The Phenomenon of Dublin “Oldies” Pirates

Declan A Walsh

It has occurred to me recently that we have at least three Dublin pirate stations playing music exclusively from the past, i.e. the so-called “oldies”. At the time of typing this, these are Retro FM on 91.0, Connect FM on 92.0 and Energy Power (AM) on 1395 kh Medium Wave. The latter has been around for over ten years while the other two appeared this year.

This is a curious phenomenon after the explosion of dance pirates in the last 25 years. Until a few years ago, most of the new Dublin pirates since the great raids of 2003 tended to be variations of dance music. We will come to the other exceptions, besides Energy (Power) in a second.

The first “oldies” type pirate I became aware of was in the mid ‘90s, namely Premier FM. They ran as a pirate until 2003, and, subsequently, did get temporary licenses. During 1999, a year when there was all manner of pirates out there, there was an oldies pirate called Flash FM.

I learnt on an internet forum in more recent years that Mike O’Brien had a ‘90s only pirate in the early ‘00s – Breeze FM, I believe. Around 2013, there was a much mentioned ‘80s pirate called Real 80s. A few times over the last few years, the guy behind Easy Radio flirted with an ‘80s only station - True 80s -before going back to Easy Radio. I believe he is connected to Connect FM.

Again, a much talked about oldies pirate was Non Stop Nineties which operated in 2016 and the early part of this year.

Does anyone have more examples? I am also curious about this development, in particular why there are at least three of these type of pirates, while the whole dance thing seems to be on the wane.

80s

There was Sun F.m. 101.3 Dublin the automated 80s station that ran from 1999-2005.Also there was Gem F.M. 88.1 Dublin another automated oldies station that ran from 1999- 2004.

Declan A Walsh

80s wrote: »

There was Sun F.m. 101.3 Dublin the automated 80s station that ran from 1999-2005.Also there was Gem F.M. 88.1 Dublin another automated oldies station that ran from 1999- 2004.

I forgot about those. How did I forget about Sun FM, in particular??!
An aside: Garvan Rigby of Sun FM and Paul Shepard and Walter Hegarty of Premier FM are three of the principals behind Christmas FM!

end of the road

the decline in dance pirates is down to the natural decline in pirate radio. dance music fans have lots of places to hear dance music now via the internet where there are hundreds of thousands of dance music stations availible, and music listening services. there will always be a dance pirate or 2 but i think the days of lots of them have gone, more to the pity. a station to cover the dance music of the 2000s would be good though, the 90s is covered.
anyway to the oldies pirates.
people do like older music, and some operators want to do something different. none of the licenced stations can really do an oldies format justice as they have to play it safe to gain listeners and make the maximum amount of revenue possible. so you have only a small amount of oldies music ultimately covered, and on repeat.
the oldies pirates, who can have a wide playlist and be able to offer a fantastic format, often on a very low budget, can cover it and do it justice.

padd b1975

Heartbeat FM with Brendan Kilkenny behind the mic deserves a mention.
I think it ran from mid to late nineties, possibly longer.

Declan A Walsh

padd b1975 wrote: »

Heartbeat FM with Brendan Kilkenny behind the mic deserves a mention.
I think it ran from mid to late nineties, possibly longer.

That was a love station - not an oldies station as such!

MikeyTaylor

padd b1975 wrote: »

Heartbeat FM with Brendan Kilkenny behind the mic deserves a mention.
I think it ran from mid to late nineties, possibly longer.

Wasn't he on Pop Idol?

ITV2

He was on my bus yesterday :-)

Declan A Walsh

By the looks of things, Brendan Kilkenny merits a thread in his own right! Incidentally, I have some Brendan Kilkenny stories too! His radio career, as far as I know, was Radio Dublin, Heartbeat FM and Choice FM (pirate from Cabra, not the temporary licensed one!). If someone wants to start his thread with that info...!

Anyway, the point is that while he may well have played "oldies", they were not exclusively oldies pirates! So, back on topic please...!

As to the “why”, there’s not much out there. 4FM or RTE Gold if you can get either in your area. East Coast FM isn’t bad at times either but it depends on when you tune in. NonStop 90s was excellent in my opinion, I wasn’t always into the dance tracks but a fair few got me going.

Losty Dublin

padd b1975 wrote: »

Heartbeat FM with Brendan Kilkenny behind the mic deserves a mention.
I think it ran from mid to late nineties, possibly longer.

That version of Heartbeat was run by Joe Doyle and Tony O'Hara. BK had nothing to do whatsoever with running it, or any pirate station.

