Review
This is a highly well-researched and insightful piece of historical
writing.
It goes beyond a simple "history of radio" and functions as a
socio-economic analysis of 20th-century Ireland. It is an excellent piece of historical
journalism. It provides a clear "cause and effect" chain: RTÉ’s
conservatism + Luxembourg’s technical power + the invention of the transistor =
the inevitable rise of the pirates and the eventual birth of 2FM. It treats the
subject with the seriousness of a political history while maintaining the
energy of a pop-culture retrospective.
For many years, RTE held a monopoly as the Republic of Ireland’s sole state broadcaster and the only authorised source of radio programming for the general public. This dominance faced its first major challenge with the introduction of a legal framework that paved the way for independent and commercial radio stations. The move toward legalising independent broadcasting was a direct response to the widespread popularity of pirate radio throughout the 1980s, which had demonstrated a substantial demand among listeners for alternatives to RTE. However, RTE’s position as the exclusive provider of entertainment for Irish audiences had already started to erode much earlier. The process of dismantling RTE’s monopoly began in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the Irish public grew increasingly eager for new programming options especially for music listening. This period marked a significant shift in listener preferences, leading to a strong appetite for alternatives to Radio Eireann, which, despite its efforts, struggled to meet the diverse and growing demands of audiences across the country.
In
1953, Radio Luxembourg, based in the Grand Duchy, relaunched when its medium
wave and long wave services[1] were merged on 208 metres
medium wave. It was a truly commercial station with purchased airtime[2] and sponsored programming.
The English language part of the station opened at 6pm and closed at midnight
and its powerful 300KW transmitter was clearly heard throughout the British
Isles especially during nighttime hours.[3] In 1953 its popularity in
Ireland was recognised by the station when the Irish Hour was broadcast with
requests once a week, with host Pete Murray.[4] The programme was an
instant hit with the younger generation in Ireland who not only heard their own
names and towns but the latest music emanating from the new rock and roll scene
in London and the United States.
There
was no escaping Luxembourg as in 1953, the Irish national newspapers were
printing the stations daily schedule. On November 11th, 1953, during
a Dail debate on the allocation of funds to cover Radio Eireann, Oliver
Flanagan TD said,
“No matter what praise we may have
here for Radio Éireann, very few of our listeners listen
to Radio Éireann while Radio Luxembourg is on the air.
They usually listen to Radio Éireann when they have nothing else to
listen to.”
This
was the issue for the state broadcaster. The station had no competition during
its daytime and evening programming[5] but as soon as Luxembourg
opened at 6pm[6],
the radios were retuned to 208. Ireland of the early 1950s was slowly emerging
from itself imposition international isolation created by the De Valera
government. It was still a deeply Catholic country and the national radio
service reflected that, plus as a single channel it was attempting to cater to
all needs and tastes but the ever growing youth demographic was ignored as
conservative Irish listeners and legislators saw the emergence of the new Rock
n Roll music with the same disdain they did when American jazz waved across the
Atlantic in the 1930’s.[7] For the clergy there was
also the emergence of American evangelism on this side of the Atlantic and
perceived it as a threat. When a ‘paid for’ religious programme aired on Radio
Luxembourg nightly at 11pm, just before closedown, with a significant audience
carried over from its earlier more popular shows, the Catholic media in Ireland
were upset. The Christian Broadcasting Fellowship aired nightly and promoted
its show with advertisements in the Irish newspapers with a contact address of
D’Olier Street in the centre of Dublin city, near O’Connell Bridge.
By January 1954, Irish advertisers were purchasing airtime on the station, a loss to Radio Eireann. The Bray Holiday Bureau[8] purchased a fifteen-minute slot once a week for three months advertising the town featuring the popular Irish tenor Joseph Locke on its first programme. The pressure on Radio Eireann, which was already cash starved by the Department of Finance continued throughout the 1950’s. Weekly Independent’s radio Supplement gave weekly schedule for Radio Eireann, AFN and Radio Luxembourg side by side. Luxembourg was broadcasting a mix of music along with serials like Dan Dare, Dr, Kildare and Perry Mason.
When an Irish reporter questioned the stations content, gives the answer, " What makes Radio Luxembourg tick?" It's quite simple, he replied, " When the people ask for oranges, we give them oranges. We don't give them bananas." By providing "oranges" (popular music and rock and roll) when the state insisted on "bananas" (traditional and conservative programming), Luxembourg successfully commercialized the Irish airwaves from abroad.
