Radio Dublin MW and SW way back in the 1980'

[Herman_Belgium]

Is the some one ho can tell me more about Radio Dublin one the oldest radio stations from Dublin way back in the 1970's and 1980's. I believe there where on 252 mtr - 1.187 khz ? ather Radio Caroline was off the air in 1980 when the MV Mi Amigo dud sunk.

And I dod remember them on 6.240 khz 260 also ? not sure first and later on 6.910 khz. I did listen way back in the early 1980's to that station here in East Flanders , Belgium. My location is 5 km or 3 miles North - West from the city Gent between (Antwerpen and Brugge) Antwerp and Brugges.

I did use a home made dipole for around 6,5 to 7 mhz on a Phillips Portable SW radio ho did do a great job and the signal was hard and loud very strong some QSB (fading) I still remember very well. There was a great opening than in the early 1980's on SW and its was not even a problem to make a QSO on 27 mhz with Ireland in SSB and some times even on AM at night with low power. Where is that time now that was very great and I would have very good memories even still to day.

So I would love and like to hear much more about Radio Dublin SW ? its a pitty that I never did make any long recordings maybe some people have them ?

[dancemusicdj]

I can't tell you anything about them on sw as (as far as i know) it went off sw when i was rather young. I remember them a bit on fm (100.0 i think) . It seased in 2003. There is stuff out there in relation to the station and it's history, google would really be your friend.

[tonytony]

Hi,
Lots of info here...

http://www.dxarchive.com/ireland_a_to_z ... ublin.html

[yellowbeard]

While you are talking about Radio Dublin, turns out the bloke that was running it was a child molestor and may have offed one of them. I only ever met him once and he was a dirty old man, I mean he cleaned out under his fingernails with a fork then ate his dinner with it.

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http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0610/794730-philip-cairns-information/

[dancemusicdj]

While you are talking about Radio Dublin, turns out the bloke that was running it was a child molestor and may have offed one of them. I only ever met him once and he was a dirty old man, I mean he cleaned out under his fingernails with a fork then ate his dinner with it.

Code: Select all

http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0610/794730-philip-cairns-information/

Yup. A nasty individual by all accounts. He died recently as well.

[braveheart71]

The short wave output on 6910khz was well received here in the Glasgow area of Scotland although it wasn't 24hr like the mw transmission on 1188khz. I remember the audio quality on the mw transmitter not being that great.

[TimB]

6911 with the crunchy audio
happy memories from 91/92

[Albert H]

As I remember, the 1188kHz was "limited" by driving the modulator into clipping! It always sounded pretty horrible.

[TimB]

i was just grateful that they were on 24/7 so i had something to listen to outside of sundays

[Persona Non Grata]

As I remember, the 1188kHz was "limited" by driving the modulator into clipping! It always sounded pretty horrible.

Seemingly the transmitter was a "professional" unit imported from the United States but the original owner was the Pennsylvania power company. The modulation transformer was not "broadcast quality" but designed for utility/communications.

After the Feb 1989 raids a replacement rig was sourced from LLCR (Pre 1988 station from the "Liberties" area of Dublin) Later they reportedly got hold of a transmitter formerly used by Sunshine/Century but never actually got to use it.

[Albert H]

Their second SW rig came from my old station. It was a horrible screen-grid modulated piece of junk that couldn't be fully modulated - built by "Brig" as an experiment (that failed!). An "engineer" in Dublin tried to modify it so that it could be anode-modulated, but only succeeded in making a lot of smoke (and not much modulation) when he burned up the under-rated modulation transformer he tried to use! The 4-400 valve used in the business end of the rig was capable of about 180 Watts carrier (as it was constructed) and the screen-grid modulation allowed it to peak at about 510 Watts - full modulation would have peaked at 720 Watts (or more with positive peaking trickery). Despite its limitations, that rig got out pretty well.

[Persona Non Grata]

Is the some one ho can tell me more about Radio Dublin one the oldest radio stations from Dublin way back in the 1970's and 1980's

The station claimed lineage back to 1966 under various owners but the individual whom several previous posters have referred to only assumed ownership (in highly questionable circumstances -Like much else in the station's history) in the mid 1970's.

