just listened to the final Fab 40 on http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/
pleasant surprise was original sound bites from Tommy Vance doesn’t get any better than that, brilliantly edited and compiled produced etc etc etc wonderful show great memories this is the reason I started
biglradiolimerick.com, have to keep kicking myself it’s almost 50 years ago. If you missed today’s Fab 40 You can listen again next Wednesday.
Radio London have started broadcasting the charts from their archives again every Sunday and Wednesday, well worth a listen if your into the era’s music made famous by the ‘Pirates’ This week going back to 14th March 1965. Stream this website anytime for great music and jingles with no DJ’s.
For those of you who missed my little sales pitch for http://www.Biglradiolimerick.com memorabilia here it is again
Boxes first commissioned in 1967 for Borget Mobile Disco in chip board 9” width X 36”
7 off Single (45’s) Record Boxes (Plywood) containing 300 singles each (approx) 2,000 +
2 off Disco Boxes (7” vinyl) 200 each 400 approx
2 off Cd Cases Big L road show CD’s approx 60 CD’s in each
150+ Vinyl 12” club classics
200+ Vinyl albums from Big L Radio Collection including 7 or so box sets
2 off record players with Stanton Cartridges (used on NCW 106 Radio 2002-2005)
2 off Karaoke Laser Disc Boxes containing approx 70 + Laser Discs in total (1,400 Tracks approx)
1 off Laser Pioneer disc player
1 off Cassette/Tuner/Public address amplifier
Assortment of Add Tapes from Radio Big L (Limerick) 1979- 1981
1 off Dennon twin cassette player/recorder
Collection of Mini discs 20 +
1 off Sony Mini Disc Player
Collection of CDG Karaoke discs
1 off Fidelity CDG karaoke Disc player
1 off Broadcast Mixer 3 Microphone i/p + 3 Disc + PC + tape (Radio NCW 106)
1 Off Road Show Mixer for Road Show inputs for Microphone/PC /tape/disc
1off 4 K Light modulator to drive 4 k lighting
1 off 4 k lighting rig Par 56 light units + spares
4 tube lighting units for U/V colour lighting
1 off Broadcast Stereo Encoder
1 off Broadcast Stereo Limiter
1 off 40 watts Exciter Broadcast TX
1 off 140 Watt Slave Broadcast TX( 40 Watts in 140 Watts Out) + spares
1off FM twin Dipole Broadcast Antenna assembly on 20 ft pole approx 4 db gain(300+ watts erp with associated Transmitters) 40 Miles radius Stereo coverage possible with antenna minimum 500ft above sea level(ideally 1,000ft or more)
1 off 3 Terabyte Pc Twin 24” screens with 24/7 fully automated Radio/TV
Control Program Software including 25,000 Mp3 tracks + 5,000 video tracks
Pair Studio Monitors 15”/300 watt RCF Road Show Speakers Very Loud Very Heavy!
The Real Story Chapter Six August to December 1979
After being at the top of the charts for most of august the Boomtown rats 2nd No 1 ‘I don’t Like Mondays’ eventually gives way to Cliff Richards ‘We don’t Talk Anymore’, Cliff’s 8th Number 1, however a big star was flexing his prowess in the charts. Michael Jackson’s ‘Off the Wall’ album was released in August eventually selling 7 million copies in the US alone, getting us all ready for the BIG one ‘Thriller’.
Researching for this chapter has meant ‘digging’ into what few cassette tapes I have in my possession, and those kindly lent to me for copying and eventually putting up on the web site for you to hear. Photo’s too have come my way from Ian and Ken, who amongst others visited Ireland in the 80’s with loads of memorabilia from around the country’s local stations rather than the ‘Super’ Pirates, loads of stuff if your interested here:-Archive of Irish Pirates check out Waterford, Tralee and Cork stations on their site, fascinating reading! For myself the tapes I am using for research, number about 20 in all, 2 of them are advert cassettes from 1980 to 1981,Big L radio Limerick never used Carts for jingles or adverts. The 8 track ‘cart’ was standard broadcasting format for national stations both here and the UK, and for the Two Super pirates Nova and Sunshine who’s owners, Robbie and Chris Carey were well used to their convenience when working on Radio Caroline.