Declan A Walsh

padd b1975 wrote: »

Heartbeat FM with Brendan Kilkenny behind the mic deserves a mention.
I think it ran from mid to late nineties, possibly longer.

Losty Dublin wrote: »

That version of Heartbeat was run by Joe Doyle and Tony O'Hara. BK had nothing to do whatsoever with running it, or any pirate station.

No-one said that Brendan Kilkenny "ran" a station. "Behind the mike" means he was a presenter! The poster said how long Heartbeat ran for, not that BK ran it! Likewise, he was a presenter of Radio Dublin and Choice FM as I said in other post.
As I said already, this merits a thread in its own right.

Going back to the topic at hand, I noticed this evening around Leopardstown that the same station seemed to be on 91.0 (Retro FM or was) and 92.0 (Connect FM or was). Someone said in the Bandscan thread that there was a station identifying as Fun FM on 92.0 in west Dublin playing '80s music. It's all getting very confusing!!

EDIT: It looks like a merger (permanent or temporary) of these two and Energy Power AM. Around the Ballinteer and Marley area this morning, I heard the same live programming on 91.0 FM, 92.0 FM and 1395kh AM. A guy announced these frequencies for Fun Radio Dublin and with a schedule of presenters for the day, including Paul who will be playing "easy love songs" - Paul Wilson of Easy Radio?? I am pretty sure that the unnamed presenter speaking was one I heard on a number of occasions on Energy Power. Incidentally, the best reception around that area was on 1395 AM. With the inclusion of easy love songs, it remains to be seen whther or not it it is all oldies.

Infoanon

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

This is a curious phenomenon after the explosion of dance pirates in the last 25 years. Until a few years ago, most of the new Dublin pirates since the great raids of 2003 tended to be variations of dance music.
The first “oldies” type pirate I became aware of was in the mid ‘90s, namely Premier FM. They ran as a pirate until 2003, and, subsequently, did get temporary licenses.
I learnt on an internet forum in more recent years that Mike O’Brien had a ‘90s only pirate in the early ‘00s – Breeze FM, I believe. Around 2013, there was a much mentioned ‘80s pirate called Real 80s.
Does anyone have more examples? I am also curious about this development, in particular why there are at least three of these type of pirates, while the whole dance thing seems to be on the wane.

Sunset in its infancy could have been considered an oldies station - it only became a 'legendary' dance station after a few months on air. The Dance music stations reigned supreme in an era when dance music and urban music was ignored by the legals.
The majority of pirates that went on air after '88 where trying to provide something different and something that would not upset the legals ! - look at what happened to KISS103 when it competed with FM104.
Recent stations (afaik) have involved old hands and the music of the 80s and 90s has been to the fore - listening to Connect it seems obvious to me that those behind the station know 'on air' music of the 80s (open to correction of course).
Other oldies stations - DRIVE105/Melody come to mind and DLR106 featured a mix of new and old.

Losty Dublin

Infoanon wrote: »

Sunset in its infancy could have been considered an oldies station - it only became a 'legendary' dance station after a few months on air. The Dance music stations reigned supreme in an era when dance music and urban music was ignored by the legals.
The majority of pirates that went on air after '88 where trying to provide something different and something that would not upset the legals ! - look at what happened to KISS103 when it competed with FM104.
Recent stations (afaik) have involved old hands and the music of the 80s and 90s has been to the fore - listening to Connect it seems obvious to me that those behind the station know 'on air' music of the 80s (open to correction of course).
Other oldies stations - DRIVE105/Melody come to mind and DLR106 featured a mix of new and old.

Just to namecheck a couple of the more influential 90's stations that warrant more discussion...

• Radio Dublin stayed on air post 88 and survived a massive P+T raid in 1990. Broadcasting on 101.7 and AM, it was run by Eamon Cooke and Joe Doyle for some years, before they had a split and went their separate ways. Alan Hunter was also involved in the station for a time, with at least one major falling out between him and Cooke that saw two Radio Dublin's on at at one point! The station morphed into a C+W station at one point towards the end of it's long life.
• NSR was formed in 1991 by Kevin Brannigan and Mike Ormond. Although it was a low powered weekend station in the main, it's on air product was tight in comparison to others of it's time. It was on air until late 1993, when it closed down to make way for Kiss 103FM. More on it later.
• Coast 103 was formed and run by Simon Maher. Based in Ballybrack, the soft rock station had an emphasis on music that was led by the DJ's and their own personal whims. It was live at the evenings and at weekends and, having closed in 1996, it relaunched as Spectrum using the old Sunset/Rhythm FM TX and studio set up. Again, more on it later.