[87to108]

A short lived station with a country music format in 2003, called ICE-FM 90.4 and claimed to be the return of R. Dublin under a new name, was the receiving end of some quite negative publicity in a tabloid Irish Sunday newspaper (see attached).
The author would have received help for the article from someone involved in radio , quite possibly an individual who at one time was in fact a DJ on R. Dublin. The operator of ICE FM took serious exception to the newspaper claims and had a long rant on air about it on Sunday afternoon, in his sort of 'station news'.
The negative publicity and its fall-out must have finished off I.C.E. as it disappeared shortly after?

[Persona Non Grata]

Splits with disgruntled former staff were a regular feature of Radio Dublin's history (and to put it mildly there were plenty of folk who had good cause to be disgruntled around that time) so I wouldn't surprised if journalists were being fed "inside information" from some source.

It was extremely unwise of ICE to claim any kind of continuity with Radio Dublin. In the aftermath of Cookes conviction it was a completely toxic brand which nobody in their right minds would want to be associated with. While there have been attempts to untangle some of the history of the station from the misdeeds of it's "owner" subsequently it wasn't happening in 2003.

ICE did obtain a temporary licence (may have been under a different name) a few years after so in a way Radio Dublin's long campaign for a broadcasting licence did (however briefly and eventually) did bear fruit......sort of ?

[Dec Wash]

Splits with disgruntled former staff were a regular feature of Radio Dublin's history (and to put it mildly there were plenty of folk who had good cause to be disgruntled around that time) so I wouldn't surprised if journalists were being fed "inside information" from some source.

It was extremely unwise of ICE to claim any kind of continuity with Radio Dublin. In the aftermath of Cookes conviction it was a completely toxic brand which nobody in their right minds would want to be associated with. While there have been attempts to untangle some of the history of the station from the misdeeds of it's "owner" subsequently it wasn't happening in 2003.

ICE did obtain a temporary licence (may have been under a different name) a few years after so in a way Radio Dublin's long campaign for a broadcasting licence did (however briefly and eventually) did bear fruit......sort of ?

I was just re-reading this thread again.

The temporary license connected to ICE was IMR (Irish Music Radio). The people behind IMR had previously been with ICE and before that Radio Dublin. The boss of IMR was Joe Rossa, aka Joe Doyle, who was the station manager of Radio Dublin during much of the 1990s. IMR turned into CIMR (Country and Irish Music Radio), which would have been a bit closer to the music of ICE. It subsequently came back on temporary licence as Hot Country.

Many people over the years went through Radio Dublin at some stage in their pirate radio career and subsequently made it to licensed radio.

Current examples:
Radio Nova – Kevin Brannigan (CEO) and Pat James (also with Nova Classic Rock)

Dublin's Q102 – Martin King (also with Virgin Media), Aidan Cooney (aka Aidan Jay), Andy Preston and Johnny Bowe

98FM - Barry Dunne

Spin 1038 – Steve K (also with Today FM on weekends)

RTE Gold – Dave Fanning (also with 2FM on Bank Holidays)

Lyric FM- Marty Whelan

Classic Hits Ireland – Gareth O’Callaghan (aka Tony Garret) and Phil Cawley (also with South East Radio)

East Coast FM – Tommy Greene

LMFM - Chris Murray

KFM – Liam Kett

Midlands 103 – Keith Shanley and Tony Christie (aka Chris T)

Cork’s C103 – Eric Griffin (aka Eric Vaughan)

Spirit Radio – Adrian Nolan (aka Adrian St. James), Brian Butterly and Shay Harford

Dublin City FM - Karl Tsigdinos

8Radio.com – Simon Maher (aka Pete Reed) and Steve Conway

CharityRadio.ie – John Clarke

UCB Ireland – Vincent Hughes

Eden FM, Edenderry – Joe Rossa (aka Joe Doyle), Damien Farrell (aka Chris Adams) and Paul Wilson.

Also, Bernie/Bernadette Jameson (aka Bernie Carroll) - Bauer Media stations as a journalist/newsreader

[Persona Non Grata]

Yeah the number of people who have done stints with Radio Dublin probably run into the thousands many of these are still involved in radio (and/or TV) in Ireland or abroad with a few having moved into print journalism or broadcasting roles away from the microphone.

Given how tainted the Radio Dublin brand has become though I suspect it's something a lot of folk are hesitant to talk about.