Cart systems were expensive, I did price them at the time, around £400-£1500 per player, plus the cost of the carts, I just though the money was better spent on records, good quality cassette players and the outside broadcast facilities. In 1979 the record library would have been about 4 to 5,000 singles with over 1,000 albums, eventually growing to 13,000 singles and 5,000 albums by 1985, bigger than most radio stations at the time! Even RTE. They (RTE) relied on their dj’s to bring in records for their shows! as for the cassette library, that went into at least a thousand by 1983, everything of note was recorded, including sports shows, ‘Taste of Irish’, Thursday night program and all of Jim Kemmy’s wonderful History shows with Jim Wallace, not forgetting Eamon O’Connor’s hilarious shows on Monday nights, and of course Tom O’Donnell’s Tuesday night slot. Even the ‘Mad Hatters Ball’ (Friday nights) had its own place in the archives.
I don’t like reminding myself of their, (the archive tapes), demise, but here goes for the last time. I went to England in 1983, hopefully to semi retire from Big L radio Limerick and join forces with Chris Barnbroke, the owner of Horizon Radio in South London. My then business partner Frank Cavanaugh, whom I had misguidedly given control of the advertising agency side of Big L Radio Limerick, was to run the station and send money to me in England by way of allowance/pension or whatever you want to call it. I took about 1,000 records and albums and headed off to London in the Fiat Z100 OBU, and the speakers from Poldarks and amplifiers etc. This adventure will unfold in the time line of this blog, but to cut a long story short for now, needless to say whilst I was in London for about 3 months I never received any money from Ellen St Agency, The Money end of Big L radio Limerick!
Margaret phoned me some time during my ‘escape’ to London to say that the Station was in a mess, Cavanaugh had not maintained any of the Transmitters in the county(FM), and the station was being demoralized by his attitude. His Co-hort in this debacle was the other advertising ‘manager’ a guy named John Davis, who had previously ‘worked’ for Jimmy Saville, too sordid to mention at this stage but suffice to say He knew what was going on even then back in the 80’s!
I returned to Limerick to an absolute mess. I called a meeting of all the staff at the time paid and unpaid some 50 or so crammed into the office above 13 Ellen st. I informed everyone I was back to stay, and had every intention of putting Big L radio Limerick, back on it’s feet again. After the meeting Davis and Cavanaugh, pleaded to stay on, big mistake, but I had enough engineering problems to worry about, to get involved in financing the station so let them stay on!!! Downstairs in studio one 2 of the 4 tape decks were unworkable, but in studio 2 I couldn’t believe what was waiting for me. Everything looked ok at first sight, records a bit awry but I could see there were still about 10,000 in the collection in the wall units. The tape archive looked all ok all the front row neatly lined up so they could be identified. The archive was arranged across the rearwall cabinet containing the albums seen here in this shot from ’83.
The rear Wall of Studio 2 with an even longer Walnut/Glass cabinet (12 feet) behind the camera man.
Each of the 28 cubicles contained 12 cassettes wide by 3 deep to the back of the Walnut and glass cabinets, purchased from a closing Pharmacy in Bury St. Edmunds England. More than a thousand in all, on closer inspection the two rear rows were Missing, gone, I couldn’t believe it, on top of that all the front row cassettes had been emptied, just empty box’s!!!! I was so furious I just sat there in disbelief. As the meeting had been over for more than an hour I wasn’t going to call them all back to point the finger, but heads would roll on this one. I busied myself out in the County repairing the Transmitters and did not spend too much time back in the station. Fleeting visits at odd hours produced my first culprit. Mike Byrnes no relation to Liam Byrne who has a limerick radio nostalgia site on the net, was doing his show some 2 evening’s later, and was recording his ‘show’ apparently common practice while I was away, however the tape he was using was an archive tape of Jim Kemmy show, he was immediately ejected from the studio, claiming he wasn’t the only one, he was lucky to have left with two working legs. I am actually getting angry writing this and I didn’t want to allow this blog to get into the down side of the era, but it is part of the history. Once the word had got out a number of dj’s never showed up for their shows. What a mess. I’m going to take a break from writing for now 13.18 Wednesday the 30th July 2014, I’ll be back
resumed………Thought that would calm the waters not really, still very angry!
