Hi All,
In July and August 2013 we will be recording a TV series for the voluntary based Dublin Community Television channel (UPC 802 & AerTV) of 1 to 1 interviews commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the closure of pirate radio in Dublin. This was as a result of the introduction of the 1988 Wireless Telegraphy Act in December of that year that cleared the airwaves for the new legal franchises.
This nostalgic and educational look back at the heady days of Dublin's colourful pirate radio era will be both studio based and shot on location. If you were involved at any stage in pirate radio pre-1988, I want to talk to YOU. It's your story I want to tell. Did you or someone you know broadcast on air, built transmitters, were involved in raids or just answered the telephone?
There were thousands of people involved over the decades and our air time is limited to one series but every story and anecdote counts.
You can contact me Eddie Bohan at rebelradio@dublin.ie and we can have a chat and take it from there.
Thanks
DCTV are also looking for Volunteers who feel they can contribute to the making of their programmes. This is an ideal opportunity to get involved and gain experience in studio operations, camera work, video and sound editing, research, studio management and production design. Contact DCTV with a CV or watch for forthcoming announcements.
It has been twenty five years since the introduction of the 1988 Wireless Telegraphy Act and the licensing of legal independent radio. The 1988 legislation was designed to wipe pirate radio off the airwaves with stiff penalties and strict enforcement.
Throughout the May Bank Holiday Monday, I listened and visited pirate radio stations across Dublin. These were not stations confined to the internet but broadcasting openly on an already cluttered FM band. Unlike the early 70s when pirate radio stations began to develop and would only broadcast for a couple of hours late or night or a Sunday afternoon for fear of being raided and closed, today’s pirates are broadcasting 12 to 18 hours per day every day despite the possible €10,000 fine that can be imposed.
Across the band listeners could tune into NRG, Ministry, Easy, Play and Tonik, all pirate radio stations but why after a quarter of a century are pirate radio stations still on air?
It is hard to judge how many people are listening to these pirate operations but at one station judging by requests received from callers and texts over a three hour period the numbers listening was well into four figures. But why is a listening demographic between 15 and 25 not being catered for by the plethora of Dublin legal stations?
Having spoken to a number of callers to these stations I was quickly aware of patterns at each of the stations. The above named stations apart from Easy broadcast dance, trance and house music. While Spin 1038 would be the closest in music policy to the pirates they are a commercial operation and programming is driven by ratings and advertising revenue. The two main reactions to the pirate stations were that young listeners felt connected to the music they wanted to hear and that the pirates played music they could not hear on any other radio station.
The following is the list of reasons why listeners were tuned into the pirate stations.
1. They felt a connection with the station.
2. They liked the sound of DJ’s their own age. Some of the DJ’s were only sixteen on the day I visited.
3. The pirate stations played the music they were dancing to in the clubs, especially young dance music orientated venues.
4. The stations played extended dance tracks especially remixes often 10 minutes long something rarely played on licensed radio. The stations often play non commercial tracks.
5. The stations were ‘clutterfree’ or advert free. When I asked how the stations paid their way such as electricity bills, I was told that stations organised ‘event nights’ where they would use the door money to pay the bills. The overheads at pirate stations are low as DJ’s are volunteer and the stations do not pay the legal requirements of PAYE, PRSI, PPI or IMRO.
6. The stations take requests and play them. One listener told me that ‘making a request to FM 104 is like a privilege when it should be a right’.
7. The pirate station is giving a young local DJ to learn the skills of operating a radio studio. The stations are often very locally based despite their signal covering much of the city. There was a strong loyalty to the local station but listeners were able to identify other pirates who broadcast a slightly different music policy i.e one station played house while another specialised in trance.
8. ‘They don’t air the boring news’. Pirate stations by their nature of illegality were not subject to the restriction imposed on licensed stations by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.
9. Young listeners liked the irreverence of the DJ’s sometime using bad language but the DJs seemed to be more in tune with the listeners than their legal counterparts.
10. Stations were giving opportunity to DJ’s who were creating music in their bedrooms and garages and providing outlets for small record labels on the fringes of the Irish music scene.
