This is the story of a whole adventure in radio history. It is written from a personal point of view, and to quote an old well-worn statement;

"If four men were on the same ship at sea reporting the same events, the end result would be four completely contrasting stories."

Thus, this is the view of myself, a Scottish DXer, ie one who enjoys listening to long distance reception of someone else's local station, and a keen listener to the Irish pirates for many many years. For this reason I make continuous reference to stations that have had reception reported from outside their target areas in Ireland.

I find it really odd that when browsing through the World Wide Web, a country like Ireland with so much radio history is so poorly represented. There are a few sites by people like Dusty Rhodes, who have presented a brief history of Irish radio. Yet despite the same gentleman's humble beginnings on pirates such as Sunshine, he by passes the best era in radio as though it were only a few months. It saddens me that not one out of all the broadcasters who passed through Irish pirate radio,have decided to write their own memoirs. Many of them went on to become very well known and respected in their own right. It is knocking on for 8 years since the closure of Anoraks UK, one of the leading news gathering organisations for Irish pirate radio there ever was. I first met the founders of AUK just after my first tour around the Irish pirates in 1981. Although the data is well documented in the old weekly reports, there is virtually nowhere else to my knowledge where the information can be obtained as a matter of public record.

This text is a description of events some 16 years or so ago. It is 9 years since the pirates of the time all closed down. Everyone seems to view this site as a trip down memory lane, especially those who actually worked on the stations. All we are seeking is to document broadcasting history of the past 2 decades, before the memories are sadly lost in the mists of time. We have even surprised ourselves by the detail and little stories we have collated, after putting our heads together over a few pints.

The real Irish era has long gone. At the end of 1988 Ireland lost one of the best broadcasting systems in Europe. Radio had found it's own market, and flourished around the major population centres. It was enough to make most modern Europeans envious of the choice available. Even the then Irish Premier, Charles Haughey was in on the act. In "Radio Radio" by Peter Mulryan, Charles was pictured by the Q102 eye in the sky helicopter. This was piloted by none other than his son Ciaran!!

In Dublin there was music for every taste. TTTR Radio kept country music alive, KLAS was very "easy listening", Heartbeat had their love songs, Sunshine 101, Q102 and Energy 103 all played fast moving "Hot Hits", whilst Capitol/ Nitesky had an "AOR" format. There were all the inbetweenies too, including Radio Galaxy, with old timer Tony Boylan playing old 78's every Sunday. This gentleman who had been operating for years, was said to have in his possession some original discs of 'Lord Haw Haw' from wartime in the 40s. He also presented "the 78 show" on ARD on a Sunday at one stage. Dubliners were also treated to enlightenment from the hymns of the Irish Christian Broadcasting Service. Curiously enough ICBS was operated by husband and wife team, Gary St John and DJ Karen. They were better known in the short-wave community as Skull and Bones Radio System. I first heard SBRS in 1978, when the two were unmarried. They made a brief return to the air in 1986 or so, before becoming a SW relay on 6318 for Radio Stella and WLR etc, until the end of 1988. The Irish people had a choice in radio listening, which in the UK was sadly only a dream. It must also be emphasised that despite all the past troubles and strong opinions of the Irish people concerning the 6 counties of Northern Ireland, there have never been any long term political pirates, unlike other major European cities such as Paris and Milano.

One extremist minister aptly named Ray Burke, decided enough was enough, and introduced a draconian piece of legislation designed to close them all down. He was I suppose "only doing his job". (I wonder how many times they used that phrase at the Nuremberg trials?) This individual decided that everyone must now listen to government broadcasts from RTE, and that there was no need for a choice in radio listening. In his wisdom, the stations were not even replaced by any legal operations. By doing so, Burke was not only responsible for the station closures, but he seemed happy to add to the already soaring dole queues, and apparently had government backing to do so! This was fine for the wealthy politicians, who had large salaries, pension funds, and all the perks of the job. The people in the radio industry were merely trying to earn a living, but were being forced out on the street almost, by a regime which seemed hell bent on destroying the future of so many talented broadcasters. This was fine for the afore mentioned Charles Haughey, who could not remember whether someone had given him a million pounds or not, after a corruption scandal which came to light in 1997. Anyone who can not even remember if he was given a million quid, surely was not qualified to decide the outcome of his country's broadcasters.

It was suggested in some circles that the Irish government had bowed down yet again to pressure from London, because of complaints of stations broadcasting across the border into Northern Ireland, for the lucrative advertising market. (And to give the radio deprived people of the North some decent radio into the bargain) This type of "Border Blasting" was as old almost as radio itself. Ironically, some other government departments were not quite so long in recognising the stations, and when it came to taking money from them in tax, they were straight in with their demands. Most people within the industry beleived the stations should have been simply regulated as they were. Regulation meant legalising the pirates, demanding some sort of a licence fee, and regulation of the transmitter specifications. (After all you could not license a 2MHz signal on the shipping band!!) I hope I can be forgiven for being just a little bitter about having my everyday entertainment taken away.

The stations were led to believe that if they closed down like good boys, they would be "considered" for a licence. In reality few actually achieved their goal, and most were never heard of again. The date was set for the closures, Dec 31^st 1988. This date had some significance. It was the end of Dublin's millennium year celebrations. The radio stations needed the lucrative Christmas advertising market. To close down on December 31st meant they would have had little impact on the listeners, who would be tied up in New Year celebrations. Even closing, like most of them did, on 30^th December, little impact was made. It seemed everyone had accepted the government decision sitting down, and were content to be put out of work. The reality was only to come to light when the festivities were over, and the working week began, with nothing on the airwaves to listen to. Radio Dublin (1188 and 6910 as well as FM) and Radio Star Country in Co Monaghan (at the time on 891) were the only two stations who fought on, and are still on the air to this day. Radio North (Carndonagh, Co Donegal) closed for a few days, before returning under the 'disguise' of Northside Radio. This time we could hear the station well in Scotland, as previous to the bill, there had been an unnecessary transmitter on 846 from Sunshine in Dublin. WABC (Greencastle) closed for a few weeks longer before returning. As it stands however, there are again many stations dotted around the country, some originals, but mostly new operations. Transmitter powers have been gradually increased again since 1988. Ironically, now in 1997, Radio Star Country, a comparative latecomer to the airwaves, has been broadcasting longer than Sunshine Radio formerly from Portmarnock.

With all this history down the tube so to speak, it may be time to write my personal memoirs of the many Irish tours and trips and even some of my many memories associated with DXing Ireland. My articles therefore, have a heavy slant towards DXing perhaps more than programme listening, although of course the latter also played a major role. This became more so in later years as the transmitters became more powerful, and listening was possible on a good car radio at certain times of the day or night, especially in the cases of Radio Nova and Sunshine.

In the following paragraphs I attempt to piece together the story in full of my first visit to Ireland, some 16 years on. This has not been the easiest thing in the world to achieve, as often material will be lost forever in the foggy mists of time. However with the aid of tape recordings, some of the magazine reports written at the time, and talks with those concerned, then there may be a worthwhile tale to tell. The research has meant digging up some really dusty old files, notes, and old logbooks, diaries etc, some of which are in various states of repair. Sometimes this research has brought more questions than answers, but after some coughing and sneezing caused by the dust on the files, some long forgotten stories have been unearthed and the old memory banks triggered.
  