Back to 1979
So as not to confuse the issue over the ‘missing’ tapes there were 2 Mike Byrne(s) for a while. The (not really) Unfriendly Mike Byrne had started doing sound engineering on shows like the Saturday Sports Show, Women’s Show (Big W), even the odd stint on Tom O’Donnell’s show when Philip wasn’t available – now that was an experience for any up and coming sound engineer. Tom would have you exhausted by the end of his show, personally drove me around the bend on more than one occasion, he also engineered a Monday evening sports show with Flash Gleeson for a while as well. Much later the other Mike Byrnes arrived calling himself the Friendly DJ which prompted John Ryan and Philip to come with the differentiating Name…to identify the two Byrne(s’)
Early in August due to the increasing frequency of my visit’s to Arena in Askeaton, my Father Jack Sherriff Richardson tried one more attempt to get me to ‘return’ to the fold, but I just couldn’t see myself back in Askeaton! He even offered to buy Dromore Castle in Kildimo for me. This had been one of my ‘pet’ projects in Ireland ever since my first visit back in 1967. The plan had been to turn it into a Hotel and Dance venue, seemed then that the Show Band era would go on forever but the arrival of Disco was killing that off by the late 70’s. First it would have to have been re-roofed, top floor of the main keep would have been executive private suits, next floor down split between casino and 5 star restaurant, next floor standard accommodation with associated restaurant, ground floor and basement kitchen area and Public bars leading out to the courtyard and covered Dance floor area open to the sky except in inclement weather when a sliding roof like no 1 court in Wimbledon would have been utilized. Grand design and wishful thinking on my part, but feasible at the time. The views from this castle over the 3 lakes in the estate are incredible to this day, sadly no longer accessible to the public, but certainly visited by many people when the main gates by the lodge were permanently open. Those of you who have seen High Spirits can get an idea of the Dromore estate although the interior film shots bear no resemblance to the actual layout of the castle then and now, I still like the movie despite Daryl Hannah being slated for her performance. At the time of my father’s offer I had not considered moving the Radio Station to Dromore, although in actual fact it would have been ideal, even though it was derelict then and still was whilst making the movie in 1988. Maybe the fees from the film producers would have covered some of the refurbishment, however I presume it wouldn’t have been for hire, had my plans come to fruition. A castle I was offered for the Radio (Croagh castle), by my Godmother Brett Shanahan of the Ramble Inn in Croagh did not have the height or proximity to Limerick as did Dromore, but that to never came to be either.
All these fantasy ideas came to a very abrupt ending after the incidents of the 27th August 1979. My Father had run away from home in Goole Yorkshire when he was barely 15, and signed up to the eighth Army at that time stationed in Lybia.
8th Army Benghazi Motor Pool
He spent his time there 2 or 3 years before the start of WW2, right through to the invasion of Italy, and saw the army more as his family than the one he had left behind in Yorkshire, and when Lord Louis Mountbatten was assassinated on the waters around his home in Mullaghmore Co.Sligo, he must have just lost all semblance of what his life meant up to that time. I can only imagine what his feelings were at the time, I didn’t even know of his actions until I received a phone call from England from my Mother to say Dad had sold Arena for £37,500 to the Sheehan Brothers, and would never return to Ireland again! The Story was that he had looked for £50K but the brothers said they only had the sum stated, and my father took the cash on the spot. This was before Aughinish
Shannon Terminals
near Foynes had even been mooted for the proposed site to refine bauxite and alumina plant which went into production in 1983, improving the value of all properties in the area. Arena was sold by the Sheehan brothers for €15M around 2010-11, nice one!