Infoanon

80s wrote: »

There was Sun F.m. 101.3 Dublin the automated 80s station that ran from 1999-2005.Also there was Gem F.M. 88.1 Dublin another automated oldies station that ran from 1999- 2004.

Sun and Gem both ceased at the same time following a raid on their shared TX site.
Sun was originally called C101 iirc
Other non dance stations - Alices Restaurant / X-FM / Treble TR / Heartbeat / DARC / Choice (from Cabra ?) / Rock 105 / Capital 105 / Caroline 102.5

Losty Dublin

Infoanon wrote: »

Sun and Gem both ceased at the same time following a raid on their shared TX site.
Sun was originally called C101 iirc
Other non dance stations - Alices Restaurant / X-FM / Treble TR / Heartbeat / DARC / Choice (from Cabra ?) / Rock 105 / Capital 105 / Caroline 102.5

To expand.....

• DARC was a spin off from Radio Active, which was a renegade anarchic station based in the inner city.
• Caroline 102.5 came on air in 1991. For a time it was on 102.4 before edging up the dial ever so slightly to minimise disruption to their signal by 102.2. It also appeared on Shortwave on 6260 Khz.
• XFM was some sort of a spin off of Alice's Restaurant.
• Treble T R was known at Country Music Radio and Walkinstown Local Radio before settling on it's old pre 88 name.
• Heartbeat 95 came from a ramshackle studio over Ziggy's hair salon at Dolphin's Barn, which I believe was it's pre 88 old home. As mentioned, Tony O'Hara and Joe Doyle ran it, Maurice Nevin also doing shows for them.

Infoanon

Losty Dublin wrote: »

To expand.....

• DARC was a spin off from Radio Active, which was a renegade anarchic station based in the inner city.
• Caroline 102.5 came on air in 1991. For a time it was on 102.4 before edging up the dial ever so slightly to minimise disruption to their signal by 102.2. It also appeared on Shortwave on 6260 Khz.
• XFM was some sort of a spin off of Alice's Restaurant.
• Treble T R was known at Country Music Radio and Walkinstown Local Radio before settling on it's old pre 88 name.
• Heartbeat 95 came from a ramshackle studio over Ziggy's hair salon at Dolphin's Barn, which I believe was it's pre 88 old home. As mentioned, Tony O'Hara and Joe Doyle ran it, Maurice Nevin also doing shows for them.

DARC stood for Dublin Alternative Radio Collective - low power / audio average.
Caroline was alongside RnaLife for many years but Lite did not take to kindly to a station being so close - white noise one morning proving a final nail in the coffin iirc
I was not aware of any link between WLR and Treble TR - Treble TR initially came back on early 90s from their studios in Harolds Cross before moving to a mountain site. WLR was on the air late 90s to 2003 on 92.4 from Walkinstown - not related to the short lived WLR from the 80s
Heartbeat studios pre 88 was in Dolphins Barn - it had some good studio equipment (later sold to CKR so it was broadcast quality). The link antenna is still there today. The mid 90s Heartbeat was on 90.3 iirc and did involve Tony and Joe

There was an earlier Country music station set up by Joe Doyle while he was still on Radio Dublin - but it was raided after a very short time on air and apart from the studio equipment/TX etc iirc the record library was also seized.
Talking about country - we cannot forget the high powered optimod processing KIC FM on 104.0

Losty Dublin

Infoanon wrote: »

DARC stood for Dublin Alternative Radio Collective - low power / audio average.
Caroline was alongside RnaLife for many years but Lite did not take to kindly to a station being so close - white noise one morning proving a final nail in the coffin iirc
I was not aware of any link between WLR and Treble TR - Treble TR initially came back on early 90s from their studios in Harolds Cross before moving to a mountain site. WLR was on the air late 90s to 2003 on 92.4 from Walkinstown - not related to the short lived WLR from the 80s
Heartbeat studios pre 88 was in Dolphins Barn - it had some good studio equipment (later sold to CKR so it was broadcast quality). The link antenna is still there today. The mid 90s Heartbeat was on 90.3 iirc and did involve Tony and Joe

There was an earlier Country music station set up by Joe Doyle while he was still on Radio Dublin - but it was raided after a very short time on air and apart from the studio equipment/TX etc iirc the record library was also seized.
Talking about country - we cannot forget the high powered optimod processing KIC FM on 104.0

Just to touch base re this.

