Have You Heard Your Local Pub Advertised on the Radio?

 

A Dutch radio programme being recorded in the Stags Head, Dublin in 2019

With over seven thousand businesses across Ireland excluded financially from the lucrative radio advertising market in Ireland, in 2021 is it possible to attract their advertising revenue into the world of radio?

While many of us know that soft drinks, Nappies, Beauty products and holidays are regularly advertised on the various Irish radio stations, these are often agency campaigns for domestic or global businesses targeting Irish listeners nationally. ‘Great Irish Radio Ads’ postulated,

‘Of all the mediums available to marketers, radio is the most powerful tool to tell a great story. Storytelling works superbly through voice alone and it’s an impactful way to create a strong connection with the listener’.

 

This is a question that you may ask yourself when thinking about your recent radio listening,

‘when is the last time you heard and advertisement for your local public house?’

 

In 1996 I was the General Manager of the Portobello public house and after a major refurbishment, we purchased a radio campaign on 98FM. It was a major investment in announcing our re-opening but was unsustainable on a longer term basis due mainly to costs. The campaign was paid for from a promotional budget to target listeners who would enjoy our newly built nightclub along with a subsidy from one of our major suppliers. In order to promote the newly built Hotel attached to the pub, a national radio campaign to market our product proved too expensive and cheaper options in targeting possible guests was through regional and local newspapers. The initial radio campaign was extremely successful as a promotional code delivered on the radio was used as an entry payment to the new nightclub, delivered large crowds. Radio works.

 

In 2003, when I ran my own pub in the centre of Dublin city, I did some basic local market research on which station my potential customers listened to. This basic market research ranged from asking locals, to listening to what was being played on car radios in the area. As a result, I purchased a Sunshine 106 campaign. This was for two reasons. Firstly, it was in the top five most listened to stations in the catchment area of the pub and secondly it was the least expensive of those five. The campaign which had a radio ad aired over two weeks, that I was never overly happy with, also included a live OB from the pub. This proved extremely popular. The word of mouth reaction was excellent, the local newspaper was there to photograph the event and I believe that the post publicity from the actual campaign was of more value to my business than the radio advertisement itself. [1]

Pubs are the conduits by which companies like Guinness, Smirnoff and Heineken sell their products to the public. The publican acts as a middle-man and these major companies with extensive advertising budgets encourage the consumer to visit the pub to partake of their goods. It is generic advertising for the pub and not specific to any particular public house.[2] A public house radio advertising campaign for a pub in Dublin 4 is of little interest to someone living in Dublin 13. If that publican purchased advertising on a national or regional radio station, his pub would not resonate with a listener in Tralee. Even to advertise on a commercial Dublin station is probably not targeted enough to make much sense unless it is the launch of a nightclub or as part of an entertainment package. Community and neighbourhood radio would be the ideal route for that publican but in Ireland in 2021 there are limitations on the number of advertisements allowed on community radio[3] and none allowed on temporary licensed stations.[4]

 

A forerunner of legal local and community radio was pirate radio with many cities, towns and villages across Ireland had at least one pirate radio station entertaining and informing the local community. With advertising relatively cheap, many pubs used the pirate radio stations to reach their clientele whether it was their food offering, the upcoming entertainment, their new beer garden or an event being held there, radio was the perfect vehicle for publicans and their businesses. Since those days of the 1970’s and 1980’s the rules on advertising alcohol have changed and tightened including the blurb ‘Drink Responsibly’ added to the end of both radio and television advertising. The public house has been excluded from the airwaves During that period of illegal radio broadcasting numerous stations were located in public houses including in 1945 at the Beehive pub in Ardara, Donegal which was the location for Radio Nuala. Radio Milinda was famously located above the Diamond Pub in the Gloucester Diamond area of Dublin in 1972, while in the eighties during the golden era pf pirate radio several pubs were located in public houses. 

Centre Radio initially operated from Prosperous, County Kildare above Larry’s public house in the town going on air in September 1985. In 1983, Big Tree Radio became a short-lived station based above the Big Tree public house on North Main Street, Swords. Radio Glenfarne was operated by Paul Graham and Eamon Brookes from the County Leitrim village of Glenfarne for the local Festival beginning in 1980 based above a public house in the village and in the same county Radio North West began life above a pub in Drumshanbo. One of the so called Super Pirates Radio Leinster went on the air using a five-kilowatt transmitter on April 29^th 1981 broadcasting from a site behind Lamb Doyle’s public house in Sandyford. The community based station Radio Ringsend who broadcast for the duration of the local festival from 1982 until 1988, was located in various venues around the village including a room above Sally O’Brien’s public house on Thorncastle Street. Dublin’s Westside Radio was based above a pub on James’s Street in 1982 and Laser 89 in Waterford was also based above a pub. In the UK, a station Boogaloo Radio began broadcasting from the beer garden of the pub.