Big L Radio Limerick continued to grow through what was left of 1979, up to obvious excitement of the population over the arrival of Pope John Paul II, Gleesons were selling ‘Papal’ fold up chairs for the event at Greenpark, and I do remember on that day covering his arrival by Helicopter from the Nunciature at Maynooth College and celebrated mass before 400,000 people in Limerick. He then left Shannon Airport for Boston in the United States. I had been up most of the previous night presenting shows as well as the Breakfast show, up to his arrival in the Limerick region. Not till I heard the impending roar of the crowd (some 3 miles away did I go out into Ellen st when I heard his helicopter overhead. Limerick was totally deserted, I mean nothing was moving..anywhere. I went back to the studio and put on a music tape (auto-reverse) 2 hours, and got down underneath the record decks and went to sleep! Like me I don’t believe anyone was listening…..sssshhhhh.
I have very few tapes of specific shows not only for the events mentioned earlier but also later on 1n1985-6 of an entirely different set of circumstances which I will divulge later in the respective time line, but some’ gems like this one featuring E.O.C. Eugene O’Connor,
son of Eamon O’Connor, taking over the reigns from John Ryan,(still broadcasting on Clare FM, and sounding just like Big L Radio Limerick would today I might add, thanks for that John!), definitely one of the great talents on the Station.
Star discs ran by Pat McKenna in O’Connell St, right next to the sadly missed Cruises Hotel was the first main advertiser on Big L Radio Limerick. The Star discs Top Ten Show on Friday nights became the anchor point for the weeks evening shows and certainly had a wide audience. As most of the records were bought from him it was a mutually satisfactory engagement. Pat also sold the station most of the tapes required for archiving, some very high quality tapes for the ads (Memorex) were bought in the UK. Two sound clips from Stardoms Top Ten show
this one shortly after we got back on the air after our one and only ‘raid’. The voiceover is done live on the show, this was before we had any separate recording facilities for the advertising production, and the next one almost a year later done off air complete with cue for inserting into the show.
Towards the end of 1979 the Parkway Ballroom was used to host Big L radio Limerick events like the teenage disco on Sunday afternoons and some evening disco’s of which I have very little memory apart from one in particular at which Vincent Hanley from the new RTE 2 radio station was to make a guest appearance. The Parkway was pretty well packed but the stage was pretty poor when it came to supporting vinyl record players. Like most marquee dances in those days the stages were barely more than a couple of sheets of plywood in some cases chip board supported by a few beer barrels. In other words the DJ had to be very gentle on the boardwalk or else the records would go berserk and jump all over the place, embarrassing or what. Most of the audience new this and were encouraged to stay off the stage, or at least be very careful not to bang the stage. Some of course would take advantage of this dilemma and cause havoc, but generally most nights went OK. On this night the stage was very precarious and I was using my two top of the range Thorens TD126 decks (They cost me £420 each from Peter Dand in Dublin) bought for the Shannon Arms Disco back in 1974. Very good Transcription Decks but not suitable for Barn Dances and all the associated problems with wobbly and unsafe stages! The decks in Big L Radio Limerick used for broadcasting were standard Garrard sp25s, good work horse decks but bought for less than £30! Anyway enough of the techy stuff. The night was going OK then Vincent arrived with his tiny box of records (1 actually the 12” version of the Big disco hit of the moment ‘Viola Wills-Gonna get Along Without You Now’ and being the’ Star’ of the night leapt onto the stage and sent the current record being played by Philip Irwin into orbit! Slapping on his one and only record, before even acknowledging his audience he blurted out:-
“Well what do expect from a Pirate radio station but crap gear!”
I was on the floor whilst all this was going on at the time and on hearing his outburst which was directed directly at me, I just saw red and ‘rushed’ the stage ready to deck him. Lucky for him and I guess for me I was physically restrained by Michael Howes, Philip Irwin and possibly a few more, who had anticipated my reaction! I never spoke to Vincent at that time or any other time what a stupid man. To his credit he introduced MTV to Ireland, and died later of aids or something, I didn’t go to his funeral. Interestingly another ‘climber’ at the time was Buggles-Video killed the Radio Star’ what a prophetic record.
On December 3rd eleven fans were killed during a crowd crush for unreserved seats before The Who rock concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio. And two days later December 5thJack Lynch resigned as Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland; he is succeeded by Charles Haughey. The penultimate clip from 1979 is a snippet from the breakfast show on the 9th November with Ingrid Kelly on News.
