The Irish Broadcasting: The Compete History of Irish Broadcasting

The Irish Broadcasting: The Compete History of Irish Broadcasting: This is a small extract from Chapter 7 of my book on the complete history of Irish Broadcasting, decade by decade. It covers the histories o...

The Compete History of Irish Broadcasting

This is a small extract from Chapter 7 of my book on the complete history of Irish Broadcasting, decade by decade. It covers the histories of over 2000 Irish radio and television history. Next time the complete story of pirate radio megalith Radio Nova, warts and all

Chapter Seven – The 1960’s

Irish Military Radio

On Monday 25th June 1962 at 1800 hrs the Minister of Defence, Mr. Gearoid Mac Pharthalain T.D. switched on and made the first transmission from Radio Oglaigh Na h-Eireann, to the Irish troops serving with the U.N. forces in the Congo. Also present were the Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. John McKeown and Mr. Martin O’Dwyer from Telecommunications Ltd. The transmitter was set up by Company Sergeant Patrick Treacy and Sergeant Barney O’Keeffe. The primary object of this Radio Station was to broadcast, on a daily basis, News, Sports and other items of interest.

Messrs Telecommunications Ltd. presented the Army with the 1.3 KW (crystal controlled) Transmitter. The “Rhombic” type aerial stood 70 ft. above the Curragh plains next to the Studio which was located in the annex of the Gymnasium. The time of transmission was fixed each day for 17.30 hrs G.M.T. The frequency used was 17.544 khz in the 16 Meter Band (The Curragh Army Museum)

But while this station was entertaining the troops in the Congo over in the illegal broadcasting world it was not a domestic pirate station that garnered all the headlines in the so called Swinging Sixties. The grandson of The O’Rahilly who had died during the final hours of the Easter Rising 1916, used his family’s business connections in the County Louth port of Greenore to launch a revolutionary radio station. Radio Caroline was based on board a ship located outside the territorial waters of Britain in the North Sea and broadcast pop music to a nation of young people who only had Radio Luxembourg, the Great 208 to hear their favourite artist. Despite the introduction of the 1967 Marine Broadcasting Offences Act and the launch of BBC Radio One with a number of the DJ’s who had made their name on the off shore pirate stations, Radio Caroline famously housed on the Mi Amigo continued to broadcast. One of the stations that closed with the introduction of the new 1967 laws was Radio Scotland and Ireland which was based on a ship, The Comet, anchored off the coast of Ballywater, County Antrim. Pirate stations in Dublin and Cork became more common broadcasting from secret locations on homemade transmitters usually on Sunday’s or late at night. Aerials were not masts but wire strung from an attic or bedroom window over the largest tree that could be found. Stations often changed name everytime they went on air in an attempt to confuse the authorities. These stations were often named after women in the lives of the broadcaster in the tradition of the naming of Radio Caroline.

Radio Aquarius Various MW

This was a station name used by Ken Sheehan before he launched Radio Blacliath which would later become Radio Dublin.

Radio Atlantis

Radio Atlantis was one of the first stations set up in 1964 by Davitt Kelly. The station was located on Upper Mount Street but was raided and closed by the Gardai on December 18th 1964. Kelly was fined £1 for his illegal broadcasting exploits.

Irish Press December 24th 1964

Radio Baile Atha Cliath 225m MW

The transmitter and studio were located on Mourne Road, Drimnagh the home of Ken Sheehan. Launched in 1966 the station only broadcast for a couple of hours on a Sunday and apart from Ken the only other voice heard on the station was Roger Lloyd known on air as Prince Terry. In 1968, Sheehan was getting bored with the station and handed over the running of it to Prince Terry who moved the station to his home in Crumlin and renamed it Radio Static.

Radio Jacqueline 227m MW

Radio Jacqueline opened in December 22nd 1966 with Davitt Kelly, Ken Sheehan and Jack O’Carroll at the helm.

