[Radio Caroline] [Offshore 1584] [On a Tender Trip]
[Radio London RSL] [Alans Real Audio] [Alans Radio Links] [Odds and Ends]
Due to a number of loopholes in the prevaling legislastion (The Wireless Apparatus Act of 1929), and the general political instability within Irish governments in the mid 80's, a plethora of unlicenced radio stations grew around the Emerald Isle. Pirate stations in Itreland first started to appear in the 1960's, but most operations were very amateurish, with infrequent schedules, bad reliability and poor presentation. By the late 70's a few stations such as Radio Dublin, The Big D and ARD (Alternative Radio Dublin) started to buck this trend, with 24 hour schedules and attempts to imitate established commercial stations within the UK. Bear in mind, that until May 1979, there was only one official station in the whole of the country which was expected to accomodate all tastes and preferences. The launch of RTE Radio 2 in 1979 went some way to providing the younger generation with a pop station, but still fell short of the mark.
Prompted by the loss of the Caroline ship, Mi Amigo in March 1980, two ex-caroline staff, Chris Carey and Robbie Dale headed to Dale's native country to investigate the legal situation in Ireland and in late 1980 after several months of testing and no signs of offensive action by governments, etc, Sunshine Radio was launched to Dublin on 531KHz AM. However, the professionalism and power of this station tests didn't appeal to some, and on its first morning of programmes, its aerial mast was raised to the ground by persons unknown. This action reputedly prompted Carey to pull out of the project and return to the UK. For a whole year Sunshine had the City of Dublin almost to itself, but Carey returned the following summer, and after several months of non stop music tests, launched Radio Nova on 88FM. Whereas Sunshine had been presenting itself as a bright and lively "Community Radio Dublin" style format not unlike UK commercial stations of the period, Radio Nova was slick and fast, along the lines of Los Angeles Kiss-FM, and New Yorks WPLJ and totally unlike anything on air at the time in Europe.
This situation continued throughout 1982, but the use of 819 by Nova was causing problems in South East Scotland to the BBC service on 810. Faced by pressure from the UK, Cary's persistent plans to go one step further, and to show a token strong arm tactic, both stations were silenced by the Irish government in May 1983. Although Sunshine remained off-air (pending the court case), Nova had returned with a temporary transmitter the following day, in order to hold an official closedown, and win public support. This closedown generated a huge crowd outside the stations Herbert St studios, which resulted in much of Dublin city centre being brought to a halt. The public demonstrations in support of these stations, and the resulting court case (5 months later), showed that the authorities did not have any legislative right to silence the stations, except on a number of petty offences, and after a trivial fine (20 pounds!), both stations were soon back on air. The precedent set in this court case, virtually opened up the irish airwaves, and soon there were dozens of 24 hour stations around the country, from the slick and professional Dublin "Super Pirates" to many "community" stations, in towns and villages everywhere.
Frustrated at what they considered to be unfair competition and the news that Carey had imported a 50kilowatt transmitter from the USA, the state broadcaster RTE (Radio Telefis Eireann) took matters into its own hands and started to jam the signals of both stations in March of 1984. In an amazing situation, (which some would say could only happen in Ireland) the government of the day issued an order to RTE to stop the jamming, but this request was initially ignored by RTE, who proceeded to install even more sophisticated jamming systems. Once the jamming incident had been resolved, and spurred on by the lack of prosecutions, Carey switched on his masssive 50KW transmitter and soon Radio Nova on 738AM was putting out a signal which covered most of Ireland, and much of the UK.
In early 1985, Carey launched a new station Magic 103, which was programmed as an easy listening-news/talk station, aimed at more mature listeners in Dublin city. All news services on Nova were to be provided by the new station, and although it got off to a good start, things soon started to go wrong due to various reasons. Magic 103 eventually left the air, and all of its staff were without employment. Although some were re-hired by Nova, many weren't, and thus started a protracted battle with unions and other agencies.
During 1985, things were not looking good at Radio Nova. Although appearing immensely successful to the listeners, there were a lot of aggrieved employees, and behind the scenes wrangles. One of the stations senior people, Mike Hogan had quit, and took with him several others, who had launched a new station Q102 in late 1984. Nova was becoming more of a "pop" station to appeal to a large audience, and was starting to neglect its Dublin core in favour of the UK. Q102 was launched as a quality music service for Dublin, although an AM transmitter on 828 ensured it could also be heard well outside of the city.
After seeing its audience share plummit, and court cases brought by the unions and those affected by the loss of Magic 103, Carey finally pulled the plug on Nova in March 1986 (ironically on the same day that the Mi Amigo sank, 6 years earlier). In the weeks prior to the closure, the assets of the station, (which had always been owned by UK companies, and simply leased to Radio Nova) were either advertised for sale or transferred once again, and after a few weeks of silence (and a short lived FM only station called "Zoom103", the old Nova frequencies came alive to the sound of "Energy 103". (It actually launched the day after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor went ballistic!) This was most prominently run by Tony Mackenzie and Sybil Fennel, both ex-Nova employees. Although still basically a "pop" service, Energy was leaning more towards soul/dance music, and in 1987, when the previous Nova was dead and buried, relaunched itself as the new Radio Nova, but failed to make the impact which its predecessor had done.
Finally, a newly elected strong government, introduced the 1988 Communications Act which was intended to silence the pirates, and launch legit local radio. However, a number of loopholes still existed, and although the days of the "Super Pirates" were finished, a number of smaller operators continued, and still broadcast to this day.
And, just to show that "if you can't beat them, join them", on 1st September 1989, the state broadcaster RTE, in partnership with RTL (operators of Radio Luxembourg) launched the 500,000 watt long wave station, Atlantic 252.
Despite the many protestations RTE had made during the mid-80's about unfair competition, etc, Atlantic 252, was intended solely to capture the UK market for a wide area daytime pop service. Staffed by many former Nova/Q/Sunshine
DJ's, along with some of the leading staff from the former Offshore Station Laser 558, this was a very fast, slick and controversial station.
Atlantic saw great success in its first 4 or 5 years, but faced with growing compeition and a dwindling audience pulled the plug at the end of 2001 after 12 years of broadcasting.
There are large gaps in my collections of details, stickers, soundbites, etc of the Irish Pirates. If you have any interesting items you would like to share, please contact me.
Caroline Movement RSL Offshore Radio 1584 August 1992.
Radio London 30 years on. RSL August 1997.
[Radio Caroline] [Offshore 1584] [On a Tender Trip]
[Radio London RSL] [Alans Real Audio] [Alans Radio Links] [Odds and Ends]
