 8am and then the full day’s programming through to closedown at 7pm.
Also on air that first day were Henry Owens, Tony West, Dusty Rhodes, Charlie Wolf. And on news was Andrew Turner and Mary Ellen O’Brien.
Test transmissions from 7.05am
Launch from 8am with Gary King
Henry Owens from 9am
Tony West from midday
Dusty Rhodes from 2pm
Charlie Wolf from 4pm
If you’d prefer an airchecked version, here’s the full day…
Century Radio September 1st 1989
September 1st test transmissions from the new independent national station Century Radio, which was due to launch on the 4th.
Dave Felton on air for Radio Dublin (International!) on the afternoon of September 1st 1989. Recorded off 101.2MHz (with the station also broadcasting on 1188kHz and 6910kHz), we join Dave’s show at 2.16pm.
LMFM Radio’s first hour on air from 1pm on September 3rd 1989. LMFM are the licensed service for the Louth / Meath franchise area.
Radio Retro: archiving Irish radio broadcasts since 2002
This recording is with huge thanks to Chris Murray
Century Radio September 4th 1989
This is a recording of the launch of the new national licensed service Century Radio from 8am on September 4th 1989. Marty Whelan and his Breakfast Crew guide then listener through the first two hours on air.
Listen exactly as it was broadcast…
Listen with the music edited out…
Eight months after ceasing broadcasts as a pirate, WLR returned to air in Waterford with a licence. This is a recording of their launch from midday on September 8th 1989.
This recording is by kind courtesy of Shay Searson
Radio Retro: archiving Irish radio broadcasts since 2002
This is a recording of the launch of Clare FM, one of the new licensed services in the post-pirate era.
The date is September 10th 1989 and Ger Sweeney introduced listeners to the new station.
Last year to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the launch, Ger Sweeney published a hugely-recommended book called “Launching Clare FM” which told the stories of all that were there on day one.
It’s a historical record of a unique event and will be of interest to anyone interested in Irish radio.
Here’s a chance to read the book that accompanies the Radio Retro recording!!!
Copies of the book, which Ger will sign if requested, can be ordered by writing to launchingclarefm@gmail.com or via PayPal to the same address.
This Radio Retro recording is by kind courtesy of Ger Sweeney
This is Charlie Wolf on early evening duty for Atlantic 252 on October 19th 1989.
As broadcast
Music stripped out
Century Radio October 25th 1989
From October 1989 this is Century Radio, the newly-launched national licensed service. This recording starts with ‘Heartbeat’ at 3pm, and that’s followed by Declan Meehan from 4pm.
Listen to Heartbeat as broadcast…
Listen to Declan Meehan as broadcast…
Listen with the music edited out…
Radio Retro: archiving Irish radio broadcasts since 2002
These are the final minutes of test broadcasts, and then the launch of a new rock music station licensed for Dublin.
Classic Hits was the second of the new stations for the capital, arriving on air 10 months after the closure of the nation’s pirates.
This recording, which is presented exactly as it went out on 98.1MHz, starts at 11.48pm with the station due to launch at midnight with Mark Cagney.
From Christmas morning in 1989 this is Classic Hits 98FM’s morning crew with Pat (Courtenay), Elaine (Geraghty), Tom Hardy and Nixer all live in studio.
This short extract is airchecked but gives a good flavour of the show
Radio Retro: archiving Irish radio recordings since 2002