 

Following the imposed and extended Covid 19 lockdown[5] restrictions, which has seen many pubs closed for more than a year, there will come a moment when publicans need to reconnect with their client base. Some major pub chains will have advertising budgets but as revenue has been starved from them for over twelve months, how those budgets are spent will be tightly controlled. For the smaller, single business publican, the needs are different and in neighbourhoods and small villages across Ireland in urban and rural settings, an avenue to advertise their business will be critical as they meet the challenge from other pubs in close proximity to theirs. For targeted advertising many publicans have turned to social media and have purchased ad campaigns from companies like Facebook and Twitter. They also rely on sharing and retweeting but as the country re-opens and in twelve to eighteen months as the tourism sectors begins to regain momentum, pubs will need to spread their net for business wider. The issue for social media platforms is that they have attracted negative publicity with the rise of so-called ‘fake news’. The bonus however is the targeting, as advertisers can minutely target the audience they are after. This requires a certain amount of tech skills which is attractive for younger publicans but can be somewhat of a minefield for more traditional publicans. Radio will be key to the success of the recovering economy and is still one of the most popular mediums for the Irish consumer with 85% of all adults listening to radio every day.

 

Radio is popular in the car during the commutes in the morning and evenings with this reflected in the increased radio advertising rates during those periods. The evening commute is often the period when listeners decide where they will be socialising later that evening or over the forth coming weekend. Radio is used by those exercising and by demographics including stay at home parents, the elderly and sports enthusiasts. The definition of the term ‘radio’ has changed and expanded in the past decade as technology advances. Radio station broadcasts or audio content deliverers are now available not just through the tradition analogue linear broadcasts on AM and FM but via station apps, online providers such as Tune-In, Radio Garden and radio.ie and through media players located on station websites. The use of devices to access online radio and the increasing use of smart speakers like Alexa is a growing market. According to marketing.ie[6],

‘The digital tools used are for the most part a mobile device (11.9 per cent), with the PC/laptop used by 2.6 per cent and smart speakers used by 1.9 per cent. Despite widespread media content, platforms and devices, Irish radio maintains strong audiences, with the report showing 3.2 million people now tuned in to radio each weekday – 81 per cent of over-15s.’

Radio.ie at http://radio.ie/streams/  streams over 160 Irish radio stations on its service with over half of them only available to listeners online such as Birdhill Radio or Scariff Bay Community Radio. According to the services founder Brian Greene for the twenty days up to February 20^th 2021, there had been over 50,000 listens to radio on his service alone. He also demonstrated how easy it is for online radio stations to add adverts to the streams.

(c) www.radio.ie

With my own personal passion for radio, one of my favourite stations is an American Old Time Radio operator called ‘The Crime and Detective Channel’ which broadcasts programmes from the golden era of US radio, from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. During the interval between programmes, a number of adverts are aired not directly by the US station but through Tune-In. This advertising is helpful to the operator to offset the costs of streaming. The adverts that I heard, as distinct to a listener from Cork City, were targeted due to the analytics used identifying my interests including numerous advertisements for Tesco, where I regularly shop and use their free Wi-Fi when I am in store, identifying me as a potential recipient of the advertisements. To me that was good value for money. This could also be used to target my socialising habits. If I live in a particular area, the local public house adverts could be targeted to my listening habits. These analytics could also identify any Pub or restaurant when I checked in online, commented on through social media or used a search engine to identify.

 

Pubs and publicans will need radio, should use radio in a targeted, efficient manner and ultimately will reap the rewards of using such a dynamic and diverse medium as radio. Ad agencies such as Audio One should be encouraged by bodies such as the LVA and VFI to present proposals to the licensed trade to both boost their survival upon reopening and to give publicans a chance to understand how digital radio works and what it can do for them. The pubs need affordable access to the media not just as an industry but as individuals serving very diverse communities across the country. One size will not fit all.

 From the RTE media sales department,

“ALCOHOL ADVERTISING AND RETAILERS

A retail advertisement containing alcohol will be subject to either Full Alcohol restrictions of Part-Alcohol restrictions.

Full alcohol restrictions are the same restrictions that apply to a branded alcohol advertisement. Part-Alcohol restrictions apply to the period of 6am to 10am on all Radio and Television channels, RTÉ programming and the “Big Big Movie”.

Advertisements are considered Full Alcohol unless the majority of the products being promoted are non-alcohol. For example, a retail advertisement which includes offers on three products can only be regarded as a part alcohol advertisement if two of the products are non-alcoholic. A four product promotion would require that three of the products are non-alcoholic in order to avoid additional time and station restrictions applicable to branded alcohol advertising.

It is important to note that in addition to the number of different products being promoted if there is excessive emphasis on the alcohol element or a disproportionate amount of alcohol featuring within the advertisements then full alcohol restrictions would apply.”

---

[1] Other Campaigns

[2] Unless the pub itself is featured as a location in the advertisement.

[3] BAI Rules applying to Community Radio 4.5: Advertising The time to be given to advertising in any clock hour shall not exceed a maximum of six minutes.

[4] BAI Rules applying to Institutional and Temporary Radio Broadcasters: 4.8 Advertising & Teleshopping Spots Broadcasters licensed further to Section 68 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 may not carry advertising, including teleshopping.

[5] Some pop up radio stations appeared during the Lockdown broadcasting from closed public houses including ‘Covid Radio Swinford’ which broadcast from the front lounge of the White House pub on Chapel Street, Swinford, Co. Mayo.

[6] https://marketing.ie/vast-number-of-irish-adults-tune-into-fm-radio/

Irish Radio During Covid19

 John Purcell, Chairman of the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland (IBI) said,

‘Ireland is a nation built on the airwaves and in times of crisis it is to radio that people turn to get the most up to date and reliable information, for entertainment as a reprieve from the stress of our current daily lives and to hear local stories from local voices’.

