Bandscan 30 Years ago today

Infoanon

A Dublin FM bandscan from this Sunday 30 years ago - Eamonn and Graham (RIP) on the Smile FM anorak show - with thanks to Groucho for uploading the recording:

Was Radio better in '88?

88.0 Millennium Radio
88.8/89.1 RTE Radio 1
89.8 DK FM (Davitt Kelly)
90.1 BBC Radio 2
90.7/91.3 RTE Radio 2
91.6 UNID Blank Carrier
91.85 TCR - Tallaght Community Radio
92.3 BBC Radio 3
92.5 UNID – Dream FM ?
92.9/93.5 RnaG/RTE Radio FM3
94.1 Center Radio (Sutton)
94.3 South Dublin Community Radio (Dundrum)
94.3 Smile FM (Ballyfermot)
94.5 BBC Radio Ulster
94.8 3CR – Clondalkin Community Council Radio
94.9 Nova Power Relay (Prev Southside Radio)
95.2 RTE Radio 1
95.5 Heartbeat
95.8 Capital / Nitesky
96.05 UNID Blank Carrier
96.3 ZIKE FM (Rathfarnham)
97.0 RTE Radio 2
97.3 WEST National Radio 3
97.8 BLB – Bray local broadcasting
97.95 Boyneside Navan
98.05 RCR – Ranelagh Community Radio
98.1 MORE Music Radio (Dalkey)
98.2 Phoenix Radio (Blanchardstown)
98.5 KLAS Radio
98.8 Pulsar – Community Radio Fingal
98.8 Zoom 103 FM (Walkinstown) (Prev Z-99)
99.1/99.5 Treble TR
99.9 Super Q
100.3/100.7/101.1/101.5 Sunshine Radio
101.9/102.3/103.0 Super Q
102.7 RnaG/RTE Radio FM3
103.0 Super Q
103.5 GOLD 104/Liberty Gold (Prev LLCR)
103.7 Zoom 103 FM (Prev Z-99)
104.0 GOLD 104/Liberty Gold
104.4 HOPE FM
104.7/105.25 Radio Dublin
105.6 NDCR – North Dublin Community Radio
106.1 UNID Blank Carrier
106.45 KISS FM (Stillorgan)

Declan A Walsh

Infoanon wrote: »

A Dublin FM bandscan from this Sunday 30 years ago - Eamonn and Graham (RIP) on the Smile FM anorak show - with thanks to Groucho for uploading the recording:

Was Radio better in '88?

88.0 Millennium Radio
88.8/89.1 RTE Radio 1
89.8 DK FM (Davitt Kelly)
90.1 BBC Radio 2
90.7/91.3 RTE Radio 2
91.6 UNID Blank Carrier
91.85 TCR - Tallaght Community Radio
92.3 BBC Radio 3
92.5 UNID – Dream FM ?
92.9/93.5 RnaG/RTE Radio FM3
94.1 Center Radio (Sutton)
94.3 South Dublin Community Radio (Dundrum)
94.3 Smile FM (Ballyfermot)
94.5 BBC Radio Ulster
94.8 3CR – Clondalkin Community Council Radio
94.9 Nova Power Relay (Prev Southside Radio)
95.2 RTE Radio 1
95.5 Heartbeat
95.8 Capital / Nitesky
96.05 UNID Blank Carrier
96.3 ZIKE FM (Rathfarnham)
97.0 RTE Radio 2
97.3 WEST National Radio 3
97.8 BLB – Bray local broadcasting
97.95 Boyneside Navan
98.05 RCR – Ranelagh Community Radio
98.1 MORE Music Radio (Dalkey)
98.2 Phoenix Radio (Blanchardstown)
98.5 KLAS Radio
98.8 Pulsar – Community Radio Fingal
98.8 Zoom 103 FM (Walkinstown) (Prev Z-99)
99.1/99.5 Treble TR
99.9 Super Q
100.3/100.7/101.1/101.5 Sunshine Radio
101.9/102.3/103.0 Super Q
102.7 RnaG/RTE Radio FM3
103.0 Super Q
103.5 GOLD 104/Liberty Gold (Prev LLCR)
103.7 Zoom 103 FM (Prev Z-99)
104.0 GOLD 104/Liberty Gold
104.4 HOPE FM
104.7/105.25 Radio Dublin
105.6 NDCR – North Dublin Community Radio
106.1 UNID Blank Carrier
106.45 KISS FM (Stillorgan)

I don't think we need to answer that!!

