Pirate Radio in Limerick was not all that easy to hear over in the UK, due to the distance, but here we will try and list the stations that we know of from Limerick. Even in Dublin at the offices of Sounds Alternative magazine, news on the Limerick stations seemed vague. There is no listings for Limerick stations in the TUNEIN list before Aug / Sept 1978, when Big L, Radio Limerick Weekly Echo and Radio Limerick are listed. Radio Limerick was on 216m, LBC on 272m, and Big L on 186m. The news item below was from Sounds Alternative Nov/ Dec 1979. |
LIMERICK RADIO STATIONS
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Radio Limerick Weekly Echo 253m, was listed in Sounds Alternative in Aug / Sept 78, Nov / Dec 1978 issue, but not by the Feb / March 1979 edition. Apart from being owned by the Local Newspaper, not much is really known about this station. John the Man from Raidio Luimni left RLWE to start his own station in 1978. ========================================== |
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Capitol Radio Limerick was listed in Sounds Alternative in a news clipping in Nov / Dec 1978 issue Apart from this and a previous report on the raid, which I couldn't find again, not much is really known about this station. ========================================== |
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Independent Radio Limerick was listed in Sounds Alternative issue 6, November / December 78, again in issue 7, Feb / March 1979, and not seen again till the final issue, Feb / March 1981, as on 256m. But it's broadcasting hours were listed as 0100 - 0500 daily!!!!!!! Nothing more is known about this station.. ========================================== |
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LBC 270m, was on the airwaves when Dave Small visited Ireland in July / August 1979. It first appeared in Sound Alternative listings in August / September 1979, issue 3. The station was still listed in the final Sounds Alternative in Feb / March 1981, but was off air by August 1981 as confirmed during a visit to the city. We have absolutely no other details of LBC, and include the one audio file here.
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Raidio Luimni started life as Radio Limerick, before changing it's name to Luimni, the Gaelic word for Limerick... Radio Limerick was listed in Sounds Alternative in August / September issue for 1978. John The Man was well known for his unique style of presentation, as well as being the station owner. The station became much more audable after the installation of one of the Irish built MW transmitters in the later part of the 80's. The dates are uncertain, and need to be looked up in the archives. But Radio Luimni used to also be heard on 2nd harmonic on 2250, twice their 1125 frequency from this same Irish transmitter. |
Big L was one station that was heard in the UK at nights, on various frequencies at the HF end of the MW. The transmitter was a converted ham rig. Mike from Big L has written a decent history of the station, which is published on his own site, but he has also given the go ahead to produce it as a pdf here. Big L was listed in Sounds Alternative in August / September issue for 1978. |
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The Sound Channel. We should be able to compile a home page for this station with audio and images from Steve West, but for now it is only a listing. ========================================== |
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City Centre Radio at one time had a transmitter at the top end of the MW band, on 1611kHz, and at the time, had really distorted audio. But it made it to the UK in the evenings. We may be able to put together a home page with images taken by Steve West, but for now here is one audio file from Dave Small.
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Noted in the mush once in Scotland on 954, this station was a late comer to the Irish Era, and once we get some recordings or images sorted out, we should be able to create a home page. For now it is only a listing. ========================================== |
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Galtee Regional Radio was owned by the Breffni. The MW of 792 was heard in Scotland I think only once. BBC have a strong station in Derry area on the same channel. For the moment this is only a listing, though somewhere there is a mini poster I think. ========================================== |