On December 6thThe world premiere of Star Trek The Motion Picture is held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. It was the Studios response to the enormous success of Star Wars and was to be the first of many Star Trek movies although at The time the actors thought there would be one only Movie of the TV show.
On December 25thVietnam invaded Cambodia to overthrow the Khmer Rouge regime which begins the Cambodian–Vietnamese War, and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and Babrak Karmal replaces overthrown and executed President Hafizullah Amin, which begins the war. The Christmas No 1 is Pink Floyd and Another Brick in the wall, and we’ll end this particular year with the fact that it has been the worst year ever for industrial disputes in Ireland, costing the economy over 1,460,000 working days. The last radio clip is from the evening of the breakfast show above with E.O.C. handing over to me on the Stardiscs top Ten Show…………
Chapter 5 January 1979 to July 1979 Updated 27th July 2014
We knew it was coming, but what were going to be the consequences? RTE Radio 2 was going to launch this year, despite no regulation against the ‘Pirates’ being introduced. Would we be wiped out by Big Brother? I don’t think so. Even the two ‘boys’ from radio Caroline didn’t think so, and had there eye on the Irish Radio scene, and would eventually launch Sunshine Radio and later Radio Nova, and blow RTE radio 2 out of the water, sorry Dublin, never really to be able to compete with the Independants in Dublin ever again! More of that later. In January the Whiddy island disaster at Bantry Bay captured the news headlines, Fifty people were killed when an explosion destroyed the French oil tanker Betelgeuse and the decision was forced upon me to start a News service for Big L listeners.
So using the powerful Russian radiogram in Studio Sound, Philip Irwin and myself started ‘compiling’ news from around the world, from every news feed we could receive. Big L Radio Limerick’s first news broadcast was over 20 minutes long, we had enough to do nearly 45 minutes, but decided that at 20 minutes we had done more than enough to satisfy our critics, from no news to 20 minutes a bit O.T.T., but anyway it had begun, but the early start at 5.30 am to get ready for the first news at 7 am was heavy going. Eventually the news service settled down to the usual 3 minutes or so, when Ingrid Kelly came on board the news team and later Trish Long, which survived well into 1984. as far as I can remember, the Boomtown Rats were the first group to be played on Radio 2’s new pop station, later on in the year, but in January an event inspired Bob Geldoff to write their classic no 1 “I Don’t Like Mondays” taken from the words, by way of justification, of Brenda Ann Spencer, who killed 2 faculty members and wounding eight students at her school in San Diego.
Other news we carried in February was the downfall of the Sha of Persia and the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to Tehran after 15 years in exile, whilst in New York City Sid Vicious is found dead aged 21 of a heroin overdose the day after being released from a 55-day sentence at Rikers Island prison on bail. In March Scotland Voted narrowly for home rule, which was not implemented, looks like it might be this time around, and the John F. Kennedy Space centre received the first fully functional Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle Columbia
‘Columbia’ on March 25th.Space Shuttle Columbia launching And whilst Jim Kemmy minority vote brought down the Government here later in 1981, in Britain, Jim Callaghan’s minority Labour government loses a motion of confidence by 1 vote, forcing a general election which saw the election of a new Tory Government with the first ever female Prime Minister in Margaret Thatcher on May 4th. However the first of the IRA’s devastating Assassinations’ of the year happened on March 30 when Airey Neave, World War II veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, was killed in the British House of Commons car park. On the same day Ireland ended Irish pound parity with sterling on joining the European Monetary System. The next evening on March31st Gali Atari and Milk and Honey won the Eurovision song Contest with Hallelujah.