• I am fairly certain that the 1990's WLR and TTTR were one and the same. More than happy to be corrected on this though.
• Joe Doyle's C+W set up came up some time after his split with Radio Dublin, I think it was in 1994. In my big bag of tapes I may still have his opening broadcast on same. It came from a house in Ranelagh that he was living in, and some of his issues at the time related to the 60 foot aerial that he erected on the house unbeknownst to his landlady. Fair play, at least he tried
• I had forgotten about Heartbeat being on 90.3 but for a time there were back on 95.5FM after Q95 vacated the frequency for 99.4FM and 100.7. By then they had morphed into FM 2000 or some such name. Q rented weekday airtime from Rhythm FM, with the weekends being used by Spectrum. I has heard about CKR getting most of the studio gear and it went towards their being able to fit out their Carlow studio.
• KIC came later in the decade. Was it 1997? I can remember Cooke telling lies about them on Station News, they being his last radio feud. This radio war did as much as Sunset and Kiss did in opening radio to a different audience, culminating in the competition for a new adult specialist interest music licence that eventually went to Dublin's country 106.8

end of the road

KIC i'm nearly sure came around 2000/2001. that is when i remember it anyway, unless it had come on earlier and took a long break before returning?

Infoanon

end of the road wrote: »

KIC i'm nearly sure came around 2000/2001. that is when i remember it anyway, unless it had come on earlier and took a long break before returning?

KIC started circa January 2000 and closed in June 2001.

Of course there was another short lived Irish music station.......which transmitted on KISS103 UHF link and later FM link in 1994.....

Another non dance station was the non stop music station on 100FM in 2003 co located with Radio Dublin - there was never any live programmes or station IDs iirc

Declan A Walsh

The current position on Dublin oldies today is Retro FM on 91.0 FM and Energy (Power) AM on 1395 kh MW. That Fun Radio merger after Christmas turned out to be a one-off. Connect FM have not returned to the airwaves since AFAIK.

I think there could be some nostalgia-tinged pirates playing oldies, especially '80s, later this year, as it will be 30 years since the big switch-off of the majority of pirates back in 1988.

Infoanon

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

The current position on Dublin oldies today is Retro FM on 91.0 FM and Energy (Power) AM on 1395 kh MW. That Fun Radio merger after Christmas turned out to be a one-off. Connect FM have not returned to the airwaves since AFAIK.

I think there could be some nostalgia-tinged pirates playing oldies, especially '80s, later this year, as it will be 30 years since the big switch-off of the majority of pirates back in 1988.

Add Oldies 101.2 to the list above.

Connect FM have been very quiet on their facebook page as well as FM - streaming has however commenced.

We wait in help !

radioguru02

Nice mix of music and decent jingle package on Retro 91.0 tonight.

Infoanon

Forgot to mention Sunshine Radio on 105.7 (listening to the mess that is on 105.7 in Dublin triggered my memory) which later morphed into Choice FM.

Decent station with live programming circa 2010

Declan A Walsh

Sorry to bump this one up again, but I think it is interesting to see the current position in 2022.

Retro FM are still there, but they have been on 92.0 FM for a while now.

Energy Power AM is still going strong. It moved frequency this year to 1440 kh (or 208 metres) MW, the old home of Radio Luxembourg. It also has an arrangement with Retro FM, where its frequency is used for live broadcasts of Retro FM.

A more recent entry is ABC 80s which currently uses 93.3 FM. Up until earlier this year, it had been on 96.0. This has a connection to online station, and former pirate in its own right, Dublin's ABC.

94.3 FM has been used off and on to relay oldies-oriented online stations (Charity Radio or All80s) or pirate stations (Retro FM).

The 90s Network, a former temporary licensed station and also an online station, broadcasts on 98.4 FM.

105.7, which is the home of chilled dance station The Beach, sometimes morphs into its alter ego oldies station Star1057. The last time was earlier on this year, but it could happen again.

Declan A Walsh

I forgot to mention oldies station Pirate FM which was on the air on FM during 2020, having started as an online station. It was a mixture of automated music and some live presenters. Like Star1057, it never got involved with the oldies collaborations. It decided to call it a day later in 2020 as regards FM broadcasts.

Declan A Walsh

Another bump to give the current position on oldies pirates in Dublin, prompted by a very recent entry.

FM:

92.0 - Retro FM

93.3 - ABC 80s

98.4 - The 90s Network - AFAIK that is still on the go

107.1 - Robot FM - this is the very recent entry coming in near the end of 2022 or even 1st January 2023.

Medium Wave:

1440kh (208 metres) - Energy Power AM

It looks like Star1057 on 105.7 FM has called it a day as there has been no activity AFAIK on that frequency (including its alter ego The Beach) since last spring.

Edit: This is not meant to be a pure band scan, which is already covered by the Bandscan Thread. So, if there are any memories of other oldies pirates, please do share.