On the Border

[scotty]

Who could give me a rundown of which pirates are on the air around the Border region. I noticed the South Armagh bandscan and was surprised that only Kiss FM were listed on 105.8. What is happening up in the North West, are TCR and Drive still on? And over in Omeath is WLTE still on the air? And is there any activity in the six counties? When the bill was passed on 31/12/88 it was the Border area that kept the pirate flag flying (apart from Radio Dublin). Any info would be much appreciated.

[ex-pirate]

Up in the north west, Drive105 are still on, 105.3fm stereo playing their bland of classic hits.
TCR (Tyrone Community Radio) continue to broadcast on 3 frequencies. They are 103.9fm, 105.8 and 106.7 fm in mono and have recently splashed out on new singing jingles.
For South Armagh, haven't been in that area recently, but assume that Kiss are still on (105.8fm), Energy (106.6fm), Magic105 (105.2fm) and another one on 107.7fm. Not sure of ID but playing classic hits and calling themselves Magic FM.

[John G]

Also in South Armagh, Clanrye 101.5 FM

[Mike]

At the moment Radio Failte are broadcasting from a not very secret location in West Belfast (technically this is probably a "clandestine" rather than a "pirate") apart from that theres only the odd hobby station in Northern Ireland.

Energy 106 used to broadcast from Black Mountain before official harrasment caused them to move to Monaghan. There was also that strange business of "Radio Castle" in Carrickfergus a couple of years ago

[scotty]

Thanks for the info. Which frequency do Radio Failte use? I remember Energy broadcasting from Black Mountain. I heard it whilst visiting Belfast in May 1997. Also the following weekend I heard the signal in Cairnryan on the West coast of Scotland.
What was the Radio Castle stuff???and
In 90's there was also Sunshine 101 in Bellaghy, remember that?
Another station was Earth Sound Radio in Fivemileton in the early 90's. I have a tape of that somewhere. There was another one in Armagh a couple of years ago in Armagh called Hot FM, think it was around 100 Mhz with non stop country and jingles.

[South Derry Guy]

Yeah remember sunshine 101.4fm in Belaghy myself was the best station ever to hit the South-Derry/Mid-Ulster area, Scotty do you also remember the relays of N-Joy radio when Sunshine 101.4fm where not on air... Also like to make the point that Dj Brian from sunshine101 has,nt gone away, Heard him about a year ago on 107.0fm playing Dance and calling his radio station 107fm. Only heard it once, I don,t think sunshine101,4/ djbrian is finished yet, listen out for more!!!!

[Mike]

107.0 is the freq for Radio Failte

[Original Tyrone Gobshite!]

Radio Castle was, allegedly, ran by staff from C******t in Belfast who had a TX in Carrickfergus. They attracted Lawrence John's attention when they started broadcasting the station on 106.65, blocking out Energy 106 in some parts of Belfast.

Hot FM broadcasted on 101.2 MHz from Armagh city - before the station was set up it broadcasted a satellite relay of N-Joy radio. The frequency is now unusable thanks to Q101.

Radio Failté, aka Chucky FM in Belfast has been broadcasting on 107.0 since around February this year.

[scotty]

Going back to TCR, I believe that they originally broadcast from Strabane, but were raided a couple of times. Can anybody recall the details of this?
Also I remember getting a letter from a guy involved with City Sound Radio on the Derry/Donegal border (later Radio Nova) saying he was busted when operating Radio Cherry from Omagh. This would be during the mid 80's. I have never seen it mentioned anywhere else.

[North West Listener]

Interesting to hear about Radio Cherry, Scotty – didn’t know that.

City Sound Radio (which described its “address” as 33 Shipquay Street, Derry, and used a Derry City land-line telephone number!) and Radio Nova (from the old station house Fahan, Inishowen, Co. Donegal – Is there something about pop music radio in the North West and old railway stations??!!!??) were both great stations. City Sound was on-air on 98.3 FM (good, clear signal) from at least January 1986. It also braodcast on MW, interestingly announcing its wavelength in metres a la Radio Luxembourg instead of its frequency in kHertz. For the record, CSR was on 192 metres MW. Also for the record, Marlene’s Diner is now on the spot where CSR’s placque was once displayed!

