The 50th Anniversary of RTE's Radio Liberties

2025 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of one of Ireland's unique radio experiments. This is the story of RTE's Radio Liberties 

Almost fifty years ago RTE launched a new experiment in local radio broadcasting that while it brought local communities their own pop up radio station, unwittingly RTE created a monster as these local communities saw the benefit of having their own radio station and soon after the RTE’s mobile van departed, in that town, village or community, a pirate station opened to replace it. By the mid-eighties while RTE were still travelling the highways and byways of Ireland with their small radio station, a pirate radio boom swept the country with as many as one hundred and fifty illegal stations on air each weekend across the nation. In 1975 the Dublin inner city locality of The Liberties was the location of the first in this unique decade long experiment from the national broadcaster. For the duration of the local arts festival, RTE would bring their new mobile radio van which not only contained a studio but also a small low powered transmitter. While the technical elements would be overseen by RTE, all the programming from research to production and presentation would be conducted by a committee of locals. The on-air presenters too would be local voices often inexperienced but many were caught by the radio bug. The concept was originally credited to the then Director General of RTE George Waters. For many years the man tasked with being the go between with RTE and the committee was Paddy O’Neill. Paddy was born near Skibbereen in County Cork and after a brief career as a national schoolteacher he became involved in the Abbey theatre from where in 1951 he joined Radio Eireann. At the station he became a producer, one of his most influential roles as producer was for the popular Din Joe’s ‘Take the Floor’.

Paddy was also a greyhound enthusiastic both racing them and being involved in the organising of races. Under the alias ‘Paddy O’Brien’ he became Radio Eireann’s greyhound racing commentator later taking up the role of Chairman of Bord na gCon in 1983.

                                                       

At 10am on Friday May 9th 1975, Radio Liberties came on the air on 96.6mhz FM (or still described in 1975 as VHF) and would stay on for the next ten days. The transmitter had a two mile radius. They would broadcast twice a day, in the morning from 10am – 12.30pm and in the afternoon from 3pm – 5pm. The RTE van was based across the road from the church on the High Street and two of the main presenters were Harry McGurk and Eileen Reid, a well-known Showband singer. Interviews with locals were conducted by legal secretary Maura Ryan and house painter Tony Clabby. The station was a tremendous local success. While initially the van carried only a FM transmitter by 1977 they had also added a medium wave transmitter on 202metres.

The RTE van with BBC logo being used for Radio Rhonda

The RTE van would visit one hundred and forty venues staying for between three days and one week until their final outing in October 1987 when the RTE Community radio station visited Dun Laoghaire as Radio Phobail Dun Laoghaire.

 

According to the Nenagh Guardian,

‘Radio Liberties opened at 10 a.m. last Friday morning. It came on the air from nothing more sophisticated than a white caravan, parked on a street corner between decaying buildings and obstructive blocks of flats, with a slight Liffey aroma in the background. It was a complete definition of the word Local’.

 

The then recently appointed new RTE Director General Oliver Maloney invited members of the national press to Montrose for a free lunch and they were then bussed into High Street to see the mobile station in action. Apart from the national newspaper reports, other media coverage came from another Dublin media broadcasting experiment when a crew from Ballyfermot Community Television arrived in the Liberties to conduct interviews with those who were on the air in the mobile van on the High Street.

 

The following year RTE were back in the Liberties. RTE Community Radio Liberties went on air on Saturday May 15th and would continue until May 23rd. This year the broadcasting hours were 3pm – 5pm and 7pm to 10.30pm. What was unusual about this visit was that on the day of their first broadcast and despite being technically operated by RTE, Radio Liberties was the only legal station on the air in Dublin. A strike by thirty carpenters who worked for the State broadcaster meant that the rest of the stations staff refused to pass the pickets and RTE was closed. As the strike continued to black out RTE Radio and Television, Radio Liberties was gaining a wider audience as their low powered FM transmissions were being relayed on the main Dublin medium wave frequency. The strike would last thirteen days before a settlement was reached.

 

This would not be the last time RTE’s Community Radio service would visit the Liberties as their final visit was in April 1981 but they would travel across Ireland to towns and villages and city suburbs to provide the impetus for local community radio and unwittingly creating that golden era of pirate radio in the 1980’s. The Liberties would have their own pirate radio station in the late eighties Liberties Local Community Radio (LLCR).