My first ever knowledge of the "pirates" was on a dark night as a little boy of about 9 or 10. I had a cousin staying, and he knew I used to listen to Radio Luxembourg and BBC Radio 1, and was crazy about "The Osmonds". Luckily on the latter two counts, my tastes have changed somewhat.

"Did you never hear any of the pirate stations ", he asked.

The thought scared me a little, as I answered in the negative, and tucked my head under the covers. He went on to tell me about Radio Northsea, which his brother listened to at their home in Glasgow. For some reason this always stuck in the back of my mind.

One night, probably in the first half of 1973, I was under the bed covers with my little tranny, not too loud incase my mother would hear I wasn't asleep, listening to Radio Luxembourg. I don't remember why, but I was fiddling around with the very small radio, probably because of a fade, and heard a male announcer saying "here on Radio North Sea". This shook me. The signal was not great, but listenable, and I stayed tuned for a little while, before falling asleep. The station, surprise surprise was not there in the morning when I tried to tune in. It was not until some months later I rediscovered RNI, and listened on an almost nightly basis. For some reason at this time, I liked the jingles. I always dreamed of owning a tape recorder, and recording a tape with only jingles. At Christmas 1973, I was given my first cassette machine, and began taping both songs from Radio 1, and the jingles from Radio 1 as well as RNI, and the likes. I still have these tapes, recorded some 24 odd years ago now, on that machine. In fact I still have the old tape machine, although it is broken now.

One Friday night the signal of RNI was awful on 1367kHz, 220m. I had to give up listening to Mike Ross with the chart show on the old radio gram I had by this stage, and began to tune the SW band, to see what might interest me. I began at the "49m end", where to my surprise I found a station playing english pop music. I was stunned to discover that this was RNI also on SW!! I know they used to announce it, but I could not have understood 6205kHz as a young boy. I progressed from there really, listening to the offshore stations.

I often wonder what would have happened if I had tuned to RNI on SW, which I did at least one Sunday, when I heard AJ Beirens doing the "AJ on Sunday" show. Had I knocked the tuner off, maybe I would have heard World Music Radio, another station which gave early influence to many radio people. I never though, and lost touch of things between 1974-77, only hearing Caroline a few times during those years. It was in 1977 that I began DXing. I also found Caroline on 962kHz, and became addicted to their amazing hypnotic format of album rock. I was often not by my radios on a Saturday night in 1977/ 78, and spent the time at my grandmother's farm. I always remember using the small domestic portable radio to tune into whatever, after I was in bed, up the "guid stair". I would not have dared sleep up the "Back Stair" because as kids were told all sorts of stories about the things that used to live up there!!! This tranny was one my grandfather, who had by this time passed away, bought to listen to the polis' on VHF. They foolishly used to use frequencies around 101 in the broadcast band!! The two stations I used to listen to however were Radio Sweden's extended Saturday shows, and Radio Caroline from the Mi-Amigo, which used to be my absolute favourite then. This was a time of discovery and intrigue I fear I could never possibly repeat.

I heard my first Irish pirate on SW rather than MW, in January 1978, when Mull of Kintyre by Wings topped the pop charts. "Radio Valleri International" at that time used the well-known address of 134 Eastworth Road, Chertsey, Surrey, KT16 8DT, England. I thought of course, I had heard a station from Surrey, called Radio Vellemy International, on their regular 6202kHz frequency!! Little did I realise then, that some 24 years later I would personally be responsible for the return for a one off broadcast of the said station, from a wood in Scotland!! Radio Valleri incidentally, received good coverage in the 1978 World Radio TV Handbook. I later began to hear stations like Westside Radio on SW, as well as MW stations such as Radio Carousel, (which incidentally I first thought was Radio Countdown!) Capitol Radio (This Dublin station for some reason spelt Capital with an 'o'), Big D, Radio Dublin, etc.

I made contact with long time friend "Ian" in October 1978, after hearing his name on the radio so many times. It was in fact George Wood from Radio Sweden who wrote me a brief note along with the Sweden Calling DXers bulletin that they used to send out back then.

"Can't give you Dxers address, but Ian lives in town X", it read.

This was only 30 miles or so from me. I was an inexperienced (in more ways than one!!) young 15-year-old, and still learning the ropes (although I never knew this at the time). Ian was a couple of years older, and to me seemed to "know everything about radio". We ended up calling each other week in week out about what was on the SW that day, and MW the night before on the old 227m Dutch band. This was the area of the spectrum between about 1290 and 1350kHz, where the European powerhouse stations all signed off for the night, one by one, leaving the area clear. Every Friday and Saturday night, from around 2300, Dutch pirates took to the air.

Ian could also hear the Irish stations I had been receiving. In earlyish 1979 he suggested I try for a station I had never heard called ARD, Alternative Radio Dublin, operating on 257m.

"They are running a few hundred watts now, and the signal is really strong", I was told.

I could not even receive ARD, with my then modest long wire aerials, yet Ian was only listening on a Grundig Concert Boy 1100 domestic portable radio. At the time I could not believe he did not use external antennas, and in fact never did until well into the latter part of the 80s!!! (I built him a MW loop aerial once, made of big ugly pieces of wood, which his mother would not let in the house. Mind you, it had an uncanny resemblance to old railway sleepers!! The same loop was a source of amusement in 1983 in Ireland when Mike James and myself eventually reached Tramore.)

It was not until years later that I learned why the Irish stations were so much stronger at Ian's, even on a car radio. I remember listening to Radio Dublin 253/ 1188 in Town X, yet there was no sign of the station on the same car radio at my own location, some 25 or 30 miles closer to Ireland!! Soil conductivity I was told was the influencing factor.

I had no real idea why I could not receive ARD 257, which was apparently so strong. On 257m I could only hear Radio Tees from Stockton. My old Philips radiogram, which although had served well, could not separate the frequency between 1152 ILR Glasgow, and 1170 ILR Stockton. Indeed my SW receiver, then a Codar CR70A MKII was unable to receive anything between Radio One, then on 1089, and Radio Clyde on 1152!! (This was just after the major WARC frequency adjustments of November 1978 obviously.) It was not until the summer of 1979 when I bought a Grundig Satellit 3400, I was able to understand the meaning of receiver selectivity. I soon heard, and luckily recorded ARD from their 258.3m wavelength, 1161kHz. Radio Orwell, Tees, etc on 1170, were actually on 256.4m!! It was ironic that the Grundig turned out to be little more than a glorified portable, rather than a serious Dxers receiver, despite the shocking price. For FM however I have never matched it, for both selectivity and sensitivity. Irish MW stations were fast becoming as much part of my life as the radio ships off the Essex and Dutch coasts had been since 1973. In 1979 of course there were 3 offshore stations in European waters, Caroline, Delmare and Mi Amigo, although by 20th March 1980 there were none!.

Ian and I finally met in June 1979, thanks to a chance advert in a free radio publication from Mike James, who was looking for other Scottish contacts. Ian turned out to be a tall, longhaired 17 year old, who was running Radio Mercury on SW at the time, in conjunction with some others in SE England. I was a slim, shorthaired youngster, (looks have reversed just slightly!!) and keen to become involved in the pirate scene. The three of us went on to start Weekend Music Radio, which is another essay in itself.

