The Early Pre-Dance Days of Dublin's Sunset FM - Summer to September 1991

Declan A Walsh

Does anybody have any memories of Sunset FM before it became a fully fledged dance pirate - the first in Ireland, I believe? It was initially a kind of albums-oriented station as far as I know.

I think I first heard of it during that summer of 1991: it was being played in some hairdresser! I would not have been very familiar with it at that stage, but I do remember a danced up remix of Bob Marlay's Sun is Shining! It was clear what direction the station was heading.

Over the years, I found out some names of people associated with the station at that stage. They included:

- Gary Cruz, the station owner, who was a presenter in its early days and then went behind the scenes during its dance era. He was involved with a few other dance pirates after that. I'm not sure if he is still involved in radio or not.

- 98FM's Barry Dunne, who joined in the middle of that period.

- Tony McNamara, apparently the only presenter with the station from the very start to the very end. Whatever happened to him after he joined Pulse FM?

- Simon Maher, no less. He left in September 1991 because it was going all dance and went off to set up Coast FM. That was to be followed by Spectrum and Phantom. He is now the owner/operator of 8Radio.com

- Paul Wilson, Simon's mate - not Mr. Easy Radio! I think his real name is Paul Prender. AFAIK he jumped from Sunset to Coast with Simon. He certainly was on Coast FM. He got involved with community radio stations.

Have you any more names to add, or any particular memories of Sunset during its brief pre-dance era. The station itself finally closed in or around October 1994.

Infoanon

KHTR on 103.2 iirc (Dublin SE only) launching in July 91 ,25 watts mono, a frequency swap with Coast and eventually the legendary 106.8.(powerhouse of a signal, unfortunately the full potential was never reached as a new transmission facility was raided in Jube94 iirc).

Radio 538 used to be relayed until midday in 1993 - Club M parties where a huge success alas raids in 94 put an end to the party.

radioguru02

Precious few recordings to be found of Irish pirate radio between 1989 and 2016 or so

Declan A Walsh

I'm just bumping this one up in the vain hope that people have some memories of those early pre-dance days for this station! I'll let it go then!

TheBMG

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Does anybody have any memories of Sunset FM before it became a fully fledged dance pirate - the first in Ireland, I believe? It was initially a kind of albums-oriented station as far as I know.

I think I first heard of it during that summer of 1991: it was being played in some hairdresser! I would not have been very familiar with it at that stage, but I do remember a danced up remix of Bob Marlay's Sun is Shining! It was clear what direction the station was heading.

Over the years, I found out some names of people associated with the station at that stage. They included:

- Gary Cruz, the station owner, who was a presenter in its early days and then went behind the scenes during its dance era. He was involved with a few other dance pirates after that. I'm not sure if he is still involved in radio or not.

- 98FM's Barry Dunne, who joined in the middle of that period.

- Tony McNamara, apparently the only presenter with the station from the very start to the very end. Whatever happened to him after he joined Pulse FM?

- Simon Maher, no less. He left in September 1991 because it was going all dance and went off to set up Coast FM. That was to be followed by Spectrum and Phantom. He is now the owner/operator of 8Radio.com

- Paul Wilson, Simon's mate - not Mr. Easy Radio! I think his real name is Paul Prender. AFAIK he jumped from Sunset to Coast with Simon. He certainly was on Coast FM. He got involved with community radio stations.

Have you any more names to add, or any particular memories of Sunset during its brief pre-dance era. The station itself finally closed in or around October 1994.

Hi Declan,

Sunset started in July 1991. Operating at the weekend only with a fairly mixed format.

Simon Maher and Paul Wilson (who were with Coast FM) did shows. So did Brian Greene who later went onto Caroline Dublin.

Some of Gary’s mates from school did shows too (there was a Madchester show and a metal show!)

Gary’s dad (RIP - he was a lovely man) was a bit of an old hippy and had an extensive record collection so it wasn’t unusual to hear a new pop tune followed by Horslips or something like Parliament/Funkadelic.

Tony Mac was with the station quite early on. He was on Freedom 92 in later years.

Garv Rigby and Benny Ryan were the first two DJs to start playing dance tunes on Sunset. Initially they were considered just a couple more speciality shows but after the incredible reaction to them then the whole station gradually shifted towards an all dance format. It was more by accident than by design really.

