Wikipedia article on Irish pirate radio

[Mike]

Interesting article on pirate radio in Ireland

Ireland (History of Pirate Radio)

Hundreds of land-based pirate radio stations have operated from within the Republic of Ireland. Due to lax enforcement of the rules, the lack of commercial radio until 1989, and the small physical size of the country, pirate radio has proliferated up to recent years. They were tolerated by the government which only occasionally raided them in an effort to show compliance with EU law.

Whilst the number of recorded pirate radio stations was in the hundreds, only a few have been notable enough to be remembered. This is because at different stages, pirate stations were the mainstay of radio listenership, particularly in Dublin.

Unlike other countries, Irish pirate stations were always on land, with publicly available phone numbers and addresses, advertising and known DJs. A recent government crackdown now means Ireland has one of the most hardline anti-pirate policies in Europe, and few major stations survive.
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Radio Dublin

Still running, barely, Radio Dublin started in 1966, and peaked in the mid 1990s, broadcasting on MW, SW and FM simultaneously. It was for many years accepted as just another radio station, with little being known about its lack of a licence. Its output changed constantly, depending on who was managing it, and is currently Country Music. The station ceased fulltime operation after the jailing of the stations then owner Eammon Cooke for unrelated offences. Nowadays the station rarely appears, but has spent some time operating as Irish Music Radio, on a temporary licence.
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Radio Nova

Radio Nova was the first major pirate in the Republic of Ireland, starting on FM in 1981 and subsequently adding MW, and moving to . It ran until 1986, when it became NRG 103, which lasted until about a year before commercial licencing came in 1989.

The station provided 24 hour music, with hourly news updates to Dublin City and county. Its ownership, identification, broadcasters, phone number and address all changed frequently, but were always known. At one stage, the station appeared to operate out of a computer shop on Herbert St, which was next door to the Dublin Cheshire Home. It was purposely unclear in which of the two buildings the actual transmitting equipment was located. The station was raided only once, in 1983, leaving it off the air for less than a week. Despite the frequent relocations, Radio Nova had a noticeable impact on the advertising revenue of RTÉ, which could resort only to frequency jamming the Nova transmitters to try to reduce listenership.

Other memorable pirate stations in Dublin included Big D, ARD (Alternative Radio Dublin), and Sunshine 539. Sunshine was run by the former Radio Caroline disc jockey Robbie Dale, and operated out of a hotel in Portmarnock. As with the other big-name stations, the actual location of the core transmitter within the hotel was unclear, thereby making it difficult for authorities to catch the on-air operators red-handed.

In Cork the big stations were ERI and the original (1982-1984) South Coast Radio. ERI unsuccessfully applied for a commercial licence in the area in 1989 under the name 'Sound of the South'. Subsequently its studio and transmission facilities were leased to the new licensed station, the then 'Radio South', allowing the new station come on air relatively quickly.
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XFM

XFM claims to be the grandad of operating pirates in Ireland, having run almost continuously since 1991, when it was called Alice's Restaurant. Although other stations such as Radio Star Country, Jolly Roger Radio/Riverside Radio and EFR/Choice FM (Mayo) have been around longer. X-FM plays mainly alternative and rock music
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Freedom 92FM

This station broadcast for seven years, serving Dublin city and surrounding areas. Playing non-stop chart music, it was hugely successful, with a large youth audience and many high-profile DJs. It distinguished itself from other Dublin stations through its relaxed on-air approach, with presenters you could identify with, few advertisements and no news coverage to interrupt the music.

The station was removed from the air by the Black Tuesday raids in May 2003 (see Pirate radio today).

A spin-off, Sugar FM, launched in early 2004 but was soon warned off the air by the regulator. Some Freedom DJ's now work for licenced Dublin stations.
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Phantom FM

Phantom FM began broadcasting to Dublin in 1996 from a garden shed in Sandyford. (previously it had broadcast under various names from Ballybrack) Arguably one of the most successful Pirate stations of the 90's, Phantom played mainly indie music which had a huge underground following in Dublin. This market which was completely ignored by the mainstream radio stations at the time which accounts for the success Phantom enjoyed.

Phantom were notable that they were the first of post 1989 pirate stations to broadcast legally in Ireland when the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland awarded temporary licences on 2 occasions to the station. Phantom subsequently won the competition for and Alternative Music licence in November 2004, but due to legal challenges from one of the losing consortia (Zed FM/scrollside FM), it has yet to broadcast with it's new licence.

On 1st November 2005 Mr. Justice O'Sullivan upheld the decision of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland to award the alternative rock radio licence for Dublin to Phantom FM. ZedFM have since appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. The case is set to be heard in February 2006.
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Pirate radio today

In 2002 a new radio regulation body, the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg), was founded by the Irish government to replace the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR). Part of the reason for the change was pressure from the licenced radio community, which felt that pirate operators were taking their listeners, and that a level playing field needed to be restored.

ComReg had much more funding, staff and resources than its predecessor - and these were put to use in May 2003, when a major crackdown on Dublin pirates saw virtually every station wiped off the band. This series of raids, which was conducted over two days and involved police officers and electricity board staff, was referred to as "Black Tuesday" by the free radio community. Follow-up action in the years to come meant that any station that ventured on air usually didn't last that long - with the officials often tracking down and closing operators sometimes within five working days. The hardline stance has also been extended to other pirate heartlands such as Cork, Limerick and the border counties. For the first time, ComReg has began to carry out raids at night and weekends - removing the only remaining "safe" time to broadcast without a licence.

Today Ireland has few pirate stations. In Dublin a couple venture on air mainly at the weekends, using low power. Outside Dublin there are a few larger, full-time operators left, but they generally don't tend to last long. Stations which operate intermittently or regularly change name and/or location tend to survive longer (many have never been raided) although obviously have more difficulty building up a substantial listenership and hence are percieved as being less of a threat to the licenced stations.

ComReg's policy has come under criticism from many in the radio industry, who believe that the organisation should focus its resources on stations which cause interference, rather than simply carrying out blanket raids on all stations. These critics point out that while a mechanism has been put in place to remove pirates within a week, little has been done to free up the procedures for starting a licenced radio station. They call for a more tolerant attitude towards benevolent pirates, until a framework is introduced to allow niche stations to be set up and run at low cost with less strict regulation.

[jolishan]

potted history of Irish pirates?..nah..as an example it says that Nova was the first major pirate station..Sunhine was there before Nova...just a thought

[Rob Brady]

Thought Pulse103 (Dublin) Might Of Got a Mention too!

[Mike]

True RE: Sunshine but while Sunshine was bigger than anything that had gone before in its first year or so it was still a pretty limited operation e.g. on AM only with 750w (albeit with a very good groundwave signal due to its low-end frequency. Proper antenna and seaside location) and closing down fairly early in the evening. It was only during the Bill Cunningham era (late 86 and 1987) that Sunchine reached its peak.

Rob if you feel up to writing a section on the 1990's era dance pirates (Sunset/Kiss/Club/Pulse) then work away. Anybody can contribute to Wikipedia

[The Duke]

hey guys what is Wikipedia?

TD

[Chesney]

As they say themselves:
"Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

In this English version, started in 2001"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_pirate_radio

It has around one million articles in twenty six languages.
Pretty impressive.