By 1981 I felt I had known Ian for a long time, even though it was a mere 2 and a bit years!! He was ambitious as a DJ, and life in general, a confidence I sadly lacked somewhat as a cautious young lad. I saw employment in broadcasting far out of my reach at that time, and even an average job seemed to be way above me. (Unfortunately I still find this so to this day come to think of it). Ian is one of the few people who takes pleasure in calling me "wee man", standing a few inches taller than my 6-foot stature. (I hope that's the reason anyway!!) In retaliation, I call him Big Ian! This is normal in my part of Scotland. Very original nicknames are made up, such as Big Ian, Wee Willy, Fat Bob, etc.

Ian explains how he caught the radio bug, as a young lad.

"During 1972, I started to become interested in music, and as a young schoolboy, it was more economic to listen to radio than buy records. I remember in December that year, my uncle who lived in London paid us a visit, and we happened to be watching the evening news bulletin. On this, there was a story about a mutiny aboard Radio Caroline.

"God", my uncle said, "I thought they stopped broadcasting years ago, or changed their name to Radio Northsea!"

For some reason this stuck in my mind, and a few weeks later whilst tuning from 208, down to 247 (The old Radio Luxembourg channel towards the old BBC Radio 1 channel) one morning before going to school, I heard the song "Jean Genie" by David Bowie, which happened to be one of my favourite songs at the time. It wasn't Radio 1 as I thought, but a voice announced that it was Radio Caroline on 259, and that he was handing over to the Dutch service, but English programmes would be back at 5pm. Needless to say when I tuned in later all I heard was noise.

Around this time I often bought "Record Mirror" which sometimes carried news about Offshore radio. I remember one copy which said that Radio Caroline was currently off the air, but indeed Radio Nordsee International could be heard on 220 metres. After a few nights I eventually received RNI which played "Judge Dread" records, often skipped over during the BBC chart show. Next I heard Radio Veronica broadcasting in Dutch on 538 metres,but not before thinking that Larry Gogan was a Veronica dj. Yes, it was RTE I first heard up this end of the band! My interest continued and in September 1973 I was given a Grundig Yacht Boy short wave portable, which brought in those pirates on the 49 metre band. Apart from RNI who used 6209 khz, early stations I remember are Radio City, Radio Venus North, Tower Radio (operated by Peter Quinn of Radio Caroline fame) and a certain Radio Valleri broadcasting from Dublin on 6317 khz. One thing that sticks in my mind is that when Valleri were closing for the day they used to say "We are standing by now for Radio Empathy". I never quite got the relevance of this until years later when I discovered that Radio Empathy was a Dublin medium wave pirate who co operated with Valleri. My Free Radio involvement became quite intense during the ensuing years, but always keeping an eye on developments in Ireland. By Christmas 1977 I knew something special was happening, Eamon Cooke took the initiative and the rest were getting ready to follow, including myself which is another story soon to be told!".........

We had heard of Simon Parry from "Free Radio Waves" magazine, and Mike Cottee from "The Free Broadcast Movement", two prominent free radio figures from the SE England visiting so many of the Irish pirates in 1981. Even before this in 1980, Mike James sneaked off to push Marc Bolland of Southside Radio's mini around Dublin, and visit a few stations on the way.

Over the course of the 1979-1981 period, stations were popping up all over the country. So when Ian suggested touring the Irish pirates, I could not have said no. On an average day here in Scotland by that time there must have been a dozen or more stations audible on the old medium wave AM band. I could hear stations from Dublin such as Big D Radio, KELO, Radio Leinster, Sunshine Radio, and of course Radio Dublin. Country stations were also heard such as WKRC Newbridge, Co Kildare, Radio North West in Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim, Boyneside Radio and Radio Carousel, the two arch rivals in the North East of Eire, and countless more. It was difficult to take in the fact that the island only 100 miles or so SW of my own location, which I could see on a clear day from a local high spot, had semi legal radio, and was so many years ahead of the UK, broadcasting wise.

Plans were beginning to take shape. A friend from Leicester was keen to take part in any holiday. Ian, Mike and myself had met Simon in August 1980, on the infamous "Manor Park" ship, a failed offshore project in Sunderland harbour, and immediately hit off a long-standing friendship. Simon had been a long term Leicester pirate during the old MW days of amongst others Delta Radio, and Radio Gloria (Also listed in the WRTH 1978). We enjoyed his stories of never having been caught because he could run faster than the rest of the team, which included Leon Mitchell, another old friend. Incidentally Mitchell was completely in the dark at the time, of the Manor Park project. Both he and Simon were involved in the proposed English service of Radio Delmare in 1979. Simon shared stories of his times aboard the "Martina", otherwise known as the Aegir 2, when all they had to eat was rice, peanut butter and 7-up. He was an rf engineer, yet was not allowed to go near the transmitter, which was not tuned properly. Once while sitting on the toilet, the door fell off, while a fishing boat sailed past, leaving the poor fellow sitting there looking out at cheering fishermen!! One day when the tender arrived in a rough sea, he grabbed someone, who slipped over the side, as the two ships crashed together in the swell. He thought he was going to be left with a pair of hands, but amazingly there was a massive dent in the side of the ship, enough for the guy to be quite unharmed!! Simon had to slip into the shadows when he came ashore for the final time, as the police and other officials were waiting.

Simon, when at home in Leicester would sit on the frequency of an Irish pirate all day just to hear an id, so to say he was keen on the Irish scene was an understatement. As well as MW, he was also a keen SW Dxer. During discussions about SW pirates, Ian discovered that the KOL Europe he had heard some years before on SW, had actually been operated by the said Leon, and was not German, as announced!! Simon went on to become an editor of the Unofficial Radio pages, in the Danish SW Clubs International, taking over from Dr John Campbell. This lasted only a short time mainly because of his studies. The last time anyone of us saw him was in 1985 at the Caroline Movement convention in London.

The only problem now was that none of us could drive. Ian and I both knew Gary Hogg, who was also a keen listener and Dxer of the Irish pirates. I rang him about the planned tour, which seemed to really interest him. Hogg was happy to take his car. Ian, Simon, Gary, and myself arranged a meeting in Scotland during the first weekend in August to discuss a mid-August 1981 holiday.

Gary arrived at my place on the Saturday lunchtime. He hailed from Leeds, and struck me as an easy going Yorkshireman who liked a pint. He was a good few inches shorter than Ian and myself, with long hair, and a car full of tapes and radios. He had been a keen radio listener for many years, and like many of us, became interested through listening to the offshore stations at a very young age. Gary himself takes up the story..

"We emigrated to Canada in April 1968. Before this I had not taken much notice of the radio, and only remember 'Children's Choice' on the then new Radio 1, although I can't ever remember any station ID's. We had reel to reel at that time with a built in radio, and I used to spend a lot of time fiddling with that, so perhaps this was the start of my tape mania!!