Probably took 18 months before Sunset became the ‘dance factory’ and what it’s most remembered for.

Gary Cruze the stationowner works in IT and lives in the Canaries these days.

The Nal

I remember one of the presenters, a girl, talking about Open Your Mind by Usura. Someone on the bus said Open Your Hind.

I've hours of tapes in my folk hours recorded. Must dig them out an see if theres anything good on them. Will digitise and upload.

Declan A Walsh

TheBMG wrote: »

Hi Declan,

Sunset started in July 1991. Operating at the weekend only with a fairly mixed format.

Simon Maher and Paul Wilson (who were with Coast FM) did shows. So did Brian Greene who later went onto Caroline Dublin.

Some of Gary’s mates from school did shows too (there was a Madchester show and a metal show!)

Gary’s dad (RIP - he was a lovely man) was a bit of an old hippy and had an extensive record collection so it wasn’t unusual to hear a new pop tune followed by Horslips or something like Parliament/Funkadelic.

Tony Mac was with the station quite early on. He was on Freedom 92 in later years.

Garv Rigby and Benny Ryan were the first two DJs to start playing dance tunes on Sunset. Initially they were considered just a couple more speciality shows but after the incredible reaction to them then the whole station gradually shifted towards an all dance format. It was more by accident than by design really.

Probably took 18 months before Sunset became the ‘dance factory’ and what it’s most remembered for.

Gary Cruze the stationowner works in IT and lives in the Canaries these days.

Very informative. I often wondered were Brian Greene and Bobby Gibson of Bayside's Radio Caroline one and the same. Could I have this sorted at last?

TheBMG

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Very informative. I often wondered were Brian Greene and Bobby Gibson of Bayside's Radio Caroline one and the same. Could I have this sorted at last?

One and the same! In fact Brian still does a voice tracked show on Gary’s hobby station in the Canaries! (Real FM - Fuertoventura)

BHG

That's me BG

test account 123

Just came across this thread. I could talk for hours about Sunshine. It was a staple of my youth and none of the dance stations that followed could hold a candle to it. I actually have a tape somewhere recorded on new years eve of the show that counted down the top tracks of 1993. Actually I think I've a few tapes. The most played tune that year was LA Style. I can still hear the DJ's voice, can't remember his name. Andy Preston now of Q102 was a regular. He also had a residency in Marleys Niteclub. Tracey Lee was another DJ who was very popular, no idea what she's doing now.

I only discovered it circa 92 so I don't have any memories or stories of its time before it became a dance station.

TheBMG

I think you mean Sunset, not Sunshine ;-)

the end of 1993 countdown was presented by Ronan Scanlan. I had forgotten all about LA Style too!

Tracey now runs a presenter coaching/training business with Nails Mahoney

Declan A Walsh

Another name from the pre-dance days of Sunset was Dave Evans. He had previously been involved with Brian Greene's Centre Radio from Baldoyle. He is another presenter on Gary's Real FM from the Canaries.

The Nal

Found some tapes. ill get to them in the next few weeks.

Max Power 2010

Few other names came to mind as I would of been an avid listener back in those Days ..

Tony Quinn (Not sure where this guy went, originally Radio Dublin, then Sunset, Rhythm 100.7, Hot 107)

Chris Murray (Originally Radio Dublin, then Sunset, Rhythm 100.7, Hot 107, Pulse and then Legal gig with LMFM and still going strong)

Darragh Roberts (O'Dea) (Sunset, Rhythm 100.7?, Hot 107, Pulse then some freelance legal gigs filling in more so (104, 98, Classic Hits, Q102), concentrated on the Wedding DJ thing and is now in Australia also a Wedding DJ and landed a legal gig there too, I'm sure I'm missing alot here )

Dave Lowe (Don't know too much, moved to Q 95 after Sunset but lives in the States now, great voice IIRC)

Benny Ryan (No info on him)

Garreth Kenny (No info on him either)

Ian Redmond (Then Hot 107FM, Star DJs, no other details, I think he runs a club or is a club promoter, could be wrong)

DJ Wicked (Willie Forde) (Club FM after Sunset, the stayed clubbing and is an avid photographer now)

There is definetly one or 2 more on the tip of my tongue, I'll need to dig out the tapes!

