IRISH PIRATE RADIO BLOOPERS

We have all watched TV shows like 'It'll Be Alright On The Night' or 'TV Bloopers & Practical Jokes' but on radio you can also have bloopers and even Irish pirate radio had its own fair share. With thanks to John Kenny's audio donation to the Irish Pirate Radio Archive at DCU, here are a selection of  those bloopers from recording advertisment disasters to stings gone wrong, they are all here. These come mainly from South Coast Radio in Cork and Q102 in Dublin.

    BE WARNED THESE RECORDING DO CONTAIN BAD LANGUAGE THROUGHOUT

 

Donegal's Unique 1980's Festival Radio Experiment

It was the closure of the pirate radio station Radio Donegal in 1981 after eighteen months on the air that created one of the most unique pirate radio experiments in the country[1]. Don Clark who worked for Radio Donegal saw an opportunity to help publicise the various festivals around the country by creating a mobile service in a caravan travelling from town in town.

For many listeners to the radio in Donegal, the national station RTE Radio was Dublin based and had little influence on the events of Donegal. In the 1970’s, in an attempt to generate business in small towns, committees formed to create unique festivals. To help to generate publicity, to inform visitors and provide local businesses with advertising opportunities, a radio station was operated but rather than traditional AM or FM transmissions, these station operated on a wired loudspeaker system, sometimes referred to as ‘lamppost radio stations’. Some of the tons to adopt this system included Letterkenny for the Folk Festival and in Ballyshannon. This created a local attachment to the familiar nature of their own radio station. Radio Ramelton was another station that ‘broadcast’ via a wired system. The Donegal News reported,

‘This year again ‘Radio Ramelton’ will be in operation, when the whole town is " Wired up ". to receive local programmes. Mr. Mervyn Corry will be in charge of the " mike," but special programmes have been set aside for the children and the ladies.’

The station, set to promote the ‘Lennon Festival’, was initially fronted by Jim Birney, known on air as ‘Slim Jim’ and later by Mervyn Corry.

In 1976, a new radio station arrived courtesy of the State broadcaster RTE, when their mobile community radio station and transmitter arrived in Donegal. With a medium transmitter on 202m and a low powered FM transmitter, RTE’s service, under the then direction of Pauric O’Neill, covered three areas over six days. The local organisers in Fintown, Downings and Dungloe would see the broadcast unit spend two days in each town. 

The days in Dungloe coincided with the most popular and famous festival in Donegal the Mary from Dungloe Festival. As the mobile unit continued to tour Ireland introducing towns and villages to community radio, towns in Donegal reverted to the lamppost radio services. The RTE service did travel at various times to The Glenties, Letterkenny, Ardara and Bundoran.

In 1981, RTE announced that the mobile unit would visit Dungloe for the entire now expanded festival. Advertisements appeared in the newspapers informing listeners how to tune into Community Radio Dungloe. At the last minute the visit was cancelled by RTE. 

This provided an opportunity for some ex staff of the pirate station Radio Donegal that had closed in April after eighteen months on air. With a standby transmitter built by Paul Millar and broadcasting on 257m, Radio Dungloe took to the airwaves for the festival. The newspapers reported,

‘Operating for most of the Festival was Radio Dungloe in association with Radio Donegal on 257m. with the studio based at the Festival caravan on Upper Main Street and making its own contribution to the spirit of the event.’

The station was operated by Don Clark with former Radio Donegal DJ Tommy Rosney assisting. Their numbers augmented by local DJ’s. Rosney told me in an interview[2] that at that time he was working at Dunnes Stores in Letterkenny and that he would take two weeks holidays around the Mary from Dungloe festival so that he could work on air. He also said that while there was not too much financial reward, the on air personalities were looked after with a quid pro quo advertising deals with restaurants that would deliver to the DJ’s meals. According to Rosney, he and his colleagues would stay in the mobile home while it was in operation with the transmitter housed in one of the utility rooms. Once the festival was finished, a tractor hitched up the mobile home and moved it to the next town or village.