The 2 Boys at Radio Oxford
Timmy Mallet & Martin Stanford At BBC Radio Oxford 1979 Approaching
Easter of 1979 saw the release of Monty Python’s the Life of Bryan. The Film was banned here in Ireland for eight years from it’s release on April 4th until 1987, and on Good Friday, with fuel becoming ever more scarce, Peter was finding it difficult to come up from Fermoy, even with help from my Father supplying fuel from Arena in Askeaton. So for something exciting to liven up the holiday weekend as well as fill in the impending gap in ‘on air’ presenters, I decided to go for the World’s non stop broadcasting record which at that time was held by Martin Stanford and Timmy Mallet of BBC Radio Oxford at 28hrs. Not knowing anything about their ‘record’ I decided that I would do as much of the normal programming as possible. Including the ‘Mad hatters Ball’. So I started on Friday 13th , (yes I know!), with the Stardisc’s Top Ten Show, with the intent of raising Money for the 40 Hour attempt, for charity similar to Radio Oxford. We phoned the Guinness book of records,(Postal Strike), and were informed that BBC radio Oxford were going to go again for a 40 hour session!
So to be sure of getting recognition 60 hours was set as the target. With 3minutes per hour break allowed which could be accumulated, meant that I could take a break of 30 minutes every 10 hours, or an hour every 20 hours broadcasting. As far as I can remember I went for 30 hours straight off, giving me my first break of an hour and a half at 11pm Saturday the 14th. When I came back at 30 minutes past midnight I presented a ‘Soul’ special featuring Atlantic records which ‘filled’ the airtime till around the breakfast show on Sunday 15th. It’s hard to describe my mental state at this point but it was starting to deteriorate exponentially! By Mid day on Sunday achieving the potential 40 hour stage (the target attempt by the then record holders, BBC radio Oxford), I was pretty well much exhausted, and considered taking 30 minutes break, (the in studio photo of Margaret myself and Hyman), was taken around this time,would explain why I look so shattered!
If I did take the break, I can’t remember but assuming I did I would have reached the 50 hour stage at 1 am Monday morning, time for my next 30 minutes ‘rest’. I wouldn’t call it sleeping at this stage I was so shattered after being woken up, the break hardly seemed worth while. Ann Sullivan the antique dealer appeared at some stage in the early hours, of Sunday with a salmon Platter and I think a glass of wine(not sure about that item) but it was all received very thankfully at that point. The shop at no 13 Ellen st had been kept open most of the time during the broadcast, to facilitate donations(about £600 at this point) and people asking for requests, and the occasional visitor to the studio Jim Kemmy for one as he was my moderator for the Guinness Book of records, and friends and well wishers. In the early hours of Monday, between the records I was definitely experiencing weird ‘visions’. One minute the back wall of studio 2 was 16 feet away, the next moment it was in my face, and then 50feet away, then people would appear and disappear as quickly as they had arrived, some through the wall! The Studio started to get very busy with visitors(real & imagined), and at 1 pm Tom O’Donnell appeared with the entire St. Mary’s Pipe band, all 40 of them, to end my ‘ordeal’. I was so exhausted at this stage I was not very receptive to all the commotion around me, I didn’t know which was the greater desire, to sleep or eat! Sleep prevailed, but I was up again around 7 pm and went to the Granary for a BIG T bone and chips courtesy of the then manager Pat ………….., I don’t remember much of the night after that, I do know that my attitude to broadcasting changed significantly afterwards. I remained presenting the breakfast show for the next few years, (nobody would get up at that hour), but I relinquished the lunchtime show and the evening personal top ten show, as more DJ’s came on board. I did manage to continue with the ‘Elvis Show’ on Sundays at 4pm, but sharing it eventually with Eric Mitchell.
Eric had come to the station by way of sending his personal Top Ten (mostly Elvis), which sat in the in tray for almost a month without any one else submitting their entry’s. Despite asking for more ‘personal top ten selections’ no other entry’s came into the request box so I decided to play Eric’s submission on a Friday night before the Stardiscs Top ten show, to give us the weekend to work out what to do with the ‘slot’ by Monday!
The Personal Top Ten show came from Capital Gold in London, where it had become very popular, but with no particular time slot, so I thought the idea would work well in Limerick despite not having every record made, even Capital got caught out with the odd stinker that they either didn’t have in the Library or wouldn’t play for whatever reason! As we announced the show Eric rang up proclaiming his delight at being the first ‘PTT’(Personal Top Ten), to be aired. Despite the apprehension over the follow up we received two more PTT’s, on Saturday, one in the shop in Ellen St, the other in the competition entry ‘box’ at Stardiscs in Patrick street. After these two PTT’s were played the following week, the entries came thick and fast, eventually building up to a 2 month waiting list!