The Tribalization of US Election Radio 2024

 

I took my Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to New York, eager to explore the role that radio played in the 2024 campaign and to ponder the question, “Did radio really make any difference in the outcome?” Since John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential election campaign, television has undoubtedly taken the lead in campaign influence, from commercials to debates. Yet, radio, which predates television, continues to play a significant role in the daily lives of people across the United States. While I’ve visited New York countless times before, this was my first experience during an election season. Prior to my departure from Ireland, the predictions were uncertain, and there was a palpable tension surrounding the outcome, speculation of violence loomed if the results were contested. To prepare, I started my research while still in Ireland, tuning into various New York radio stations accessible online and through the Radio Garden app.

 

US Radio seemed to reflect the US national mood. The unsettling and tribalization of audio output. While the visual media dominates US politics, the aural input and influence needs analyzing. In a multi-billion-dollar industry with large audiences and attached advertising revenue, could traditional radio and the more recent phenomenon of podcasting, direct or re-direct the course of an election, nationally or locally.

 

On voting day, I spoke to two campaign workers outside the school, PS049 on the edge of Juniper Park on 80th Street in Middle Village, New York. Giovanni was a Harris worker while Meridith was a Trump supporter. They were having some friendly banter when I approached and introduced myself.

            ‘Would either of you know how influential radio has been to this election?’

They looked at each other and both shrugged their shoulders. ‘No’ was the consensus opinion, they had agreed on something.

I had come to New York to see how radio rather than television had shaped the campaigns.

            ‘Their voices were also in our ears like never before.’^[1]

Firstly, I had to acquaint myself with the rules as defined by the Federal Communications Commission with regard to election broadcasts. The rules are clear but as I researched by listening to numerous stations, these rules seemed vacuous. The two main rules are,

 

1.         FCC^[2] rules seek to ensure that no legally qualified candidate for office is unfairly given less access to the airwaves – outside of bona fide news exemptions – than their opponent.  Equal opportunities generally means providing comparable time and placement to opposing candidates; it does not require a station to provide opposing candidates with  programs identical to the initiating candidate.

 

 

2          The FCC has campaign advertising rate rules because the law seeks to ensure that legally qualified candidates for office are not disadvantaged by facing unfairly high advertising rates during the ends of a campaign or rates that differ from their opponents.  The FCC rules require that broadcast stations and cable systems can only charge legally qualified candidates the “Lowest Unit Charges” and “Comparable Rates” for their advertisements.

 

For example if a Democrat candidate purchases an advert on ‘Radio Anything’, the Republican candidate must be offered similar airtime at the same fee. The issue is that on many radio stations both to the left and the right, editorially the supported one side or the other and the listening demographic favoured similar therefore while Republicans took out ads on WABC, knowing that Harris supporters would not be listening and while they were by FCC rules offered similar airtime, they did not take it on.

 

WABC 770 is no longer operated by the ABC TV^[3] channel, it is in fact owned by John Coatsimdas and his Red Apple Media company. As an outsider, this came as news. On this side if the Atlantic, the three main networks NBC, CBS and ABC would be seen as reliable and responsible when it comes to news reporting, the fact that WABC was independently owned came with an element of surprise. On Friday November 1st on the Dominic Carter show during the first ad break, which lasted for seven minutes, there was an advert for the new book ‘Blessed’ and Goya Black Beans but repeatedly the voiceover said how the book and its author were proud Donald Trump supporters, followed by ads were for Resort Living, a Florida based property company and the American Patriot Insurance Company. Then an advert for the Trump's candidacy, announced as a ‘paid advert’ and ‘endorsed by the candidate’, followed by a plea for Republicans to vote for the party ‘Down the Ballot’. This was followed by some station idents then an advert for Mercedes Benz and finally mattresses from the Juni Collection Company. These adverts targeted a certain listening demographic that aligned with Republican ideals and status.

 

The next adbreak featured ads for Trump's own book, his former ally Roger Stone selling Colonial Medals and FOX News presenter Judge Janine speaking about illegal weapons in New York under the democratic administration of Mayor Adams. In one hour there were three seven minute breaks without any paid advertisement from the Harris Campaign. FCC rules allow 18.5 minutes of ads per hour not including station advertisements on news and talk stations, while music genre stations are allowed 14.5 minutes per hour.

 

In the swing state of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, WURD is a predominantly African American station. On the afternoon show on the day after Kamala Harris had addressed a crowd in Philadelphia, the station left their listeners in do doubt that they wanted them to vote Democratic but also broadcast the blurb that ‘opinions and comments on the station do NOT reflect those of the owner of the station. In that one hour there were three ads for Harris, none for Trump and a request to all their listeners ‘to go out and vote’.