 Since its invention over a century ago, the medium of radio has dominated how the consumer has been both entertained and informed. The pandemic that has enveloped the world in 2020 has had a drastic and profound effect on radio both in Ireland and worldwide. So, on the off chance that you have spent most of your lockdown time watching TV, scrolling through your social media news feeds or binge watching box sets, this is a look at radio in Ireland during lockdown. Radio is an intimate and immediate media that requires plenty of fresh and live content. Unlike TV, radio broadcasters are less able to fall back on archive material to keep the airwaves filled. 

The negative effects on Irish radio are confirmed when put into context of the global radio situation. In April, the major US radio network NPR cut pay and benefits in a bid to “save jobs and support the future of NPR” after the coronavirus pandemic ballooned its projected losses to as much as $53 million over the next two years. Employees’ pay was reduced on a sliding scale of up to 9% through Sept. 30th and workers were also offered furloughs said NPR Chief Executive Officer John Lansing. 

 

One of the earliest consequences of both the lockdown the came into effect just after St. Patrick's Day, was the need to socially distance was that presenters and DJ’s began to work from home. Linking to the studios via the internet. Presenters including RTE’s Claire Byrne, who contracted the virus, were broadcasting from sheds, attics, hot presses and bedrooms. It was a through back to the heyday of the Irish pirate radio stations where these were often the location of the illegal studios. It affected all stations, national, commercial and even community stations like Flirt FM where the staff had to quickly adapt to working remotely. Ciara Kelly on Newstalk, a trained doctor was another broadcaster to both broadcast from home and to contract the virus, sharing her experience with her listeners. 

(c) @ciarakellydoc

 The consumption of radio was also to suffer the effects of Covid 19 as up to the virus’s arrival in Ireland, most listeners got their radio through their cars as they commuted to and from work or on school runs. As a result of the stringent Government announced lockdown in March, the car was parked up for many months. While many turned to exercise to relieve the boredom and to stay fit replacing the gym, their earphones were more likely tuned to their own musical playlists from apps like Spotify rather than a radio station. It was also to the detriment of radio stations that newer phones do not allow the use of the FM radio on their devices and so stations relied on listeners downloading individual apps or apps like ‘Ireland Radio Online’ or ‘Tune-In’.

 

Irish radio, just as it is globally, has suffered as the Advertising spend has contracted and put financial strain on radio stations. Radio has lost out as the result of major changes in what the listener consumes and spends their money on as they cocooned for weeks. As we spent more time in our homes, only leaving for exercise or shopping for essentials at the supermarket or the pharmacy, we spent more time online, both to entertain and to spend. The advertising Euro migrated from the radio and traditional media to online spend. According to the Irish Times Google and Facebook in 2019 ‘collected an estimated 40% of the total advertising spend in Ireland’ adding ‘The Irish advertising market, which for so long was the source of income for independent radio, has been lost to these two unregulated global giants’.

 

The financial viability of this new radio landscape for stations came under the microscope. As early as March, Communicorp, headed by entrepreneur Denis O’Brien and operating a range of stations including Newstalk and Spin announced that all staff would be suffer enforced pay cuts of up to 25%. The rationale was that a pay cut would eliminate the need for redundancies. The media giant attempted to paint a better picture of how their product was being received by its listeners. According to ADworld.ie,

‘New research carried out by Media Central for Communicorp Media shows that Irish people are listening to more radio during the Covid-19 outbreak and that engagement levels with radio have increased significantly. The research received over 6,000 responses over a 48hr period on the March 24th and 25th and focused on Communicorp’s stations including Today FM, Newstalk. Dublin’s 98FM, Spin1038 and Spin South West. According to the research, Communicorp Media stations have seen a significant growth in listenership with reach growing by 34% while people are listening for 45% longer. In addition, the research shows that app downloads for Communicorp apps have increased by 47% while there has been a 54% increase in the number of listeners accessing their stations via a smart speaker.’

The contraction of the market and despite enforcing pay cuts on their staff, according to the Times newspaper in August 2020,

‘Denis O’Brien’s Radio Two Thousand has increased its shareholding in Newstalk after buying shares from the Loyola pub and restaurant group. In February of this year, Radio Two Thousand Limited, a subsidiary of O’Brien’s Communicorp, bought an 18.89% stake in News 106, which operates the Newstalk station. The transaction was revealed in the minutes of a Broadcasting Authority of Ireland meeting, obtained by The Sunday Times. The shares were previously owned by Hyper Trust, the company behind the Leopardstown Inn in Stillorgan, Dublin. The pub was acquired from examinership in 2015 by the Loyola pub group, which is owned by businessmen Stephen Cooney, Brian O’Malley and Eoin O’Malley, a former Leinster rugby player.’

 

Community radio stations provided updates and news for many rural communities and they provided religious services for a congregation who saw their churches closed. The Lions Club created their own new show, which was broadcast on Ros FM, a community station in Roscommon. Local Lions Club member Kathleen Shanagher said,

"We created our own new daily show 'The Rossie Way' on the community station RosFM and every day we feature everything except the news of the virus. We have comedy, sport, religion, gardening, cookery, local history and a daily quiz too - just no Covid-19. We even gave out 100 new radios (donated by Tesco), presenting them to people who did not have their own portable set and now 5,000 listeners listen every day."

