The "Best Dublin Pirate Djs" thread

[Macers]

Just wondering who ye's think are the best pirate dj's in Dublin?

(There's a thread like this in the General Radio forum but I just wondering about this one)

Comments Appreciatted.....

[Turiel]

Frank Kennedy, duh.

[Macers]

That's rich coming from an ex employee :D

[Turiel]

Lol I'm not gonna get into this cause I'll just dig myself into a hole :)

[sound_eng]

Best dance dj's have to be Al redmond on energy fm
Bren long on energy fm best for dance. Peat whealan on madradio and Karl davis on madradio.
But in my opinion Al Redmond is best by a long way
should be spining and yes did ask for him.

[KJ]

Agreed, Al Redmond definitely should have got a gig on Spin. He'll go legal eventually .......... it's a matter of "when" as opposed to "if" I reckon

Great voice, on air personailty and knowledge of his tunes

KJ

;)

[stayin alive]

al redmond ???? cant string an intelligent link to save his life ,struggles on sentences , no on air presence , no tight links ,dosen't sound happy and has a very ordinary voice .......
sorry al , just my opinion .......... then again it is pirate radio , what would we expect ????.....

[Sarah Baybay]

Can't really agree there stayin alive, have you ever actually listened to Al cuz from wat u describe, it doesn't sound like Al at all. Out of all the DJ's on pirates i would put him at the top and i would put it down to his very distinctive voice. Have you any idea how difficult it is to link when mixing?? He does a bloody good job as does Bren Long.
I like Vinny S because he comes across as having a sense of humour and he has a distinctive voice too. Energy and Freedom have a lot of very good presenters but i'm not gonna go through them all. The other pirates dont really deserve a mention.
What do you mean by 'then again it is pirate radio, what would we expect?' where do you think the majority of all current legal radio jocks come from????

[Sarah Baybay]

Michael O'brien & Nicky doing drivetime on freedom ..... any time iv heard them they're pretty good, prefered Ryan Philips when he used to do Drivetime on Energy tho, he was absolute class

BRING BAK Ryan :D

[Billy Dane]

Steve Conway on Phantom. He's pleasant, relaxed and very funny.
Elaine Kane on Freedom, she's natural and fun...and sexy.
Al Redmond. I don't like dance but he sounds great on air.

[Sarah Baybay]

It is in the Energy studio, the mic is miles away from de dex!
I'v never linked from that studio but i'v seen it and i'v been told its a bit of a nightmare

[Turiel]

Surely though you link AFTER your mix rather than during it?!?

[RavingShoes]

Me thinks these are the best Pirate Radio Presenters....
Ross L(Energy)
Andrew Walsh(????)
Andy Stevens(Freedom)
Claire O D(Energy)
Ronan sumthin(Freedom)
there thats it i only listen to nrg and freedom so i cant add to the list.

[Turiel]

You don't listen to energy that often if you think Ross L is still on ;) (or maybe I'm wrong and he's come back.. dont think so tho?). Ross is somewhere in legal land at the moment. Andrew Walsh seems to have dissapeared. And presumably you mean Ronan Devitt on Freedom.

[TheOneWhoKnows]

hay .........what about steve redmond???????????

[Turiel]

I was wrong, Ross is back.

[Radioshack]

Louise Jordan - About the best sound female jock around at pirate.

Wayne Scales - he is certainly in the top 3 of the decent pirate jock catergory.

[RavingShoes]

RADIOSHACK,Wayne Scales in youre top 3 come on...
Ok hes tight but the mans accent...... cant pronounce his TH'S. He calls the number three,tree.Iv never met the guy but in all fairness hes not in the top 3 best pirate jocks.Before i go im not slaggin him just pointing out in my opinion his weakness.STOP GIVIN AWAY FAKE STUFF AS WELL.(so i hear)
Youre views people.

[Sarah Baybay]

Originally posted by Turiel
Surely though you link AFTER your mix rather than during it?!?
True but my point was that its not the ideal set-up

[RayDio]

Raving shoes - what do you class as a good accent? just because somebodys accent is different to yours does'nt mean its bad. To "point out someone's weakness" as having a bad accent is a bit low. If we all had the same accent it would be a very boring radio world - having a particular accent (in this case a dublin accent) does not mean the person is not capable of being a good presenter or can't feature in someones top 3.
I have heard Wayne Scalles and in fairness he is very funny and entertaining, surely that alone is a quality which could carry you to better things.

As for my pirate top 3 it would be:
Louise Jordan,Freedom. (like radio shack i think she's the best female jock on the pirates at the moment)
Ross L,Energy.
Pat Gill,Freedom.

[clubhappy]

u lot posting on this subject are easily impressed ......
first of all there are NO good pirate dj's on radio because most of them havn't a clue as to what they should be doing .
if they were any good they'd be on legal radio
and another thing , please stop posting about yourselves guys it's too obvious
i will give a lot of praise to freedom fm for their variety of music which most teenagers seem to listen to , it's a good well run pirate set up which beats the hell out of listening to the sh**e hot and energy churn out 24/7........keep it up it's good..

[Elaine]

So now all pirate jocks are crap? Sorry club happy (and im not being smart) but id have to disagree with u there. There are loads of pirate jocks who i listen to and really enjoy there shows. You said "if pirate jocks were any good we would be on legal"...
Some of them probably will end up on legal, who knows but u have to start somewhere. Isnt pirate where most of our legal jocks started?

[RavingShoes]

Raydio its the way he 'PRONOUCES' certain words,i dont care what accent he has but iv never heard sum1 on a legal station with a very heavy Dubalin accent.Wayne Scales shud do a show with Woger Wabbit.he is tight has good content in his show but he needs to go to Speech classes on how to pronounce certain words.Thats all.I agree with youre top 3.Bye.

