Radiowaves FM - The History of the FRC / Anorak Style Programme On Irish Radio

FRC Over The Rainbow

The man who’d started the ball rolling in Ireland in the ’70s returned with a new show in 1986. Once again, here's Kieran Murray...

The Free Radio Show

As mentioned earlier, in May 1978 I moved from Dublin to Dundalk to take up a full-time, paid job, working on Radio Carousel.

In November 1981 I moved to Navan, County Meath and was the first voice heard on Radio Carousel (Navan).

In 1985 I joined Boyneside Radio and worked on their opt-out service Boyneside Radio (Kells).

Eddie Caffrey with the Radio Rainbow tx
(from June 1986)

Then, in 1986 I joined the main Boyneside Radio, based in Drogheda. While working there I became aware that the engineer, Eddie Caffrey, was operating a shortwave station called Radio Rainbow International, with a good power output of 500 watts. This was a hobby station and it broadcast every Sunday morning on 6240kHz in the 48 metre band and, because it was on shortwave, the broadcasts could be heard right across Europe.

Eddie invited me to join the station and we both agreed it would be a novel idea for me to present a new show, the ‘Free Radio Show’. This was a weekly 60-minute, Sunday morning programme and each show was given a number (not a broadcast date). The show featured jingles, listeners’ letters, reception reports, a free radio feature plus the week’s free radio News from Ireland and abroad. The first ‘Free Radio Show’ was broadcast on 5th January 1986.

This is a recording of that first show.

Eddie was a top notch transmitter engineer, so over time he added a 1kW AM outlet for Radio Rainbow International on 1521kHz and this gave coverage along the east coast of Ireland. Later he added an FM Transmitter to the mix, for local high quality reception. So now, the station was transmitting on shortwave, AM and FM. Class!

The ‘Free Radio Show’ was compiled and presented by me and went out each Sunday morning. Each show was recorded in sections during the previous week at the recording studio in Boyneside Radio in Drogheda. I used to number each recorded show, rather than use dates, just in case anything happened to the cassette. This would mean that if a show was not broadcast one week, or if the C120 cassette was lost, it could be broadcast the following week, without having to re-record the entire show.

The last ‘Free Radio Show’ was broadcast on Radio Rainbow International on 4th October 1987.

October 1987 – I left Boyneside Radio in Drogheda and moved back to Dublin.

The opening and closing theme for the ‘Free Radio Show’ was an instrumental tune called ‘Man of Action’ by the Les Reed Orchestra.

Theme tune comes a full circle – 16 years

From 1970 listening to ‘Radio Northsea Goes DX’ on RNI on shortwave, presented by A.J Beirens to 1986 and me presenting the ‘Free Radio Show’ on Radio Rainbow International on shortwave, using the very same theme tune – ‘Man of Action’. A 16-year circle.

You can listen to the ‘Free Radio Show’ and other recordings from RRI here: Free Radio Show

Credits

Thanks to John Fleming for inspiring me to put these thoughts and observations together:

Thanks also to Gary Hogg, Ken Baird and Ian Biggar for preserving the scans of ‘Newsletter’ and ‘Sounds Alternative’ for future generations and also for preserving the audio clips. http://www.dxarchive.com/

Kieran Murray – June 2022
kieranmurray1000@gmail.com

Thank you Kieran for your incredible contribution.

Photo of Eddie with thanks to Kieran. Recording is from The Anoraks Ireland Collection.

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