With the success of Radio Dungloe in 1981, Clark saw an opportunity to take his station mobile and operate for various festivals around the county.  The next visit for their mobile home was Radio Downings with the station now broadcasting on a regular 192m MW. This was followed by Radio Ceilteach (Celtic Radio) for the Ceilteach festival held in Falcarragh opening at midday on Saturday July 11^th 1981 and then broadcasting each evening for the next five days from seven in the evening.

In 1982 the small village of Bonagee hosted Radio Bonagee for the local spring show in May. The Donegal Democrat reported,

‘Radio Bonagee, which will be under the supervision of the very popular ex-Radio Donegal D. J., Don Clarke, will be on the air on 192 mts. medium wave, which is beside Radio Luxemburg. Don will be on the air on Wednesday and Thursday between 2 and 5 p.m. and he will be on the air all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday. His many fans will surely be phoning in requests to his popular show.’

Meanwhile when the station, now based in the mobile home, arrived back in Dungloe, it was based in the carpark of the Ostan na Rosann Hotel.

In 1983 the mobile home was back at Radio Dungloe, followed by Radio Lifford which operated just for a weekend. Radio Twin Towns was on air for the festival that connected the two ‘twin’ towns of Ballybofey and Stranolar. Radio Letterkenny was on the air once again for the Folk Festival, not as a loudspeaker station but with a medium transmitter, while in 1985 the mobile station was known as Radio Cunamh was based in Stranolar with Pat Reid and Kevin Duffy assisting Clarke and Rosney. Also, in May 1983 Radio Bonagee was back on the air with the Donegal Democrat once again reporting,

The station continued to travel to various towns across Donegal, always revisiting Dungloe. In 1985, they visited as Radio Killybegs based next to the Artic Fish Company near the quays. Radio Killybegs was back once more in 1986, this time moving frequency slightly to 205m MW. The mobile station also visited another Donegal fishing port transforming into Radio Burtonport, which according to Tommy Rosney was located next to the co-op in the town.

 

The experiment came to an end when the new 1988 legislation came into force, forcing the end of the pirate era.

My thanks to Tommy Rosney, Russ Padmore, John Breslin at Highland Radio, Ocean FM, Donegal Live and the Donegal Democrat

---

[1] In Dublin a similar operation was operated by the Community Broadcasting Cooperative which broadcast from various suburb festivals including Radio Glasnevin, Radio Sandymount and Radio Ringsend.

[2] Interviewed in Letterkenny February 16^th 2023

Radio in Thurles, Co. Tipperary

 

An hour and a three quarters from Dublin is the Tipperary town of Thurles. Although more famous for its Feile in the past and Semple Stadium today, the population of just over 8,000 has since the Seventies had a flirtation with radio broadcasting in their town. The first Radio Thurles[1] was set up for the Suirside Festival in the town in 1977. The festival was held from August 21^st – 28^th 1977.  The station was operated from a caravan in Liberty Square in the town.

According to the Tipperary Star

‘Radio Thurles has had thousands of-, requests, played for people "deeply in love", lost fans of the late Elvis Presley, tourists returned exiles etc.’

The paper also reported that those ‘spinning the discs’ included Mary Grace, Jim Kearns, Kendall and Michael O'Brien, Johnny Kearns, Jackie O'Brien, Mary Gleeson and Tim Corbett.

The next Radio Thurles began broadcasting on 230mMW. A small low powered station that broadcast to the County Tipperary town that opened in 1978. The studios were in an abandoned building attached to a castle ruins in the town. The station hijacked the station title Community Radio Thurles when they heard that RTE’s mobile service would be in the town in October 1979 forcing the state broadcaster RTE to title itself Thurles Community Radio.

Independent Radio Thurles on 222m MW was a short lived station that began broadcasting on St Patrick’s Day 1979. Then came the RTE’s mobile radio station now known as Thurles Community Radio or Raidio Phobail Dhurlas.

 

Another version of  Community Radio Thurles appeared on 100mhz FM. Following a number of various incarnations, this version of CRT began test transmissions on November 9^th 1981. The following December, the Southern Star newspaper reported,

‘Community Radio Thurles has just completed a very successful week of test transmissions. From the enormous response received it has been decided that the station, will commence broadcasting on a permanent basis from Monday, 14th of December.