[Dane Bowers]

Woger Wabbit, LMAO

[RayDio]

Clubhappy - are you familiar with the term Progression or the saying that you've "got to start somewhere" - I could give you a list of names of people who began their career in pirate radio but i would have thought that was common knowledge.
To suggest that people are in pirate radio simply because they are no good for legal is ridiculous, for a lot of these people its just a matter of waiting until an opportunity or space arises and you can bet when a legal station has a vacancy it is nearly always filled with someone from a pirate station.
Coming from someone who worked in a pirate station i can honestly say the experience i had there was a big help in me progressing on to other things.

To Raving shoes i apologise if i took you up wrong but you did also mention his accent, as for a Dublin accent - look no further than Joe Duffy, sure is'nt he great!!! ;)

[Turiel]

I think clubhappy's point is not that they'll never be good, just that once they hit the 'good' stage, they'll be snapped up by legal radio. Hence all pirate radio presenters would be mediocre at best, until they improve, by which time they'll be on legal radio.

Interesting viewpoint, not quite sure I agree with it tho :)

[vinylpusher]

3 legal radio names with distinctive Dublin accents.........Joe Duffy, Martin King and Johnny Moy......shtawree.

[clubhappy]

ok i agree you have to start somewhere , but that dosen't mean that they are any good . maybe they'll improve with the proper coaching or direction but some of them are unbearable and sound awful .
you should be using the word ''potential ''rather than saying there brilliant or great or the best .lets be honest here lads ,most of them struggle on voice technique ,pace ,precence and use of th's . with regard to them ending up on legal radio, thats only gonna happen if they improve 100% and not everybody has jobs on offer .

[vinylpusher]

What you're saying clubhappy reeks of the question "Don't they know the Queen's English?"
Well, my answer to that would be 'I'm sure they do'.

Granted, some of them sound iffy on the air, but you must remember, not every pirate jock is in it to persue a career in broadcasting. The majority of them treat it as a hobby.
I don't think it matters too much about your accent, once you can sound coherent on the air and speak in a way that relates to your listeners.

Some of those who are chasing a career are genuinely making an effort, but elocution lessons are not the answer. . If that were the case, then every jock would sound the same.

[vinylpusher]

Originally posted by vinylpusher
What you're saying clubhappy reeks of the question "Don't they know the Queen's English?"
Well, my answer to that would be 'I'm sure they do'.


The alternative answer of course would be "I'm sure she is"

[Slicklink]

Interesting Topic Indeed.......

Its a PD's call at the end of the day. If the personality is stronger, then the accent dont really matter. Having said that basic pronunciation is a must. This means that dees and dose are not acceptable as well as tirty tree minutes past da hour of tree. Martin King does have a dublin accent (which may be a little over affected too) but no pronunciation problem and a large personality. Joe Duffy is a chat show host not a jock and works personality driven radio so I wouldnt categorise him as a jock, he's a Dublin voice working for the National Boadcasters first station which is primarily speech driven.

So to reiterate its a PD's choice and if someone excels in a certain area, say for example dance music, then a well spoken accent isnt necessarily a must because the dance scence isnt about personality radio voices its about the music and a respected club jock can very easily find himself a gig in legal radio purely because of his club scene status and knowledge of the music, case in point Al Gibbs, not the most fantastic radio voice but an undeniable knowledge of the music he is playing and a respect in the circles he plays to. Unfortunately Dance Music has destroyed the radio jocks training ground as there are not many bedroom mixers that are voice jocks too. There more than likely is a lot of voice talent that doesnt get aired as they dont want to work on a dance pirate. Freedom is the only station where jocks can be given an oppurtunity to show there vocal talent and personailty because of the music policy (not unlike 104s not unlike Spins, somewhere in between). Not many PD's would listen to the dance pirates scoping for talent as far I would see.

Now for a straight forward jocking gig on 104 or 98 or Spin 2fm etc a good voice with a strong personality and good pronunciation is standard !! There are too many well spoken jocks out there for the PD's to pick from, not every budding works in pirate radio so for that to be seen as the pick pool is nonsense. Then again thats just my well spoken opinion !

[vinylpusher]

The thing about the dance jock area is with the influx of bad pirate stations specialising in the music. Sure enough, there's a handful of specialist dance shows out there who's presenters deserve some credit for effort, and for merely proving that you don't have to utter "shwaaa" every ten seconds to enjoy it.

It's been said here many a time before that the handful of good dance presenters still get tarred with the same brush that's used against the influx of bad ones.

[clubhappy]

i agree and take your points as well respected opinions .
freedom has a lot of good qualities and is the perfect starting ground ,i just find it difficult to listen to a dj struggling with th's ,dees and der it is ,and dat was ''etc etc,
i agree a lot of dance stations have destroyed the reputation of genuine jocks who take it seriously and want to progress further but workin for say ''hot fm '' wont do their training a lot of good .
as a hobbie ?thats ok , but for a carreer , im sorry but i cant really see any of them progressing unless they get away from the bang bang bang stations .......hopefully ill chew my words someday because we really need some bright new talent .just my opinion lads
bye.

[RavingShoes]

Good point Vinyl pusher.
Question for every1,Do some of the legals send their jocks to elocution lessons..... (i heard rumours sum of them did).
Anyway when i turn on freedom and hear Wayne sorry man but i turn it off again.Me thinks he needs elocuton lessons...........
Goodbye

[stayin alive]

Problem with Wayne is ,he dosen't seem to be improving at all and im sorry to insult the dude but he's one of the worst , although i do admire his enthuasim {spell check }.