Radio-Radio-Mulryan
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' • *427.. • • • • ••• • • • • . RADIO RADIO Peter Mulryan was born in Dublin in 1961. He took an honours degree in Communication Studies from the NIHE, Dublin. He began work as a presenter on RTE's Youngline programme, then moved to Radio 2 as a reporter, before becoming a television continuity announcer and scriptwriter. Since leaving RTE, he has been involved in independent film and video production as well as lecturing in broadcasting. He now lives and works in the UK. PUBLICATIONS RADIO RADIO 813 Peter Mulryan Borderline Publications Dublin, 1988 Published in 1988 by Borderline Publications 38 Clarendon Street Dublin 2 Ireland. CD Borderline Publications ISBN No. 1 870300 033 Computer Graphics by Mark Percival Cover Illustration and Origination by Artworks ( Tel: 794910) Typesetting and Design by Laserworks Co-operative (Tel: 794793) CONTENTS Acknowledgements Preface by the Author Introduction by Dave Fanning 1. The World's First Broadcast 1 2. Freedom and Choice 11 3. Fuse-wire, Black Coffee and True Grit 19 4. Fun and Games 31 5. A Radio Jungle 53 6. Another Kettle of Fish 67 7. Hamburger Radio 79 8. The Plot Thickens 89 9. A Bolt from the Blue 101 10. Black Magic and the Five Deadly Sins 111 11. Bees to Honey 129 12. Twenty Years Ago Today 147 Appendix I - Party Statements Appendix II - The Stations ACKNO WLEDGEMENTS In a book that has consumed such a large and important period of my life, I feel I must take time out to thank all those who have helped me over the years. Since the bulk of this text is built around interviews! have personally conducted, I would like to thank those who let themselves be interviewed (some several times). They were, Roger and Ann Lloyd, Eamon Cooke, James Dillon, Robbie Robinson, Mick Doyle, Declan Meehan, Billy Wall, Mike Hogan, Andrew Hanlon, Chris Cary, Eddie Ryan, Tony Allan, Eric Graham, Eamon Brookes, Tony Boylan, Jimmy Smith, Tom Hardy, Adrian Kennedy, Sally Reynolds, David Harvey and Paul Vincent. My thanks too to Mary C. Thomas for access to her taped interviews and thesis. Two people who granted me interviews must be singled out for a special mention. Firstly Keiran Murray who graciously gave me access to his Free Radio Campaign Ireland files and his wealth of knowledge in the area. Secondly Ken Sheehan, the original founder of Radio Dublin. Without his help this book could never have been as accurate as it is. For the proofing, wisdom and cups of tea, many thanks! I would also like to thank Bernard Evans for tracking down some of the graphics. There were others too who assisted me in my background research. I am grateful to Bernard Llewellyn, Dennis Murray, Dion Breen, Martin Block, Margaret Nelson, Dave Fanning, Neil G Shea, Gerard Roe, Gary Wild, Tony Donlon, and to Ruth and Barrie Johnson. I'd also like to formally thank the staff of The National Library of Ireland, BBC Northern Ireland, RTE library, the IBA in London, the NIHE Dublin library, the ITU in Geneva, the DIHE in Bournemouth, the State Paper Office Dublin, and the Department of Communications. On a more personal level I must thank my mother for proofing the early drafts, my father for the free biros and everyone else for putting up with me. A special debt of gratitude is owed To Fiona Sweeney, who suffered me and my various projects for so long. A 'thank you' seems hardly enough so I'll try 'sorry'. Without a shadow of a doubt the most influential person behind this book is Prof. T.J. Wheeler (Tim to his friends!). Even though Tim moved house and college, his commitment and interest in this project never wavered. For his personal kindness, his micro, his time and friendship and his lessons in how to liberate white A4 from other people's photocopiers, I will be eternally grateful! Finally I'd like to thank all at Borderline for their enthusiasm and commitment to this book. PM The author and the publishers gratefully acknowledge the following people and organ- isations for their contribution to this book: The Irish Times, the Irish Press Group, Robbie Robinson, Mike Hogan, Adrian Kennedy, Ken Sheehan and Dennis Murray. PREFACE Radio Radio is the result of six years research into unlicensed radio in Ireland. It takes the subject from the very birth of the Irish Republic in 1916, right up to the present day. Pirate stations by their very nature tend to be secretive. Like the outlaws of the wild west, station operators see themselves engaged in a battle for survival against the powers that be. These latter-day cowboys are individuals who distrust bureaucracy and conformity and indeed anything or anyone who