In August 1954, the station cemented its connection to Ireland with the unveiling of their first ever Miss Radio Luxembourg pageant competition. The winner was announced as Miss Phil Tubridy from Monkstown. Not only did she represent the station at various events including the Radio Review ball in the Hibernian Hotel on Dawson Street but also had a weekly fifteen-minute show on the station that ran until Christmas 1954.
By
1955 in a listener survey[9] Radio Luxembourg was the
second most listened to station in Ireland. It reported that 85% listened to
Radio Eireann and that 56% listened to Luxembourg, with smaller listenership’s
to the BBC light Service and the American Forces Network. The poll also showed
that Radio Eireann’s listenership was dominated by those listening before 8pm
and in rural areas. This reinforced a survey a year earlier reported by the
Catholic Standard Newspaper[10]
‘About one in three of the
population over 16 tune into Luxembourg at same time during the evening and
although there is less listening to radio in Ireland, listening to Luxembourg
is at a higher level than in Great Britain. On an average evening less than two
in three of the Irish listens in and of these more than half tune to
Luxembourg.’
For a national station these were startling statistics as it leaked a growing number of listeners yearly.
By 1958 The Irish Requests Show was being sponsored by Jacobs Ireland with quarter page daily ads in the Irish national newspapers on the day of their shows. In 1960 the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes returned to sponsoring programmes on Luxembourg. With no access to advertising into the UK via radio for their lottery, Luxembourg provided that avenue. In 1935 the Sweepstakes were sponsoring programmes on the pre-war Luxembourg.[11]
After
almost a decade of dominance by Radio Luxembourg over Irish radio audiences,
its relationship with Ireland featured in numerous debates in the Dail. On February
24th 1960, Dr Noel Browne informed the sitting that,
“One of the sad truths about our
society is that one of our favourite stations, outside Radio Éireann,
is Radio Luxembourg, which is unparalleled in any society for
unadulterated rubbish. Their sponsored programmes are under the control of
advertisers and private enterprise products, the standard being the lowest
common denominator.”
There were also complaints that the Dundalk based Carrolls firm were advertising their Sweet Afton cigarette brand on Luxembourg rather than Radio Eireann
In
a debate of Broadcasting Authority Bill which would eventually lead to the
launch of television and the creation of Radio Telifis Eireann, John Belton TD
(FG) on March 16th, 1960, told the debate,
“The most popular station
for radio listeners in the city of Dublin
is Radio Luxembourg because it is producing modern programmes
that have a greater interest for radio audiences than other
programmes.”
In
May 1960, James Dillon (FG) added,
“I am sorry to have to tell the
Deputy that that is not the reason recommended to me. It is usually a
passionate desire to listen to "Elvis the Pelvis", and I cannot
pretend to enjoy that buck. I recognise freely that there are others who do, and
every man is entitled to enjoy what he likes best in the form of music, whether
it be Elvis or Ludwig von Beethoven. Certain it is, however, that the net
result is that Radio Luxembourg gets immense advertising
revenue. If we could command a tithe of the advertising
revenue Radio Luxembourg enjoys, we would be able to achieve
what I think is the ideal: we would be able to cater on one wavelength for the
fans of "Elvis the Pelvis" and, on another, for the enthusiasts for
Mozart and Beethoven. Perhaps the Minister would explain to the uninitiated
amongst us.”
Michael
Hillard TD[12]
replied,
“We would have to put the
"Jolly Roger" up.”
James
Dillon TD,
“There is something to be said for
the "Jolly Roger" in certain circumstances. Great Empires have been
built through the profits derived from the "Jolly Roger". In the old
days, they were called privateers. If you got caught, you were a pirate; if you
came home successfully with the loot, you were a privateer.”
This created a paradox in the Dáil, where
politicians simultaneously decried the "unadulterated rubbish" of
commercial radio while admitting the state could not afford to compete without
adopting the "Jolly Roger" tactics of its competitors.
In
June 1960, as the debate on the future of Irish broadcasting continued in the
public domain, Maurice Kennedy writing in the Irish Independent,
“The rural cinemas, the Rock n Roll output of Radio Luxembourg and the car, on the family farm, all mean that rural teenagers are subject to the same influences as their city cousins.”
In the early sixties the new music of the increasing number of showbands were breaking through but with so many bands travelling around the ballrooms of Ireland and many of them recording tracks, an outlet domestically was lacking, and Radio Luxembourg was ready to fill the void. One of the most popular showbands in Ireland was the Capitol Showband, led by singer Butch Moore had their own show beginning in October 1963[13]. Their success was created by an enterprising manager, who himself would go onto a stellar career in broadcasting. The Capitol’s manager was County Louth born Jimmy Magee who would dominate sports commentating on both RTE radio and television for decades. In December 1963 just as the Capitol’s run of programmes was coming to an end, The Cadets Showband took over with the Marlowe Dry Cleaners sponsoring their fifteen-minute show.