 

This impassioned plea seems to fall on deaf ears. In the 2020 election between Biden and Trump there were 231,593,000 adults over eighteen eligible to vote. The turn out however was just 66%.

When all votes were counted, Biden had 81,283,502 and Trump had 74,223,975 but the second largest group were those who chose not to vote, 76,085,524.

 

On voting day numerous stations focused on the weather forecast which was an unusually warm November day. On the news channel WINS 1010, the channel covered the two campaigns, announcing that early voting in this election was up 50%. The channel's mantra is ‘you give us 20 minutes and we'll give you the world’. Every twenty minutes listeners were treated to rolling news, weather, business and traffic and while there were ad breaks there was not one campaign advertisement. The two campaigns were treated to exactly the same amount of time for news but there were other news items covered, all domestic including the possibility of a drought in New York, that the subway carried its one billionth passenger of 2024 and a New York policeman suspended after a shooting.

 

Radio in New York fits into three categories, traditional AM & FM, satellite radio mostly through Sirius and finally online only radio. I visited East Village Radio, an internet station with a shop front studio on 1st Avenue. I spoke to Brian, the station owner, who told me they decided to provide an alternative to the non stop political battle by just playing music with their only nod to the election, pleading with their listeners whomever they supported to go out and vote. I spoke with New York based author, radio producer and pirate radio archivist, David Goren, who told me that even for him listening to Caribbean pirate stations in New York city that the election invaded the illegal airwaves. He played me a recording of a station broadcasting entirely in Creole and beamed at the Haitian community, where David said it was the first time he had heard the English language used on the station when the presenter broke into a rant in English trashing Trump and imploring his listeners to vote for the Harris/Waltz ticket.^[4] While these interventions are important to note, by their nature the pirate stations primarily based in Brooklyn and the Bronx are low powered operations and therefore their reach is limited. Many of their listeners are illegal immigrants and therefore not entitled to vote but the fear of Trump's rhetoric to deport illegal migrants fed into a number of the pirate station's output with the hope to influence those listeners who may be able to exercise their franchise.

 

According to Nielsen^[5] US radio reaches 92% of Democrats, 93% of Republicans and 92% of swing voters. But in all cases traditional AM/FM radio is behind Digital radio in reach but ahead of linear and cable television. It also highlighted that younger voters were migrating away from television because there were too many advertisements. But when it came to the major events of the campaign, it was the visuals, whether it was the Presidential debates, major news programme interviews or even assassination attempts, it was television that won the media battle. There were no tailor made radio events for the main campaigns. Third party candidate Jill Stein of the Green Party struggled to get her message across to the electorate dominated by the two major parties^[6]. She took part in a third party candidate debate broadcast on the cable news channel C-Span and her access to radio airtime included an interview on the Ray Hannania radio show broadcast on the Arab News channel relayed by WNZK in Detroit and WDMV in Washington. Stein was reduced to interviews on community radio stations including WMNF in Florida.^[7] Fearing that a vote for Stein would help elect Trump, the DNC took out negative radio ads saying that a vote for Stein was a vote for Trump.

 

Meanwhile, according to Jacobs Media who surveyed 300,000 radio listeners, 94% of those who spend the majority of their time with spoken word audio fall into the “very or somewhat closely” will follow the election period. 83% of those who predominantly listen to music genre stations responded to the same. Jacobs Media President Fred Jacobs shares his belief that the numbers show how powerful an advertising medium AM/FM radio can be for political campaigns.

 

In recent campaigns the voting populace have been polarized and they migrate to TV and radio that reflects their views only and so they are unable to see an alternative point of view. Such is the division, health officials believe that many suffer from election anxiety and as a result there were a number of infomercials that offered help and direction to health care providers to get more help to treat their election anxiety.

 

“What is pathetic about the freedom to express opinions on talk shows is the new lack of respect for the truth and facts,” says New Orleans based WWL talk show host Scoot Paisant.  “Why are talk show hosts allowed to go on the air and speak total nonsense about crucial topics concerning a presidential election? Station management allows talk show hosts to say whatever they want to say; and it becomes the audience, or responsible talk show hosts, to call out the abuses of freedom of expression.”^[8]

The WWL Radio host then argued that there is a  mirage of someone telling a truth simply because they have their own news/talk radio show, isn’t real.