Losty Dublin

Strip out the doss/home stations out of the list and ask ourselves again with the full-time professionals only. I suspect that we aren't quite as badly off as we think.

Infoanon

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Strip out the doss/home stations out of the list and ask ourselves again with the full-time professionals only. I suspect that we aren't quite as badly off as we think.

In'88 it was quantity over quality - though
a) there was a lot more diversity - a country station TTTR, alternative - Capital, love songs - Heartbeat etc etc
b) the quality stations were of a very high quality - Sunshine 101 and Super Q102 were supremely professional and I would argue as good as if not better then FM104 etc

Re the list - was Boyneside Dublin relay still on 105.5 in '88 ??

TheBMG

Infoanon wrote: »

In'88 it was quantity over quality - though
a) there was a lot more diversity - a country station TTTR, alternative - Capital, love songs - Heartbeat etc etc
b) the quality stations were of a very high quality - Sunshine 101 and Super Q102 were supremely professional and I would argue as good as if not better then FM104 etc

Re the list - was Boyneside Dublin relay still on 105.5 in '88 ??

Funny to see that Smile FM left out one station on their bandscan .. their Ballyfermot neighbours at Q107 didn’t get a mention 😜

Losty Dublin

Infoanon wrote: »

In'88 it was quantity over quality - though
a) there was a lot more diversity - a country station TTTR, alternative - Capital, love songs - Heartbeat etc etc
b) the quality stations were of a very high quality - Sunshine 101 and Super Q102 were supremely professional and I would argue as good as if not better then FM104 etc

Re the list - was Boyneside Dublin relay still on 105.5 in '88 ??

We lost some but we gained some as well today.

• We have Sunshine doing something halfway close to but not in the same way as Heartbeat, and certainly not with the emotion of Heartbeat. Modern Q 102 also covers same.
• KLAS would fall close to Lyric's remit but it covered on a local level only.
• No country service in Dublin today but we had a left field rock service in Phantom and 8 Radio on temp. Today FM does a good job in the evenings addressing this audience but they have little daytime.
• Nova in 1988 was fairly close to what Nova today does.
• Agreed with SuperQ/Sunshine and FM104 covering the pop hit KISS format. 98FM are lagging behind the mark.
• We also have a youth targeted station, namely Spin that we badly needed in the 80's.
• On the other hand talk radio and minority of interests are well looked after today. For As Gaelige we have Raidio Life and a full time Raidio Na Gaeltachta. There are piles of community stations on air across the nation, and Dublin has several on air. Also, there is DCFM and it's access format and traffic news.
• I think Boyneside came in then but I will have to ask a friend who knows better.
• In the old days there was not much Talk Radio shows of note, and certainly no remit for talk shows, news or a full time news service. Newstalk covers this today while most stations need some current affairs input.

Plus we had a more laboured RTE 1 and 2FM back then, and Atlantic was on it's way.

As Dickens would say, it was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

Antenna

Infoanon wrote: »

99.1/99.5 Treble TR
99.9 Super Q
100.3/100.7/101.1/101.5 Sunshine Radio
101.9/102.3/103.0 Super Q

Pirate stations with more than one FM frequency listed (such as above) - where would each frequency have been transmitted from (especially the 2 stations with 4 FM frequencies each!) ?

Infoanon

Antenna wrote: »

Pirate stations with more than one FM frequency listed (such as above) - where would each frequency have been transmitted from (especially the 2 stations with 4 FM frequencies each!) ?