 There were many pop-up ‘radio’ stations using various platforms to ‘broadcast’ including on Facebook live. One of those stations was the aptly named ‘Covid Radio Swinford’. Located in the then closed White House pub on Chapel Street, the station run by the pub owners son had a huge following both at home and abroad, connecting Mayo people across the world with music and requests, although the broadcasts occasionally fell foul of copyright rules. With over one hundred broadcasts, Covid Radio Swinford made its final broadcast from the front window of the pub on June 28th just before the pub was due to reopen. Quarantine FM began on Monday March 22^nd and was launched by Anna-Rose Charleston and Kate McKeown and proved popular. In Galway Benen Tierney launched Lockdown Live Radio online from him home, with presenters working remotely to entertain. As restrictions were lifted the station was renamed ‘Freedom Gold’.

In Northern Ireland, the Protestant/Loyalist traditions celebrate July 12th as the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne and is usually marked by bonfires, fireworks and parades throughout Northern Ireland but with Covid restrictions the Orange Order needed a different way of reaching their community. Radio Boyne described as a ‘pop up station’ was launched July 10th at 11am by Deputy Grand Master Harold Henning followed at 2.30 pm by the 'Twelfth Request Show.' The station remained on air for four days broadcasting including on The Twelfth of July, on various digital platforms and their own app. It proved popular and successful especially with listeners in Belfast.

Other stations opened in a blaze of publicity and quickly disappeared like Gold Radio which launched in early May in the midst of the pandemic. Gold Radio’s line-up included founder Mike Moloney (RTÉ 2FM, RTÉ Gold & Radio Nova), Chris Barry (FM104 & 98FM), Electric Eddie (RTÉ 2FM & Q102), Liam Quigley (98FM, Q102, RTÉ 2FM & Radio Nova), Mick Mulcahy (Cork’s 96FM & Red FM), Pat James (Radio Nova), Bob Conway (RTÉ 2FM, KFM & East Coast FM) and Dave Lyons (98FM, Classic Hits 4FM & DJ at Copper Face Jacks). Station Manager, Mike Moloney, explains why now is a good time to launch a radio station,

“When RTÉ announced that it was going to shut its entire digital service, including RTÉ Gold, I couldn’t believe it! Turns out I wasn’t the only one and out of that came the idea for Gold Radio. As the technology was easily available to everyone, we decided it was timely to launch Ireland’s first fully manned, digital-only, radio station. It’s going to be a fun station, playing music everyone knows, staffed by DJs who the listeners will remember, and all of them got involved to play the music they love and have a good time. That attitude led to the station’s motto: ‘Gold Radio, Playing the Good Stuff’. The original idea was that all staff would be paid from the beginning, but Covid-19 put an end to that. The plan stalled for a while and then it was decided to go ahead anyway, with minimum funding, and at least get Gold Radio broadcasting. There was so much goodwill for the project that we found a load of presenters who were quite willing, at least for the moment, to go on air and work for nothing.
Unlike most other stations these days, where presenters have to toe a company line and dare not adjust the computer playlist in front of them, our crew can happily change any track they don’t like that may appear on their playlist and say what they like, once it doesn’t get us sued! It’s that old-fashioned thing that we all grew up on – Personality Radio.

 

With the lockdown forcing Catholic Churches to close their doors and services including funerals held either behind closed doors or with limited numbers. Churches broadcast their services for their parishioners. In the urban area including the major cities, due to the lack of frequencies, Churches used webcams or Facebook Live to reach their audience while others used the WPAS licensed system but an increasing number of rural parishes began using illegal FM transmitters to broadcast mass every day including funeral Masses and even in some parishes broadcasting bingo and quiz nights. Online digital station Radio Maria based at the Red Cow Roundabout in Dublin saw its audience grew significantly as the faithful listened to services especially daily Mass through the Virgin TV digital platform. The station was also available on DAB and various live radio apps.

Read more here http://ibhof.blogspot.com/2020/07/revealed-worlds-largest-pirate-radio.html

 

In July 2020, the Fine Gael caretaker Government led by Leo Varadkar was replaced with a Coalition Government formed by Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party. Following the formation responsibility for broadcasting transferred from the former Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment to the newly created Department of Media Tourism Arts Culture sports and Gaeltacht. A new Government Bill was proposed that would see the replacing of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with a Media Commission. The Government and the BAI tried to assist the struggling radio sector by announcing a The Government and the BAI tried to assist the struggling radio sector by announcing a €2.5million package to be spread amongst the stations to offset the loss of advertising revenue and the costs associated with remote broadcasting. The previous March, prior to the formation of the Coalition Government, the Minister for Communications announced the waiving of the broadcasting levy paid to the BAI. He said,

‘I recognize the importance of local radio stations to their communities as a trusted source of information on the COVID-19 Pandemic. They play a crucial role, especially in broadcasting community-specific information across the country. In common with other businesses, the local radio sector has experienced financial strain as a result of a drop off in advertising revenue. To ensure that local radio stations can continue to play a role in serving local communities, I have requested the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to waive the broadcasting levy for the first six months of the year. This action will save local radio stations almost €1m.’

