Best pirate of the 80s?

Da Funky Munky · 10-06-2008 09:32AM #1

The watching of Bring Back Nova recently got me thinking. Was Sunshine actually better? I think I listened to both equally but maybe, despite Nova's heavyweight sound, Sunshine might just nudge it out of the two. Overall however its got to be Energy 103 for me if I had to choose just one from the 80's.

Whats yours and why?

Trojan911 · 10-06-2008 09:53PM

ERI in Cork....

LordSutch · 10-06-2008 10:00PM

N O V A . . . clutter free, in glorious FM Stereo, no competition ............

Liam Byrne · 11-06-2008 11:46AM

I reckon it depends on where you were living, and for different reasons......

Nationally, Radio Nova definitely caught the headlines; everyone's probably heard of it, even if they never actually heard it.....and when it went on satellite (unfortunately something the documentary didn't cover) then lots of people got to hear it.

Radio West in Mullingar were probably the closest thing to a national pirate - a brave move in those days; I only listened regularly to the anorak show on a Sunday, though.

ERI in Cork / Munster were top-class and, unlike Nova, you COULD pick them up here most of the time.

Big L was one of the first decent all-round pirates and everyone in the city was familiar with it / listened to it at some stage.

Hits 954, unfortunately short-lived, was probably the first unashamed "hit music station" in the Mid-West, with a cracking FM signal!

So I don't think there's one definitive answer, TBH....plus, since the "Other" option covers most of the nation, I'm not sure it's fair.....it'll skew the results.

Of the stations that you list, though, the ones that I did get to hear the odd time (where would we be without sporadic-E ?) were Nova and Q102, and both were damn good!

But if Nova hadn't been on satellite, I wouldn't really know much about the ones listed....despite being a self-confessed anorak!!

So impact-wise, I'd say Hits 954, ERI & Nova, in that order simply because of how often I could physically tune in/listen.

Leave out the impact, music and sound quality - i.e. going back to "doing what local stations probably should be doing" -I'd say Big L (and, from what I've heard, Sunshine)......and I'd say that's probably why you tuned in to both equally ? Sunshine were doing something that Nova's format didn't allow it to do.....be local!

Declan A Walsh · 11-06-2008 11:22PM

My favourite pirate of the '80s was Capitol Radio, in Dublin.

Just to distinguish this station from others of a similar name, this was the one with a sort of alter ego nighttime service from September 1986 called Nitesky. Essentially, the Nitesky service emphasised an Alternative Rock policy. That said, the daytime music on Capitol was quite alternative-leaning too with a sprinkling of AOR-type music. The station had originally started in 1983 as an album-oriented station, so the move to more full-on alternative rock was not too hard.

There are undoubtedly parallels with current Alternative Rock licencesee Phantom FM - and not just the music policy - if anything, Phantom more closely follows the Nitesky style rather than its daytime Capitol identity. Incidentally, Phantom's original heavy metal guru Tom Hayes (in its pirate days) had also done the same thing on Nitesky. Like Phantom, Capitol/Nitesky was peopled by individuals with an enthuisasm and passion for what they played.

Some of the more familiar names to have been involved with Capitol in the '80s include East Coast FM's (and ex-2FM) Bob Conway, TV3's Alan Cantwell (I kid you not!), 98FM's Matt Dempsey (other stations he had involvement in included CKR, Tipp FM, Red FM and Limerick's Live 95FM), LMFM's Michael Reade and KFM's Dave McGrath. It should also be mentioned that Sinn Finn councillor Cillian Forde was involved in the station in its latter years!

Where else would you have heard on a regular basis early R.E.M., the Smiths, New Order, The Waterboys, The The, The Cure and plenty of contemporary Irish rock acts? By the way, I first heard Suzanne Vega on Capitol, with one of her first singles Marlene on the Wall. Oddly enough, I also heard some great album tracks from Genesis and Aha (of all groups!). This was prior to the launch of Nitesky, and there was considerably more latitude in the playlist.

P.S. The superpirates, of course, are worth a mention because they revolutionised radio as we know it, especially Radio Nova. But also: Nova's sister stations and Sunshine Radio and Q102 and NRG103. People I enjoyed listening to on these stations would have included 2FM Head John Clarke, Today FM Programming Manager Tom Hardy, 2FM's (and ex-FM104) Colm Hayes, TV3's weatherman (!) (and also Today FM) Martin King and East Coast FM's (and Today FM) Declan Meehan.

Fuzzy Clam · 11-06-2008 11:37PM

Declan,you scare me....seriously...you scare me.

IanCurtis · 12-06-2008 12:03AM

Sunshine was a great laugh....do ya remember their ridiculous "when you answer the phone,don't say hello, say you're listening to the super sounds of sunshine 101 fm"

Crazy stuff in it's day.