City Sound disappeared in September of that year, to be replaced by Radio Nova 2 (as it was initially called). Radio Nova 2 was mainly using medium wave in its early days, going out on 1323 kHertz. They brought in the FM to a wider audience at the end of ’86, but the sound quality was rubbish, sounding like a rebroadcast of the medium wave. The FM frequency used may have been 98.3 FM, but certainly by early in 1987 they had moved both MW and FM slightly, going out on 98.2 FM and 1287 MW. Given the President’s postings this week in another thread, it’s interesting that 1287 was used by the Donegal Nova!

Early in 1987, the “2” was dropped, it became “Radio Nova”. In April 1987, they started broadcasting a quality, mono signal on 98.2, the MW being dropped.

I won’t go into specifics, but the station changed ownership at least once while called Radio Nova. The initial Radio Nova 2 in Autumn 1986 sounded much the same as CSR, although closing at 7 p.m. instead of midnight. A characteristic of both CSR and Radio Nova from early 1986 until June 1987 was that it would go off-air for long periods of time (even weeks!). It stayed on-air on a more constant basis after that. Radio Nova changed gradually to what it was by the time that the Government’s new legislation kicked in at the end of 1988, by which time it was very different from the initial CSR, with almost entirely different jocks. Having said that, I really liked both stations throughout their existence, and both sounded quite professional, with decent jocks who knew how to present. Former jocks are now on licensed stations in both Derry and Donegal.

[Mike]

OTG theres nothing "allegedly" about it. It was in fact Stuart Robinson and I have the MP3's to prove it

[Original Tyrone Gobshite!]

OTG theres nothing "allegedly" about it. It was in fact Stuart Robinson and I have the MP3's to prove it Won't argue then as I never heard the station on air myself :)

[ex-pirate]

Do remember Sunshine (Bellaghy), the site was on the main Bellaghy/Portglenone road (couple of miles out of town), in a caravan at the back of a house with mast "tied" to the tv antanne.
That's all gone now, including the caravan.
I suspect it was shut down one dark evening, as in its latter days it was relaying a sat. station for most of the time.
Also, anyone in the north west noticed the improvement of "Radio North" (under the control of Paul Burbank (Bentley) ex WABC/GEM AM England?
Currently broadcast on 846am, but sources indicate that new mast and tx have been installed, resulting in good coverage even at dark fall, well worth it considering that at the last raid/visit the FM signals fell silent, and the medium wave was left behind, (really old kit) because they couldn'nt get it into the van to take away!!!

[scotty]

thanks for the info North West Listener. I remember hearing City Sound Radio a couple of times on 1566 khz. Then after a period off the air they were back on 1323 khz as Nova 2, then moved to 1287 khz as plain Radio Nova. This was in parallel to the FM transmitters. The medium wave was silent for most of 1988 if I remember right.
An old colleague of mine Steve Marshall worked there for a while.
He later was on Riverside 101 as Tony Williams.
Talking of Riverside, do you remember whne they first came on air broadcasting from Derry city. I think they were n the air from 10 at night until in the morning. Full time operations followed soon after from just across the border. Paul Bentley helped Frankie to get started.
Re what ex pirate was saying about Radio North. It is coming in pretty well in the afternoons here in the North East of England. I was talking to Paul earlier this year after he had lost an aerial ue to storms and put up a new one with better earthing. He thought the signal would be better and it is! The transmitter is an ex IBA unit running about 800 watts. Paul bought them a few years ago for a song!

[North West Listener]

Riverside launched April 1989.
Initially 11pm-7am, 7 days a week, on low power.

Went full power in July 1989 from 7am-midnight, with music overnight.
Paul Bentley did the original top of the hour jingle, over a snippet of Eric Carmen's "Let me lose control".

