THE FRC IRELAND SECTION: Intro - FRC Newsletter - FRC Sounds Alternative - 1978 in radio - Print era ends - FRC on the radio
The Free Radio Campaign Ireland by Kieran Murray
1977 FRC Ireland – ‘Newsletter’ Name Change (1977)
In 1977 – twelve months after the first publication of the FRC – Ireland ‘Newsletter’, I had to take a break. This was because I had to sit The Leaving Certificate Examination 1977 which is like a rite of passage for every Irish teenager and if completed successfully, could increase your chances of gaining employment upon leaving school.
(Yea…right! They lied!)
Exams completed, I immediately went back to the thing I loved and was most passionate about above all – radio – pirate radio in particular.
For FRC – Ireland, I saw this as a new chapter – so I sent a letter out to the subscribers and asked them to suggest a new name (title) for the publication. I got a good response back and eventually from the suggestions received, I selected ‘Sounds Alternative’. I recall the person who submitted the winning title was Leslie Anderson of Ardlea Road, Artane, Dublin. Not quite sure why, but I still remember that name and address, today!
I then purchased more ‘Letraset’ to print the new title heading and chose a ‘groovy’ font style!
1977: FRC Ireland – Sounds Alternative
August 1977 and Sounds Alternative #1 was all set to go.
The yearly subscription increased to £1 (in an attempt to try to cover costs). Plus, I had to continue providing free copies at my own expense to all the libraries in the UK and Ireland, all the time.
* News about a split in Radio Dublin (involving Doctor Don)
* The history of Radio Seagull (a station located in the north Dublin suburb of Raheny)
* A Radio Dublin News Rap, plus an article from Marc Boland about Weekend Music Radio
By April 1978, The FRC – Ireland publication ‘Sounds Alternative’ was being posted to almost 100 subscribers right across Europe.
The list of pirate radio stations broadcasting around Ireland was continuing to grow and this was captured with each subsequent edition of the magazine.
By May 1978, I had moved to Dundalk and was employed full time by Hugh Hardy (RIP) at Radio Carousel and getting paid a weekly salary for doing the job I loved! Because of this, I had extra money now, so the cost pressure from producing ‘Sounds Alternative’ #4 from that point onwards, was not an issue anymore.
However, as I was no longer living full time at home with my parents in Dublin, I was not as fully connected with the pirate radio events at that time, as I would have liked to have been.
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