The station will be broadcasting from a new and eminently more suitable premises. At present a varied schedule of programmes is being prepared and will include a variety of programmes to suit all sections of the community, both young and old. A strong element of community involvement in the station is hoped for and many local bodies are being contacted with a view to forming a programme management committee.

Broadcasting will be between the hours of 6—11 p.m. from Monday to Friday and between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Why not tune in to Community Radio Thurles on 100 Megahertz F.M. It will be worth your while.’

In January 1982, the station moved to a new studio and began broadcasting on a permanent basis to the Tipperary town. The station changed its title slightly to Thurles Local Community Radio.

 

Today apart from the independent franchise Mid-West Radio and the community station Tipperary Community Radio, you will find Thurles parish church radio on FM 106.4.

Sources

Radiowaves.fm

Pirate.ie

The DX Archive

The Irish Newspaper Archives

The Tipperary Star.

 

---

[1] Originally known as Radio Suirside

When Pirate Radio Nova Stole RTE's Treasure

 

For a generation a bad from Derry with a unique sound and a remarkable lead singer, the Undertones and Fergal Sharkey cut a swathe through the charts and hearts of music aficionados.

But their reign at the top would come to a premature halt in 1983, when they decided to split and play one last gig, pencilled in for the Punchestown racecourse on July 17th. It would become headline news at home and abroad and it would generate many column inches in newspapers and music magazine including Hot Press, the NME and Rolling Stone. But strangely the Irish national broadcaster almost completely ignored the event thanks to one of the gigs main promoters, the illegal pirate station Radio Nova. This scandal came just months after the authorities had raided Nova in May and briefly closed them. The only show to give any serious coverage was Dave Fanning’s RTE Radio 2’s rock show, of course Mr. Fanning was a former pirate broadcaster in his own right. The band were playing support to the top of the bill, Dire Straits.

(c) The RTE Guide

The top selling RTE Guide in advance of the gig advertised that ‘the promoter has offered our readers six double tickets for this rock festival’. They failed to mention who the promoter was, Radio Nova in associations with Paul Charles’s Asgard Promotions.

The Evening Herald Monday September 6th 1982

A year earlier in 1982, feathered had been ruffled at RTE HQ, when the Evening Herald ran a ‘Mystery Voice’ competition on the radio. They would offer clues in their newspaper and allow contestants to post in their answers. When the competition began on September 6^th 1982, the advert in the evening edition pointed listeners to listen to the ‘Mystery Voice’ on RTE Radio and Radio Nova, the state broadcasters illegal competition. No advertisement appeared in the next days edition as RTE executives made their feelings clear to the editorial board at the national newspaper. The following day the new clue pointer appeared by rather than naming the stations on which the promotion was running, it was simply referred to ‘on the radio’. Within eighteen months of going on the air, Radio Nova was leading the rating despite their illegal status.

Evening Herald, Wednesday September 8th 1982

The anatomy of an NUJ strike that silenced a radio revolution in 1986.

 

Courtesy of the #anoraksirelandcollection

The anatomy of an National Union of Journalists strike that silenced a radio revolution.

July 1983                    Following a relaunch of Kiss FM, Cary told the Sunday Independent that he ‘also decided "to get into bed" with trade unions. In the past Carey has threatened staff with dismissal for joining unions but now he has invited the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) to open discussions with him in what he describes as "a necessary evil" following pressure from existing NUJ staff members at Radio Nova.’

 

January 15^th 1984     Chris Cary closes Kiss FM following a prolonged period of FM frequency jamming by the State broadcaster RTE.

February 2^nd 1984     On the front page of the Evening Herald, Cary said he thought the laying off a 15 staff would be sufficient to keep Radio Nova open but announces the closure of Radio Nova leading to the redundancy of 57 staff.

 

February 3^rd 1984     Jenny McIvor, the chapel of the NUJ, Linda Conway, Shane McGabhan, David Malone, Ken Hammond and Brian Johnson, all member of the NUJ are sacked without statutory notice or redundancy payment offer.