Back to Nova, Steve Marshall left aorund April 1988. Later that year, while he was working for a station in Galway (Coast 103, I think), a recording of an oldies programme he did for that station was broadcast on Nova in Donegal.

Also, from summer 1988 onwards, Nova braodcast recordings of what was called the "East Coast Top 40", produced and presented by a group called Radioactive. The main man was Tim Hennigan (Mr Spring). In some respects, maybe a chart with such a name was not relevant to the North West, but I was glad Nova broadcast this, as the presentation was superb, and it added variety to the station. Radio Active also produced many of Nova's ad's - even by today's standards, many of them would be unbeaten. Tim also did at least one live dance programme on Nova (when that style of programming was completely new), and also later did some programmes for Riverside.

I think Nova left MW for good early in 1987. 98.2FM was their home for the longest period of time, however from about August 1988 they moved to 98.9 FM, describing themselves as "The new 99!" (but the station name remaining Radio Nova).

[scotty]

NWL, As you are a mine of information on the area I wonder if you know of two stations that I heard in 1980.
Donegal Community Radio that operated around 1400 khz, not the same DCR that appeared from 1986.
The other was Radio Donegal on 1566 khz with an address in Letterkenny. Richard Crowley from RTE was involved with this one.
I used to hear both these stations quite regularly when I was living on the West coast of Scotland. The had gone by the end of 1980 if I remember rightly.
There was no further activity in Donegal, as far as I know, until NWCR appeared in 1985. Or am I wrong???

[North West Listener]

Scotty, too young to remember these stations on-air!

I know for a fact that there was once a Radio Donegal. It broadcast from the Mountain Top on the outskirts of Letterkenny. Oddly, this is where Highland now is, and it was also home to the Donegal Community Radio (DCR) of 1986-1988 for a while too (it had otherwise been based on the Main Street, near Market Square).

I was also aware that Richard Crowley had been on Radio Donegal.

What I can say is that I certainly have never heard of any other stations pre-dating NWCR.

I think City Sound Radio was the next station to arrive on-air, at the end of 1985.

DCR came on in the autumn of 1986.

The first time I heard Radio North was at the end of that year.

Radio 4U, an amateur station owned by a German man called Patrick Gartan, started around June 1987.

I first heard WABC later that year.

KTOK was on during 1988 - Don't know exactly when it started.

There was also a Glencoe Radio (or Radio Glencoe?) in Co. Donegal, which I never heard. Any info on this station would be greatly appreciated.

Hope this helps!

[scotty]

Thanks for this.

Glencoe (or Glencough) Radio broadcast from Donegal Town on 1125 khz and FM. Can't remember the FM frequency and it is not mentioned in a letter that I have from the station. The AM rig was a Heady Eddie/Gerry Reilly one so probably around 1 kw. It was situated near a place called Mountcharles. They bought it from Melvin Community Radio who operated on the same frequncy in 1986 from Manorhamilton, County Leitrim.
The station started transmissions as Westside Radio in 1987, but changed name to Glencoe as there was a station of the same name in County Sligo.
As far as I know they broadcast until the bill came in on 31/12/88.
KTOK started in 1987, run by an English guy called Russ Padmore. He was on NWCR as well.

One other thing you might be able to advise on is Radio North and North Atlantic Radio saga. When did NAR close? I remember a visit to Donegal in 1992 and Radio North was off air and North Atlantic were on. I think it changed name to Radio North around 1994 under the management of Tommy Cunningham. However at the start of the 90's both Radio North (846) and North Atlantic Radio (1125) were on air.

[The President]

As far as i`m aware KTOK was the brainchild of Russ Padmore after he did an overnight flit from NWCR to Radio North and found that things didn`t go quite to his pleasing.. I know that he had an aerial based in Ballybofey to relay the signal from Donegal Town to Letterkenny but came into conflict with DCR and finally made a getaway with outstanding bills to land renters in Donegal .. Where is he now? Incidently after his departure from NWCR an Australlian called Mark Warner filled the shoes for a while ..... Whatever happened?