I distinctly remember someone answering their random call with "Hello you're listening to the super sounds of sunshine 101 fm" and NOT winning the money!!!!!!

Energy was my favourite because of their amazing Saturday night DJ mixing sets....I was too young to go out you see, but lived for this kind of music.

Ahhhh, nostalgia!!!

spurious · 12-06-2008 12:19AM

I used to love ARD. I still have an ARD T shirt I won in a competition. I wouldn't get it up my arm now, much less onto my actual body.

Da Funky Munky · 12-06-2008 10:53AM

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

My favourite pirate of the '80s was Capitol Radio, in Dublin.

Just to distinguish this station from others of a similar name, this was the one with a sort of alter ego nighttime service from September 1986 called Nitesky. Essentially, the Nitesky service emphasised an Alternative Rock policy. That said, the daytime music on Capitol was quite alternative-leaning too with a sprinkling of AOR-type music. The station had originally started in 1983 as an album-oriented station, so the move to more full-on alternative rock was not too hard.

There are undoubtedly parallels with current Alternative Rock licencesee Phantom FM - and not just the music policy - if anything, Phantom more closely follows the Nitesky style rather than its daytime Capitol identity. Incidentally, Phantom's original heavy metal guru Tom Hayes (in its pirate days) had also done the same thing on Nitesky. Like Phantom, Capitol/Nitesky was peopled by individuals with an enthuisasm and passion for what they played.

Some of the more familiar names to have been involved with Capitol in the '80s include East Coast FM's (and ex-2FM) Bob Conway, TV3's Alan Cantwell (I kid you not!), 98FM's Matt Dempsey (other stations he had involvement in included CKR, Tipp FM, Red FM and Limerick's Live 95FM), LMFM's Michael Reade and KFM's Dave McGrath. It should also be mentioned that Sinn Finn councillor Cillian Forde was involved in the station in its latter years!

Where else would you have heard on a regular basis early R.E.M., the Smiths, New Order, The Waterboys, The The, The Cure and plenty of contemporary Irish rock acts? By the way, I first heard Suzanne Vega on Capitol, with one of her first singles Marlene on the Wall. Oddly enough, I also heard some great album tracks from Genesis and Aha (of all groups!). This was prior to the launch of Nitesky, and there was considerably more latitude in the playlist.

P.S. The superpirates, of course, are worth a mention because they revolutionised radio as we know it, especially Radio Nova. But also: Nova's sister stations and Sunshine Radio and Q102 and NRG103. People I enjoyed listening to on these stations would have included 2FM Head John Clarke, Today FM Programming Manager Tom Hardy, 2FM's (and ex-FM104) Colm Hayes, TV3's weatherman (!) (and also Today FM) Martin King and East Coast FM's (and Today FM) Declan Meehan.

:eek:

You are hereby awarded the King Anorak Award 2008 Declan.

I always love your posts here and on RW

Declan A Walsh · 12-06-2008 08:08PM

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

Declan,you scare me....seriously...you scare me.

Either (a) you think I'm a dangerous psycho or
(b) you are saying you cannot believe all the facts and trivia I'm coming out with and retaining in my head.
Hopefully, its option (b).

It's simple really - I'm interested in the subject and I have listened to a lot of radio and so I remember some details. Anyone can do it with any subject - you just need to have sufficient (usually obsessive) interest in the matter.

Football fans (any kind of football) can ream off any assortment of details relating to their hobby.

Another station I was quite partial towards was the short-lived Southside FM around 1988, although it could not beat Capitol Radio. It had a variety of programming styles - both talk and music. My favourite programme was Pat James' rock show. Incidentally, Pat was briefly with Capitol Radio in its early days. I'm not sure if I remember him first-hand on Capitol, or just Phantom's Anorak Hour recordings of him. Remember that? Sigh! Ah, well!

Declan A Walsh · 12-06-2008 08:25PM

Da Funky Munky wrote: »

:eek:

You are hereby awarded the King Anorak Award 2008 Declan.

I always love your posts here and on RW

I'm suitably humbled. I do actually posess a few annoraks. I get out so rarely so I have to protect myself from the cold when I do!!

actually... don't take that litearally! I get out a bit more now as radio has become so homogenised.

I'll wear that annorak with pride!

LordSutch · 12-06-2008 08:26PM

Best Pirate Radio Station of the 80s . . .

I suppose it depends on what criteria you use to measure "Best", personally speaking I would say that Radio NOVA was streets ahead of anything in the Republic in the early 80s when it came to Hi Fi sound Quality.