 

February 7^th 1984     Official NUJ pickets are placed on Radio Nova’s headquarters at 19 Herbert Street. He is reported as saying ‘I did them all a favour by giving them jobs in the first place’.

 

February 11^th 1984   A newspaper report states that Cary carried out a poll of his remaining employees who vote by a 5-1 majority to have unions excluded from the radio station. 

February 27^th 1984   The striking NUJ workers have a letter published in the national newspaper stating their case and grievances. 

March 4^th 1984          The Irish Congress of Trade Unions grant the NUJ an all out picketing of Radio Nova, this prevents other union employees including ESB & Posts and Telegraphs workers passing pickets. Cary also refuses to attend the Labour Court for dispute arbitration. Nova has moved its entire operation to Nova Park on Stocking Lane in Rathfarnham.

March 10^th 1984        There another announcement from Cary that Radio Nova would be imminently closing following a £150,000 VAT demand from the tax man. Mike Hogan resigns from the station as General Manager. 

June 1^st 1984              The NUJ publish a warning to prospective employees following adverts for replacement employees, that before they take on a position at Radio Nova, that they should contact the NUJ. 

August 4^th 1984         The Irish Independent reports that a unfair dismissal hearing at the Employment Appeals Tribunal has been adjourned until a High Court case is heard. According to Radiowaves.fm, ESB refuse to cross the pickets now at the station’s transmitter site at Nova Park in Rathfarnham when power is lost. Cary was forced to purchase generators to power the station.

                                                            Courtesy of the DX Archive

September 17^th 1984 Ken Hammond seeks an interlocutory injunction to prevent Cary from interfering with his picketing at Nova Park. He said Cary had been abusive and threatening.

October 2^nd 1984       An injunction ordered to prevent Cary interfering with pickets. Hammond in an affidavit said that Cary told him ‘he would find out what real guerrierism was and that if necessary he would hire people and he (Hammond) would find out what thousands of pounds could do’.

 

October 9^th 1984        The NUJ objects to the renewal of the pub and dancing licenses for Nova Park by Uniminster Limited, a Cary company. Justice Thomas Donnelly granted the license saying that the union had no rights to object as they were neither an individual nor a resident affected by the awarding of licenses.

November 23^rd 1984  The Irish Press reports that after 9 months the strike has been settled. Two of the striking journalists had found employment elsewhere but four remaining NUJ strikers would be returning to Radio Nova the following Monday.

Courtesy of radiowaves.fm

April 28^th 1985          Cary’s opens a new sister station to Radio Nova, Magic 105. The station operated from the Nova Boutique on Leeson Street. A company called Tegrar Limited is set up to run the station and Radio Nova leases a news service from Magic in an attempt to out manoeuvre the NUJ.

 

September 22^nd 1985 Magic is suddenly closed with the 8 NUJ members of the news room are locked out of the station. The NUJ picket the station once more. On the Nova News, Sybil Fennell read out the news about Magic closing attempting to distance Cary and Nova from the closure. It was according to the radiowaves.fm website The story read on Nova can only be described as pure propaganda (at best), given that Nova clearly owned Magic in every way, and probably didn't fool anyone. It certainly didn't fool the NUJ, who had returned to the picket line with a vengeance, determined to crush Nova.

September 29^th 1985 Nova says that the dispute has been settled and that they were recognising the union and offering striking workers contracts. The NUJ denies this.

October 21^st 1985      Sybil Fennell resigns from the NUJ. According to Fennell in an interview with Radio Today Ireland

‘The NUJ strike didn’t just ‘happen’ it was carefully orchestrated.  From memory I wasn’t working at Radio Nova at the time, I was hosting a magazine programme on LBC in London. I have no argument with the NUJ as a union, never have had, my argument was how every possible tactic was being employed to force Radio Nova off-air. The strike was a deliberate move to bring pressure to bear on Chris and to bring about the closure of Radio Nova – as was the jamming. RTE was not a happy bunny – their stations were haemorrhaging listeners not just to Radio Nova, although we were the most popular of the stations, but to a dial filled with radio stations delivering what the Dublin audience wanted.’