Once the polls closed and results began to come in, the mood on radio changed. In New York there were two distinct feelings, gloom and euphoria depending on where you sat on the political fence. On WBLS, a primarily black station that features the likes of Steve Harvey, the morning after with Trump then projected to win back the presidency, the morning presenter said there was ‘nothing to be happy about today'. Listening to various stations on that Wednesday morning the theme was recriminations for the Democratic Party and retribution was the by word of the victorious Republicans.

 

According to AdImpact, 8% of dollars spent by the two main political campaigns were spent on radio. It was estimated by them that by election day $45 million would be spent on radio time. While most adverts were simply the audio of the television ads, some were specifically made for radio including two one minute ads made for the swing state of Wisconsin. One featured former talk show host Charlie Skyes while the other featured longtime former Republican Representative Liz Cheney.^[9]

 

According to Audacy, while radio was expected to have an influence on the 2024 election, the use of social media had increased significantly since the 2022 midterm elections. The rise of politically focussed podcasts also affected radio’s reach. This can easily be seen from the online reaction to Harris’s appearance on ‘Call Her Daddy^[10] and Trump's interview on Joe Rogan’s ^[11]

podcast. According to Steve Johnston, a former COO at FlexPoint Media,

            ‘2024 will be remembered as the Podcast Election. Not because podcasts are new (they're    not) but that this was the first time presidential nominees and their running mates                         leveraged them in a meaningful way.’^[12]

The numbers speak for themselves according to Edison Research^[13] one hundred million Americans listen to at least one podcast per week. Further researchers point to the fact that it's a younger generation, still accepting audio, that are listening to audio on demand like podcasts rather than traditional scheduled radio programming. There is a reported sea change in how Americans consume information, where they get their news from and how divided politically the nation has become. In this changing landscape, traditional radio was going to suffer. Radio is fighting a losing battle against podcasts. The Joe Rogan podcast, which has 14.5m Spotify followers and 17.9m YouTube followers gained an extra 400,000^[14] YouTube subscribers after the interview with Trump. The fact that you could see and hear the interview blurred the lines between traditional radio and television and today's audio visual experience. Call her Daddy figures were not immediately available but the power of her podcast is illustrated that in August 2024, SiriusXM spent $100 million on the rights to her podcast^[15], three years after Spotify paid $60m for exclusive rights.

 

Audacy cited the 2022 election of Democratic Senator John Fetterman. They said,

‘Fetterman’s campaign allocated 20% of media dollars to radio and generated a 10% lift from radio above the local TV campaign amounting to 676,000 additional votes at no extra cost. Fetterman defeated his opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz by less than 300,000, a testament to radios pivotal role.’^[16]

 

In a study by Nielsen’s (citation) they concluded

1. By allocating one fifth of an qd budget to AM/FM radio, the campaign was able to deliver a 12% bump in audience reach without increased spending
2. Radio added 29% more incremental reach among TV viewers who watch less than two hours per day.
3. Adding radio to the campaign media mix resulted in a 23% lift in reaching swing voters.^[17]

 

Their main takeaways in their study in advance of the election campaign were

1. Linear TV is losing voter reach
2. Radio and Digital media reach the most voters
3. 20% allocated to radio reaches more voters at no extra cost.
4. Use radio early and often for maximum lift.

Radio still has an important role to bring the news to the public. The major TV news networks like Fox CSpan, Bloomberg, NPR and CNN have radio versions of their output. The top five most listened to stations in New York are all music genre stations and they all carried radio adverts for both candidates^[18]. Two of the most listened to News radio stations in the United States are based in New York, WINS 1010 and WCBS 880 both on AM and both owned by Entercom Inc. The top five rated radio shows, which are syndicated and not only available on linear radio but also as podcasts were all conservative commentators including Sean Hannity, well known from his Fox News shows.^[19] The impact of satellite radio such as SiriusXM is significant primarily as their offerings are on a paid subscription service and operated commercial free. Also available in New York is HD Radio as operated by the NPR station WNYC. On their 93.9 frequency with the right receiver you can switch between their regular programming, classical music or a relay of their 820 AM schedule.

 

The financial impact of the campaign and bearing in mind that radio and TV stations must sell their airtime to the candidates at their lowest selling price, the Democrats^[20] spent $1.2 billion while the Republican party spent $653m.^[21] While the main focus of attention was the Presidential race, there were also campaigns for the Senate, House of Representatives, Governor races, Assemblymen and local referendums. According to NPR News^[22]

 

            ‘Altogether, $10.5 billion has been spent on campaign ads in the 2024                                            election cycle, on races from president down to county commissioner, according to data                    compiled by the ad-tracking firm AdImpact and analyzed by NPR.’^[23]

According to Inside Radio 3.5% of that amount would be spent on radio advertising.^[24] That $10 billion is larger than the GDP of fourteen countries including Tonga and Samoa.

