The great era of Pirate radio in Ireland

[john40]

Who remembers the great era of the Pirate radio stations in Ireland ?

I have always wanted to work in radio, music is my drug. I have great memories of the likes of the original Q102, Nova, Sunshine and many more

Great presenters like Liam Quigley, Phil Cawley, Greg Gaughran, Jason Maine, Declan Meehan and the great voice that was Bob Gallico (RIP) and Sybil Fennell and Anne Casin reading the news. With the likes of Martin Block behind the scenes.

I gave up listening to radio in Ireland over 20 years ago because all it is now is shouty presenters (I had the misfortune of having to listen to it regularly when an office colleague would have some of the stations on up until when I retired from work in 2016) with "look at me" egos. Generic playlists that you can nearly predict what song will be played at the same time every day and very heavily scripted shows.

The attraction to DJ'ing has gone too with the advent of computerised systems. I always loved the thought of presenting and playing vinyl. The closest I came to it was playing music over the PA system in secondary school with two friends at lunchtime every day. I used to love seeing the big outside broadcast units too, now it's reduced to a DJ in a van with a laptop.

I also spent my Saturday afternoons in our local station Kiss FM here in Tullamore. I was supposed to be collecting sports results for the presenter who was on air at the time but spent most of the time with him chatting in the studio. It was over a takeaway and the owner used to bring us up burgers and chips whenever I was there lol.

Ah for the memories and the carefree days of pirate radio

For me nowadays it's my internet radio listening to stations in Spain or Australia, my own music collection or Spotify