Your Favourite Irish Pirate Stations (past or present)

[Dec Wash]

The title is self-explanatory. I will leave that with you and see how many reply.

I may or may not add my own favourites at a later date!

[Fudgebar]

Energy 106.6fm still going strong on the Web. W. A. B. C. From greencastle (past)

[pete1015]

The Red Hot Sound Of Sunshine 101 FM and Radio Nova 738am.

[radionortheast]

Energy 106 obviously, I only heard one another station from there, i’ve read about them in a book the history of irish radio, watched alot of videos of kiss 103.7, remember reading alot of the websites around back in the early 2000’s.

I do think alot of the other stations, the Kiss ones were more commercial, playing pop music of the time. They did have alot of stuff from europe on Energy lot of trance, maybe one of the things that gave it a style, remember it playing blue by efiel 65, a long time before it had come out. The only time I heard mention of it was over hearing a woman on anglogue phone, humming it down the phone, someone else talking about how they would get a fish for tea!. Vocal trance of the time, pop, some people thought was cheesy

I suppose I might of been the only one hearing Energy over here, i’ve never found anyone else, the odd dxer I don’t know, they mostly seemed to log stations didn’t come from the point of view finding something different that you like, spending all day listening glued to it trying to hear it.
It is weird now, were I live I do hear radio nad g on 94.0 weakish alot of the time, alot of the time you don’t get the clear fades on rte, suppose their often boring to listen to, often get clear fades from Energy during the day, 106.6 was clear for a long time which helped it, made it seem more of a fluke, there was always anticipation. You always hoped the reception would hold there was always something good playing on it, on the egde of your seat all the time, I was often thinking of were it was coming from. Good reception depended on high pressure stable weather, making it quite fragile, there was that connection to the atmosphere. There were times when it would build up, getting stronger, that would built the excitement level, wake up one morning it would be strong, my mum would often go in my room and say she'd heard LJ talking. Stations had a physical connection to an anlog transmitter gave stations more of an edge.

I probably do sound like a broken record always talking about it, my parents also liked the music on energy too, had a funny personality to it aswell as the music been good!, LJ would voice over all the adverts too. I’ve got all my old recordings of it, it still does get to me, some of it sounds mighty old now, only part of my life and my parents.
The last time I heard it in the lake district, it came more difficult to hear at home, my dad got me hifi tuner with narrow if's the efort gone too! remember for ages having loud white noise coming throught our car radio, then at enerdale water it just boomed in, the scenery so breath taking, sparse, only this one radio station.
i’ve got recordings from someone else, they were recording from the original vhs they do sounded dated now, vary in quailty, it was amazing in the time, the techical feat of it, never sounded distorted even when it was weak. The distance not something i’ve had, hearing something on a regular basis on fm coming 100kms, you want to hear, the distance it would travel, wish it was still going.

[pete1015]

Energy 106 obviously, I only heard one another station from there, i’ve read about them in a book the history of irish radio, watched alot of videos of kiss 103.7, remember reading alot of the websites around back in the early 2000’s.

I do think alot of the other stations, the Kiss ones were more commercial, playing pop music of the time. They did have alot of stuff from europe on Energy lot of trance, maybe one of the things that gave it a style, remember it playing blue by efiel 65, a long time before it had come out. The only time I heard mention of it was over hearing a woman on anglogue phone, humming it down the phone, someone else talking about how they would get a fish for tea!. Vocal trance of the time, pop, some people thought was cheesy

I suppose I might of been the only one hearing Energy over here, i’ve never found anyone else, the odd dxer I don’t know, they mostly seemed to log stations didn’t come from the point of view finding something different that you like, spending all day listening glued to it trying to hear it.
It is weird now, were I live I do hear radio nad g on 94.0 weakish alot of the time, alot of the time you don’t get the clear fades on rte, suppose their often boring to listen to, often get clear fades from Energy during the day, 106.6 was clear for a long time which helped it, made it seem more of a fluke, there was always anticipation. You always hoped the reception would hold there was always something good playing on it, on the egde of your seat all the time, I was often thinking of were it was coming from. Good reception depended on high pressure stable weather, making it quite fragile, there was that connection to the atmosphere. There were times when it would build up, getting stronger, that would built the excitement level, wake up one morning it would be strong, my mum would often go in my room and say she'd heard LJ talking. Stations had a physical connection to an anlog transmitter gave stations more of an edge.

I probably do sound like a broken record always talking about it, my parents also liked the music on energy too, had a funny personality to it aswell as the music been good!, LJ would voice over all the adverts too. I’ve got all my old recordings of it, it still does get to me, some of it sounds mighty old now, only part of my life and my parents.
The last time I heard it in the lake district, it came more difficult to hear at home, my dad got me hifi tuner with narrow if's the efort gone too! remember for ages having loud white noise coming throught our car radio, then at enerdale water it just boomed in, the scenery so breath taking, sparse, only this one radio station.
i’ve got recordings from someone else, they were recording from the original vhs they do sounded dated now, vary in quailty, it was amazing in the time, the techical feat of it, never sounded distorted even when it was weak. The distance not something i’ve had, hearing something on a regular basis on fm coming 100kms, you want to hear, the distance it would travel, wish it was still going.

https://www.energy106.co.uk/player/ mite be the same station, not hearing audio at the moment tho.

[pete1015]

Energy 106 obviously, I only heard one another station from there, i’ve read about them in a book the history of irish radio, watched alot of videos of kiss 103.7, remember reading alot of the websites around back in the early 2000’s.