As a 9 year old, I disliked Canada, probably because we went to Montreal where there were not many people of English origin, and I found it difficult to make friends with anyone. We only stayed there 3 months, and by the summer of 1968 were living in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, where my dad had finally found some work. We started living in some apartments next to a cinema and opposite a shopping centre. A guy who lived one floor down was an electronic whizz and one day popped upstairs with a radio he had made on a bit of wood out of a few parts. We used the metal window frames as an aerial and managed to pick up the two local AM stations WCAP on 980kHz and WLLH on 1400kHz I think. One or two of the bigger Boston stations were audible in between, weakly, and at night I managed to get WLS from Chicago. I think this was the start of my DXing hobby. We had an old Ultra transistor radio from the mid 1950's, in pink and white, which the same guy got going for us, as they didn't sell PP1 batteries in North America. I used this until the batteries failed, and then don't remember what happened to it after that. Shame its gone as the sound was superb. I bought a little transistor radio during that summer, and remember lying in the back of the car one night travelling back to the Canadian border through Vermont, noting all the station ID's on a bit of paper - my first real log .

Anyway over the next couple of years we moved a couple of times, still in Chelmsford, and I went through several radios, eventually migrating to a 3 band portable with shortwave!. In the summer of '69 I erected a couple of huge bamboo poles in the garden, and with a piece of wire began my shortwave listening hobby. During 1970 I used to come home from school and listen to WROR FM, which was the FM service of WRKO (680) in Boston. This MW stn is still heard regularly in Europe, mainly in the winter months. WROR was actually the first station I ever wrote to. I also remember listening to WABC from New York during December 1970 when they were playing the TOP 100 of the year. We returned from the US in January 1971. I had been given a multi band portable for Christmas, and was eager to try it out in the UK. The AM and FM bands were full when I left Chelmsford on the Friday. We arrived back in Leeds on Saturday morning 20th January 1971, and I eagerly removed my pride and joy from the suitcase. I switched it on, and my first reaction was that it had been damaged during the trip as both the AM and FM bands were virtually empty. It slowly began to dawn that there was nothing wrong, and that radio in the UK was virtually non-existent. To a 12 year old boy who was used to flicking from station to station for the best music, this was a severe disappointment. Because of this, I don't remember listening much for a while. Then my dad came back from a trip to Bridlington on the East Coast, and told me he had been listening to a test transmission from a station called Radio Northsea International. I tried it, and sure enough there it was, weak during the day, but not too bad at night. That was the start of my pirate listening days. Once the shortwave service started, it became easier to hear, and then one Sunday I just happened to tune to one side of the SW service and heard music. I listened for a while, and this station identified as World Music Radio. During late 1971 and early 1972, I began to listen to Radio Sweden Calling DX-ers who reported 'hobby pirates' from time to time. I took an interest in these and managed to hear a few on my limited receiver, and things mushroomed from there."

Gary's log book was impressive, though not quite so as his massive tape collection, including much of the mid and late 70s off air SW recordings. He also had some early Irish material, which was of obvious interest. Gary was the only person I had heard of who had been fined for aiding and abetting a broadcast while he was in Devon, miles from the transmission site. Michael J of Radio Solent City (South)was busted in the summer of 1979, at his home in Co Durham, and the GPO found a letter with a taped show from Gary. This cost him £60!! You can read the full story of the raid and courtcase by clicking above.

As ever we had a few drinks in the pub, and a good old yarn. When we returned home, Simon sat in the studio chair, listening to Sonic Independent Radio, and pissing around on the CB. Ian and I reckoned we could freak him by throwing a stone at the studio. After a few beers, the stone was actually more like a brick. This not only surprised poor old Simon, but buried him in my cassettes, which were stacked against the wall at the time!!

 

Gary	Ian

On Sunday August 1st, a broadcast on SW with a home made generator was planned, but technical problems as usual prevented any signals being heard. An amazing joint programme was pre-recorded, but remained unaired. There were about 8 of us in the woods that day including Barry Stevens of EMR. Barry was selling me my first transmitter, the former EMR 50W input tx. This blew during trials of the generator. Gary also had a loan of a small 20 watt transmitter, ex Radio Solent City (North East), which also failed to work!

That Sunday afternoon was spent going over maps, station lists, and having a semi serious discussion about the up and coming trip. Gary at least had some sort of idea what would have been the most suitable way to tackle the whole country in one short week. The departure date planned was late August 12th, from Liverpool to Dublin.

At this time stations logged included the very strong 2nd harmonic of Southside Radio from the Hotel Victor in Dunlaoire, on 1998kHz. The second harmonic was stronger than the fundamental, in both England and Scotland. The old dusty log book confirms reception of this problem, on Monday 10th August 1981, more on this later. Radio City from Dublin also had a strong harmonic on the same date, on 2327kHz.

Wednesday 12th August 1981

The time had come. Ian and myself set off by bus, to meet the lads at Piccadilly in Manchester. We spotted Simon in a kind of a tunnel thing, almost as soon as we reached the Piccadilly area, but Gary was nowhere to be seen. The three of us took a seat in a Greek restaurant for a bite to eat. The owner began to babble in broken English to me about the girls in front, who were from Hamilton in Scotland. Unfortunately there was no time for normal things like chasing women, with such a tight schedule. As we sat tucking into our lunch, Gary took us by surprise by walking past the window, which was quite amazing in an area the size of Piccadilly!! I think there may have been some incompetence in organising a meeting place, although things worked out fine. The pioneering trip had begun.

It may have been courtesy to call or write to at least some of the known stations before hand, but we never did. Only the odd station we had rang or written to anyway knew of our trip. No one was sure exactly which stations were on air where, what frequency etc. Good lists were difficult to come by. In those days the latest list of the FRC Ireland (Free Radio Campaign) was only in metres. Few seemed to have the basic understanding of frequencies at that time, and even in later years. Anoraks Ireland had a list dated Feb 20th 1982, which included BIG D 273 on 1099kHz, other times listed as 1098, where they never were. However if one works out the real frequency for 273m, you come close to 1099. Maybe the operator of that organisation thought he had worked out the real frequency, but unfortunately failed. Our own monitoring produced a much more detailed frequency listing, in kHz, not metres, which meant nothing. I too of course could have had much more detailed lists had I the receivers, antennas and most importantly the knowledge I have now, especially the art of greyline enhancement (Dxing especially in the mornings, where it is neither dark nor light). This is a subject in itself, but radio signals are enhanced/ disturbed on MW and even on SW, sometimes quite dramatically around the hour or so between day and night. I cringe when I think of the rarities I could have added to my log by rising a few hours early of a morning!

At Liverpool harbour, while waiting to board the ship, some time was spent listening to the Irish pirates. Sonic Independent Radio was powerful on the dockside, on 1314kHz. A curious Liverpool pirate calling itself Station X was heard on 1107kHz. This turned out to be tests for J-1000, which became a well known Merseyside pirate of the day. DJs included Robin Blinde, or Robin Ross as he became known, the man who was to have the first words from the Ross Revenge during the tests in 1983, prior to Radio Caroline relaunching. The interesting thing about this station was the frequency used. We could hear some splatter from Radio 1 on 1089. BBC Radio 1, was then on AM only using what is now the Talk Radio UK transmitters on 1089 and 1053. A few short weeks after J1000, the BBC decided to stick a relay on 1107, for Radio 1!!