After the 60 hour broadcast we attempted to verify the occasion with the Guinness book of records, which they wanted by mail. Unfortunately the postal strike was in force and despite a vigorous protest by Jim Kemmy over the phone, our attempt was deemed unofficially ok, but no recognition from the UK! It didn’t really matter anyway BBC radio went on to break theirs and Big L Radio Limerick’s attempt within the month, however as you may have noticed from earlier in this epistle there were two of them and because of needle time restrictions, most of their show was by way of phone in’s and chat shows, not quite the same!
Anyway by the end of May more important agenda was on the horizon notably the launch of RTE’s pop station Radio 2 (lot of imagination there!) on 31st of May, first request was from shall we say a mature lady from the north looking for a mention for her family to which Larry Cogan allocated the Boomtown rats, not very appropriate at the time, but then that was RTE nothing changed there then! Listening to the new station from RTE, we began to think that we had nothing to worry about too much. Unlike the UK in the 60’s the Labour government had got rid of the Pirate Broadcasters first and employed nearly all the off shore DJ’s en masse for the new Radio One. The one main exception being Jimmy Young who took on the après breakfast show slot,
T W
pioneered by Tony Windsor on Big L Radio London, virtually identical in format. Tony Windsor never made it to the main stream broadcasting platform in the UK, big shame. Summer approached and Big L radio Limerick settled down to a format dictated by listenership and a growing list of DJ’s willing and eager to ‘learn’ the ropes, not available from National Broadcasting Facilities.
With the sports team up and running on Saturday mornings, and DJ’s coming to the door looking for a chance on the airwaves, I created a ‘First Chance’ spot for them immediately after the Stardisc’s Top Ten Show and before the Mad Hatters Ball, so I could keep an ‘eye’ on these first timers. Some of them never made it to the air time on a permanent basis, mainly because of space and time available, but also because of their respective talent’s. Some of the participants were naturals like Declan Copues, and Philip Irwin. Others had enormous talent like the Finn brothers and Eugene O’Connor, but at least I tried to give everyone a chance, and I like to think that a few of those potential presenters passing through the doors of Big L Radio Limerick, are still working in the media. They certainly wouldn’t have been able to get on the ladder by any other means! John Ryan came to us as a very shy boy from the sticks (Murroe I think), and is still broadcasting today on Clare Fm, as is Francis Jones who is still with Radio Kerry. I actually rejected Francis after his ‘audition’, but after a couple of very pleading letters and I think a little pushing from Tom O’Donnell, I relented and allowed him on air, we can all make miss-judgments I guess, more on Francis later. I was still playing music at ‘Clouds’ on the third floor of the Savoy in Bedford row Limerick on Saturday nights, through into August. On the 6th Pope Paul VI died which were going to have far reaching effects for both Ireland and Limerick over the coming months, and the second event was the 1st Anniversary of Elvis’ departure from this planet on the 16th.
I was resident in Poldarks at the 2 Mile Inn when the untimely news came to all his fans, of which I confess to not remembering too much, this time I can remember a lot more around the night. Even though Big L Radio Limerick was beginning to consume more and more of my time, I had time to prepare what I thought would be a good night and go on to run another 7 Elvis Conventions up to the last one on January 8th 1985, the last at the Granary on an atrocious night,
the roads were freezing bad but the fans still came from all over the County. As it was a Wednesday I wasn’t sure how well it was going to be attended, and I hardly had time to set up the disco myself I left it in the capable hands of my roadies. Working at Ellen St till late and just about making time to grab a bite to eat, I made it to Bedford row, just about 9 pm expecting to have the place to myself,(as usual), to do the warm up, for me anyway. The usual crowd, (around 30-70), on a Wednesday night didn’t arrive till after the pubs closed around 11-11.30, and as I had only just started the ‘Elvis Show’ on Sundays a couple of weeks beforehand, I wasn’t expecting the sight as I walked through the venue’s doors on the second floor, (it alternated between 3rd and 2nd floors depending what had been booked by the Savoy management). The equipment had been set up ok but was silent, unlike the ‘buzz’ in the room from at least 300 fans chatting away amongst themselves. I asked my crew why they hadn’t put any music on and they just said “Dunno we thought we’d wait for you”. I walked across the floor and the crowd fell silent not knowing what to expect. I didn’t recognize any faces from either Poldarks, the Shannon Arms ,or even the Franciscans, now a good 5 years older than I would have recognized them anyway! I stepped up onto the makeshift stage grabbed the Mike and and said “ we all know what we’re hear for………Let’s Dance”, and so we did and rocked and rolled for the rest of the night to my first disco ever dedicated to one artist “The King of Rock & Roll” , that was some night, I don’t think I’ll forget that one. Later on in August(28th), the actor Robert Shaw died near his home in Ireland of a heart attack, so many people famous and otherwise have passed on by these events that I know so well. Check out a Cautionary Tale on this site. All these people were just in the wrong place and the wrong time, including my Grandfather, who also died before he was 60, I was lucky to have my doctor so close at hand, she (Dr. Blanead MacCurtain), was with me within 5 minutes of getting home after enduring my ‘attack’ on the way back from a school run in 2013.
