The Pirates Merry Dance

"AISLING DRURY-BYRNE talks about and plays some of the 'cello pieces set for this year's Intermediate Certificate Examination." (RTE Guide for 3.01 pm 28th January.)

And a good thing too.

Such a radio programme has. value. It no doubt provides a number of people with some pleasure as well as being edu hcational. Unfortunately, it's entitled, "Music for Young People." And that speaks volumes about RTE and the rise of the Dublin pirate radio stations.

Apart from Pat Kenny's "Nightbus", RTE radio is bereft of programmes presennted by the young, for the young, with music of the kind that the young not only could like or should like, but patently do like. (And the young, in this context, inncludes all of those whose musical tastes have been formed in the twenty years since Presley emerged from Memphis - a sizeable nummber.) One programme from Ken Stewart and an occasionnal tit-bit from Mike Murphy, Valerie McGovern or Gay Byrne represent the proverbbial leaf tossed into the Grand Canyon. The sound of its immpact won't deafen you.

RTE has promised to make amends, but their conntorted efforts to plead that this "is not a direct response" to the popularity of Dublin's two pirate stations are connsiderably more entertaining than some of their' proogrammes. Their application for permission to launch local radio programmes came withhin a fortnight of the pirates' triumph at Christmas when RTE radio sank with few surrvivors.

It is only in the past year that local radio has become an issue in Dublin. The unndoubted leader and pioneer of that has been Radio Dublin, led by its "Captain" Eamonn Cooke. Broadcasting on 253 meters medium wave from Cooke's home in Sarssfield Road, lnchicore, the

station provides continuous pop music for a listenership in the Dublin area estimated at 100,000. Cooke claims a listenership of twice that and points to a large cardboard box full of petitions for a licence for Radio Dublin, claiming it contains 200,000 signatures.

In truth, there is little "local" about Radio Dublin apart from its broadcasting radius and an occasional serrvice in which listeners are asked to keep an eye out for stolen cars. The unceasing music, often arbitrarily chosen, interspersed with addverts, makes listening to it uncannily like tuning in to the top deck of a CIE bus. Some of the DJ s are quite' professional, others have. a tendency to giggle. yet there is no doubt that with a straight diet of pop music, Radio Dublin is providing a welcome service for a very large number of people. Many of the shows feature record requests of the "for YouuKnow-Who-from-Guess-Who" variety and the three teennagers poised over the phones in Cooke's cluttered living room are kept busy carrying requests through to the DJs. On weekdays, many of the requests come from workers in factories where Radio Dublin is piped directly into the "music while you work" system.

The station, says Cooke, was just about to break even when it was raided by P&T officials ami police on January 17th and £1,000 worth of equipment removed. Cooke claims that the station cost him "around two and a half thousand" and that his is the only financial interest behind it. Advertising rates of as low as £8 for a 15 second spot are geared towards those smaller businesses for whom RTE rates are prohibitive. There is no shortage of takers and even some of the larger commpanies are keeping an eye on listenership figures.

Cooke has no plans to deviate from his all-music policy, and the general air of eccentricity about "Broaddcasting House" strengthens the impression that he and his crew are superhams for whom financial considerations are secondary to the trip of runnning their very own station. Cooke claims to have turned down offers of financial backking from businessmen. He has, however, registered the name Radio Dublin "to prootect it".

The other pirate, ARD 257 is a sharp contrast. Recently moved into a four storey building in Belvedere Place, it boasts that its aim is to proovide a professional local radio service. Most of the ARD disc jockeys, led by "Doctor" Don Moore (now a co-direc-

tor of ARD Advertising Ltd., which is in the process of being registered) split from Radio Dublin last year after differences with Eamonn Cooke over broadcasting pollicy. ARD's ambitious plans include broadcasting for 17 hours a day, with current affairs, news, and a more structured, discriminating presentation of music. The second director, Bernard Llewellyn, is also a director of the "Anya " chain of TV shops and he is undoubtedly looking forward to a return on his investment. If ARD can consistently provide a service which captures the non-teenage section of the pirate radio audience, they may well prove a more atttractive proposition for addvertisers than Radio Dubblin.

So far ARD has had probblems in putting its plans into operation. The move to a new location meant only sporadic broadcasts over a period of two weeks. ARD claims that part of the delay occured while insulation was being innstalled to safeguard against their interfering with other radio services. The station is in the red to the tune of £7,000 and they deny reports of "advertising revenue at the rate of £1,000 per day." The real figure is closer to £500 per week.

Needless to say, both staations are operating illegally and openly - and both within a eat's whiskers of police staations. There are two things saving them. Firstly, the Broadcasting (Offences) Act, 1968, passed in accordance with the Council of Europe Agreement, is designed "to suppress broadcasting from ships, aircraft and marine structures." It carries a pennalty on conviction on indicttment of up to two years in prison and a £500 firie. The teeth in this Act is that it covers "a person who proocures the making of a broaddcast", i.e. an advertiser. The weakness is that 3 Sarsfield Road is not a marine structure. The difference between sea and land is the difference between jail under the Broaddcasting Offences Act and a fine under the Wireless Teleegraphy Act, 1926. The P&T and Gardai have found it difficult to secure a convicction under the latter and both stations are practiced in ennsuring that it stays that way.

Harassment of the pirates by raiding and confiscating equipment could be even more effective than going through the courts. It is known that NUJ members in
RTE were gleeful in private at the prospect of an ARD budget broadcast putting pressure on RTE management to resolve the journalists' dispute within the station. Under those circumstances, it is reasonable to assume colluusion between RTE and the Department of Posts and Teleegraphs in attempting to squash the ARD budget programme. Such tactics are surely dangerrous. Should a pitate station lose its temper and respond in kind - by, for instance, broadcasting an appeal for help the next time the raiders knock on the door:" it would create a very nasty situation, if just one per cent of the thousands of teenagers who marched in support of the pirates responded to such a call. The Department might find that its technicians were on the receiving end 'of a literal backlash.

Of even more importance is the politician's ability to sniff the wind. Who wants to have today's 14 and 15-year olds brooding until 1981 about "the ones who killed Radio Dublin"? Especially if RTE can't deliver the goods.

When a conservative like John Kelly forgets the first commandment, that "Thou shalt not bring the law into disrepute, whatever its deefects", and begins instead to talk of the Ministers "essenntially illiberal position", the writing is on the wall. It will be interesting to see, should the writing come down from the wall and into the Broaddcasting Authority Act, how many money men will waltz out of the wings with a burnning interest in providing a serrvice to the public .•