When the first trip in 1981 came about, the so-called music station of the BBC, Radio 1, was still only on AM. They had Radio 4 on FM, which was speech based!! I guess they reckoned there was no market for music radio on FM, and listening today, I personally believe they still think the same. The ILR stations were more of a joke, and still are, all sounding the same, with no formats. Certainly in the eyes of young pirate radio enthusiasts. In Eire, RTE closed for the night, with ex pirate and Virgin DJ Dave Fanning at 10 to 2. (This was quite an odd time to close, neither 02 nor 01.30!) The major Irish pirates were now beginning to run 24 hours a day.

Gary had organised a loan of a small PYE mono cassette machine for me, as at the time my only decent recording equipment stretched to 1 main 240V tape deck. It was too much to trundle on the bus as well as the big Grundig Satellit 3400 radio. Some time was spent setting the tape machine up to record on the road. It was rather heavy on the batteries, but did the job. Because my receiver was inside the car, reception any great distance from the transmitter was impaired. Gary had his old Grundig cassette machine fitted up in conjunction with the car radio, which gave him many more miles of recording. He also had his JVC stereo radio cassette, nowadays called a ghetto-blaster, to record from FM stations, especially if they were in stereo.

While hanging around the ferry terminal, an old drunk guy began to tell me how I looked Irish, perhaps because of my Celtic appearance, at least I think that was what he was blabbering on about. Before boarding Gary proceeded to spill a cup of coffee on his trousers. We eventually made it onto the ship for the long 10 hour sail, Wednesday night through to Thursday morning, 12th / 13th August 1981. Simon and Gary were pumping the travel sickness tablets, and looking for a place to lie down for the night. We all had a Sleeping bag to rough it, no first class accommodation for us. It was decided to sit up on deck, to see the ship off, as darkness fell. The huge funnel on the ferry was billowing out thick, black smoke, and the smell was overwhelming. A little boy was having his trousers taken down by his mother just along from Ian and myself, and our immediate thoughts were that we had discovered the obvious source!! Sometime later when it became too cold and smelly outside despite the boy's trousers being pulled back up, we returned below deck to find a nice floor for the night. The lads soon nodded off to sleep, but I had made the unfortunate choice of sleeping by a doorway I assumed was not being used. I couldn't have been more wrong. I was harassed by sailors trampling over me all night, running in and out the door!! At some odd time in the night, Ian and myself ventured to the canteen, for chips and the like, whilst the lads snored on, nursing their dodgy stomachs!!
 

The feeling of magic in the air was incredible as I saw the beautiful sight of Dublin on the horizon, at about half five in the morning. I think I had expected to go out on deck and see the horizon dotted with tall transmitting towers. I also had a strange mental picture of the city. I imagined Dubliners all walking around the streets with their radios tuned to ARD, City, Southside, Sunshine etc. In reality neither came to being. Dublin was like any other major cosmopolitan city. They had the hustle and bustle, the cars, buses, and exhaust fumes. Everyone walked past you in the street, minding their own affairs, and oblivious to their surroundings, and for that matter, to the 20 odd pirates audible around the town. The only towers visible were for RTE and commercial use. As we were about to discover, many stations really did operate on the traditional shoestring, with only wire antennas and home made transmitters, held together with chewing gum and bits of string. This was my first holiday with the recently acquired Grundig Satellit 3400, which has now given years of good service. I had it with me up on deck tuning the FM band, when the song "Walk Right Now" by The Jacksons was heard.

"There's Nova", said Ian and I in unison, simply because Gerard Roe had sent over a tape of Nova from FM with that song on it. The audio was lovely and bright, and sure enough there was a station ID soon after. It was a tape of these early Nova tests that Radio Paradise played during part of their short lived test transmissions from off the Dutch Coast in 1981 from the radioship, Magda Maria.

After coming off the ship, the first thing you notice even to this day, are the massive antenna arrays on the Dublin rooftops. There are all sorts, from band 1 and band 3 VHF antennas, to UHF monsters pointing in all directions, some to the UK for HTV and BBC, some pointing to the North for Ulster TV, and BBC from Northern Ireland. Some houses obviously have both. The farther West you go, the aerial masts often become towers, for domestic TV reception!

On the way through Dublin, at 0755 according to the log, Ian spotted the Crofton Airport Hotel, where ARD, originally known as Alternative Radio Dublin, broadcast. I grabbed the camera and took a photo on the way through. Ian checked the Satellit 3400.

"Look at ARD", he said excitedly tuning the fm band from end to end, "It's fucking everywhere".

To be fair to ARD, the radio did have a tendency to overload easily on strong local signals, and later at the guesthouse in Dunlaoire, there was no sign of any problems.

As we headed towards Drogheda, we began to think of the problems in the North at The Maze Prison, where some IRA hungerstrikers were undergoing a protest over prison conditions. This led to the eventual deaths of some 10 prisoners, the best known being Bobby Sands. Whilst new to Ireland, the thought of two Englishmen, especially in certain areas, did not sound like a very good idea. After this first visit, this nervousness totally vanished, and rightly so. However initially we thought it a better idea if we kept our distance from the border, missing out on famous stations like Telstar Radio and Radio Carousel in Dundalk etc. Ironically Ian was to go on to work at Carousel, including their Monaghan outlet, with of course no hint of any problems.

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The first call therefore, was to investigate the obvious name changes that we had been hearing. Just outside Drogheda, at a garage, a Boyneside Jingle was heard on a freq of 98.1, which surprised us. Later the well-known link freq of 99.2 was also noted. Since the address of the station was known, we asked directions to 14 Mill Lane, which turned out to be off Trinity Street, a sort of main road through the town. While walking on Trinity Street, we noticed there were black flags up on the lamp posts, in sympathy for Bobby Sands and the others who had died in the Maze. This was a little concerning, being from foreign parts. We then experienced our first freaky situation. There seemed to be a strong army presence on Trinity Street. As it turned out, at the time this was a regular procedure when moving money from a bank!!

There were no problems, and the station was soon found at the postal address in Mill Lane. A sign above the door made no secret of the whereabouts of "BOYNESIDE RADIO 225" Simon, the most politely spoken of us rattled the door. A young woman showed us into the studio where a gentleman called Eric Vaughan was in the middle of his morning programme. Eric it seemed had to talk after every record, as one of the turntables was down. Someone had been sent up the street to buy a new needle!! Shoestring pirates??!!!! The audio from the station seemed to boom out around the room from the station monitor, although it was not quite loud enough to cause any hint of feedback, which I recall impressed me. Boyneside had a spacious studio, and there were a few mics around the place, to interview any guests. Eric promptly interviewed us all live. Gary had a tape running in the car, which was the usual practise, just in case we did happen to be mentioned on air.

Eric told us that while the owners were on holiday, and they still were, there had been a split in the station. Heddy Eddie, Richard Kenny, Gavin Duffy and Dermot Finglas and others had gone off to start Community Radio Drogheda. Dermot was on breakfast that day, and heard from around 0815/0930, with all sorts of wrong announcements such as "Local Radio Drogheda" ".. On the Boyneside chart" "..on 225 and 102 FM" etc. The FM did not come on till later in the afternoon. The obvious confusion was not just with the listeners, but included DJs. Richard Kenny presented the 0930/1200 show. Richard incidentally, is now a famous RTE television presenter, using the name Richard Crowley. The web site includes a photo of him on CRD. Gavin Duffy now on Radio Ireland, was on 12/2pm, and Eddie from 2/4.30 presumably, followed by Ken Murray. Since Eddie was the engineer, CRD had the high power 1305kHz transmitter. This could be heard well in the UK on the fundamental, as well as the subsequent harmonics. CRD always had a very distinctive sound, with rather tinny audio, lacking in low frequecny response, while at the same time being very loud. The distinctive professional voice of Richard Kenny always sticks out in my memory, heard not only with his own show, but he obviously produced many commercials.

