Through the pandemic of 2020, radio has proved to be vital in both delivering information and entertainment. Radio is still king. But as we hurtle through the early part of the twenty first century, the discussion as to what exactly the definition of radio is, has taken centre stage and led to differing opinions. For decades radio was delivered through a transmitter on various wavelengths and frequencies but today, what is described as ‘audio content delivery’, reaches our ears via analogue radio, digital radio, podcasts or online radio apps. But while we discuss today was a radio station is, that same discussion could have easily taken place in the late 1970’s.
Like today, the image we
have of radio, is a studio with a presenter behind the microphone and the
content then fed into a transmitter, to broadcast through the ether to your
radio set. But in the 1970’s and early eighties radio came advertised in
different forms, on air with everything except a transmitter, thus avoiding any
law breaking and being deemed a pirate radio station.
There were numerous
different varieties of operations that called themselves ‘radio’ but were not
in the purest sense of the word.
Firstly there was the ‘Festival
Radio Station’. In many rural towns and villages, the highlight of the social
calendar was the local festival or fete, attracting both locals and tourists. These festivals ranged from accordion,
Wild Boar, Trout, May Day, Christmas shopping to Cheese promotion festivals. The
promoters of these festivals advertised a ‘radio station’ to entertain and
inform but rather than transmitter based these stations like Omagh Festival
Radio, Athlone’s and Carrick-on-Shannon’s celebration of the River Shannon and
Radio Loughshinny were ‘broadcast’ via a public address systems attached to
poles in the town or from speakers hung outside the festival office.
Secondly came the Hospital Radio stations. From the 1930’s hospitals
installed speakers and later as technology evolved, bedside headphones so that
patients could be entertained. Initially these systems piped Radio Eireann through
the cables but then hospital specific studios were set up to broadcast within
the hospital. These proved extremely popular with most major hospitals having
their own ‘radio’ station. Hospital radio was extremely popular in Northern
Ireland.
Next came school based radio stations. As the interest of the younger
generation focussed on radio for entertainment and as transistors became more
widespread, with these transistors often tuned into pirate radio stations, school
authorities tried to tap into this interest by allowing pupils set up their own
‘radio station’ to broadcast at lunchtime through intercom systems. A number of
these students would later become involved in pirate radio and would trace
their interest in ‘radio’ broadcasting back to those early school stations.
By the seventies, ‘radio’ was everywhere and with the state broadcaster
Radio Eireann attempting to cater for all tastes, the need for the broadcasting
of popular programmes and music was growing rapidly. Pirate radio offered one
alternative, but others emerged. When President Erskine Childers opened the
expansive entertainment complex of Leisureland in Galway, one of its attractions
was its very own ‘radio station’ broadcasting through the centre’s ‘closed
circuit’ system. It paved the way for other venues to follow the example and
these stations provided an alternative, employment and training for future
broadcasters.
Another ‘radio’ station that gained widespread publicity was CIE’s radio
train. The first excursion departed Kingsbridge (now Heuston) Station on November
6th !949. The idea sprung from two CIE employees Pat Heneghan and Gerry
Mooney and was designed originally to make the centenary of the opening of the
Dublin to Cork rail link. A studio was installed in one of the carraiges and
the ‘broadcasts’ were piped through the train. On that first trip the man ‘spinning
the discs’ and entertaining the passengers was Terry O’Sullivan. The trip was
an instant success and every year throughout the fifties the number of trips of
the Radio train increased and were often sold out. It proved just as popular as
CIE’s other novelty trips ‘The Mystery Train’. The company also ran specials including
an Irish language return trip to Galway and a Pioneers trip with the bar carriage
removed. The bus service attempted to piggy back on the success of the trains
by advertising a ‘Radio Bus’ but it was simply a guide on a microphone telling
some stories and inviting passengers to sing.
Later incarnations of radio stations with the transmitter included the
Virgin Record Store on Aston Quay that opened in the late eighties and stations
built into new shopping centres to entertain and promote the shops in the
centre.
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