[scotty]

Dunno what happened to Russ Padmore. Didn't hear any more of him after the closures in '88. I heard the story of his flit from NWCR, in fact it was Mark Warner who told me!
Mark went to Radio Caroline in 1986, then the Voice of Peace in Israel and Hits 954 in Limerick. He was back onj the Peace ship in the early 90's using the name Mike Melbourne. The last I heard he was working on Sunshine 855 in Ludlow, Shropshire. Don't think he is there now though, maybe gone back to Oz. Mark actually started with Radio North in Carndonagh in late 1985, before moving to NWCR as you mention above

[ex-pirate]

The saga about Radio North/North Atlantic Radio is a long story.
Basically Radio North were going down hill. They decided to move from Bridge Street in Carndonagh to Redcastle under the controls of Francis Callaghan (who now runs the mobile arm of Eircell shops in Donegal), and were interfering with the North's emergency services which resulted in it being mentioned on Ulster Television news at six with video footage and interview with the owner, subsequently it disappeared the next day for a while before coming back on air in Muff at the back of the local police station.
North Atlantic Radio run by Tommy Cunningham took over were Radio North started broadcasting from at Bridge Street Carndonagh, Co. Donegal with a more efficent operation, better signal and equipment and a fight for advertising begun and a few masts/transmitters destroyed on both sides by mysterious forces.
Radio North eventually went off, and all attention turned to North Atlantic Radio, and it rebranded Radio North run by Tommy Cunningham with staff from the old Radio North at Muff, Co. Donegal working there.
Eventually it went again, after Tommy sold up to a cowboy from the North and it moved to a small village called Drung, in Co. Donegal (their medium wave site to be exact) on the back of a converted abandoned coach, and didn't last long, then Paul came back from Gem, did a stint on Q but in the background was always working on getting a pirate of his own going again, so much so was using Q's production studio to make jingles/adverts before he "suddenly" left.

[Megawatts]

The Radio Authoprity, flew in a few weeks ago, and gave them a Licence... Even though they have been broadcasting from around the Conway Mill area, on the Falls, for well over 15 years. I installed their 300Watt FM rig in the nearly/mid 80s... but I think they went for a Cyberscan 120Watt later, and now they have a Brodcast Warehouse rig, and doing well.
They originally strated with a hiome brew AM rig, that was VERY VFO.. ended up going up band, before blowing up.

They were given a licence, as depite broadcasting for over 15 years, as they had not been prosecuted, they could get a licence. As in Riverside 101. Even though they were raided,.. the raid was in the south, and no laws were broken in the UK.

So maybe there is hope for a young/dance station with Energy.

Don't see how Magic could get a licence, as every station on the dial is playing bleedin hearts oldies all day long.

[scotty]

As we seem to be nearing the end of this thread, thanks to all for the info. Just a quick re cap
87.5 Wave FM, County Cavan
89.7 UCB Relay, County Louth
100.8 Kiss FM, County Louth
101.5 Clanrye FM, County Louth
103.9 TCR, County Donegal
105.1 Magic 105, County Monaghan
105.3 Drive 105, County Donegal
105.8 Kiss FM, County Louth
105.8 TCR, County Donegal
106.2 Storm FM, County Louth
106.4 Radio North studio link, County Donegal
106.6 Energy 106, County Monaghan
106.7 TCR, County Donegal
107.0 Radio Failte, West Belfast
107.1 Misty Mountain Radio, County Cavan
107.4 Pulse FM, County Louth
107.7 Magic FM, County Monaghan?

Couple of final questions;
What happened to Kyxx 103.7 and were they txing from Alien Mountain?
Megawatts, I remember in 1990 being at Belfast port and hearing a station around 106.6 with programming that suggested it was from a Nationalist area. Would that be Radio Failte way back then?

[pulsar]

Scotty,ill try and get some samples of the pirates for you.have you any old kiss dundalk pulse107 or nova87.9 co.louth samples to swap??