Eric did ask us to hang around for a bit, until he finished his morning programme at 1130. After this he could show us the transmitters. We went over to the Kings Café, which was a well-known haunt of the Boyneside staff. The station blared away on the old radio cassette sitting on the counter. We sat chatting about our first station, before driving the few hundred yards back to the station. There was no point in leaving the radio equipment in the car unattended for any longer than necessary.

When Owen Barry came in to present his show, Eric was free to show us around. I always described Owen as the guy with the trainers on, as though it was a crime for a local radio DJ to wear such footwear. Owen later became a close friend of Ian's, and accepted the invitation to become best man at his 1988 wedding. Eric showed us into the old Donaghys Mill, where the MW transmitter was. Medium Wave? We could only hear the FM. And no wonder. Even with careful tape scrutiny of the 1305 CRD tape, left recording off air from the car radio below the Boyneside MW aerial, occasional sideband splatter was only just detectable! The AM rig was surely only radiating a few watts into the aerial on 1314kHz, stuck between two high power Community Radio Drogheda transmissions. With the lack of technical knowledge on the Boyneside half of the split, no one guessed there even was a carrier on 1323, after all there was no music (As one Dutchman once said in 1975 on the Mi Amigo). Into the bargain once we realised there WAS a MW signal, it was found to contain a high percentage of 2628kHz!!! The audio was fed from the 99 FM link, only yards away. The transmitter was not of conventional UK pirate design. Instead of being portable on a chassis, it was sitting on bits of metal, and some of the components just on the floor of an old room in the mill. The transmitter which was built in a hurry, was half a dozen television line output valves, PL509s, and a very long coil, avo meter stuck in for a current meter, and no mains plug. The wires were wedged in the holes with bits of wood!!! There were no tuning capacitors as such, just the glass plate type capacitors, all home made by a well known young engineer from Dublin, called Peter Gibney. He was the chap behind amongst others Radio Caroline Dublin. This was the first of many transmitters of this construction we saw not only during this trip, but in years to come. A real treat.

Simon was the farthest advanced with transmitters at that time, and was shocked and stunned. Eric did comment that the MW was not very good!! Because of his inexperience with transmitters, he was offering cash to anyone who could improve the situation. Simon sent Eric looking for a "capacitator" as he called it, to replace the glass plates. Nothing was found except an old thing from the back of an old valve radio, which was too low rated for RF. Mind you the amount of RF the thing produced, it probably would have worked.

After he learned about the carrier, Eric and his mate Tony, an older gentleman, who worked for the station owner, took the four of us for what seemed like miles in and out of country roads. Gary followed in his identical car, which was quite a coincidence!! We were shown the FM 98.1 site, which reached as far as Dublin, some 30 miles or so farther South. This was situated high on a hill at Eobon MaDonnel's house, North of Drogheda, on the Dundalk road. Eric told us of plans to install a MW rig there in the near future. In later years when the Dublin pirate scene was chaotic, and Boyneside had a Dublin relay, the 98.1 was too weak, and susceptible to jamming, and hi jacking, so a UHF link was actually used to feed the Dublin relay.

Deep into the little twisted country lanes around Drogheda, Eric eventually found a long wire of Heddy Eddies, running across the road. Eric seemed to be in search of the mystery carrier on 1323, but unfortunately (or whatever the case may be, as it was not our battle), the signal was definitely not coming from the said cable. As time was ticking on, we began to head back to Drogheda. On the way Eric pulled up rather suddenly, and jumped out the car. Apparently a wasp had crawled up his trouser leg and stung him!! Eric had mentioned they were looking for DJs. They would be able to offer some £60 a week "in the hand". Ian had just finished his apprenticeship as an electrician, and was on the market for a job.

"Send us a tape", suggested Eric.

The result is another story in itself.

Before leaving, Eric asked us to join him in the pub a couple of doors up from the studio, for a pint, and see if Gibney would make an appearance. He was due apparently to do some work on the transmitter. This welcome drink and chat gave us a chance to hear some other stories of the station, which sadly are almost forgotten now. Simon was talking on the phone to Peter Gibney about the transmitter, and things technical, but he said it would be a few hours before he could come to Drogheda, time which we never had to spare unfortunately. An arrangement was made with Simon to buy some spare parts from suppliers in the UK, 813 valves I think. Why they could not send the money themselves I don't know, but despite the valves being sent to Boyneside, poor old Simon was never paid! We left Drogheda around 2.30 for a more Southerly venue.

On the way out of Drogheda, non-stop music was going out on 102FM, not parallel to anything. This was to change very soon after, and what was heard in fact was the initial stages of Community Radio Drogheda on FM. By the time the week was up, CRD was also on 1323 in parallel, thus Boyneside would have been even more squashed, if not entirely inaudible except around the mill. Eric on the other hand made a point of trying to poison us against visiting CRD, who to him were the rivals. To us, they were just another station to notch up, but despite Eric's friendliness towards us, and despite him probably being knowledgeable as to their whereabouts, we were never to be told. They turned out to be above the Parocial Hall, in the town centre, although they moved shortly after to a house on Moneymore, an area of Drogheda.

The visit to Boyneside was the first of many, and the time spent with the various staff members of the station was always far longer than anticipated, happily a habit that was never broken.

On the way South, we must have passed the Rossnaree Hotel just outside Drogheda. I personally do not remember seeing this building, and maybe there was no transmitter here at this stage. The hotel was to become very well known as the main CRD, and later Boyneside Radio site for 1305kHz.

One interesting memory of Boyneside Radio over the years was the RF interference getting into the studio from the Garda radios (Irish Police), often heard in Scotland.

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On the morning of the 14th August, MOA day, the South Dublin stations were targeted. Sonic was relatively easy to find, helped along by the graffiti on the road signs. They all pointed straight to the station. However one difficult sign had Sonic 228, and the arrow pointing in both directions, over which someone had written Super Sick Sonic Radio!! Charming..

After finding the station we managed to rouse a rather sleepy headed Joe Jackson (A former Southside Radio man) from his bed. He sent us round the back of the house, to the little Sonic Hut. In the studio was chap called Bob Nailor, who was a radio ham, and CBer. He was admiring my Satellite 3400, which I had trailed round the back with me, to save leaving it in the car. We were shown into the premises, which housed a cramped studio, of the type perhaps you might associate with a station just a little bit more than a hobby pirate, but not much more. The studio monitor was the famous FRG7 receiver from Yaseu.

The transmitter sat in the little reception area, yet another Peter Gibney job, and was churning away in the background, with seemingly no adverse effects to the neighbourhood, or for that matter even the Sonic studio, only a few feet away. One wonders if anyone ever came into the studio of an evening with one drink too many. What a thought. This was what I called a transmitter. At the time I thought they were all very rough, but on reflection, every AM transmitter was a masterpiece, and completely different from the next one, unlike FM transmitters which were rarely home built, and usually only a small tin box with an on off switch!

