I was listening to club energy from 2002, as i’ve only just got round to listening to the later ones that I got from energy 106. I mostly listen to the early ones I suppose, when I could hear it coming over fm.

Danny reads email or message someone who ran a pirate was closed down by the guarda was about how much they liked pirate stations like energy, wonder what the poor thing had been doing to get closed down. I suppose by this time it would of been known that energy was a pirate, most people had internet, i’m glad that energy stayed on air. I could still get reception of energy then in 2002, january when adverts went out to buy shares energy radio plc £20 each to try and get a licence, the radio authority was quite far away, like lawrence john would say they could dismiss the cliams for a licence, they weren’t going to give a licence to a station just playing what they liked on air.

I get the impression stations were left alone round the border as they were transmitting away from ireland, thought energy did have some adverts for it was some nights in monaghan, I suppose was just around the corner from the transmitter, the advert for that does still bring a tear to my eye, the song whatever will be will be, knowing all fun has be zapped out of the radio spectrum. The actual song was by Doris Day, the original version.

It's probably not really going to be possible to answer this question as it could have been any station as gardai generally attend or at least did attend a shut down of a pirate station.

Thanks anyway, thought it was a long shot, sometimes people do find things on here on google, say I remember that, sometimes that can be quite surprising mostly it is a stab in the dark.

radionortheast wrote: ↑Wed Apr 02, 2025 5:54 pm Thanks anyway, thought it was a long shot, sometimes people do find things on here on google, say I remember that, sometimes that can be quite surprising mostly it is a stab in the dark.

There was a Dublin dance pirate around the mid '00s that drew attention to itself by suggesting ways of avoiding being caught with dodgy car related activities and turned out was owned by criminal brothers. Gardai took particular notice of this station. It was called Splash FM and was raided by the Gardai and closed. I don't think all Irish pirates that were closed by Comreg had Gardai present, not in recent years anyway.

Its a shame radiowaves isn’t still there to look this up, in the later club energies there was some kind modified car rally, not something i’m keen on, I do still love energy, did ring alarm bells I think thats what got club fm in trouble read that I think it was on wiki.

Splash FM came on and was taken off around 2005. It, or a station using the same name, came on for a short period a year later on 93.2. But i am unaware how long that period was as i had left dublin by then but i think it was quite short.

IIRC Splash transmitted from a Northside suburb rather than from a mountain site and caused a lot of local interference particularly to RnaG.

I don't think all Irish pirates that were closed by Comreg had Gardai present, not in recent years anyway.

By "closed by COMREG" I take it you're including instances of stations closing in response to "warning visits" as distinct from actual "raids" where equipment was seized ?

The former generally wouldn't require police presence but one would imagine they would routinely attend the latter in case they were required to force entry and/or there was any attempt to resist seizure ?

Two other stations which (allegedly) got unwanted attention from the Gardai during the 1990's were Breffni radio in Cavan and Radioactive in Dublin.

(Both these stories come via questionable sources -e.g. rival station owners so their accuracy may be doubtful)

In the case of Breffni the Garda special branch (armed) were in the area supposedly looking for an arms dump and "accidently" found the station.

In the case of Radioactive it was the drug squad who were snooping around in the building and were spotted by station staff who mistaking it for a "normal" raid threw the transmitter out the window into a neighbours garden/yard.

Which might have been a good idea if they weren't operating from the fourth floor

Anyways these were just rumors which did the rounds at the time. Probably best taken with a large dose of sodium chloride.

Radioactive also got some attention from the Special Branch due to the political nature of some of its programming (remember this is pre peace process).

The SplashFM lads and their buddies ruined the (sometimes) easygoing relationship between Comreg and the Dublin pirates. Comreg officials didn’t react well to being followed home and so those courtesy phone calls about interference issues ended.

TheBMG wrote: ↑Tue Apr 22, 2025 2:12 pm Radioactive also got some attention from the Special Branch due to the political nature of some of its programming (remember this is pre peace process).

The SplashFM lads and their buddies ruined the (sometimes) easygoing relationship between Comreg and the Dublin pirates. Comreg officials didn’t react well to being followed home and so those courtesy phone calls about interference issues ended.

I hadn't heard of that regarding Splash FM, however it was hardly the first occasion that there has been particularly dubious individuals involved in pirates. Obviously there was the individual known as 'The Captain' (and his associates) broadcasting for many years, both before and after the watershed 31/12/1988. It was, for example, recalled by a newspaper columnist last Saturday that 'The Captain' of Radio Dublin was before the courts over a petrol-bommbing incident of a residence in 1986 (see attached article).
(However a number of factors do not add-up to give credence to the claims made in 2016 of his involvement in unsolved case of the article below despite that manner he hit the headlines in 2016, giving false hopes of a resolution to this case).

I would think a tougher approach is due to other reasons. A well known former long-time pirate operator in the north-east on the DJs Of The Irish Pirate Era facebook site some time ago attributed this to a change of personnel in the regulator to people with a tougher stance. Either that - or pressure from the independent sector to be tougher.

theres info there about the visit to radio dublin, near the bottom of the page, I wouldn’t of known about it if wasn’t for seeing an article in shortwave magazine years ago with a picture of cooke. I mostly got reading the stuff about nova, kiss over there it was interesting the mw stations were been recieived over here, I wouldn’t of known it. https://www.dxarchive.com/personal_reco ... tml#dublin

87to108 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 23, 2025 6:43 pmI hadn't heard of that regarding Splash FM, however it was hardly the first occasion that there has been particularly dubious individuals involved in pirates. Obviously there was the individual known as 'The Captain' (and his associates) broadcasting for many years, both before and after the watershed 31/12/1988. It was, for example, recalled by a newspaper columnist last Saturday that 'The Captain' of Radio Dublin was before the courts over a petrol-bommbing incident of a residence in 1986 (see attached article).
(However a number of factors do not add-up to give credence to the claims made in 2016 of his involvement in unsolved case of the article below despite that manner he hit the headlines in 2016, giving false hopes of a resolution to this case).

I would think a tougher approach is due to other reasons. A well known former long-time pirate operator in the north-east on the DJs Of The Irish Pirate Era facebook site some time ago attributed this to a change of personnel in the regulator to people with a tougher stance. Either that - or pressure from the independent sector to be tougher.

While I have serious doubts about Cookes involvement in Cairns disappearance I seem to remember the "Columnist" in question being involved in a somewhat weird social media campaign on the issue around the time of Cookes death until being asked by representatives of the Cairns Family to desist.

Memory is somewhat fuzzy and I only have the information secondhand as I don't use social media myself but the discussion quickly degenerated into the dumpster fire one typically expects when such subjects are discussed in such a setting with Amateur sleuths and bizarre conspiracy theories (to be fair the blame for much of this lay with the columnists followers rather than the guy himself).