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Pirate Radio! Arrrr!

Fukuyama

Was talking to my da a while ago and he said Dublin used to be full of pirate radio stations. I guess it kind of dwindled when people thought radio was dying - the opposite is true now.

RTE are crap and the other independent stations just play crappy chart music. They're also bound by station owners and regulations. Proper journalism wouldn't go amiss either...

Do you think Dublin and other Irish cities and towns needs a new late night pirate radio station?

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mink_man

no.

..Brian..

There was an excellent pirate radio stataion in Waterford called MetalHerzFM. They broadcasted for a little over a year but had to shut down over heat from ComReg unfortunately. Its a pity tho, was class

Chris P. Bacon

..Brian.. wrote: »

There was an excellent pirate radio stataion in Waterford called MetalHerzFM. They broadcasted for a little over a year but had to shut down over heat from ComReg unfortunately. Its a pity tho, was class

ABC power104 was brilliant too.

3hn2givr7mx1sc

A few years ago there was a 'Flirt FM' in Laois/Offaly and a few years before that there was another that didn't have a name, just the frequency. 103.5 or something like that.
Flirt was huge with people in mine and the surroundging secondary schools at the time. Everyone that I knew from the ages 13-18 used to tune in every night. 7pm-12am. 1am on Fridays and Saturdays. It was class.

LighterGuy

Am i right to believe there is no way to get away with pirate radio these days?

I heard it was easy to locate the broadcasting signal as it was back in the day. Imagine it'll be extremely easier nowadays.

mike65

With internet radio satisfying pretty much every taste the scope for pirate radio is much reduced. There is the fun/challange of setting one up but after that the rewards are few these days.

marcsignal

Dean0088 wrote: »

Do you think Dublin and other Irish cities and towns needs a new late night pirate radio station?

Definitely, what's on the Radio at the moment is complete and utter poo.

The death knell for any pirate radio station is taking the bci bait and applying for a licence.
Look what happened Phantom since they got a licence.

LighterGuy wrote: »

Am i right to believe there is no way to get away with pirate radio these days?

You certainly are. The irony is that "Niall McCaughey" (Poacher turned gamekeeper) who shut down all the pirates in dublin in 2005 (?) was heavily involved with radio nova back in the day.
If you chance broadcasting on FM now, you will be caught, your equip confiscated, and you heavily fined.

Fukuyama

marcsignal wrote: »

Definitely, what's on the Radio at the moment is complete and utter poo.

The death knell for any pirate radio station is taking the bci bait and applying for a licence.
Look what happened Phantom since they got a licence.

+1 on this. Phantom went shiiiite!

I thought it'd be easy to trace the signal too. But apparently, that's not the problem for ComReg. The problem comes in from getting warrants, making arrests and proving it's you.

Also, it's hard to get a case to court due to freedom of speech. I think they only get their knickers in a twist if a pirate were to encroach on someone elses frequency..

marcsignal

Dean0088 wrote: »

I thought it'd be easy to trace the signal too. But apparently, that's not the problem for ComReg. The problem comes in from getting warrants, making arrests and proving it's you.

Also, it's hard to get a case to court due to freedom of speech. I think they only get their knickers in a twist if a pirate were to encroach on someone elses frequency..

If they want to, they will be on you like a rash, and they will persist until they nobble you. You might even have to bare the cost of the whole legal shooting gallery.

mike65 wrote: »

With internet radio satisfying pretty much every taste the scope for pirate radio is much reduced. There is the fun/challange of setting one up but after that the rewards are few these days.

quite true

web radio is where it's at imo. the whole FM licence procedure is a total money making racket. If you want in the 'club' be prepared to be completely and utterly financially screwed at every turn, and be made feel grateful for the privilige.

Mike 1972

LighterGuy wrote: »

I heard it was easy to locate the broadcasting signal as it was back in the day. Imagine it'll be extremely easier nowadays.

Its always been fairly easy but back in the 20th Century the authorities in Ireland were hopelessly under resourced. Legislation was weak and busts were rare.

Nowadays COMREG have lots of revenue from telecommunications operators to play around with and potential legal penelties are harsher so fewer people are prepared to take the risk.

Those who still are face getting squeezed on other fronts too.

Spare FM frequencies are also getting harder to find (particularly in Dublin and the Northeast) and (for what its worth) there are more licenced stations around taking away at least some of the potential listenership of any prospective pirates along with new techonologies competing for the attention time and money of both listeners and potential operators.

I think there will still be pirates on the Irish airwaves (at least in some parts of the country) for many years to come but full time (7 day/24 hour) operations are probably an endangered species and its set to return to being the strictly the preserve of a hardcore of interested enthusiasts hopefully ignored by COMREG.

RockinRolla

There's no private radio because the government closed them all down in 2003. Ludicrous.

marcsignal

The reality, back in the day, particularlly with Nova, because it was hugely popular, was as much about advertising revenue, as actually broadcasting.
Ad agencies couldn't give away ad space on RTE, and Nova were cleaning up

It all comes back to $$$ and who controls the cake at the end of the day.
The issue about interfering with Emergency services and Air Traffic Control etc was grossly exaggerated.