"Who's going on the air?", asked Bob.

Ian volunteered, none of the rest of us were really confident enough at that time to sit behind the microphone, even at Sonic, a 7 day a week hobby pirate. He introduced himself as being from Radio Telstar in Edinburgh, which sounded better than a 3 hours a month SW station. I remember being a little touchy about him not using the name of a certain hobby SW station!! He presented an impressive 30m show, which included airing the ads. One of the said commercials was for the Bray Sports Centre, where apparently Sonic T shirts and sweatshirts were sold. Despite the sale price of £2.60 for a T shirt and £4.99 for a sweat shirt, we never made it to the shop.

When Joe was more with himself, he began to tell us some rather interesting stories. One funny story was perhaps true, perhaps rumour. It was said around town that when Sunshine lost their first big mast at the Sands Hotel in 1980, "The Captain" of Radio Dublin was spotted on the beach at Portmarnock with binoculars!!

I asked Joe to sign a QSL card. He was bemused when I asked for one for DCR as well, which on reflection was rather foolish as there was no actual station as such. But then who was the most foolish. They were actually announcing as the combined broadcasts of Sonic and DCR!!!

Joe proudly showed us the antennas, one of which was to house the new project. The main Sonic antenna was a high installation, of the single pole variety, with a long wire strung down to a tree, while a smaller mast held up the 297m antenna!! Instead of announcing as was mentioned earlier, "The combined broadcasts of Sonic Independent Radio and Dunlaoire Community Radio," the stations, if there ever were two separate operations, were to split. DCR was to use the secondary antenna for around 297m, which the jingles announced as being already on air at that time, even though it certainly was not!! Again the exact freq was never given, and considering at that time Double R Radio was on 1035, and Southside Radio a few minutes up the road at the Victor, on 999kHz, where was this 297m to be? 1017?? No one I don't think ever found out, as Sonic themselves sadly went under a couple of months after we left, and were never heard again.

DCR never materialised, and the transmitter eventually became East Coast Radio. This did not last too long, although included many of the former Southside Radio top DJs. Ian remembers hearing the station in their last few weeks, playing around a bit. Nick Richards was using the name Cecil Burke, John Lewis/ Steven Bishop used the name Herman Yates, and someone else the name Freddie Bogthrush!! Apparently the result was hilarious!! Tapes anyone???

Island Radio was born out of East Coast Radio, and although a serious attempt to provide a new service, again with top DJs of the time, failed. Studios were in the Cliff Castle Hotel in Dalkey, as was the 98FM transmitter. The most I ever heard from this station was non stop music one night on 1314, which was only the LP Super Hits, a 1981 Ronco compilation. Island gave up MW maybe in late 81, or early 82, although the station continued on FM for a little while longer. Island was gone from 1314 by 21st January, and Dunlaoire Local Radio was on the channel. There was a story that they had to leave the Cliff Castle Hotel because of planning problems with the mast.

ABC Dunlaoire was an FM station in Dunlaoire, before joining forces and becoming Dunlaoire Community Radio for a week or so on FM as well as 1314 via the Jackson transmitter. There was then a name change to South City Radio, and a frequency change to former Southside frequency of 999, after a very short spell on 1323. The date by the time South City Radio was heard on 999, 22nd June 1982, see logs on separate tables.

Even further down the line Joe Jackson loaned the transmitter to Nova, after the 83 raids, and broadcast on 819ish. Carey soon obtained a 1kW unit, which was used on 828, until the original confiscated gear was returned in October 83. Radio Nova Southside on 684 was fired up and at one stage Jackson was said to have jammed Nova on 819, and the two stations would play cat and mouse, changing from 819 to 828 and back, just like Radio Venceramos!! A date for this from the old dusty log, Tuesday 9^th August 1983. It does leave one believing there may have been a slight cash discrepancy somewhere.. LOL  Joe was said to have been the manager at Nova Park at one time, according to "Radio Radio", although this fact was disputed by some.

We all would have liked to spend more time with the small but anoraky set up, if time had been available. But, there was a rough schedule to stick to, and we had to say our goodbyes, and head for Bray.

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RADIO DUBLIN - INCHICORE

RADIO DUBLIN HOME PAGE - 1981 IMAGES

In April 78, Big D Radio was formed, after a split within Radio Dublin. Following a holiday in Spain, Cooke returned to find the staff had mutinied and sabotaged his equipment, and house. In a sensational 3 hour news bulletin, on April 16th 1978, The Captain was heard to condemn their actions and counteract any allegations against him.

A lot of Dublin radio news could be gathered from "The Captains News", aired every Sunday at 1.30pm, although at this time he was rarely there by 1340. In years to come sometimes the news was after 2pm, but he usually made it.

Over the years Radio Dublin has shown Chris Carey, Robbie Dale, and most of the other Dublin pirates who calls the tunes. They stayed on the air, through thick and thin, raid after raid. The mere sniff of a raid had everyone else closing down all over the place.

The old cottage at Inchicore is now long since gone, the ground sold for development. I wonder if the new occupiers of the area realise what a piece of broadcasting history they are sitting on top of. Indeed the same could be said for the other old locations, for example the residents of Radio Dublin's old Sarsfield Road address, or perhaps the current occupiers of 19 Herbert Street, former home to Radio Nova??

When we arrived outside the premises, again there were no secrets of their location. On a wall outside the Radio Dublin house, a large wooden sign written board was nailed up under the shade of a few trees. (This caused my photo of it to be wasted). The street looked a little run down with boarded up buildings and all. The house itself was no exception and it's character fitted in with the rest of the street. This was, as far as I was concerned, Irelands top radio station, all be it for history's sake, and it was coming from an old cottage, with a hole in the roof. I don't just mean a leak either.

As we sat contemplating going into the station, another British registered car drew up, It was Kevin Turner and Dave Hunt, all the way from Suirside Radio in Waterford. (The two were formerly from Radio Zodiac in England, a SW station of much repute) Like us, they were in the area, and paid the station a visit. We all went in together. After all, the QSL cards said that visitors were welcome. (Radio Dublin was another one of the few stations with proper QSL cards)

There were two stations operating from the old house. The main Radio Dublin, Channel 1 as they called it, was on 1188 AM announced as 253metres, and 6910 SW. This SW had been on 6290, 6220, 6240, 6568, and the old Irish freq of 6317, before moving out of the 48m band altogether.

Channel 2 was on 1251, announced as 240metres, with a much weaker signal, and an FM stereo outlet on 90.9 at the time, but announced as 90.2FM in stereo. The only thing stereo about the signal was the pilot tone on the carrier, and apart from this the audio was very pirate like, and low in volume. The secondary service had started life on 1278 when RTE2 Dublin was on 1251. RTE moved to 1278 in October 1980, so Ch2 moved to 1251, although they spent some time off channel on 1240, perhaps because of WKRC? I noted them on 9^th July 81 on 1240, but by 9^th August, they were back on 1251, whistling away with off channel WKRC. Some time later, Channel 2 shifted to 1152, with a characteristic 3^rd harmonic, and no sign of a second. World Music Radio also had frequent relays sometime later, via both SW and MW.

