Irish Broadcasting History & Hall of Fame: The Irish Pirate Radio Archives & Tipperary Community Radio

In July 2021, The Irish Pirate Radio Archive at Dublin City University were delighted to accept the archives of 'Anoraks Ireland'. They had been meticulously gathered by Paul Davidson who ran 'Anoraks Ireland' for over a decade. The archives are extensive covering a golden era of Irish pirate radio (1980's) and shed light on both the social and broadcasting history of Ireland. The archives includes station advertising rates cards, correspondence with stations, detailed questionnaires, comprehensive bandscans, newspaper clippings, photographs of both studios and transmitters and over 2,500 tape recordings. Over the next couple of months we will bring you snippets of this extensive archive to give you a flavour of both its breath and depth and what pirate radio was like in Ireland in the 1970's and 1980's.

We begin by looking at Tipperary Community Radio. Following a successful festival station run in the town in July 1980 by the operators of Radio Amanda from Limerick City, it was decided that the town needed a station of its own. Initially two stations were reportedly about to go on the air but following a Muintir na Tire meeting in the town, a decision was taken to launch a station of their own from the St. Michaels Community Centre in the town. The committee was led by Muintir na Tire (People of the Country) who promote community development nationally having been founded in Tipperary in 1937.

Both photographs from The Nationalist (Tipperary) newspaper

They installed a 50ft mast and a FM transmitter and on Monday December 15^th 1980, TCR made its first broadcast. Although on air initially only for the lucrative Christmas period 1980, they were back in early January later added a medium wave outlet broadcasting on 228m medium wave. Tim Ryan officially became the first voice heard on TCR when it officially opened as a full time service on 29^th May 1981. By 1982 they had a regular full time on air schedule and a leaflet aimed at advertisers.

One of the most important elements of the 'Anoraks Ireland' archives was Paul's surveys of each and every pirate station that he came across. This is the survey for Tipperary Community Radio from early 1988.

The station continued on air until December 1988 when the implementation of the new Wireless Telegraphy Act closed the vast majority of the almost 100 pirate radio stations across Ireland, to pave the way for the introduction of commercial independent radio in Ireland. The franchise for Tipperary was originally divided into two areas and the contracts were won by Premier County Communications Limited and Tipperary Community Radio Co-Op Society Limited but only one station would take to the airwaves initially known as Suriland Radio, later to be renamed as Tipp FM. A community station Tipperary Mid West Radio took to the airwaves broadcasting from the old TCR broadcast studios in Tipperary Town.