[scotty]

That would be great mate. I have some Kiss from 1997/98, but no Nova or Pulse. If you could do full C 90's of each of the stations that would be great. John F will be able to supply my address to get in touch. I have in the region of 1000 hours of Irish pirates from 1972-2002, sad I know but there you go! Any additions from the North East would be great.
Look forward to hearing from you.

[pulsar]

ill email them to you will u email me the kiss97/98 please use the forum.

[DeargDoom]

anyone got any recordings of the short lived Nova on 101 FM from the Park Hotel in Omeath ... ? I have one recording of test transmissions but thats it.

[scotty]

DeargDoom, I have 90 minutes of Nova 101 and you are welcome to a copy. Drop me a private message.

[Megawatts]

There was station from Magherafelt, called Moonshine??101. They ran on about 100 watts, but had access to, and maybe used a 400Watt linear. I gather they ran for a long while, before the DTI dropped by and asked the lads to shut down. I think its their efforts which raised awareness in the are, which is why they got two licnced stations, first on 828, and now Mid 106FM.

There was one in Coleraine, which resulted in Q97.

[scotty]

If I remember right Moonshine 101 was the forerunner of Sunshine 101 in Bellaghy. As you say the DTI paid a visit and told them to switch off and no further action was taken.
The station in Coleraine was TNR FM operated by Andy Craig during 1989. Frankie McLoughlin did programmes for him before starting Riverside 101.

[The President]

I take it that the compliment was repaid as Andy did a few shows for Frankie before no longer being there.. funny so many come and go.

[South Derry Guy]

Don,t actually remember moonside101fm from magherafelt but do u actually mean Sunshine101.4 fm from Bellaghy instead? Thinks a few front runners of sunshine101.4 are actually behind mid106!!

[scotty]

No Moonshine 101 was on first, then Sunshine followed! (funnily enough!)
Megawatts, you mentioned Zee 103 which was one of my favourite border blasters. I remember when I was living at home in South West Scotland in late 1986 hearing the tests as Zee 103.3 with Donagh McKeown. That was on a Sharp radiocassette with a length of wire attached to the telescopic! I still have the tape as proof. What was the power at that early stage?
I later did some work for Zee 103 in the Summer of 1987, firstly on tape then a couple of weeks live in August. At that time I was told the erp was only around 40kw. Is that true Megawatts???
Going on to Riverside 101, I visited them twice, in 1990 and 1992. The last time they were in the Railway station, but in '90 they were in a kind of bunker type construction just on the border, possibly just in the North. I remember going through an RUC checkpoint Can anyone , but don't think we crossed into the South. Can anyone remember where this was? My memory is getting vague these days!

[The President]

It was inside a garage on the Northern side of the border at Killea. The Link transmitter sat in a hut over a stream on the border and linked to a transmitter at Holywell hill in the ROI .. Riverside did a quick flit leaving (as usual) a few ill feelings in the process.. The house and garage has since been demolished to make way to a new housing development.

[Mike]

RE:Clandestine/political stations I remember seeing a 1970's WRTH articles that listed dozens of these in NI. Ive also read an article about a nationalist one ("Radio Equality") in Portadown which broadcast during the Durmcree/Garvaghy riots

Personally though Ive heard very little of this type of programming myself. Apart from R Failte the only political pirates Ive heard was Radio Freewave which carried programmes about Animal rights and RadioActive in Dublin which regularly carried hardline socialist and anarchist material. Some of the RSL stations in NI though have pretty strong political agends (e.g. Triple FM)

[scotty]

I too have seen that WRTH article about the pirate/clandestines in Belfast and Derry. I have never heard them or even recordings. According to the WRTH there were quite a few. Did anybody ever hear these broadcasts?
I have a recording of Radio Equality from either 1998 or 99. A friend of mine in Portadown recorded it.
I heard one of the political stations in Belfast around 106.6 in the early 90's Not sure if it was RSL or pirate but the mod was way distorted.