THE GER ROE SECTION: Intro - Radio Dublin Channel 2 - Radio Annabel - Shamrock Radio

Radio Annabel

Some of the Radio Dublin DJ’s had shared my frustrations, one being Declan George. Declan presented a Sunday afternoon programme on 253m and he was a fan of the programme. He had a genuine anorak interest and he was a friend to many presenters, in various stations, around Dublin. He called in to studio during one of the last Channel 2 FRC programmes to say that he had been down to the newly-launched Radio Annabel. Annabel had been formed from ABC Radio which was originally established by the staff walkout from Channel 2 that resulted in my demo application. Declan had told them I was close to walking and station managers Mike Doyle and Maurice Kelly told him to let me know that I was welcome at The Ivy Rooms hotel – an offer that I accepted and so the FRC then moved to Radio Annabel on a Sunday afternoon.

The studio facilities in the top floor room at The Ivy Rooms were much better than I was used to at Radio Dublin and I felt much more comfortable doing the programme in a more appreciated and supported environment with a decent AM and FM signal. I did however have to perform a very sad duty shortly after I joined Annabel when I had to produce a tribute item for Declan, who had died in a motorbike traffic accident. (Declan Geoghegan RIP).

The Annabel FRC programme continued up until the station closed in 1985. Annabel closed one Sunday night with the announced intention of moving studio location to the Ice Rink operating at the old State Cinema building in Phibsboro. The station had an association with Des Kelly (of carpets fame) who owned the building and operated the ice rink. The site had housed the Annabel AM transmitter for the latter stage of station operation.

Originally ‘Eric’, the Seán Day (Murphy) built AM transmitter, had lived in a room beside the studio at The Ivy Rooms where it consisted of an array of mainly home made components (including a large glass sheet spaced tuning capacitor) spread over a large kitchen table. The large home made capacitor was required to match the transmission output stage to the shorter than optimal longwire antenna that stretched from the roof of the building down at a very acute angle to the end of a short back yard. The cramped space resulted in a lot of RF power being reflected back into the building, mainly towards the amplification equipment of bands playing at the music venue in the basement. There were many times on a Sunday evening when Annabel went off air on AM for ‘technical reasons’ – because the station was coming across the band PA system.

Previously the State Cinema had been the transmission site for Dr. Don’s Channel D pirate TV station in 1981. At a staff meeting held at The Ivy Rooms studio location, shortly before closure, DJs were told that the station was moving to the ice rink where it would have a prominent visual presence and be used as a background music service for the rink sessions. The station closed and staff waited for confirmation of a re-launch date that never came.

A massive thank you to Ger for his contribution and materials.
Ger's later programmes will be detailed later in the series, you can use the navigational aid at the top of this page to jump directly to them. Or continue the story of the programme genre chronologically using the link below or via the side bar. The recording on this page is from The Anoraks Ireland Collection.

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