Long Standing Deejays/Presenters On Irish Pirate Radio Today (Still)

Declan A Walsh

When listening to Dublin pirate stations which lean towards “oldies” music, it is clear it is not just the music that has been around for a while! Many of the presenters of such stations have been around the block for quite some time. I have written on this forum before about the recent phenomenon of the “oldies” pirates. Now, it’s time to talk about the curious phenomenon of the middle-aged (and maybe beyond!) pirate presenters.

Let us start with two of the presenters of oldies pirate Retro FM, which has been around since 2017. They are founder Derek Jones and Mike Doyle. Derek Jones, who I have referred to in a number of threads, has been involved in radio, mainly pirate, since 1972, starting with Radio Valerie. That’s 47 years! During the ‘00s and the beginning of this decade, he did do some legal radio with Beaumont Hospital Radio, three temporary license runs with Premier FM and about three runs with Christmas FM. But he is now back flying the flag for the “Jolly Roger”, to quote him from an interview he gave last year but I only heard very recently.

Mike Doyle goes back to at least the early ‘80s with Radio Dublin Channel 2. He turned up in the ‘00s on two temporary license runs each with Premier FM and Choice FM. I first heard him last year on Retro FM standing in for Derek Jones. Indeed, I heard him again last Sunday.

Then we have the two men behind now long-running Medium Wave pirate Energy Power (AM), which play largely oldies: Brian Kelly and (AFAIK) Paul Murray. Like Derek Jones, I heard an interview with Brian Kelly. He has been involved with pirates since the early ‘80s. I think he may also be associated with charity.ie, an online station. On a couple of occasions, Energy has teamed up with the online station for a joint broadcast. On at least one of those occasions, there were a number of older presenters from the online station involved with this joint enterprise. So, I would hazard a guess that some of them too would go back a bit with the pirates. Paul Murray sounds like someone who has been around a while too – I mean the voice of experience!

Energy has been involved with various joint broadcasts with stations of similar leanings, including Retro FM and Easy Radio. Easy Radio is a now long running pirate on FM that plays love songs. It is not a strictly oldies station, but much if its music would be. The main person associated with it is Paul Wilson. He is also a sometime presenter with the aforementioned Retro FM. He certainly goes back to the early ‘90s with Radio Dublin, and may go back further. Note: I said “may”, in case I am not right! Along the way, Paul got some legal experience with Beaumont Hospital Radio and a temporary license run with Heartbeat FM, and, I think, a run or two with Hot Country.

I suspect that there are other examples outside Dublin, when you come across stations playing country or traditional Irish music.

Do people have other examples of “long standing deejays”? Or, perhaps, you might care to discuss this curious phenomenon in 2019.

Declan A Walsh

I just got some more information from an extremely reliable source. Paul Murray had a station in the early '80s from the Cabinteely direction called Radio South County. Apparently, when it was on, it blocked out Radio Caroline being picked up in south Dublin across the Irish Sea!

radioguru02

I suspect Radio Star Country and Radio North (broadcasting since 1988/1989 respectively) would have some long-standing presenters

ford fiesta

The aforementioned Energy Power 1395 AM is now playing Band Aid !! LOL