I actually worked in a Dublin Hi Fi Shop back then & I remember well the massive impact that NOVA had on the sales of Hi Fi ~ FM tuners, due mostly to the very High quality FM Stereo Signal put-out by NOVA from the Three Rock mast ~ and boy oh boy was that some signal

At the time I remember well that the NOVA FM signal was incredible, not just in signal strength (Maximum)+ but also in Hi Fi Bass response + Treble clarity, and as a Hi Fi saleaman of the day I can certainly say that nothing else broadcast from these shores on the FM waveband ever came close in the early 80s . . . . . .

Wasnt Sunshine Radio on 'Medium Wave' (Mono) only?

Declan A Walsh · 12-06-2008 08:32PM

ArthurF wrote: »

Best Pirate Radio Station of the 80s . . .

Wasnt Sunshine Radio on 'Medium Wave' (Mono) only?

Initially, that was the case because no Irish pirate had tried FM (or VHFas RTE used to call it) until Radio Nova came along. Remember that Sunshine Radio had been the first of the superpirates, albeit on MW (or AM as its called these days). Chris Cary was actually one of the founders of Sunshine.

Sunshine practically reinvented itself when it started its 101FM transmissions. A lot of people who listened to Sunshine in its latter years (remember it started in 1980 and went on right into 1988) would refer to Sunshine 101, rather than Sunshine Radio.

Fuzzy Clam · 12-06-2008 09:53PM

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Either (a) you think I'm a dangerous psycho or
(b) you are saying you cannot believe all the facts and trivia I'm coming out with and retaining in my head.
Hopefully, its option (b).

Yep,it's (b):)

mike65 · 12-06-2008 11:57PM

ABC of Tramore and Waterford of course!

Mike.

Da Funky Munky · 17-06-2008 08:33PM

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

A lot of people who listened to Sunshine in its latter years (remember it started in 1980 and went on right into 1988) would refer to Sunshine 101, rather than Sunshine Radio.

Me included. Sunshine Radio will always be Sunshine 101 to me

Big Tone · 19-06-2008 02:36PM

Trojan911 wrote: »

ERI in Cork....

I think its fair to say there would never have been an ERI if South Coast Radio never existed. It is South Coast that got a very young Joe O' Connor excited enough to ask his Mam for a birthday present of an FM transmitter and studio gear in 1982 ! Obviously he was blown away with their FM sonic audio and professional-sounding british DJs.

BTW my vote Other is to specify South Coast Radio from a Cork perspective.

Latchy · 19-06-2008 02:41PM

Sunshie 101 radio for me ,if only cuz they played a great mix of oldies along with new stuff were as Nova had the same playlist going over and over again and some of the DJ's were up there own ass .

Da Funky Munky · 23-06-2008 06:53PM

Someone has finally found this

TRSJ · 23-06-2008 07:59PM

Energy 103 Dublin was mine (even though they were only on about 2 years with 5 different names - zoom 103, energy 103, energy power 103, nova power 103 and power 103!. Their breakfast show was excellent and as mentioned above sat nights dmc mixes were great when you were too yound to go clubbing in town!

Latchyo, I am assuming you are referring to sunshine radio rather than the re branded late 80s sunshine 101. Sunshine 101 only played the same 20-30 current/new songs over and over again all day with the exception of bee bop gold on a sunday where they featured all oldies for 6 hours. Nova had a wider mix of music.

TRSJ

Latchy · 23-06-2008 08:09PM

TRSJ wrote: »

Latchyo, I am assuming you are referring to sunshine radio rather than the re branded late 80s sunshine 101. Sunshine 101 only played the same 20-30 current/new songs over and over again all day with the exception of bee bop gold on a sunday where they featured all oldies for 6 hours. Nova had a wider mix of music.

TRSJ

Yeah , that may be the one ok.I think sunshine radio was different to Nova in that the music was important and not the DJ's .I liked bee bop gold on sunday .Nova had more money behind it i think so it's jingles and advertisements were top notch .but it seemed to be a bit OTT with the 'RADIO NOVA ' jingle blasting out after every two songs or so, but i know that's what commercial radio is all about ,selling itself and NOVA did that better than the others it seems .

Da Funky Munky · 24-06-2008 01:43PM

TRSJ wrote: »

Latchyo, I am assuming you are referring to sunshine radio rather than the re branded late 80s sunshine 101. Sunshine 101 only played the same 20-30 current/new songs over and over again all day

That would be the Bill Cunningham re-branding

Is it true that the jocks on Sunshine werent allowed link for more than ten seconds back then? My memories fuzzy on that one.

Also; is this the Sunshine 101 Bill Cunningham? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cunningham

Da Funky Munky · 24-06-2008 01:51PM

Da Funky Munky wrote: »

Also; is this the Sunshine 101 Bill Cunningham? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cunningham

Edit: Doesnt look like it

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=umTZffAfw7s

Fuzzy Clam · 24-06-2008 05:35PM

Da Funky Munky wrote: »

That would be the Bill Cunningham re-branding Is it true that the jocks on Sunshine werent allowed link for more than ten seconds back then? My memories fuzzy on that one.