 

November 1^st 1985    A temporary injunction is granted to Cary and Fennell to prevent picketing at Nova Park on Stocking Lane after Fennell was verbally abused. The station has no telephones as Bord Telecom employees refuse to pass the pickets to repair the lines.

 

November 15^th 1985  Nova Media Services and Sybil Fennell fail to get injunction to stop the picketing but strikers said that they would picket in an orderly fashion and would refrain from calling Ms. Fennell a ‘scab’.

January 1^st 1986        Bernadette Cotter, described in the newspapers as one of the Nova strikers, made headlines when her daughter was the first baby born in Dublin for 1986. Her husband Paul was Nova’s station engineer.

 

March 1986               Nova closes. Cary lays the blame firmly at the door of the NUJ and the strikers.

1989                            When Cary and his Radio Nova team applied for the new National franchise from the Independent Radio and Television Commission told the commission he would offer £25,000 to the NUJ "to clear the air". His application was unsuccessful with Century Radio winning the franchise.

Further information of the Radio Nova story can be found HERE

Also at pirate.ie & The DX Archive

Sources

The Anoraks Ireland Collection at DCU

The Irish Newspaper Archives

pirate.ie

The DX Archive

radiowaves.fm

The British Newspaper Archives

The Rise & Sudden Fall of London Irish Community Radio in 1988

 

The late Jimmy Smith made his name in Irish radio and made his pirate radio station TTTR (Tallaght, Templeogue, Ternure Radio) the number one country and Irish music station having helped the careers of many of the rising stars of Irish country music. In 1988, Jimmy, with the impending arrival of new legislation that would silence his beloved station, making way for a new legal independent commercial landscape, he decided to spread his wings but had those wings firmly clipped by the authorities.

 

With a staff of seven and broadcasting twenty four hours a day on 89.6mhz FM, Jimmy set up London Irish Community Radio, a pirate station dedicated to one of the largest ethnic groups in the UK's capital. The station was located on Hope Lane in Acton and followed the same successful formula as TTTR back in Dublin.

 

There had been an explosion of pirate radio stations in London from 1988. According to the Dazed website

‘Needless to say, it (pirate radio) wasn’t going anywhere, and between 1988 and 89, pirate radio stations rapidly started to appear to serve a youth hungry for new sounds that weren’t being catered to by mainstream radio. By 1989, there were over 60 pirate radio stations operating in London alone.’

According to the fanzine ‘Anoraks UK’ from July 1^st – 5^th there were ‘40 pirate radio stations, 11 in stereo’ operating in London. There was numerous ethnic based stations including London Greek Community Radio, London Asian Community Radio and London Turkish Community Radio.

From The House of Commons Hansard page on written MP answers

Just weeks after going on air at noon March 10th 1988, their powerful 500w transmitter blanking out smaller low powered pirates that broadcast on the 89-90mhz FM frequency. This included the ‘obliteration’ according to Anoraks UK’s London correspondent of long running pirate station ‘London Rock’ also on 89.5. Prior to the arrival of LICR, the Irish in the capital could tune on a Sunday lunchtime on the Brent based pirate station JBC on 104.3mhz. By mid April, LICR’s overnight programming of recorded shows was being relayed on another London pirate station ICE FM on 90.5mhz.

Whether it was his reputation preceding him or a suspicion of any Irish content on the radio as the troubles continued in Northern Ireland, in the first week in May the station was raided by the DTI and the police, closed after just five weeks of broadcasting. Jimmy managed to get the station back on the air within a fortnight on low power but he was quickly raided once again putting an end to LICR. In August backers were fined £400 plus £295 costs.

Alan Whelan and ex-pat and a councillor with the Social Liberal democrats said,

"I am against pirating but his radio station proved there is a need to be met".

Local Ealing North MP Harry Greenway made representations to the Home Secretary but to no avail as there would be no legal community license given to a station serving the large Irish diaspora at that time. For any Irish living in London today, to keep in touch with all things Irish tune in to https://www.irishradio.org/

Sources.

Hansard, the House of Commons Archive

Anoraks UK

The British Newspaper Archives

The Irish Post, London

The DX Archive

Radiowaves.fm

Dazed

AMFM.org