Rules are made to be broken and as long as people feel that they are being ignored by the establishment, pirate radio stations will remain on the air.
What constitutes a quiz show? – Deal or No Deal is a game show as is The National Lottery Games like Winning Streak where luck plays a major role. Quiz shows are where questions and their answers whether general knowledge or specialized decides the winner
.
In 2013 the British channels BBC, ITV and Channel 4 broadcast numerous quiz formats especially on their afternoon schedules. RTE do not broadcast any except for quizzes aimed at the youth audience. TV3 broadcast Junior Mastermind, while TG4 broadcasts Ceist GAA. None of these shows offer major cash prizes for successful contestants.
In April 2013, none of Ireland's main terrestrial channels carried any quiz shows with only National Lottery sponsored game shows on RTE. This can be attributed to the lack of finances and sponsorship and a lack of creativity being unable to create unique formats, relying instead on imported tried and tested formats which in itself costs valuable resources. The lack of quiz shows is very evident during afternoon programming. The UK channels have a varied choice that each day provides contestants with a chance to win or share in almost £400,000. Many of the shows have daily rollover jackpots.
BBC
Perfection (Jackpot total averages £4,000)
Pointless (Jackpot total usually reaches £7,000)
Eggheads (Jackpot total usually reaches £4000)
Only Connect
University Challenge
ITV
Tipping Point (Possible daily jackpot £10,000)
The Chase (Typical jackpot available £12,000 but success is limited)
CHANNEL 4
1001 Things You Should Know (Possible Jackpot 13,000)
Countdown
Deal or No Deal (Top prize £250,000)
5 Minutes To A Fortunr (Top prize £100,000)
(Quiz Shows Broadcast Monday April 29th 2013)
CEIST GAA
2010 -
Hector O’Heochagain
TG4
Joining Hector on Ceist GAA was resident captains Evanne Ní Chuilinn RTÉ Sport and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill from TG4's GAA BEO.
PUT EM UNDER PRESSURE
18th September 2011 – November 2011
Sunday Nights 7.30pm
Grainne Ni Seoige
RTE
A celebrity quiz show using their sporting knowledge loosely based on BBC’s A Question of Sport. The show was hosted by former TG4 and Sky News Ireland newscaster Grainne Ni Seoige.
Two teams of three sports personalities were led by captains, jockey Ruby Walsh and former GAA player and RTE pundit Pat Spillane.
CELEBRITY & JUNIOR MASTERMIND
17th June 2012 - Present
Nora Owen (Former TD & Government Minister)
TV3
In 1983 RTE hosted a season of BBC’s Mastermind series with the UK host Magnus Magnusson with Irish timekeeping Mary Hogan. The aim was to find an Irish champion for the International Mastermind series.
In 2011 Mastermind was made by TV 3 and recorded at The Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. The series began with a Celebrity version followed by Junior Mastermind
FAMILY FORTUNES
February 2012
Alan Hughes
TV3
Two family or celebrity family teams made up of five members are asked to guess the results of surveys, in which 100 people would be asked open ended questions. Each round begins with a member of each team in rotation approaching the podium and host Alan Hughes. As the question is read, the first of the two nominees to hit a buzzer gives an answer. If this is not the top answer, the other nominee is asked. The team with the higher answer then chooses whether to "play" the question, or "pass" control to the other team. The host then passes down the line of the controlling team, asking for an answer from each. After each answer, the board reveals whether this answer featured. If a family managed to come up with all the answers on the board that begins with six choices reducing to four, they win the euro equivalent of the total number of people who had given the answers.
Every time someone gave an answer that was not on the board or ran out of time, the family was charged a strike or 'na nah' accumulating three strikes means the family loses control of the game and the other family has the chance to steal, with only the head of the family giving one answer. If the answer is one of the remaining answers, they won the round and the money; otherwise, the opponents won the money that was on the board.
For the final round two members of the winning family attempt to find the most popular answers in various categories to reach two hundred points with a bonus prize if all the top answers are found.
What constitutes a quiz show? – Deal or No Deal is a game show as is The National Lottery Games like Winning Streak where luck plays a major role. Quiz shows are where questions and their answers whether general knowledge or specialized decides the winner.