Robert Shaw in Jaws
Robert Shaw was the Skipper of the boat that went after the Great White in Jaws, he also appeared in a Bond movie, great actor should have stayed with us, he had plenty more films to do. Kieth Moon, the lunatic drummer with the ‘Who’ passed away at a very early age, born the same month and year as myself, great pity, I don’t think the group were ever the same afterwards. And again another Pope dies, this time Pope John Paul I on September 28th,
in what may have been suspicious circumstances! I like Dan Browns evaluation!
Pope John Paul I
I have mentioned the Popes during this year not only because of the impending ‘3 popes in one year’ scenario, but also of the link with Big L Radio Limerick. What Link? I can hear you all asking. Simples. In the early days when we used to switch off the MW transmitter at closedown, up would pop a station on the original frequency we used namely 194 Metres or to be more technical 1548 Klcs. Namely Vatican radio broadcasting from Rome.
Vatican Radio Masts… very powerful! 95 mtrs high erp in excess of 100,000watts
Most radios then (small domestic ones anyway), couldn’t receive this transmission, but as we were used to scouring the airwaves for any ‘interference’ around this time, our big Russian radiogram in the shop at 13 Ellen St, was more than able to receive this ‘Holy’ channel.
The Russian Radiogram In Ellen St with My eldest Son Alex 1982
Sorry to have to admit we were blocking out ‘his holiness’ words from Limerick during this time. In the beginning I did move the frequency on a regular basis to try and get away from this ‘interference’ , to no avail, but on occasions I did move away from the Vatican Radio Frequency we did get the occasional reception report from as far away as Scotland, once even from a Monk in the North of Sweden, with a huge piece of ‘kit’ no doubt to pick up his Holiness, sorry about that! I hope we made up for that with broadcasting the Novena from the Redemptorists Church every Saturday before the Sports Show through the guidance and permission of Father Kavanagh, no relation. I can however lay claim to another inspirational Priest in the ‘family’ namely Monsignor Edward Kavanagh of St. Rose Parish in Sacramento. CA. Uncle Bernie’s Brother, who was a brilliant fund raiser, should have had is advice for collecting advertising monies, he even helped to set up the church’s own radio station KSMH 1620 AM, a kindred spirit! As The year moved on more experienced people wanted to become involved with the Station, including Eamonn O’Connor (Eugene’s father), who had a very successful Monday Night show with some very interesting guests from his years in showbusiness, and an even more interesting playlist. His show eventually spawned Tom O’Donnell’s show on a Tuesday night, similar but not quite,Big L was beginning to shape up into a good all round community Radio Station. Despite a new television Channel (Network 2) coming on line on November 2nd, Big L’s Listenership was apparently growing quite substantially, judging by the number of advertisers wishing to take out airtime, this outake from Eamon’s show with ‘Mary Manertney’ ?
and our increasing number of ‘Live’ calls to the stations relative show’s, staged or otherwise. Remember Ireland was in a severe depression at the time, with England falling headlong into the same situation.