 The timing of Government Press Conferences and Health department updates were timed to suit TV rather than radio. Local radio did however play an important part when localised lockdowns were brought in to curb the spread of the disease.

 

Pirate radio was not immune from activities during the crisis. On July 17th Wild Country who were broadcasting near the border were raided. https://www.facebook.com/106487707585931/videos/1197629210587522/

According to a post Wild County FM put up on their facebook page after a raid by ComReg and the Gardai,

‘Today at approx 11:30am, Officers from ComReg accompanied by Gardai conducted a raid on the Wild Country FM transmission site, which was located at Edentubber, Co. Louth. Equipment valued at €16000 (£14500) was seized and the station was taken off the air at 11:40. While we fully acknowledge that our station was operating without a license, it has filled a valuable void which has been left for local radio, particularly in the South Armagh and Down areas since the departure of Q radio from their Newry Studio. We had been broadcasting the public health advisories on Covid-19 twice an hour for both North and South and if the reaction to our station over the lockdown is anything to go by, we feel we have made this difficult period easier for our listeners by providing Irish and American country music around the clock. Alas this came to an end today, why it took 6 members of ComReg, together with Gardai to do this we will never understand when a simple phone call to us from the authorities would have sufficed. (The CCTV video from our site is like something out of Narcos - sledgehammers etc).’

 

Finally, Hollywood movie star Matt Damon found himself stranded in the south Dublin suburb of Dalkey with some of his family. Locals photographed the superstar which went viral and then two presenters on Spin 1038 began a tongue in cheek campaign to get Damon on air. In May 2020 to both the surprise and delight of presenters Nathan O’Reilly and Graham O’Toole, he rang in from Dalkey and the call made headlines around the world.

 

‘The Modern Swash Buckling Pirate Phenomenon’

On any given Sunday on the Dublin airwaves in 2020, the listener is treated to a melange of radio stations delivering a wide variety of speech and music entertainment. However, the Dublin airwaves are a uniquely Irish solution to an Irish problem. Radio in Ireland is the most consumed form of media with over 80% of the Irish adult population listening to the medium, whether it’s in the home, exercising or stuck in the car in a rush hour traffic jam. Because of its unique ability to connect with its audience, the listenership figures have stayed constant for the past quarter of a century and as a result, advertisers have flocked to the national, independent commercial and local radio stations across Ireland.

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland issues licences for the independent sector, advertising different genres to accommodate all tastes. This radio industry we have today, was born in the 1970’s and 80’s when the state broadcaster RTE, had its monopoly position challenged by a plethora of pirate radio stations, stealing frequencies, listeners, and advertisers from RTE. In 1988 new stringent legislation plugged loopholes in the law and allowed for the orderly opening of legal licensed alternatives both nationally and locally. The BAI, and its predecessors the IRTC and BCI have struggled to blend listener requirements with commercial demands. Since deregulation in 1988, the market has solidified with some major media moguls commanding ownership of vast swathes of the airwaves.

In the eighties the success of the pirates was driven by market forces as a youthful market demanded to hear the music that they wanted, a direct alternative to RTE, who’s darkened halls attempted to accommodate everyone  on a national level when listeners actually wanted a local voice and perspective. RTE had failed the younger listener and even with their attempt to placate that constituency with the launch of the ‘pirate light’ RTE Radio 2, the uplifting super pirates like Radio Nova, Sunshine & ERI dominated their markets. In the quest for the local listener, once again RTE lost out to community stations like BLB and Kilkenny Community Radio and local stations like Mid-West and West National Radio 3 rapidly eroded any credibility RTE had with its listener.

Licensing has regulated the airwaves is the Government response, but even a cursory glance along the waveband on a Sunday tells a different tale. When the pirates were at the height of their success, every genre of music was catered for by individual stations, pop on Nova, rock on Phantom, C&W on TTTR, religion on ICBS or album tracks on Capitol. Today’s youth population listens to their music, dance, garage, trance, and rap but these music trends do not sell advertising and therefore find every little light on the current station playlists. That demographic is younger, usually under eighteen and therefore unimportant to current stations and their advertisers. Once again in step the pirates and as enforcement retreats like the tide, the pirates are empowered to start up their transmitters once again and fill up the Dublin FM frequencies. Not only has a need been created for these stations but technology has made it easier to get on air. Gone are the days of medium wave transmitters, home built, strewn over an attic floor with an aerial strung between the attic and a tree or telegraph post. FM transmitters are cheap and highly effective. They do not cause the interference that their Medium wave forbearers did, and computerisation has removed the need for bulky turntables and mixing desks. Because of their appeal to an under eighteen audience, these stations utilise social media avenues far better than their legal counterparts.

In Dublin on FM on a Sunday there are a number of national and quasi national stations like RTE, Radio na Gaeltachta, Newstalk and Spirit Radio, there are community stations including Dublin City FM, Near FM and Phoenix Radio and there are five legal local franchises 98FM, Radio Nova, Sunshine 106, Spin 1038 and FM 104 all competing for the listeners ear and you would say to yourself that surely that is a comprehensive choice but yet despite five Dublin licensed stations, on Sunday April 19^th 2020 there were thirteen pirates radio stations on FM, one on Medium Wave, Energy 1395 and four on short wave broadcasting to the world. The majority of these pirate stations were broadcasting some form of dance music but other genres were being catered for that licensed stations seemed to have covered but yet pirate station were on the airwaves covering similar including The 90s Network and Easy FM.