threat- ens their freewheeling and therefore glamorous lifestyle. In such a covert industry records are rarely kept, and anything documented by stations tends to be grossly biased. Facts cease to exist and are replaced by opinions. Getting to the truth then was like making a huge jigsaw puzzle on a trampoline. In boiling down the mountain of material I have accumulated over the years, I have tried to keep the text as accessible as possible. I have avoided in-jokes, buzz words, lists of people and boring details about technical equipment. This book is aimed at anyone who listens to the radio or has had their curiosity aroused by the pirate stations. Writing is selective and what is recorded becomes fact - whatever the reality. Memory fades, the written word doesn't. The official story of Irish broadcasting revolves around RTE. It records the organisation's successes and failures and presents them in isolation as the truth. As Orwell's Winston Smith found, "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." Pirate radio and the influence it has had on Irish society have been ignored. Contrary to the official story, unlicensed radio has been a lot more than an irritation on the backside of State monopoly broadcasting. Because pirate stations were not bound hand and foot by legislation, during the 1970s and 80s they anticipated all the major innovations in Irish radio, like Irish language broadcasting, music radio, and twenty four hour broadcasting. While RTE was first to introduce experimental community radio, it stayed as just that - experimental. Pirate stations under the guidance of the NACB matured to meet a real public demand. On the commercial front, successful stations invested heavily in quality mixers, optimods, transmitters and jingle packages. Professionally this put them ahead of RTE, who were struggling with the hairshirt reality of a semi-State existence. In relation to broadcast talent, many of the present and future 'names' began life on pirate radio. Those stations were setting the trends, not only with their musical formats, but with outside broadcasting, big-money competitions, and additions to the very grammar of radio - so that MW and VHF became respectively AM and FM, while in tune with the pirate vogue Radio 2 took a second name, 2FM. With RTE following initiatives set by pirates, the organisation lost its domi- nance. Unlicenced stations then grew in power and influenced the development of broadcasting in Ireland to as great, if not a greater extent than RTE. This then is that story. FOREWORD It seems to me there were 3 kinds of people involved in pirate radio in the late 70s. There were those who loved the technical side of broadcasting and the excitement of trying to use the airwaves to provide a local Luxemburg/Caroline style service. Then there were those who saw it as a way to make money. Finally there were those who loved music and playing records. I never knew much about transmitters, frequencies or modulators, and looking back on the two years I spent (between August '77 and May '79 on Radio Dublin and Big D) I never made a penny. In fact, the only way to get home from town four nights a week at 5 or 6 in the morning was by taxi (sticking 50 albums on the back carrier is not recommended!) and! was able to pay for that by working as a DJ in McGonagle's in South Anne Street at the weekends. Radio Dublin, where we broadcast from the front room of a terraced house in Inchicore, was good fun; but my best memories of the 70s all revolve around late night Big D:n '78, in Chapel Lane near Parnell Square. All we wanted was to be left alone after midnight, free of hypocritical station jingles, non-stop ads and the relentless 9-5 pursuit of profit through pop. Myself and Smiley Bolger were in charge after midnight and nothing mattered but the music. Smiley used to arrive down from McGonagle's and start his programme at 3.33am. He'd plug in his ghettoblaster which acted as a thumping studio monitor and he'd change the light bulb from normal to red. The result? Great music, great fun. From the midnight hour onwards the 'studios' in Chapel Lane acted as a regular visiting place for local bands who'd come along to be interview- ed and get their demos played. One of those bands was U2. In this excellently researched book, Peter states that Big D was "based in an old closed up factory with a hole in the roof. The station was always cold and damp." Factually he is right, but it was never like that when Smiley was around. Peter has done an excellent ?lob at making, to quote his own phrase, "a huge jigsaw puzzle on a trampoline." This is the story of the Irish pirates.