People Who Were With Just One Pirate before Legal Radio

Declan A Walsh · 14-01-2019 9:25pm #1

I was thinking of a relatively rarified group of people who were involved with just one pirate before going to legal radio.

1. Firstly, the ones I am pretty sure about.

Newstalk: Richie McCormack – pirate: Phantom. His first legal station was also Phantom!

2FM: Dan Hegarty, Cormac Battle, Keith Walsh – pirate: Phantom.

Today FM: Alison Curtis – pirate: Phantom.

Notice a pattern here??! But never fear, here are others!

2. Possibles/Probables (need verification)
Sunshine 106.8: Carol Dooley – pirate: Q102

KFM: Dave McGrath – pirate: Capitol /Nitesky Radio. One of his first legals was Capital Radio (now FM104)!

Q102: Stephen Keogh – pirate: Q102 – not the same station!
Matt Dempsey – pirate: Capitol /Nitesky Radio.

LMFM: Eddie Caffrey (Heady Eddie) – this throws up a problem with these kind of lists. He will qualify if you accept that Boyneside Radio was just a rename of Local Radio Drogheda.

Can you think of other examples?

Declan A Walsh · 15-01-2019 7:52pm

Here are a few more possible examples I thought of since.

KC - Cork's 96FM - Pirate: Kiss FM from Mayo. This is the only pirate I'm aware of, so he is a possibility.

Brian Daly - He is an example of someone that is no longer a regular on radio, so I did not think of these ones straight away. He joined pirate Phantom after stints on Anna Livia (Dublin City FM now) and FM104. He stayed with Phantom, both as a presenter and as part of the management team, through its legal phases until 2011. I last heard him a few years ago on 8Radio.com.

Joe Donnelly - He did a stint with Phantom as a pirate, along with his previously mentioned mate Keith Walsh. Many years later he was involved with legal Phantom and its relaunch TXFM. He was last with Today FM as a producer and stand-in presenter.

Cathal Funge - He definitely started with Phantom while it was a pirate and stayed with it until the end of TXFM. He has turned up on Today FM as a stand-in presenter.

Another possibility is Ronan Collins of Radio 1. He was with pirate ARD prior to joining Radio 2 (2FM) as part of the original presenters.

Any more? And could anyone confirm some of the ones I was not sure about?

Infoanon · 15-01-2019 10:03pm

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Here are a few more possible examples I thought of since.
Another possibility is Ronan Collins of Radio 1. He was with pirate ARD prior to joining Radio 2 (2FM) as part of the original presenters.

Any more? And could anyone confirm some of the ones I was not sure about?

I think Ronan Collins had stints on some earlier 70s stations before ARD

ford fiesta · 15-01-2019 11:28pm

muireann o'connell (not a fan but worth a mention for this) on Phantom when it was a pirate ?
ray foley (not a fan but worth a mention for this) on energy 94?

was gerry ryan with big d only before radio 2?

Declan A Walsh · 16-01-2019 12:33am

ford fiesta wrote: »

muireann o'connell (not a fan but worth a mention for this) on Phantom when it was a pirate ?
ray foley (not a fan but worth a mention for this) on energy 94?

was gerry ryan with big d only before radio 2?

Muireann O'Connell, AFAIK, was not with a pirate. She did do a stint with Phantom but it was legal at that stage! It was between 2011 and 2012. She stood in for Alison Curtis, who had replaced Simon Maher, the founder of Phantom!

I know Ray Foley was with Pulse. That may have been his only pirate indeed.

Gerry Ryan was with ARD before Big D. So, the answer is no for him!

Declan A Walsh · 16-01-2019 10:25pm

Here is another example I just thought of. Daragh Brophy started with Phantom the pirate and stayed it with it through its temporary license runs and for the first couple of years of its full-time license. During his time with Phantom in its latter stage, Daragh was a part-time music presenter and a newsreader for INN, which was syndicated. These days he is a journalist and duty editor for UTV Radio.

It's interesting that so many of my examples involve Phantom. I think the genre of music was more important to many of the staff there than getting a broad pirate radio experience.

Declan A Walsh · 17-01-2019 10:57pm

Quite a few presenters were on BLB (Bray Local Broadcasting) during the '80s before moving on to legal radio. I suspect that, for some of them, BLB was their only pirate. Quite a few BLB presenters got jobs with Horizon Radio, which used to be the license holder for the Northern half of Wicklow. Easy 103 had the license for the Southern half of Wicklow. They merged together to form East Coast Radio in 1991 for the whole of Wicklow.

One example I'm pretty sure about is 98FM's Adrian Kennedy. It looks like he started with BLB around 1986 and made the transition to legal radio in Wicklow. Another likely name in Joe Bollard who was a presenter on BLB and has been a contributor to East Coast FM.

nikon1000 · 19-01-2019 9:54am

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

KC - Cork's 96FM - Pirate: Kiss FM from Mayo. This is the only pirate I'm aware of, so he is a possibility.

Keith was also on Pulse FM (103.7) in Mayo in the mid 90s.

ford fiesta · 19-01-2019 10:42am

There are lots of presenters outside Dublin who were only with one pirate.
For example some of the mid west radio guys in Mayo, as the station was a pirate before it got the licence

Declan A Walsh · 19-01-2019 1:26pm

While I think of it.....(!)

Both Richie Ryan and Ray McGowan went from Phantom the pirate through all its legal phases, until they were let go before its relaunch as TXFM. I'm not aware of them being involved with any pirate previous to that. Although, it is possible that either or both could have been with Phantom's predecessor Spectrum, as they were with Phantom the pirate from an early stage. Maybe someone might know...

Declan A Walsh · 24-01-2019 8:33pm

I have to bump this thread up again as I thought of a very likely example!

John Duggan was on south Dublin pirate Coast FM in the mid '90s. I think that was his only pirate. He is now Managing Editor of News for the "Off the Ball" brand which serves Today FM, Newstalk, 98FM and Spin103. He used to be a sports reporter on 98FM and Today FM and can still be heard broadcasting for certain events.

People Who Were With Just One Pirate before Legal Radio

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