Some legal stations are now voice tracked removing that personal touch with the listeners. This is simply a cost saving exercise for the media conglomerates that own them. This would be obvious if they used in studio cameras like watching RTE’s Today programme with the now retired Sean O’Rourke. A camera could show the DJ actually choosing and enjoying the music he is playing. The pirate DJ is not hampered by the playlist or the format. The reasonable pirate example of this is Phever FM.

The inertia caused by the lack of enforcement has given pirate radio a new lease of life with a number of them including Club, Pure and Pirate FM carrying a significant amount of advertising, not just relying on advertising club nights to generate revenue. Despite the coronavirus lockdown, the closure of venues and therefore the closure of those station revenue streams, the FM band is alive with pirate radio. These stations are catering for audiences ignored by mainstream stations who have once seen themselves as cutting edge, but the commercial reality has diluted their position. None of these pirates broadcast salacious, threatening or terrorist content and are simply on-air to entertain their constituency, they give airtime to new and struggling dance and rap artists and without causing interference they do little harm. They are however illegal and subject to a minimum of €10,000 fine either for broadcasting, advertising or providing transmission land and if Comreg continue to not implement the law and the BAI fail miserably to cater for the people who are actually listening to the radio, not the listeners that stations wishes to portray to advertisers, then pirate radio will continue to blossom. Is it too early to claim ‘long live the pirates’?

The Not So Long Arm of The Law

The mere nature of pirate radio broadcasting was that you were breaking the law. The authorities did 

not want you on air and to effect your departure raids took place. Often a raid would suffice to have 

the station at least lay low for awhile but in order to send out warnings to others, court cases 

followed and station operators were fined a paltry amount which rarely served as a deterrent.  

Occasionally the pirate stations found themselves further up the court chain other than the District or 

Circuit Courts. From time to time the names of the illegal pirate radio stations found themselves 

been spoken of in the hallowed corridors of both the High Court and even the Supreme Court. Here 

are some of the High Court appearances of pirate stations from 1978 - 1988. 

The Irish Legacy of Ronan O'Rahilly and Radio Caroline

In The Beginning, the Irish Dimension

With the passing of Ronan O’Rahilly in April 2020, a colossus of radio broadcasting has left a legacy that will stand the test of time and has made a massive impression on radio broadcasting in Ireland. While his beloved Radio Caroline was a familiar sight off the South East of England, its influence on both radio and music in 1960’s Britain cannot be underestimated. It forced the British Government to enact new legislation outlawing the almost a dozen pirate radio ships that blasted pop music into Britain and it forced the BBC to reorganise and compete with the opening of a dedicated pop channel in 1967, BBC Radio One. In the month when Ronan passed onto the afterlife, both BBC Radio One and Radio Caroline still broadcast today. But while Caroline’s history focusses mainly on its influence on Britain, Ireland has played a key role in that colourful history and this is that story.

At the helm of Radio Caroline was Ronan O’Rahilly. He was born in Clondalkin, Dublin in 1940, his father Aodogan was a well-known and wealthy businessman, regarded as an influential ally of Eamon DeValera, while his grandfather Michael O’Rahilly was better known as The O’Rahilly, sacrificed his life during the 1916 Easter Rising having been shot dead while leading a charge on a British position at the end of Moore Street.

While still a teenager Ronan left Dublin and made his way to the centre of the new music industry, London’s club scene. In Soho, the young Ronan began to manage a music club and saw some of the up and coming artists including the Kinks and the Animals make their first steps into the limelight.  Despite managing several pop acts one of his favourite was Georgie Fame. He recorded a Georgie Fame record on his own independent label, unheard of at the time. He took the record to the BBC to try to get it played. He discovered that the record industry was dominated by EMI and Decca. He then tried to get it played on Radio Luxembourg, the Great 208, who were the commercial pop station most listened to in England at the time and O’Rahilly discovered closed doors and that the shows were 'owned' by labels like EMI, Pye and Decca. They were essentially 'payola' shows and featured only music from the paying label. He said, "I have recorded the guy, so I can't get it played, so we have to start a radio station."

The ship was originally a Baltic ferry the MV Frederica built in 1929 and purchased by Ronan O’Rahilly for the reported £20,000. It was taken to the port of Greenore in early 1964 to be converted into a radio station including a 180-foot aerial and renamed the MV Caroline. He chose the port of Greenore as it was at the time privately owned by his father Aodogan O'Rahilly who died in 2000. At the same time, the Caroline was being fitted out as a radio station a second ship was in the port also being fitted out as a radio station, the MV Mi Amigo which would broadcast as Radio Atlanta. Atlanta planned to be on the air first but technical issues forced into port for repairs and did not get on air until May 1964.