Also; is this the Sunshine 101 Bill Cunningham? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cunningham

Unlikely as Bill died a number of years ago(car crash or something?)

On that subject,it's interesting to note that Q102 have only 1 vote.:D

IrishHomer · 24-06-2008 10:32PM

I remember when he took over Q102 and he played the same record ver and over for a couple of days. had a lady in the studio doing a contdown of numbers for ages.

Da Funky Munky · 01-07-2008 01:01PM

IrishHomer wrote: »

I remember when he took over Q102 and he played the same record ver and over for a couple of days. had a lady in the studio doing a contdown of numbers for ages.

Maybe thats why the legal Q102 paid homage to it when Ray Shah launched the station with The Muppets "ma nom ma nom"

SPIRITKEEPER · 09-08-2008 12:41AM

I never really considered Nova OR Sunshine as the origional pirate stations they were far more professional and in being so they lost a slight connection with Dublin people that the likes of ARD, Radio Dublin and indeed TTTR had at the time.
The main difference to me was when I first turned off MW and onto FM, man what a difference.

Spiritkeeper

Tomohawk · 09-08-2008 01:02AM

My best pirate of the 1980s would also have to be Nitesky 96. Where else would youngsters of the time have heard The Smiths, The Cure, lashings of the Woodentops and the likes of A House and Guernica circa 1986. Hours of indie songs with no ads and interesting DJs who gave you the impression that they liked the music themselves, I suppose these amateur jocks had more passion back in those days. Radio Dublin in the very early 1980s ('80-'82) was also great for the weeky saturday morning chart coutdown where I had the finger hovering over the record-pause button of the portable tape deck to home bootleg the lastest chart toppers. ah memories...

jwb1 · 17-08-2008 07:50PM

Big Tone wrote: »

I think its fair to say there would never have been an ERI if South Coast Radio never existed. It is South Coast that got a very young Joe O' Connor excited enough to ask his Mam for a birthday present of an FM transmitter and studio gear in 1982 ! Obviously he was blown away with their FM sonic audio and professional-sounding british DJs.

BTW my vote Other is to specify South Coast Radio from a Cork perspective.

Although I would vote for Nova (a little slice of LA right in the heart of Dublin), it's nice to see somebody mention South Coast. I used to work at that station for a couple of years (on and off) back in the 80's - something that's often useful to mention in those woeful "ice breaker" sessions in the corporate training world ("tell us something about yourself that might surprise people!"). Anyway...

South Coast was a major step-up from the other pirates in the city. The studio gear was top class (the transmitter was another story altogether), the jingles were put together by a professional company in Dallas and the line-up was pretty star-studded (well, in that context at least). Tony Allen (later of Nova....the voice that breathed "N-O-V-A....in stereo" to great dramatic effect), Henry Condon (later of Atlantic 252 and Red FM) and Nick Richards (still in Cork, now on 96FM) were all associated with the station as well as some guys from Radio Caroline (yeah, that one). The whole experience was quite an education for a young 19-year-old at the time!

But, I'd have to hand it to Nova for setting the standard - in all sorts of ways. Sunshine was a good second-best....it kind of had a more UK-vibe about it whereas Nova got the whole LA thing down pat....and it had better sound too! It was great to see the TV3 documentary - obviously made by a couple of anoraks.....Brian Dobson, Anne Cassin (!!!) all had a slightly mischievous (and wistful) look about them as they recalled various anecdotes.....

.....ahhh....happy (and much simpler!) days.....

Greenman · 17-08-2008 08:50PM

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

. My favourite programme was Pat James' rock show. Incidentally, Pat was briefly with Capitol Radio in its early days. I'm not sure if I remember him first-hand on Capitol, or just Phantom's Anorak Hour recordings of him. Remember that? Sigh! Ah, well!

IMHO Pat James was a thousand times better than Fanning, wondered why he didn't get the Radio 2 gig in 79. I remember his theme tune "Pirates lullaby"

Yes Pat James was great very John Peelish.

I wonder where is he now???

Greenman · 17-08-2008 09:12PM

jwb1 wrote: »

Although South Coast was a major step-up from the other pirates in the city. ...

As a teenager growing up in Dun Laoire I used to listen to South Coast. Won MJ's Thriller album from them and even got it, not like the NOVA T-shirt I won from Declan Meehan and never got it.

In the 70's my favourite was Radio Dublin.
In the 80's my favourite was NOVA
In the 90's DLR

Best pirate of the 80s?

The best pirate of the 80's? 68 votes

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