In the early 80s many stations that had 2 FM frequencies were using one for linking to the second TX up in the mountains. By '88 many stations had proper linking equipment in place and second transmitters were used to cover black spots.(Even Nova with 24kw ERP needed a second TX from Nova Park fro black spots !)

Its been a while but from memory and all corrections are greatly welcomed:
Treble TR where 4kw ERP on 99.5 from 3 Rock linking on UHF with a very good signal across the city and county, 99.1 was brought into use when Diamond 106 ceased on that frequency and was used to cover black spots . Interestingly TTTR had also decoupled their AM transmitter to give them 2 lower powered (ie half the power) AM frequencies.

Sunshine 101 had 4 FM TX from 4 separate sites, the 100.7 being located at the Sands Hotel. Originally this had been a high powered link to the FM site at Howth Head iirc .
I will have to dig around my notes for the other locations though seem to recall 101.5 was from Kilakee.
Originally* Sunshine had 2 frequencies - 100.5 and 101.5 - one being a link to the main site, then 101.5 was moved to 101 (.1?) and a new TX was introduced on 101.5 using a directional aerial to beam into Wicklow. When Nova came back on with the HOT100 Robbie decided to put on a 4th TX on 100.3 forcing Nova to move to 99.9.
*initially 91.6

Super Q - Q102, initially they had one TX on 102, then bought all the Magic equipment (TXs and Studio) which gave them an outlet on 103.5 (the Magic AM replacing the antique Q 828 TX). Despite 103.5 being extensively damaged Q grew from strength and the moved the 103.5 down to 102.3 aimed at improving reception in Kildare.
Q then bought Energy 103s TXs - 99.9 & 103.0 which is how Q ended up with 4 frequencies.

For a lot of 87 and early 88 there were strong rumours of Q and Sunshine both opening second stations but this never transpired.

Infoanon

Losty Dublin wrote: »

We lost some but we gained some as well today.

• We have Sunshine doing something halfway close to but not in the same way as Heartbeat, and certainly not with the emotion of Heartbeat. Modern Q 102 also covers same.
• Nova in 1988 was fairly close to what Nova today does.
• We also have a youth targeted station, namely Spin that we badly needed in the 80's.
• In the old days there was not much Talk Radio shows of note, and certainly no remit for talk shows, news or a full time news service. Newstalk covers this today while most stations need some current affairs input.

Magic 103 had attempted the Talk Radio format but this had been a ratings and financial failure . The accumulated losses at Newstalk tell there own tail.
I would disagree about Nova - Nova was still very much a Hot Hit radio though not in the same league as Sunshine.
I would also disagree about a Youth service - the Youth were well catered for in '88 - the day Capital 104 came on and announced their fax number for listeners requests was the day youth lost their radio service.

The Dickens quote though does imho sum it all up.

Infoanon

Antenna wrote: »

Infoanon wrote: »

99.1/99.5 Treble TR
99.9 Super Q
100.3/100.7/101.1/101.5 Sunshine Radio
101.9/102.3/103.0 Super Q

Pirate stations with more than one FM frequency listed (such as above) - where would each frequency have been transmitted from (especially the 2 stations with 4 FM frequencies each!) ?

Sunshine - 100.3 Howth Head ,100.7 Sands Hotel,101.1 Kilakee,101.5 Murphys Quarry , 531&846 from the Sands (later used by Century ).

Q102 - 99.9 Kilmashogue (old Magic site), 101.9 Lamb Doyle ,102.3 Saggart,103.0 Murphys Quarry , 738 (10kw) Bluebell & 819 (1kw) Kimmage

Infoanon

With just a few days of broadcasting remaining many Stations were still sticking to format with on air announcements about the pending closedown now on high rotation.

Gold / Liberty 104 had closed early - a broadcasting of a conversation between 2 unhappy investors hastened the closure !

Signal had reappeared on air as well.