Radio Juliet 210m MW

This was one of the first pirates operated in Cork City. The station operated by a number of students in June 1964 grabbed newspaper headlines throughout the country when it first went on air. When interviewed one of the students said that some of their broadcasts were in the Irish language stating “One third of the announcements were made in Irish, he said, and this was an ideal way of promoting the language”. The students had aliases on air that were all from Shakespearian plays with the head of the station known as ‘Romeo’. The station was actually operated by Michael Healy who reportedly move the transmitter built in a biscuit tin around the city on the back of an old motorbike. (www.martindwyer.com)

Radio Showband 197m MW

With the backing of a showband and dance hall promoter, the station went on air on January 25th 1965 using a transmitter that had been smuggled in from Northern Ireland. The station was used to promote the growing number of Showbands playing around the country with the station complaining that ‘Radio Eireann provided no airtime for quality Irish music.’

Radio Romeo 300mMW

Romeo went on air on July 3rd 1965 broadcasting on Tuesday’s and Saturdays from a house in Clontarf. On July 20th the station was raided. As a result of the court case that followed on January 18th 1966, Thomas Rogers, the owner of the house, his son Michael aged 19 and Brian Clancy were found guilty of illegal broadcasting and fined one schilling each.

Radio Santa Monica 253m MW

This station operated sporadically from 1965 until the 1970’s with Mike Walker at the helm.

Radio Veronica 196m MW

One of the stations operated by Declan Meehan and operated occasionally from 1967 to 1971.

The Irish Broadcasting: 2014 ALTERNATIVE BROADCAST INDUCTEES

The Irish Broadcasting: 2014 ALTERNATIVE BROADCAST INDUCTEES: DUSTIN THE TURKEY Perhaps a strange inductee as a non-human puppet but the character has been part of Irish television history, folklore ...

The Irish Broadcasting: 2014 TELEVISION INDUCTEES

The Irish Broadcasting: 2014 TELEVISION INDUCTEES: TELEVISION BILL O’HERLIHY – PRESENTER Born in 1938 in Cork, Bill has been on RTE since the early 1960's. Following a stint in curren...

The Irish Broadcasting: 2014 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

The Irish Broadcasting: 2014 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES: RADIO MAURICE O’DOHERTY – NEWSREADER Born in 1932 in Limerick, Maurice was an RTE newsreader from 1966 until his departure in 1983. Maur...

2014 ALTERNATIVE BROADCAST INDUCTEES

DUSTIN THE TURKEY

Perhaps a strange inductee as a non-human puppet but the character has been part of Irish television history, folklore and culture since first appeared on 'The Den' in 1989. He even unofficially garnered a significant amount of spoilled votes in a Irish Presidential election. The puppet has presented his own shows, had number chart singles and albums and represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008 with 'Irland Douze Points'. The puppet is voiced by John Morrison whose brother Ciaran is part of the team who created Zig and Zag and Podge and Rodge.

ROBIN BANKS

Born in Kilkenny in 1972, he is probably most familiar to Irish viewers as the voice over on Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel. Born Christian Richardson, Robin was bitten by the broadcasting bug at a young age working for a pirate radio station in Kilkenny. He changed name when he joined Atlantic 252 at just seventeen years old. He would go on to work for a number of stations both in Ireland and the UK including Radio Nova, Kiss FM in London and Virgin Radio.

JOHN FRAWLEY

Known as John ‘The Man’ Frawley, this Limerick man began his broadcasting career with pirate radio station RLWE in 1978. He moved on to build his own radio station Radio Luimni and hosted the Breakfast Show until the station closed in accordance with the 1988 Wireless Telegraphy Act on December 23rd 1988. Originally a lead singer with the showband the Monarchs, John’s legacy is perhaps that on most rural independent commercial radio stations today’s the death notices are broadcast each day after the news. Radio Luimni was the first station to do this and gave the station a real sense of community. Six months after the closure of Radio Luimni, John passed away.