OutlawPete

Anyone remember Sound Cellar radio had one for a awhile. I spent many a night recording stuff from that but everyone in the house had to be quiet, as the tape recorder and radio where separate devices. A flushing toilet on Whole Lotta Rosie and it just didn't sound quite the same.

mike65

oh dear

marcsignal

Although Nova were huge in the 80s, in reality, they were a pirate station that played mainstream shite. That's why RTE got their knickers in a twist. Nova just didn't do it for me at all. They appealed to Leeson St. Buck Whaleys types.

I used to listen to Capital Radio 95.8 (i think) in the mid 80s. I think they were based in Dundrum. They were the first 'strictly' Alternative/Indie station. A dj called "Dave Gahan" played some really great stuff on there. I first heard New Orders Blue Monday on his show. He was big into The Stranglers, The Clash, The Cure, Tubeway Army etc etc.

mike65 wrote: »

oh dear

lols ! There's actually a station based in the UK, and all they play are original home recorded compilations on casette sent in by listeners. Great idea I thought. All these people started digging out their old compilations and sending them in to be broadcast.

mike65

I was a Q102 (nothing to do with current Q102) man myself,

Cheeky_gal

LighterGuy wrote: »

Am i right to believe there is no way to get away with pirate radio these days?

marcsignal wrote: »

You certainly are. The irony is that "Niall McCaughey" (Poacher turned gamekeeper) who shut down all the pirates in dublin in 2005 (?) was heavily involved with radio nova back in the day.
If you chance broadcasting on FM now, you will be caught, your equip confiscated, and you heavily fined.

That's just not true. Of course there are Pirate Radio stations in Dublin unknown to the guards.

Obviously, yes, if the location was sussed by the guards your deks etc would be confiscated and yes you'd be fined, but you're wrong in saying "there's no way to get away with a pirate radio". I know many people who work in one!

marcsignal

mike65 wrote: »

I was a Q102 (nothing to do with current Q102) man myself,

There was also huge rivalry between Sunshine and Nova as well.

Nova were always playing that song 'Walking on Sunshine' and Sunshine were always playing that Frankie Goes to Hollywood song with the lyric 'Here comes the super Nova, what a push-over'

cryptically clever

Kensington

Dean0088 wrote: »

+1 on this. Phantom went shiiiite!

That's what happens when 20% of your output must be news and current affairs programming. You end up with wafflefest radio to make up the requirements and then a middle-of-the-road playlist to try and attract as many listeners as possible to pay for the researchers and journalists to provide the news and current affairs content.

marcsignal

Cheeky_gal wrote: »

That's just not true. Of course there are Pirate Radio stations in Dublin unknown to the guards.

really? that's news to me

I'd ask you for the frequencies to check, but Mr Mc Caughey could be lurking around here somewhere

Cheeky_gal

marcsignal wrote: »

really? that's news to me I'd ask you for the frequencies to check, but Mr Mc Caughey could be lurking around here somewhere

Yes.

marcsignal

Cheeky_gal wrote: »

Yes.

I Really wasn't aware of that, mainly because I gave up on FM altogether as soon as web radio a became viable option. I guess if the recession has hit comreg, they probably don't have the resources at their disposal they had during the Celtic Tiger, but they certainly sent out the message loud and clear after the mass shut-downs in 2003.

Mike 1972

Used to be a massive radio Anorak back in the day but these days I only really listen to Radio 4 (BBC)

marcsignal wrote: »

I'd ask you for the frequencies to check, but Mr Mc Caughey could be lurking around here somewhere

Id have thought Mc Caughey would be able to switch on a radio and turn the dial himself but you never can tell :pac:

marcsignal

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Used to be a massive radio Anorak back in the day but these days I only really listen to Radio 4 (BBC)

same here

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Id have thought Mc Caughey would be able to switch on a radio and turn the dial himself but you never can tell :pac:

Naw, he probably has his 2 hands full, one for stabbing someone in the back, and the other for chucking one off the wrist

Fukuyama

Wait, so are there still a few pirate radio stations around Dublin?

I'd be interested to have a listen.

littleredspot

Dean0088 wrote: »

I'd be interested to have a listen.

Dial. Twist. Enjoy.

blaze1

We used to have people's choice radio back in southy, started about 8pm most nights and played thru late, that was savage.... Used to just listen to bbc r1/1xtra till lately but most of that has gone garbage, bar the odd annie mac show its pretty pants!

azzeretti

LighterGuy wrote: »

Am i right to believe there is no way to get away with pirate radio these days?

I heard it was easy to locate the broadcasting signal as it was back in the day. Imagine it'll be extremely easier nowadays.

It would be much, much easier to get away with it nowadays. I was involved with a few pirates in the early 90's around Dublin and they all got busted. Today, you could have a remote transmitter with a wireless feed to it. You would power it all by wind and uplink to it from a directional WIFI link. That link, with line of sight, could be up to 30 miles away. They would still nab the transmitter but there would be little or no chance of getting caught.

I remember some stunts we pulled in case we got raided. They needed to find the transmitter for a charge to stand. The places some of the kit was hidden was unreal!

whoopdedoo

we got rascalradio.net in the west, rumour has it is goes out on fm too

whoopdedoo

check this sh1t out => http://www.pcs-electronics.com/transmitters-transmitter-kits-c-1_17.html

for €400 you get an fm transmitter you slot into your pc and you get a booster, cables and decent ariel too!

15 miles + radius for €400!!