In 2013 the British channels BBC, ITV and Channel 4 broadcast numerous quiz formats especially on their afternoon schedules. RTE do not broadcast any except for quizzes aimed at the youth audience. TV3 broadcast Junior Mastermind, while TG4 broadcasts Ceist GAA. None of these shows offer major cash prizes for successful contestants.
WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE
17 Oct 2000 – March 29th 2002
Gay Byrne
RTE
RTE imported this format from the Celador created show of the same name broadcast on ITV and hosted by Chris Tarrant. RTE’s show was sponsored by Eircom allowing the station to initially offer a prize fund of £1,000,000 but before its second series the Euro currency had been introduced reducing the top prize to €1.000.000 as a direct conversions would be €1.270.000. When Eircom completed sponsorship RTE were unable to find a replacement and the show ended.
90 SECONDS
October 2000
Tomas O’Brannigan
TG4
IT'S A FAMILY AFFAIR
2000 - 2002
Dara O'Brian
RTE
The programme was produced by Green Inc productions and ran for two series.
SCHOOLS CHALLENGE
2001
RTE
A thirty minute schools quiz produced by Straight Forward TV
THE WEAKEST LINK
2001 - 2002
Eamon Dunphy
TV3
An Irish version of the BBC programme that was presented by Anne Robinson. Recorded at the RTE studios, the show lasted just one season. Eamon Dunphy is more famous for his sports journalism and as a panellist on RTE’s soccer broadcasts
AT THE END OF THE DAY
July 29th 2002 – September 16th 2002
Tracy Piggott
RTE
A sports quiz game with two resident team captains, Joe Brolly and Tony Cascarino.
The show was made by Setanta Television for broadcast on RTE
THE FAME GAME
2002 - 2006
Caroline Monahan
RTE
The Fame Game takes three fans of different celebrities, who compete against each other in a studio-based quiz show for the chance to go and meet their idol and was produced by Adare Productions
IT'S NOT THE ANSWER
2002 – 2003
Bryan Smyth
RTE
Two seasons of 27 thirty minute shows presented by Bryan Smyth. The show was produced by Green Inc Productions
LAST ONE STANDING
2003
Jon Slattery
RTE
This general knowledge quiz was produced by Mind the Gap/Ludus Entertainment for RTÉ. Each programme had four contestants battling it out in rapid fire rounds of multiple choice questions, against each other and against the clock, to see who would be the Last One Standing and take home the prize money.
ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING
2003 - 2004
Ryan Tubridy
RTE
RTÉ Television's comedy quiz show 'All Kinds of Everything' presented by Ryan Tubridy before he earned the hosting role on The Late Late Show.
THE MEMORIZER
2005
Kathryn Thomas / Aidan Power
RTE
This was a RTÉ Television young people's quiz series 'The Memoriser', recorded in November 2005. A celebrity special was broadcast on Christmas Day 2005. It starred Francis Boylan, Ray D'Arcy, Damien McCaul and Ian Dempsey - all four guests were former presenters of RTÉ Television's 'The Den'.
The show was made by Adare Productions for RTÉ.
CRUINEASS! / Game Planets
2005 – present
Páidí Ó Lionáird
TG4
Produced by Telegael Cruinneas was a children’s quiz show where children travel all over the solar system, from planet to planet, answering questions and winning great prizes. Now in it’s fifth year, this show is produced for RTÉ and broadcast on TG4.
HQ - HOLIDAY QUIZ
March 26th 2006 (1 Season)
Sean Moncrieff
RTE
The series was made by Vision Independent Productions for RTÉ; it combined elements of a travel programme with a family quiz show.
BOG STOP
2008 – present
Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill
TG4
Produced by Abu Media
TEST THE TEACHER
2009
Kathryn McKiernan
RTE
PODGE & RODGE'S STICKIT INN
October 2009
RTE
Based on pub table quiz formula with celebrity guests.
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
2009
Roisín Ni Thomain
RTE
‘Watch Your Language’ was a rapid-fire language quizshow for 8-12 year olds from around the country.