I do think alot of the other stations, the Kiss ones were more commercial, playing pop music of the time. They did have alot of stuff from europe on Energy lot of trance, maybe one of the things that gave it a style, remember it playing blue by efiel 65, a long time before it had come out. The only time I heard mention of it was over hearing a woman on anglogue phone, humming it down the phone, someone else talking about how they would get a fish for tea!. Vocal trance of the time, pop, some people thought was cheesy

I suppose I might of been the only one hearing Energy over here, i’ve never found anyone else, the odd dxer I don’t know, they mostly seemed to log stations didn’t come from the point of view finding something different that you like, spending all day listening glued to it trying to hear it.
It is weird now, were I live I do hear radio nad g on 94.0 weakish alot of the time, alot of the time you don’t get the clear fades on rte, suppose their often boring to listen to, often get clear fades from Energy during the day, 106.6 was clear for a long time which helped it, made it seem more of a fluke, there was always anticipation. You always hoped the reception would hold there was always something good playing on it, on the egde of your seat all the time, I was often thinking of were it was coming from. Good reception depended on high pressure stable weather, making it quite fragile, there was that connection to the atmosphere. There were times when it would build up, getting stronger, that would built the excitement level, wake up one morning it would be strong, my mum would often go in my room and say she'd heard LJ talking. Stations had a physical connection to an anlog transmitter gave stations more of an edge.

I probably do sound like a broken record always talking about it, my parents also liked the music on energy too, had a funny personality to it aswell as the music been good!, LJ would voice over all the adverts too. I’ve got all my old recordings of it, it still does get to me, some of it sounds mighty old now, only part of my life and my parents.
The last time I heard it in the lake district, it came more difficult to hear at home, my dad got me hifi tuner with narrow if's the efort gone too! remember for ages having loud white noise coming throught our car radio, then at enerdale water it just boomed in, the scenery so breath taking, sparse, only this one radio station.
i’ve got recordings from someone else, they were recording from the original vhs they do sounded dated now, vary in quailty, it was amazing in the time, the techical feat of it, never sounded distorted even when it was weak. The distance not something i’ve had, hearing something on a regular basis on fm coming 100kms, you want to hear, the distance it would travel, wish it was still going.

https://www.energy106.co.uk/player/ mite be the same station, not hearing audio at the moment tho.

https://www.energy106.co.uk/news/energy ... ?preview=1

[Fudgebar]

It is of air at the moment as it won a dab+ licence. It may start test transmission in December for a full start up in January 25.hopefully they will be back online at the same time.

[Dec Wash]

My all time favourite Irish pirate without a shadow of a doubt was Dublin pirate Capitol Radio/Niteshy Radio which ran from 1983-1988. It started as an album-oriented station and evolved over time into an alternative rock-oriented station. Nitesky Radio was its more alternative-leaning nightime alter ego that was launched during 1986. This also distinguishes it from other pirates before it that also used the name Capitol Radio. During the day, they still stuck in a bit of AOR mainstream rock in the midst of the likes of New Order, The Smiths and The Cure! It was a great station for promoting new Irish bands as well.

My favourite pirate of the 1990s was south Dublin's Coast FM - 1991-1996. To some extent, its musical style was modelled on the aforementioned Capitol Radio. Its owner/operator was Simon Maher, aka Pete Reid. Coast FM had two main categories of presenters: those interested in the rock scene, and those who moved around between various stations to build up their radio experience. Aidan Lynch, aka Paul Clarke, left Coast to form a purer alternative rock station called Alcatraz from north Dublin. There was quite a bit of movement of presenters between the two stations. When Simon followed up with Spectrum FM, which was more alternative-leaning than Coast had been, many of the presenters came from Coast and/or Alcatraz. Spectrum led directly on to alternative-oriented Phantom (1997-2003), which was my favourite pirate of the late 1990s and the early 00s.

[radionortheast]

https://www.energy106.co.uk/player/ mite be the same station, not hearing audio at the moment tho.

I think it was set up fans, dosen’t seem to be there at the moment, I did listen afew years ago it did sound good, making an efort to find new remixes, unforuately I don’t think Lawrence has anything to do with it. Both his own channel and energy 106 tv have not been updated in years, he closed jump radio was his new station.

It is of air at the moment as it won a dab+ licence. It may start test transmission in December for a full start up in January 25.hopefully they will be back online at the same time.

I did think about posting about it, heard about it, it doesn't bring it back, I want Energy back on 106.6

[Dec Wash]

Other pirates worth a mention - all from Dublin.

Late 1970s - early 1980s:
Capitol Radio (from the city centre - not to be confused with the one I mentioned for 1983 on) - It had some interesting evening programming.

ARD/Radio 257 - personality driven

Big D - personality driven


1980s:
*Sunshine Radio - first of the superpirates - initially on medium wave.

*Radio Nova - another game changer among the superpirates - the first big name pirate to emphasise its FM frequencies. This led to many other pirates, including Sunshine Radio, to move to or bolster their FM transmissions. Their "clutter free" music policy and their seemingly professional news service were also pretty unique at the time.

*These particular superpirates had a strong presence of former offshore pirate deejays, including the owner/operators. These were very influential in the development of subsequent pirates (Q102 for example - an Irish owned superpirate, as well as other pirates),and the new licenced stations subsequently.

Kiss FM - sister station of Radio Nova (not to be confused with other Kiss FMs)

Energy 103 - another superpirate that came out of the stable of Chris Cary, the owner/operator of Radio Nova, after Nova had closed for good.

Southside FM - from Dun Laoghaire - loved the variety of programming. '90s pirate DLR reminded me of Southside FM somewhat.

Heartbeat FM - the "love station" - it provided a unique offering

Treble TR - this was the main station in Dublin for country and western music. Not one of my favourites, but it certainly was noteworthy and it was yet another unique station.