Premier Dublin Radio / Premier Radio / Premier FM

Declan A Walsh · 10-12-2021 4:32pm #1

This was a fascinating station that started as a pirate in the early 1980s, was one of the few to continue after the deadline for pirates to close in 1988, reinvented itself as an oldies station from 1996 until 2003 and eventually ran on three temporary licenses. Incidentally, two of its principals, Paul Shepard, aka Ray Jackson, (not mentioned at all in the article below, but I believe he got involved in 1988) and Walter Hegarty, aka Greg Townsend, became two of the principals for that perennial favourite Christmas FM.

Whatever happened to one of the original operators of the station, Dave Jackson? I think he fell out with the other two during Premier FM's temporary license runs - I stand corrected on that.

Both Paul and Walter went back to Capitol Radio in the late 1970s. That was a long old spell in the pirate scene.

What about the presenters listed from the early 1980s - whatever happened to them?

http://radiowaves.fm/ire/database/premier-fm/

David Baker suddenly turned up on Premier FM when it was a pirate, during the spring of 2003, having left the pirate scene in the 1980s and being involved in radio in the UK.

http://radiowaves.fm/ire/radiowavesnews/2003/02/01/premier-for-baker/

Declan A Walsh · 10-12-2021 4:47pm

Incidentally, two of the presenters on Premier FM during its legal runs were Garvan Rigby and Daragh O'Sullivan, aka Stephen Davitt. They became the other two co-founders of Christmas FM, which was the brainchild of Garv. He had previously been involved with 80s oldies pirate Sun FM. Both of them and a number of other presenters across the three runs had been involved with the dance pirate scene. There was also a few presenters, besides the operators/owners, who had a lot of previous pirate experience, particularly Derek Jones who went back to 1972!

Declan A Walsh · 10-12-2021 5:33pm

Going back to that 1980s schedule in my first post, I suspect that Aidan Hughes is the same guy who owned and operated a short wave pirate during the 1980s and the early 1990s called Capital Radio International. It does mention that Peter King built the transmitter and was involved with another pirate called Radio Caroline Dublin. This was from the 1980s - not the Radio Caroline in Bayside, Sutton, from the 1990s to the early '00s. Bizarrely, at least three of the presenters during its temporary license era had previously been involved with the 1990s Radio Caroline: Stephen Davitt, Derek Jones and Brian Wilson.

Ger Roe · 11-12-2021 10:51am

On the Capital and Radio Caroline Dublin aspects :

From my memory... (less reliable than it used to be), Aidan did run Capital on Short Wave. Tragically, he died too young following ongoing health issues from a motor bike accident. The early Radio Caroline Dublin (AM) was operated by Peter Gibney (went on to be Sunshine's engineer) and I think was based in Finglas (mailing address was a local record shop). Around the same time, Kieran Phillips was operating Radio Mi Amigo from the Dun Laoghaire area, with a mailing address in Dalkey. Both stations operated at the top of the MW band so that the antenna length required would be shorter and easier to string up in urban areas. There was a degree of coordination between the two stations where they would promote each other and take turns to operate at different daypart times, at weekends.

Both were low power operations, but it was good to look out for them at the weekends as experimental hobby stations. They would always mention the technical changes to transmitters and antennas that had been introduced since you last heard them and if you were lucky, you might also catch Tony Boylan on air as Radio Galaxy.

Lord Nelson · 12-12-2021 11:41am

From recollection, Peter King was the nome de guerre of Peter Gibney in the very early days. The station operated from his parents house in Shantalla Road. In fact, if you drive on the M1 towards the city, on the left hand side you’ll see the shed and remains of the mast. Haven’t been along there for a number of years but they were still visible last time I passed.

Declan A Walsh · 12-12-2021 9:12pm

Anybody know what happened to the one of the original guys behind it all - Dave Jackson....and was his real name Brendan something?

Declan A Walsh · 13-12-2021 3:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118311778#Comment_118311778

I found where I got the name Brendan from! It must be Brendan Reid.

http://radiowaves.fm/ire/database/premier-fm-thanks/

Premier Dublin Radio / Premier Radio / Premier FM

Comments