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Sunday, 12 July 2020

Radio Tralee 1939 - 1990, the legacy of Michael Donovan


Tralee has a long radio history in one guise or another. The first mention of a ‘Radio Tralee’ was in June 1939 when a loudspeaker system was installed in the town for the Tralee Summer Show and Carnival. The ‘station’ studios were installed on Castle Street to entertain those who attended the festival which included a major horse race meeting. According to the 'Kerryman' newspaper on June 17th when reporting the official opening of the Tralee Industrial Fair,
‘Mr. Thomas Lynch, Chairman of the Tralee Urban Council, opened the Tralee Industrial Show and Exhibitions on Wednesday night. Speaking from the studio of "Radio Tralee," he appealed to the people to support the manufacturers who had come to Tralee to show what can be done by Irishmen in their own country.’

The moniker Radio Tralee then reappeared in the sixties and the early seventies, initially during the Rose of Tralee festival when studios were first located in 'Arthurs' music and radio shop on the Square. By 1973, Radio Tralee was on every weekend from the Rose weekend in July until after Christmas providing entertainment and an advertising outlet for the traders in the town. The manager of the shop Declan Moriarty was one of the main presenters on Radio Tralee at the time. In 1974 the station would be moved to Barrack Lane behind the Munster Warehouse and the star presenter was now Sean Hurley.



He would be replaced by a man who would have a lasting impression on the listening public in Tralee, the late Michael Donovan. Donovan would take the name from the towns speaker system and put in on the airwaves properly as Radio Tralee in 1978 when it burst onto the medium wave. Sometimes known as Community Radio Tralee and Downtown Radio Tralee, it closed briefly in December 1979 citing financial problems. In its various guises Donovan would keep a Radio Tralee on the air until December 1988 when new legislation forced the closure of over 100 pirate radio stations across Ireland that ultimately made way for legal independent commercial radio and Radio Kerry. But having been overlooked for a franchise, Radio Tralee came back on the air in late 1989 but was eventually closed by the authorities in July 1990 putting an end to Radio Tralee, or did it?


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