We gained entry, and were shown around by a young chap probably called Chris Skeffington, who ended up on ARD for a spell. He took us first of all to the Channel 1 studio at the back of the house. The place was a little on the rough side, with big holes in the floor. The same floor was also seemingly the main ashtray in the house. There was a kind of a living room between the lobby and the Ch 1 studio at the back, which was full of bodies. The station looked like a local hang out for all and sundry. A guy started his show on Channel 1 by announcing as Radio Dublin on 253, 240, 90.2, and 6910. The Channel 2 Mafia came charging through from the other studio, with a brush, kicking up a stink, shouting that 240 and 90.2 was a different station!!

"Come fucking outside and we'll sort this out", he snarled at the poor newcomer. Were we in the middle of a war zone??

Some of the guys in the living room were throwing burning bits of paper at each other, and set fire to a Radio Dublin banner above the fire place, by the time we'd left. We were probably witnesses to the behaviour of some now well known Irish broadcasters during their early radio careers. Radio Dublin housed the start of so many young talented broadcasters, who all unfortunately moved on, because of pay, to bigger and better things. Radio Dublin was run on enthusiasm, rather than for the rich financial rewards some other stations offered.

We were escorted to the Channel two studio, which was at the front of the house, where DJ John Jensen was on the air. There was some form of sanity in this place, although it was still a tad coarse. I think everyone on the station had high hopes, and a slightly upmarket outlook for Channel 2, despite their much weaker signals around the city. The equipment although newer, could not make up for the weaker signal around town. A rewrite of the old phrase that "no receiver is better than its antenna" to "no studio is better than the transmitter connected to it", had the situation summed up nicely.

The house was a traditional old cottage, with the old 3 foot thick walls, and two bay windows at the front, overlooking the road. Channel 2 had their studio on the right, looking from outside the front of the house. The young guide, who was very anorak friendly, and of obvious broadcast experience, showed us the future channel 1 studio, at the front of the house, in the room to the left as you walk in the front door. It was almost finished.

He also showed us the antennas, and said the station was using the long wire antenna we saw for 1188, but the lattice mast was half finished, which should improve things. All the antennas were sort of crossing, entwining, and how there was so little cross modulation I don't know. In actual fact there often was. Everyone will probably remember the SW on 6317 in the early 80s, when there was sometimes severe cross modulation. Of course, when it came to seeing the transmitters, no one was allowed to go near them except The Captain, who was not around at this stage. It was said he worked during the night at any equipment which needed attention, and slept late into the day. I can certainly understand the transmitters being locked up, out of harms way from some of the characters who drifted in and out the station in a day.

We had an interesting chat with the young lad, relating stories of The Captain being determined to dig a 50 foot hole, to house the station, if things got tough. He told the tale about the Captain having them digging up the road (This reminds me of someone!!) at 3am to lay a telephone cable, because there had been such a long waiting list for phone connections. They had been caught out once, when someone discovered them laying a cable below the railway sleepers!! We were all given Radio Dublin history sheets. Ian fell heir to the only copy of the Radio Dublin single, I like It, which I managed to obtain via Gerard Roe a few weeks later.

It was time to leave, some questions were asked about Double R Radio also in Inchicore, but I suspect the Radio Dublin staff member did not like the idea of us visiting them... As we left the street, a horse ran down Inchicore Road, unattended. I thought this odd for a city, but recently some journalists have reported on SKY NEWS, about the horses kept in garden sheds and garages around parts of Dublin. This seems to be an age-old tradition, as old almost as the city itself. 

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"Are you Brian McKenzie?" I asked, rather anorakishly.
Brian had been a Scottish DJ on Radio Northsea from off the Dutch coast in 1973/4. He was now in Ireland recording commercials along with Tony Allen.
"No", was his reply, although he never did say who he actually was.

We later found out that he was a guy called Terry Riley, an American newsreader on Nova. We were eventually allowed to have a look upstairs, after some negotiation, but under no circumstances were any photographs to be taken. The place was a basic empty room, with thick cable running along the uncarpeted wooden floorboards, probably the audio lead to the transmitter, which we never saw. DJ John Clark, who I had heard on the air so many times on ARD, KELO etc, was sitting in the drab surroundings, with the carts playing 3 or 4 in a row. John was about 35, bearded with glasses, and was fast and sharp. The studio consisted of a stack of cartridge machines, with back to back music on them. They were basically still on test at this stage, and we were told to expect something better in 4-6 weeks. There never was any sudden change in gear. These "transitional broadcasts" were simply cranked up gradually. Little did any of us realise then what we were standing in.

The station then went from strength to strength. Not until Nova turned into the giant they became, did FM rule the roost around the city. As Nova owner Chris Carey once said, "No one listens to FM, because there is nothing on FM. If you put something on FM, they'll listen to FM."

(As a footnote to this, in my home area, there is still nothing on FM!!)

The first records of the station are recordings made in Dublin on July 8th 1981, by Gerard Roe, and tests taped in an unidentified date in June taped by Peter Madison.

A VERY BRIEF PIECE OF HISTORY

It was September12^th, the day before Ian left to go to work in Eire, that I heard the first transmissions from Radio Nova on 846kHz. They seemed to have fallen heir to some Mighty 8-90 jingles from the states, (as well as their Italian/ French package). Nova was heard on 846 with The Mighty 8-90 jingles, which I suppose was fair enough back then. They briefly tried 891 before moving back to 846. On 18th October 1981, a very strong second harmonic was heard on 1692kHz. Later their MW changed to 819. In 1983 however, after the raid, the top of the hour jingle announced 819, they still played the mighty 8-90 jingles, and were actually on 828!! They went on to become a 50KW giant on 738kHz, and for a couple of years were the biggest Irish station ever. During the Radio Nova lifetime, broadcasts ranged from LW, MW, SW, FM, TV, and even Satellite. There were many jamming attempts by both RTE and rivals.

Radio Nova was perhaps the beginning of the end, or so it was suggested in some circles. The station represented the commercial interests of the owners, and the real so called free radio aspect had gone completely out the window. I believe however this was certainly the way to go, (though at the time I had my doubts) bringing proper professional radio to an audience that had never heard anything like it, and probably since. The station also gave way to "clutter free" radio as they called it, which spread throughout the country. (Stuart Henry in his book "Pirate Radio Then and Now" described it as "Flutter Three"!! I wonder if it was dictated to the printers over the phone?) Gone were the boring, stuttering DJs after every single record, even on many of the country stations. The signal was second only to RTE, and even the FM carried half way across the country. It was because of this professionalism, that the Irish radio scene was permanently upgraded, nearer to broadcast standards.

The full story of Radio Nova is a long one, and must be written by someone more qualified than myself. I can only add items from listening experience, as I was never back in the station.

As we headed from Rathfarnam, still tuned to Radio Nova, more "Fuckin' clappin' songs" from Starsound's "Stars on 45", came on. Gary hated these tracks with a passion, and moaned all the time about this particular piece of music, as well others such as Lobo's Caribbean Disco Show, Back To The 60s, etc. On reflection, they do lack the special feeling that rock bands such as The Eagles, Steely Dan, or Led Zeppelin generate.

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