The Free Radio Show with Bernard Evans

The unlikely location of Tallaght, a major suburb in south-west Dublin, was home to 'The Free Radio Show' which was presented by Bernard Evans. Here Bernard gives his memories of the show...

Wonderland Radio later known as Tallaght Community Radio
Fridays 8 – 10pm
1985-1987

I was always captivated by the world of communication. Before the world was so connected, it seemed mysterious to have a box that could pick up voices and sounds from all around the world.

DX AM, LW and Short Wave offered opportunities to experience other cultures, strange adverts for products we didn’t have, unusual competitions and promotions, the dreary voices from communist countries.

1975 my mum came into me one day and told me there were pirate radio stations in Dublin and the government raided them. My cousin latterly told me she heard such an event and apparently, they would interrupt the song to say, “We have to, go, we are being raided” and the transmitter would switch off. I was already fascinated with radio, but if there was an icing to the cake, this was it! I spent endless times tuning up and down the dial in search of pirates, but it was a year or so before I heard one. At Christmas I got a cassette recorder and recorded the DJs talking and sadly, like many other institutions of the time, for financial reasons, wiped most of the recordings.

Domestically, there was a new culture always coming up through the pirates. Radio people, in particular, often made recordings of local radio stations when they went on holidays. This media was always exciting and intriguing.

Behind the scenes, radio rarely offered a peek behind the curtains, you couldn’t easily reach radio stations or presenters. As was professionally expected, you had no idea what their views were. Hearing outtakes was rare and exciting

I had been listening to the various anorak shows that were around. Radio talking about radio. I thought this was amazing but felt them to be a little cliquey with too much emphasis on pirate radio and broadcast exclusively for anoraks and, although anoraking and pirate radio was my first love, I felt the general public wanted to know and hear about media around the world. This premise and the above, would form the basis of a lot of media I went on to make about media.

All recordings were airchecked.

Format in Running Order:-

News

Mostly taken from the Anoraks UK Weekly Report with their adverts played.

Local contributions made to me from various insiders and rumour mills.

Archive Recording

This could usually be of a large event such as, the attack on RNI, raids, closedowns,

Feature

Jingle packages, Production Music Library from a sales demo, bandscans from somewhere unusual. Adverts from usual places, advertising things very unusual to us. Outtakes and radio people messing around in studios

Contemporary Recording

Newsworthy events, radio stations from Cork where I had connections and visited. It could have been a new station launching or a format change.

These would have included stations from UK, USA, Latin America, Australia etc

In news and recordings, I also covered the infamous jamming of two major Dublin stations at that time where the jammers played radio tunes, Anoraks UK adverts and jingle packages. Apparently the ‘Head Jammer’ is still cautious about revealing his identity, what an interview that could have been, had it been doable!

Interviews

These were done every month or so, a mix of in studio and on the phone, guests included people from other stations, presenters, campaigners from the National Association of Community Radio, anoraks from the UK visiting and an occasional listener, the most attention noteworthy one was getting Bill Cunningham just as he was about to shake up Sunshine Radio, this was one of my last shows

Music

I played whatever chart hits and good music I had, but naturally I leaned to a lot of radio music, a certain amount being off air recordings.

Categories could be songs associated with stations such as:

The O’Jays – You are my Sunshine,

Laid Back – Sunshine Reggae,

Fat Larry’s Band – Zoom,

Billy Paul – Only the Strong Survive,

Wax – Right Between the Eyes (12 Inch Version),

Les Reed – Man of Action,

The Fortunes – Caroline,

After the Fire – Laser Love,

Moronic Surveyors – I Spy for the DTI, etc.

Then there were the songs about radio, such as:

Harry Chapin – WOLD,

Tom Robinson – Atmospherics (Listen to the Radio),

Steely Dan – FM,

Donald Fagen and the Nightfly album.

Each week I played a track from the Radio Caroline ‘Loving Awareness’ Album.

Listeners

The audience was a combination of radio industry, anoraks and the general public, all of whom enjoyed hearing quirky radio stuff and news and especially unusual and exotic radio stations from all parts of the world. There was a bit of promotion in the Anoraks UK Weekly Report, radio people tended to tell each other about it. There was a mix of people who were tuning the dial and came across some aircheck of some strange station and were fascinated as to what they were hearing.

