The Raids of 1983 Part 6

Part 6: Kicking Up a Racket

MARCHING ON TOGETHER

On the morning of May 20th radio listeners in Dublin were left with a choice of Westside Radio (Mulhuddart); ABC Radio (city centre); DDLB (Drimnagh) and Radio Dublin – RTÉ aside of course.

The capital’s longest-running pirate station Radio Dublin revelled in stirring it up and delighted in being the centre of the radio world’s attention – a throwback to the station’s heyday in the late ’70s.

With a protest march organised for Friday 27th, on this particular Friday at 58 Inchicore Road they opened the phone lines to an unhappy Dublin listenership.

The morning’s newspapers

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The evening newspapers

NOTHING TO HEAR HERE

On the morning of Saturday, May 21st 1983 the airwaves of Dublin were still bereft of the stations which had entertained the capital up until Thursday – apart from the stations mentioned yesterday which hadn’t switched off.

As promised, the Radio Carousel network had stayed on air, despite the rumours that the Navan station was on the list to be hit – as mentioned by Kieran Murray in his phone call to Radio West. They said that they intended to continue broadcasting unless they were issued with a directive to cease.

THE MIGHTY BACK ON 819

Incredibly, with the evening newspapers on the stands, anybody chancing upon Radio Nova’s frequency will have heard a carrier. At around 9pm it had come to life. Incredibly, Nova was back on the air.

The DJs had got together and pushed for a return to protect their livelihoods.
Cary agreed and told a Hot Press reporter that the station was returning not only for the staff, but ‘for the 30,000 people who’d signed petitions and the 300.000 listeners’.

But the biggest incentive came from the government themselves. With plans for the kind of licensed radio they intended to introduce appearing in all the newspapers over the past couple of days it became very clear that a station like Radio Nova had no chance of receiving a permit to broadcast.

So, with nothing to lose, the team decided to return.

TIPPED OFF

Also back on the air this evening were Community Radio Fingal.

But one of the stations that had remained on the airwaves were now making plans to vacate them. Westside Radio, based at Dolly’s Lounge in Mulhuddart, had received information from friends within the P&T that more stations were going to be hit on Monday morning. Taking no chances they intended to remove their transmitter straight away but transport was not available until tomorrow. They reverted to a carrier.