Updated 20th May 2014
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.