Many would tell me how they drove to high up areas of Dublin to listen to the show.

Management

Broadly encouraged the show, though I always felt they were a little nervous or unsure of it. I was always indirectly credited as someone who put a huge amount of content into their show. This was a community station and most of the shows were music based and they were trying to encourage presenters to do more content. Only once, at some contentious time, did word go across the whole station that an event was not to be referenced, it may have been some unusual raid or a breaching of Section 31, or similar.

Structure

I had a two hour show and so I did two hours of Free Radio, which was a lot. It never occurred to me to do less. People listened for the full two hours. There was a lot of research, production and editing etc, but I only once used a script. I opened the microphone and just spoke, considering as I went along what possibly could and couldn’t be said, so it was very rough around the edges and cringey at points. I’ve tried to come to term with this by thinking it was my first time presenting and what it lacked in quality it seemed to make up for in content.

Recordings I specifically remember playing.

Many Irish pirates, an American station that I think was WIOQ, so it looked like 10 Q / thank you, so all competition winners ended with hey, Ten Q, WKRQ in Cincinnati, which was interesting given the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati, so one letter away. WGRD in Grand Rapids, which a had a snappy listener tell a joke section. Alan Beswick, who was a first somewhat shock jock on Red Rose Radio in Lancashire. Alfasound jingle packages, CHUM FM in Toronto, sent to me by the station, I played recordings of the station and their full Jam Jingle package, which was the same as the Nova package. Radio Jackie in London, Z 100 Boston shortly after they launched. Australian radio stations – especially intrigued by adverts asking to conserve water. Clips from a cassette called Latin America on Air, my first show was the history on RNI.

Trivia

Phil Hilton who was a friend and had co presented the Anorak Show on Radio West, once co presented the show with me.

The show was once planned to be recorded and played on a pirate in Cork, I can’t remember which one, but I recorded a show announcing both station names and frequencies.

People would just knock at the door and ask to sit in for the show, sometimes it was station staff, people from other stations, anoraks and people who went on to become key players in the industry.

I arranged through friends for a lend of an FM transmitter and separately the use of the mountain site being used by my friends in Alice’s Restaurant 107.9, later known as XFM. I arranged for it to be switched on during my Free Radio Show. We got many new callers and listeners almost immediately, most of whom were complaining as they had been listening to BBC Radio 3. They were mostly unimpressed and referred to us as pirates and I explained that they were hearing BBC Radio 3 via Cablelink leakage and was, as such, an illegal broadcast in itself. They couldn’t understand that and it just got complicated!

Old Ghosts

On Heartbeat FM, which is who I was with at the closedowns of 1988, one of our unusual plays was Robbie Robertson’s ‘Somewhere Down the Crazy River’. It contains the lines, “The wind just kind of pushed me this way” and “Oh this is sure stirring up some ghosts for me.” A number of us in radio still use those lines today when thinking or talking about or hearing clips of that era.

The wind generously pushed me to much bigger and better opportunities and radio stations, but I’m often in the company of radio heads who talk to me about that Free Radio Show. I apparently helped a lot of people figure out that they were anoraks.

The ghosts of that Free Radio Show got stirred up on many of the stations I did after that, cryptic references, certain tunes, callers and name checked requests. The many radio media shows I did on RTÉ Radio 1 were often refined versions of the Free Radio Show, using the same clips and features. Even on the recent temp stations I will occasionally drop a reference or two to old radio stations. As we begin to get to the last shows before closedowns, all the usual hard core radio heads come in and we have the anorak chats, play a few tunes and station jingles and tell the stories and give a nod to the former colleagues and radio friends we have lost, hoping their ghosts are with us in the ether

2010 I got heavily involved in Animal Rescue and on one or two rare occasions dealt with the vet now on the same premises as the original Wonderland Radio, albeit we were then in a decommissioned ambulance at the back, before a few hundred yards move from Tallaght Main Street Village to the Greenhills Road.

I would love to hear from people who remember the show or were part of the station back then.

Disclaimer, that these events and dates etc are to my best recollection, with two exceptions!

Bernard

July 2022

Thanks a million to Bernard for his piece. If you wish to share memories of his show drop us a line at john@radiowavesfm.com and we will pass them on.

From July 9th 1987, this is the final edition of The Free Radio Programme on Tallaght Community Radio, presented by Bernard.

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