A parent company was registered in Ireland to operate Radio Caroline in 1964. The company Planet Production Limited was dissolved in 1981. A second company was registered to sell advertising for the ship with Planet Sales Limited also registered companies in Ireland. When the ship left the port, it carried out test transmissions as it sailed through the Irish Sea. The authorities were informed that the ship was heading to Spain but as it passed Lands End it took a sharp left and headed up the English Channel, maintaining radio silence, to anchor of Felixstowe on England’s east coast. Their signal would cover most of the south coast of England including the important advertising market of London. On Easter Saturday, 28 March, it began regular broadcasting at noon on 197.3 metres/1520 kHz announced as 199 as it rhymed with Caroline, with the opening conducted by Simon Dee. The first programme was hosted by Chris Moore. Within months the station was boasting audiences of 7 million listeners. The rapid sales of portable transistor radios across Ireland created a wider audience with radio shop advertisements stating that purchasers would easily listen to Radio Luxembourg or Radio Caroline.

In July 1964, Radio Atlanta and Radio Caroline's parent companies merged, with Allan Crawford, an Australian music publisher and Ronan O'Rahilly as joint managing directors. Radio Atlanta closed at 8 p.m. that day. It was renamed Radio Caroline South and MV Mi Amigo remained off the English east coast while MV Caroline broadcast under the name Radio Caroline North. MV Caroline sailed to the Isle of Man and her new anchorage at Ramsey Bay, on 6 July 1964. The two stations were able to cover most of the British Isles.

Radio Caroline North had operated off the coast of the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea from July 1964 until March 1968 and was well received and popular across the West coast of Britain and across both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It meant that Caroline’s audience was now in excess of 25 million. The station continued as the new Marine Broadcasting Offences Act came into force, anchored in international waters outside the 3-mile limit. The two ships were supplied from ‘foreign’ countries namely Holland through Amsterdam supplying fuel and food supplies by tender for Caroline South off Felixstowe and from Dundalk for Caroline North. The Dutch tug ‘Offshore III’ (misidentified in the newspaper as the Foreshore III) was originally used to supply the MV Caroline from the Isle of Man but with the introduction of the new Marine Offences Act, the tender sailed to Dundalk, loaded with supplies and sailed back and forth to the ship. The new Act which put pressure on advertisers meant that some bills to Dutch firms were not being paid and in a co-ordinated operation, Dutch tugboats seized both ships in March 1968 and they were towed to Holland.

Caroline Showband & Musical Interlude

The showband scene was exploding in Irish dancehalls in the early sixties and as with the pop music explosion, for airtime exposure, showbands would have to turn to the pirates. Radio Eireann played little or no modern music on its single channel. The opening of Radio Caroline in 1964, helped showbands reach the top of the charts. To ride that wave, Radio Caroline launched their own showband in Ireland, The Caroline Showband in 1964. The band, a publicity exercise to advertise Radio Caroline around the country, received extensive newspaper coverage especially as their lead singer Earl Jordan was a coloured singer. Jordan, although born in Buffalo, New York, came to England with the US Air Force and following his departure from the USAF, he arrived in Dublin in December, 1963.The band would be managed by Caroline’s representative in Ireland at the time, Kilkenny born Jim Craig. The band made its debut at a reception in Dublin's Gresham Hotel on Tuesday, December 22nd, 1964. The original line-up included: Kevin Brady (RIP-Dublin-drums), Earl Jordan (Buffalo, New York-vocals), Tony Kearns (Drogheda-sax), Reginald Dunne (Dublin-guitar), Kevin Gregan (Dublin-bass), Tony Coffey (Dublin-keyboards), Harry Burrows (Birmingham-sax), and Michael Burns (Sligo-trumpet). The manager was Frank Traynor of Dublin. On stage the band wore dark blue suits with Earl decked out in a white blazer. One of the highlights of their early success was headlining at a gala ball held at the Powerscourt Estate in County Wicklow attended by Irish born Princess Grace of Monaco.

While the showbands were hugely popular with a certain generation of music listeners and goers and in rural Ireland, the rural popularity of Radio Caroline and with the showband fans was relatively weak. The Caroline showband were excluded from receiving airplay on Radio Eireann and this seemed to detract from their reach in places like Galway, Kerry and Cork. This need to expand their reach and incidents around a barbeque held in Brittas Bay that led to violence, in July 1965, The Caroline Showband and Jim Craig end their association with Radio Caroline. Shortly after Jordan would leave the band, they would take on a new manager and would be renamed.

The barbeque was a PR disaster for Radio Caroline in Ireland in 1965. In June 1965, Radio Caroline through its subsidiary Club Caroline advertised and sold tickets for a barbeque to be held on Dalkey Island. The club was run by Dennis Binns and Jim Craig. The event was to take place on Saturday June 26th 1965. The tickets were an immediate and popular success. Over one thousand tickets at a guinea each were sold and the plan was to transport guests across to the island by boat from Coliemore Harbour. Several acts promoted by Radio Caroline, including the Caroline Showband, were to appear on the bill. A week before the events the local council stepped in and announced that no permissions had been sought or given for the event to take place within their jurisdiction. The Gardai were placed on standby to prevent the event taking place in the upmarket area of South Dublin. With mounting opposition with the local community, Caroline’s organisation in Ireland decided to change the venue and moved to a privately owned beach at Brittas Bay in County Wicklow. Unfortunately, the event in Wicklow was not all smoothly run, the lighting failed and the grills failed to work. In the early hours of the morning, according to one newspaper report ‘just be before dawn’, frustrations and excess consumption of alcohol led to violence and the intervention of the Gardai riot police.