 

As the visual media has fragmented from the traditional analogue and digital station, to streaming services, cable and satellite TV and even YouTube, the audio equivalent has also fragmented from traditional AM/FM stations to digital and satellite services such as SiriusXM, to Spotify and podcasts. There is also the rise in money spent on social media platforms like X and Facebook.

 

Of the two main candidates for the White House, Harris made more use of radio. There is however in the choice of talk radio a skewing of the choice in favour of Conservatives/Republican shows and stations as opposed to Liberal/Democratic choices. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution of the estimated $31m spent by Harris on broadcast and digital media, $7m was allocated to radio ads as compared to Trump's $560,000.^[25]  They also reported that from July to October Vice President Harris spent $456.3m on radio ads in seven key states while Former President Trump spent $204.3m in the same states. According to Open secrets.org the two largest media beneficiaries of campaign spending primarily by the PACs were FOX News Corp with $299m airtime purchased on TV and iHeart Media Inc with $298m on radio. IHeart Media have 860 radio stations in 160 cities and towns.^[26]

 

There was some fallout for radio in the aftermath of the election result. There was a raft of redundancies across numerous radio markets including in New York where iHeart’s layoffs included the widely respected and experienced Len Berman at WOR Radio.

 

Did radio materially affect the outcome of the 2024 US Presidential election? No. Will its influence diminish in future campaigns? We will have to tune in four years from now to answer that.

---

^[1] Travis Clark in the Current Blog

^[2] Fcc.gov

^[3] Currently owned by Disney

^[4] David Goren, the Brooklyn Sound Map

^[5] Inside Radio February 2024

^[6] A candidate must be polling at 15% to be included in the main television presidential debates.

^[7] September 17th 2024 interview with Meghan Bowman

^[8] Barrett Media Reporting

^[9] The Boston Examiner

^[10] October 6th 2024. Interviewed by Alex Cooper. Episode available on YouTube

^[11] The Joe Rogan Experience October 25th 2024

^[12] Reported in The Current Blog

^[13] Reported in April 2024

^[14] Sophie Clark in Newsweek October 28th 2024

^[15] Conor Murray, Forbes Magazine

^[16] ‘Radio Gets Votes’ by Idil Cakim, SVP and Head of Research & Insights, Audacy

^[17] Optimizing Polictal Campaigns to Win in November by Tony Heresy, Nielson

^[18] Top 5 as of December 2023, 1. WLTW (Lite FM 106.7 owned by iHeart Media) 2. WAXQ (Q104.3 Classic Rock owned by iHeart Media) 3. WBLS 4. WHTZ FM (Z100 owned by iHeart Media), 5. WCBS 101.1FM

^[19] SwinginWest.com

^[20] Originally Joe Biden’s campaign and then Kamala Harris

^[21] This figure includes the money spent directly by the campaign and by the Super PACs (Political Action Committees)

^[22] National Public Radio

^[23] Media includes TV, radio, online platforms, social media and newspapers

^[24] Inside Radio August 19th 2024

^[25] Radioink October 15th 2024

^[26] Stations in New York where I was based include WOR 710, Power 105.1, Lite 106.7 and the largest Z100

Ten Irish Radio Facts You May Not Know

 

Ireland has had a long, colourful and unique place in broadcasting history and as we enter a decade of radio centenaries, we look back at some of the facts that you may not be aware of that brings Ireland’s broadcasting history to the fore.

1.     The first public demonstration in Ireland of the new medium of Wireless Telegraphy took place on March 8th 1898. In front of an invited audience at the theatre of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS), a lecture was delivered by Monsignor Gerald Molloy titled ‘The Principles of Electric Signalling without Wires’. Also on stage with the cleric was the man who was at the forefront of Wireless Telegraphy development, Guglielmo Marconi. Marconi who proudly celebrated his Irish heritage through his mother Annie Jameson, a member of the whiskey distilling family.  A demonstration took place with a transmitter placed on the stage under the control of Monsignor Molloy and Marconi’s assistant William Lynd. In the gallery was Marconi with the receiving set and morse messages were sent through the ether in the theatre. That theatre today is the main chamber of the Irish parliament, Dail Eireann where the now Minister for Communications delivers his speeches.