THE LATE LATE TOY SHOW

The Late Late Toy Show is an annual TV event since Gay Byrne and Pan Collins created the show in 1975. It has been consistently the most watched TV programme on Irish Television. Usually aired at the end of November the show is a two hour live broadcast featuring the most popular toys of that year. The hosts (Gay Byrne, Pat Kenny and currently Ryan Tubridy) are joined by nearly three hundred children who perform and demonstrate the products.

TONY BOYLAN

Tony began his broadcasting career in the 1940s setting up his own pirate radio station that broadcast under various names. Tony continued to set up his own stations like Radio Galaxy and present shows on stations like Radio Dublin and ARD specialising in playing old 78 records. Tony retired to the Isle of Man with his wife where he continued to be involved in radio setting up Community Radio in Laxey and Ramsey. Tony passed away in 2010.

2014 TELEVISION INDUCTEES

TELEVISION

BILL O’HERLIHY – PRESENTER

Born in 1938 in Cork, Bill has been on RTE since the early 1960's. Following a stint in current affairs Bill moved to the sports department where his first presentation was the 1972 Olympic Games. He is mainly associated with the station's soccer coverage covering all The Republic of Ireland games and major soccer competitions. His panel of Dunphy, Giles and Brady has been a ratings winner for many years.

SEAN DUIGNAN – CURRENT AFFAIRS

Sean Duignan was born in Galway in 1936 and married Marie Falvey in 1965. He joined RTÉ in 1963, working in the newsroom on 'This Week' and 'The News at 1.30'. He and Mike Burns won a Jacob’s award in 1968 for their coverage of the civil rights campaign. He graduated to become RTÉ’s political correspondent in 1976 and the Six-One News anchorman in 1988. He left RTE to become the Government Press Secretary from 1992 to 1995 under the Albert Reynolds government, but then returned to RTÉ and presented 'The Week in Politics' from 1995 to 2003. He published a memoir, 'One Spin on the Merry-Go-Round' (1995).

BRENDAN O’REILLY – SPORTS

Brendan O'Reilly (1929 – 1 April 2001) was a versatile broadcaster, journalist, actor, athlete, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the first presenter of the long-running Sports Stadium launched in 1973. Between 1966 and 1968, O'Reilly had the honour of commentating for Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest, as well as presenting the National Song Contest (to select Ireland's Eurovision entry) from 1966 to 1970. He was a High Jumper, studied in America at the University of Michigan, he set the Irish High Jump record and also set the Irish Javelin record. He had a minor chart hit with the Ballad of Michael Collins.

DEREK DAVIS – PRESENTER

Derek was born on Dublin and joined the RTE news department in the 1960s. He is best remembered for his double act with Thelma Mansfield on 'Live at 3' from 1986-1997. A lover of the water he presented four series of 'Out Of The Blue' on RTE 1. In 1995 he hosted the annual Rose of Tralee festival and in 2009 won RTE's GAA reality show 'Celebrity Banisteoir'.

DECLAN LOWNEY – DIRECTOR

Wexford born Declan has been involved in some of the most iconic TV programmes since the 1980's. In 1985 he was credited as director of TV Ga Ga on RTE TV and in 1988 was selected as director of the Eurovision Song Contest that was held in Dublin. He won a Jacobs Award for this production. He moved to UK TV and has been associated with shows such as Help and Father Ted for both he has won BAFTA's. More recently he has won an IFTA for his direction on Chris O'Dowd's Sky One series Moone Boy.

TIM McGARRY – PRESENTER/COMEDIAN

Tim McGarry was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1964. He is best known as a presenter and comedian. He is a member of the comedy group Hole In The Wall Gang, and played "Da", a fictional Sinn Féin spokesman, in the BBC NI comedy series Give My Head Peace. He also hosts many radio programmes on BBC Radio Ulster, including weekly comedy quiz The Blame Game which also transferred to BBC One TV. He also provides a monologue played over the ending credits of the weekly politics show, Hearts and Minds, in the guise of a Belfast 'black taxi' driver. He most recently presented a two part documentary of the Ulster Scots language.