Another group to receive a significant boost to their careers were The Dubliners. The Ronnie Drew and Luke Kelly led group released ‘Seven Drunken Nights’ in March 1967. The single was released on the Major Minor label that was owned by Phil Solomons, see Solomons later involvement in Irish radio’s revolution in 1980 later in this article. The song, despite not receiving any airplay on BBC Radio, reached No. 7 UK charts and led to an appearance on BBC TV’s Top of the Pops and as a result of its chart position was played on the radio. Because of the raunchy lyrics in the last two verses of the song, the track was banned by RTE Radio. Because it was Solomons’ record label who produced the track, Radio Caroline heavily plugged the song and with its reach into Ireland, Seven Drunken Night reached Number One in the Irish charts.

 Radio Caroline and RTE appearing side by side in the one advertisement.

This is Your Life on Board, Noel Andrews

A brother of Eamonn Andrews, who famously presented What’s my Line and This is Your Life on TV, Noel broadcast his first show ‘Andrews Live’ on Radio Caroline on Tuesday December 1st 1964 as Caroline was now averaging a listenership in the British Isles of 28 million every day. The first track he played was fellow Irishmen The Batchelors who were now heading for stardom in Britain. A popular broadcaster with the housewives previously on radio Eireann where he presented ‘Housewives Choice’ programmes and also was extremely popular on sponsored shows, many of them produced by his brother’s production studio. Not only was he appearing on Radio Eireann presenting the Irelands Top Ten show (broadcast on a Monday at 6.45pm for 30minutes) When he returned to Radio Eireann he was relegated to presenting Children’s programmes.

Caroline House, Looks Over the Irish Parliament

With the arrival of Caroline off the Manx coast, their transmissions were heard widely across Ireland and an opportunity to grab some of the lucrative advertising pie. With this in mind, Jim Craig was appointed Caroline’s representative in Ireland and they opened offices in August 1964 at 27 Molesworth Street, dubbed Caroline House. Today that building is incorporated into Buswells Hotel. These offices were directly across the road from the Irish parliament building, Leinster House.

Caroline Racing, Speeds into Print

In a further attempt to keep the Caroline prominently featured in newspapers across the British Isles, Radio Caroline began to sponsor a car racing team. They entered a Brabham Formula Junior car in the Irish championship, their car driven by D Romano. The team entered the Leinster Trophy scratch race at Dunboyne raceway and it warranted the arrival of Ronan O’Rahilly himself, who newspapers reported had flown into Dublin on a private jet to be greeted by his father. Unfortunately for O’Rahilly it was a wasted trip as his car failed to qualify for the starting grid. He flew back to London the following day.

The Caroline Shop, Belfast Sales

Radio Caroline proved extremely popular in Northern Ireland. In order to create a buzz and publicity on Saturday December 12th 1964, Radio Caroline opened a record shop on Andersonstown. The official opening was performed by one of the most popular DJ’s on Caroline Simon Dee. He recounted that his arrival at Belfast was greeted like that of a pop star with hundreds lining the street outside the shop in anticipation of his arrival. Also, on hand for the opening was Jim Craig, the Caroline manager in Ireland.

The Holy Trinity, Solomons, Robinson and Cary

A more important link to Caroline from an Irish legacy point of view is not just that it was an Irishman who built up the station but in 1966 the running and financial input from another music impresario into Caroline was hugely significant, the involvement of Phil Solomons. Solomons in the early sixties was the sole Decca Records distributor in Ireland. Two of Caroline’s most popular DJ’s were Robbie Dale and Spangles Muldoon and these three men would revolutionise Irish radio, all directly linked to Radio Caroline. It was Solomons’ money who financed Robbie Robinson’s (Dale) and Chris Cary’s (Muldoon) opening of Sunshine Radio in 1980 broadcasting from the Sands Hotel in Portmarnock. They three men saw the lax Irish broadcasting regime and while their originally plan was to put Sunshine on a ship, they had bought and berthed in Waterford harbour, why go back on rough seas when you could broadcast from plush surroundings of a hotel with little fear of a raid from the authorities and even if you were, the equipment confiscated had to be returned to you. The early sabotage of Sunshine’s aerial, explosives used by Radio Dublin owner Eamon Cooke, encouraged Solomons and Cary to sell their shares to Robinson. Cary having seen the success of Sunshine returned to the Dublin airwaves with perhaps the greatest and most popular station the capital ever saw, Radio Nova which opened in 1981 and the rest the say is history. (See the Radio Nova History in this Blog) All thanks to the connections made at Caroline.

The Legacy

Radio Caroline revolutionized radio for a generation, shining a light on a dark world. It led to the creation of BBC Radio 1 to compete for the ever-growing audience of young listeners. It provided an outlet for new music and it gave enjoyment to millions. It is still on the air, there is a nostalgia and a reverence for what Caroline was. It was a rebel, it was an influencer, it was a genuine attempt to provide what the listening public wanted.

In Ireland, Caroline opened up the possibility of an alternative to State media, and while we never had a pirate radio ship broadcasting into the country, Caroline’s success created a community of pirate radio pioneers across Ireland (some using the Caroline moniker in homage) and this pirate radio tidal wave eventually created the industry that broadcasts today.