80s Pirate Radio

brian ireland

Looking through some old photos tonight and in one of them was a pic of my very old ford escort and on the windscreen was a " Glorious True Blue Sunshine Radio sun-visor"
It brought so many good memories of the 80s and radio, Sunshine 101 (539). NRG, Nova, Q102. Those were the days when life was good, the sun was shining and nothing mattered. Oh to be back there

Declan A Walsh

brian ireland wrote: »

Looking through some old photos tonight and in one of them was a pic of my very old ford escort and on the windscreen was a " Glorious True Blue Sunshine Radio sun-visor"
It brought so many good memories of the 80s and radio, Sunshine 101 (539). NRG, Nova, Q102. Those were the days when life was good, the sun was shining and nothing mattered. Oh to be back there

Ah, yes! Those halcyon days of the '80s pirates. They were exciting times. We had such a great diversity of stations, programming and deejays around the country.

Other ones that I remember hearing in Dublin during the '80s include: Kiss FM, Capitol/Nitesky Radio, Radio Dublin, Heartbeat FM, KLAS FM, Treble TR, Southside Radio, Southside FM, Magic 103, Liberties Radio, DCR, Phoenix, Dublin South Community Radio and Radio Leinster. Stations based outside Dublin that I remember hearing included Radio 3 and Bray Local Broadcasting.

So many of the older established names (and bosses) in radio these days were very active in the '80s pirate scene.

tbh

I remember listening to "19" by Paul Hardcastle being played on the red hot sound of sunshine 101, late at night, turned down low so my folks couldn't hear. Blew my mind. I remember being thrilled that a radio station that was so close to me sound so American!

brian ireland

tbh wrote: »

I remember listening to "19" by Paul Hardcastle being played on the red hot sound of sunshine 101, late at night, turned down low so my folks couldn't hear. Blew my mind. I remember being thrilled that a radio station that was so close to me sound so American!

Liberties Radio
"The rhythm of the city starts you in the morning the rhythm of the city keeps you moving all day, the rhythm of the city is liberties Radio!!"
Can't believe i remember that Jingle.

Declan A Walsh

I just remembered a couple of other Dublin stations that I would have heard during the '80s. This would have been the early part of the '80s - KELO, Radio City, ARD and Big D. The latter two well-known pirates from the '70s were on their last legs at that stage!

Other random memories:

Sunshine Radio finishing off every night with "Desirato" (?)... you know the prayer!

Bob Gallicoe's distinctive American voice in so many pirates in the '80s. He was on Magic 103, Q102, NRG103 and Treble TR. However, he is probably best remembered for his time on Radio Nova. Initially, he just read the news, but then his personality was allowed come out. He used to have very amusing conversations with breakfast show hosts which included such well-known names as Declan Meehan, John Clarke, Colm Hayes and Dave Harvey. He was to do the same on NRG103 with Scott Williams.

Brendan Whelan playing Irish trad on Sunday mornings on Treble TR - my Dad enjoyed that. I enjoyed listening to Brendan getting timechecks and such wrong!

Capitol (Nitesky) Radio with its alternative-oriented music style. That really rocked my boat! I remember listening to Dave Carney, who later became Alan Cantwell on TV3's news!

Loads more, but I will stop there!

jasonb

Anyone remember Jason Maine? Always called himself 'The Boy Jase', used to be on very late at night, maybe on Sunshine or Nova?

J.

brian ireland

jasonb wrote: »

Anyone remember Jason Maine? Always called himself 'The Boy Jase', used to be on very late at night, maybe on Sunshine or Nova?

J.

I remember Nova closing down Jason was talking I remember his saying all good things come to an end it takes a big man not to cry. The memories

Southsider1

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

So many of the older established names (and bosses) in radio these days were very active in the '80s pirate scene.

I has always puzzled me that, given that radio was so innovative back then, and it was, how come the current 'bosses' who learned their craft back then are all knocking out the same bland tosh nowadays. There's no innovation, no originality anymore. I often wonder if the radio commission had the intellegence to award licences to Robbie Robinson and Chris Cary would radio today be so bland?

brian ireland

Southsider1 wrote: »

I has always puzzled me that, given that radio was so innovative back then, and it was, how come the current 'bosses' who learned their craft back then are all knocking out the same bland tosh nowadays. There's no innovation, no originality anymore. I often wonder if the radio commission had the intellegence to award licences to Robbie Robinson and Chris Cary would radio today be so bland?

Agree 100%. Radio in the 80s was like a party on the air. When you tuned in it made you feel good and kinda happy (without drugs) Now its all so false. I think Robbie and Chris gave us that with their format.

Declan A Walsh

jasonb wrote: »

Anyone remember Jason Maine? Always called himself 'The Boy Jase', used to be on very late at night, maybe on Sunshine or Nova?

J.

I recall Jason Maine on Radio Nova and Q102. As far as I know, he was not with Sunshine. Jason was one of those smooth sounding deejays which Nova excelled at.

Another person who kind of fit that bill, along with delusions that he was somewhere on the west coast, was Hugh O'Brien! He was always giving the weather forecast for the "bay area"! He seems to have more or less invented the phrase "rockin' the bay"!

Look at all the well-known names who have gone through some of the Dublin superpirates, namely, Radio Nova, Sunshine Radio, Kiss FM, Magic 103, Q102/SuperQ and NRG 103:
Declan Meehan, Colm Hayes, John Clarke, Dave Harvey, Scott Williams, Gareth O'Callaghan, Greg Gaughren, Mark Byrne, Tony Fenton, Brian McColl (Nails Mahoney), Brian Dobson, Anne Cassin, Ken Hammond, Aidan Cooney, Martin King, Phil Cawley and Today FM's PD Tom Hardy.

Speaking of the latter and just to move it away from Dublin, Tom Hardy was also involved with Monaghan's own superpirate in 1988 - Kiss FM. One of the deejays there was Owen Larkin.

Just for the record, there were other pirates in the '80s in Dublin that I heard about afterwards, but was not aware of at the time. Examples: ABC Radio, Radio Annabel, Radio Diamond, Rainbow Radio, Premier Radio, Signal FM, Kiss106, CAU FM, Smile FM, DK FM, Erin Radio (on short wave) and Pulsar.

Going back to Monaghan and looking around the north-east, there were some stations that were well-known on the east coast in general. The main ones would be Boyneside Radio from Drogheda and The Radio Carousel Network which covered stations by that name in Dundalk and Kells and maybe a few other spots.

mike65

We have an ex pirate on boards - "alinton" ex ABC Waterford/Tramore, he could tell a few tales no doubt.

I spent 6 months in Dublin in 1987 and loved the high energy/loud volume vibe of the "super-pirates" you only needed 10 mins listening to understand why they were smashing Radio Two in the market.

Mr. Presentable

Sunshine 101 - The Northside Southside Quiz.

I think northside won ( I was a rep for Southside)

flickarius

There is a very good book which was published in 1988 by Borderline Publications, (Author was Peter Mulryan) called "Radio,Radio (The story of independend, local community & pirate radio in Ireland) Well worth reading.

Mike O' Brien

where would one get a copy?!!

flickarius

Mike O' Brien wrote: »

where would one get a copy?!!

Try this link to Amazon.co.uk!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1870300033/ref=nosim/schildnet0a

tbh

four sellers: one for £10, three for £97!

mike65

Wow! I'm holding on my copy and shall retire on its auction value in 20 years!

Cunsiderthis

tbh wrote: »

four sellers: one for £10, three for £97!

4 sellers and no buyers? :D