2.     “One of the first places taken possession of by the insurgents was the Wireless School over Reis’ shop at the corner of Abbey Street and here during the night the wireless apparatus was re-erected complete with aerials”.

Thus, the Freeman’s Journal reported on events in O’Connell Street, April 1916. Rebel Radio ‘broke down the walls of silence built by the enemy’. The rebels’ launch of their very own radio station in April 1916 was a real and tangible success during the Easter Rising. This group of innovators broke new ground barely a decade after the invention of radio. Their actions, often under intense fire from their enemy, beat the odds and the British censorship blanket in Ireland. The radio station, located opposite the rebel headquarters in the GPO, was expertly planned and executed and it became a world’s first as the Irish Republic became the first State to be declared globally by radio. It was the first instance of battlefield propaganda being broadcast to the general listener. As the first Director of Irish Broadcasting the proclamation signatory (and later executed leader) Joseph Plunkett led a group of extraordinarily brave rebels. His charges included Fergus O’Kelly, John ‘Blimey’ O’Connor, Liam Daly and the Hollywood star Arthur Shield’s.

“To Officer in Charge Reis's and D.B.C. The main purpose of your post is to protect our wireless station. Its secondary purpose is to observe Lower Abbey Street and Lower O'Connell Street. Signed. James Connolly, Commandant General”.

3.     For many when 2RN, the forerunner of RTE Radio took to the airwaves on January 1st 1926, it was the first but before 2RN and even Belfast’s 2BE, Irelands first licensed radio station 2BP took to the airwaves for three days August 14th -16th 1923. It would be the first time that listeners in Dublin could hear Irish voices singing and playing Irish traditional airs.

4.     Much has been written and it is still fondly remembered that Tolka Row, first broadcast on RTE in January 1964, was the stations first foray into producing a soap opera but in fact it was the BBC who stole the march on the Irish broadcasters by first broadcasting Tolka Row on radio in October 1957 and on BBC TV in March 1959. RTE would eventually broadcast the Dublin based soap for five series.

 

5.     The two Irish language broadcasters TG4 & Raidio na Gaeltachta both had pirate incarnations before becoming legal entities. Radio Saor Connemara was a forerunner of the Irish language service on radio while Telifis na Gaeltacht in Rosmuc in 1987 promoted our native language on TV, before the arrival of TG4.

6.     First commercial use of radio was by the Goodbody family in Clara, County Offaly. The family and fellow businessmen were early investors in the Marconi wireless invention. The wireless system in the town connected wirelessly their flour manufacturing plant with their sack producing building.

7.     First use of radio for sports journalism in the world was by Marconi at the 1898 Dun Laoghaire regatta. Marconi transmitted radio signals from the tug The Flying Huntress in the bay giving details of the progress of the yacht races in the Kingstown Regatta to his assistant who manned the receiving equipment in what is now Moan Park House, Dun Laoghaire. The information was then telephoned to The Dublin Express newspaper who published results of the races shortly after they ended. This event represented the very first use of radio in journalism and sports broadcasting.

 

8.     In 1964, the famous pirate ship Radio Caroline was fitted out as a radio station in the County Louth harbour of Greenore by Dublin born Ronan O’Rahilly, whose family owned the port. The station, now with an Ofcom licence still broadcasts from the Ross Revenge ship off the Essex coast.

9.     Radio 2000 who lost out on the national franchise applied for one of the two Dublin licences, which he duly won along with Capital Radio. The franchises for Dublins independent local radio stations were awarded Radio 2000 and Capital Radio on March 2nd. At 8am on July 20th Capital Radio went on the air broadcasting from the St. Stephens Green Centre on 104mhzFM becoming the first of the new licensed radio stations. Radio 2000's station 98FM was launched from the former home of the pirate station Q102 in Mount Street broadcasting on 98mhzFM. Both stations had stolen the march on the nationally licensed Century Radio this despite Century's protests that the success of the national station depended on Century being on the air before the local stations. Capital Radio was launched at the Berkley Court Hotel with the first voice heard on the station being that of Scott Williams. Dublin's Lord Mayor Sean Haughey officially declared the station open before handing over to the studios and Colm Hayes who played the station's first record, Phil Lynott's 'Old Town'.

 

10.  The Hurdy Gurdy Museum in the Martello Tower in Howth has one of the largest collections of antiques radios and equipment from Irish radio history. The brainchild of the late Pat Herbert, the museum according to its website derives its name as ‘a homage to a remark made by Taoiseach Seán Lemass, who asked an RTÉ radio controller in the 1950s "How's the hurdy gurdy?".