Just noticed your talking about the early days Declan, but one or 2 there may of been involved.

TheBMG

Tony Quinn is a bus driver these days (and one of his routes takes him near the top secret Sunset location!)

Dave Lowe lives in the States and works in IT but still DJs when he can.

Last I heard of Benny Ryan was more than twenty years ago and he was living in Britain at the time.

Garret ‘Thursday Night of Terror!’ Kenny is in Glasgow.

Ian Redmond runs a couple of venues (including Tramline in Dublin) and has been back on the airwaves a lot as spokesperson for the Irish nightclub industry.

Declan A Walsh

At least one of those names mentioned did indeed go back to the pre-dance days: Benny Ryan. I understand that he was one of the first deejays to host dance shows on Sunset.

kazoo106

I have memories of Atlantic 252 being relayed off AM back in the early days

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120151839#Comment_120151839

You have a good memory! Only happened briefly; it stopped after a friendly visit from a 252 engineer. The sustaining service in later years was either Radio 538 from the Netherlands or Germanys NJoi Radio

kazoo106

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120152342#Comment_120152342

If I'm not mistaken that was the probably very early 92. 106.8 or was it 106.85 used to suffer a little bit if skywave at this distance, but the location of the TX helped the propogation even at the 60 mile distance. It was always there, bit sometimes would fade just above the noise floor.

Wern't NSR also on air around this time on 105.3?

TheBMG

NSR started life in 1991 on 105.1 before moving to 105.3 in later years (can’t remember why - did Beamont Hospital Radio start up on 105.0?).

the early Sunset transmissions on 103.1/2 and 106.8 were only 25 watts but like you said it was a good TX site, and when they went up the mountains in later years it became a powerhouse signal

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120154984#Comment_120154984

In their early FM days Beaumont was on 96FM. I wonder if NSR moved up band to escape FM104's then horrific audio splatter.*

*It would be easy to just ask Kevin, wouldn't it? 😂

Max Power 2010

I don't recall Beaumont on 105.x, unless it was very brief, I do recall it around 96fm alright, then later 107.4, 5 or 6.

I do remember seeing a reason for that move mentioned before somewhere, did Coast FM link on 105.1 when there main TX was on 103.2? I think it was something like that.

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120156498#Comment_120156498

You may have cracked the case, Maxwell. Coast linked for a while on 105.1FM before moving to 107.2. When the lads all got brave (ie, cars) and went up Three Rock to the likes of Ernie for mountain sites, TX clashes were likely to happen so a move made sense for all parties.

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120157273#Comment_120157273

still trying to work out timelines but it was more than 30 years ago .. and yup there were a number of instances when you’d be up visiting your tx site only to discover a rival crew up there too for no apparent reason 😂

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120157344#Comment_120157344

Didn't Power FM link on 107.2 as well, both using elemental aerials and to sites that were well away from each other?

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120158126#Comment_120158126

I can’t remember. It could have been possible considering where both the Coast FM and Power FM mountain sites were though

Max Power 2010

I think Power were based in west Dublin and linked to Kiltipper or Killinarden, Coast we're over in Ballybrack and linked to Three Rock so way out of each others paths.

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120159227#Comment_120159227

at the time I’m thinking of (late 93?) Power had their 98.7 up on Ticknock Road, and Coast had their TX up near the Blue Light so they couldn’t hear or see each other .. worked out well!

kazoo106

Power linked on 105.6 - I remember it getting overwhelmed one summers evening during a lift by Kiss 105.5

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120162784#Comment_120162784

Was that Kiss 105 one of the North East Network stations?

ZaK23-54

Fascinating thread thank you..

The Nal

Not sure if this has been posted but loads of recordings from Sunset FM here

https://radiowaves.fm/ire/stations/sunset-fm-stations/

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122445340#Comment_122445340

Interesting selection of presenters. Garv Rigby is of course Mr. Christmas FM! Gary Hayes I believe has turned up on Gary Cruz's Spanish station Real FM. Tracey Lee was last heard on these shores on Today FM. The only thing I would say though is that this thread is about the pre-dance days of Sunset, not to take away from your interesting contribution.