But in the sixties the strength and power of Radio Luxembourg and ergo their advertisers weakened not because RTE began addressing the younger listener, but the arrival in 1964 of Radio Caroline, the pirate-based radio ship. Caroline by 1967 had two ships, one operating off the coast of Essex on England’s east coast and a second ship anchored off the Isle of Man covering the west coast of the UK and all of Ireland. By the late 1960’s hobby weekend pirates were appearing on the Irish airwaves from Dublin to Cork to Wexford and Newry.
The
younger listener, who by the end of the sixties had access to cheaper
transistor radios, had been acclimatised to hearing the music they liked, not
what their peers listened to. The new music of rock and roll, led by Elvis
coming from America and the rise of the Beatles music in the UK, sidelined the
Irish traditional music and even the showbands, consigning them to the older
generation and Radio Eireann. While Radio Eireann and later RTE Radio had, like
Luxembourg, sponsored programming, it was the type of music that was being
played on the commercial stations that encouraged listeners to return time and
time again. The commercial stations also attempted to replicate American
broadcasting styles which offered a tantalising taste of other possibilities. It was the ease of access to listen to Radio
Luxembourg and later Radio Caroline that made them attractive to the young
listener and therefore to the advertisers who were purchasing their sponsorship
of the stations.
The growing demand for pop and rock music in Ireland, coupled with limited access for musicians and bands to Radio Eireann, led Irish artists and voices to seek alternative platforms. This quest for exposure resulted in many finding a place on the newly developing pirate radio scene. While pirate radio in Ireland during the 1950s primarily consisted of paramilitary style political broadcasts[14], the landscape began to shift. Hobbyists and amateur engineers started constructing their own medium wave homemade transmitters and basic, affordable studio equipment. This movement sparked a new era of pirate radio, paving the way for further growth in the following decades. As the influence of stations like Radio Caroline and Radio Luxembourg waned in the seventies, the reach and popularity of Irish pirate radio expanded. The impact of Radio Luxembourg on Irish listeners was substantial, significantly affecting RTE's audience and advertising revenue. In response to this shift, some of the lost revenue to RTE was redirected, with advertisers opting to place ads in Irish newspapers promoting Radio Luxembourg's programmes. While Luxembourg started the erosion, the arrival of Radio Caroline in 1964 and the subsequent rise of Irish pirate ships ensured that the monopoly could never be fully restored to its pre-1950s state.
Appendix
1: Some of the various programme sponsors on Radio Eireann and Luxembourg in
the 1960’s
Luxembourg
EMI, Decca & Capitol Records, later Phillips (In 1968 all
replaced by individual commerical brand sponsors)
Frys Chocolate
Elida Shampoo
Silvikrin Shampoo
Brunitex Shampoo
Racing Blue (Sports Newspaper)
Curry’s Limited
Raleigh Industries
Pye
Top Rank Bingo
Irish Hospital Sweepstakes
Beechams
Sweet afton
Radio Eireann
ESB (1950s – 1960s)
Lyons Tea
Associated Ballrooms
Knocknagram Chicks (Jan 1962)
VG Shops
Bulmers Cidona (6am Saturdays Only 1960)
Irish Hospital Sweepstakes
Hygeia
Andrews Liver Salts
Loxene Hair Cream (Men)
Waltons
[1]
Radio Luxembourg One on longwave was aimed at British audiences while
Luxembourg 2 was aimed domestically on 208m medium wave.
[2]
North American Evangelists
[3] Marnach
transmitter was a broadcasting facility of RTL near Marnach in the commune of
Clervaux, in northern Luxembourg.
[4]
Murray joined Luxembourg in 1950 and was based in the Grand Duchy unlike many
presenters who recorded their programmes in London and despatched to
Luxembourg.
[5]
There were a small percentage of daytime urban listeners who tuned into the BBC
[6] The station broadcasting in 5.30am –
Noon, German Noon to 5.30pm, Luxembourgish 5.30pm to 6pm
[7]
That led to the anti-jazz movement of the 1930s led by Father Confrey from
Mohill Co. Leitrim
[8] A
seaside resort on the border of Dublin and Wicklow
[9] A
Poll of 7,000
[10]
January 22nd 1954 by Social Surveys Limited
[11]
The Radio Pictorial magazine
[12]
The then Minister for Posts & Telegraphs with responsibility for
broadcasting
[13]
First show 7.45pm October 9th 1963
[14]
Several incarnations of ‘Irish Freedom Radio’ were based in Dublin and along
the Northern Ireland border
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