Many thanks to John for supplying the following information about Downtown Radio, of which we previously had little information about.  The station operated around 220 metres on the medium wave band.

Downtown Radio started life in August 1977 broadcasting from Ballyfermot on the southside of Dublin. Broadcasts were from the residence of DJ Alan Jackson.The station was set up by Radio Dublin fans who became disillusioned with the station after the Captain and Doctor Don parted ways earlier that year. The transmitter was the well known 12/24 of low power purchased from Osbourne Electronics in Dublin. The station upgraded to an 807 valve transmitter in January 1978 and broadcasts were then from Walkinstown.

The station continued to upgrade transmitters and broadcasted up to about 1982 when it went off the air, having its most consistent broadcasting period in Summer 1978. Although I have lost contact with most of the DJ's the only one of us who went on to broadcasting professionally was DJ Tony West who is now in RTE. DJ Adam Coffin now resides in Los Angeles but as far as I am aware still undertakes broadcasting on a partime basis for a local station there. Engineer and DJ "Johnny John" went on to a career in the Airlines having worked in electronics for 10 years. DJ Alan King occasionally does discos and still resides in Crumlin.

Downtown Radio - June 1978

The only recording we have of Downtown Radio was originally supplied to us on a compilation by Prince Terry back in 1978. This extract was from one Saturday in June 1978 at programme changeover time, where there seemed to be some confusion as to where the station broadcast on the medium wave. DJ Alan Jackson stated 217m whilst Tony West mentioned 220m, so the exact frequency is not known. The station, like many back in those early days, sounded full of enthusiasm.