Paul
Buckle started this site some five years ago....here's the lowdown
on him!
Paul Buckle : I'm a
self-confessed Radio Addict and was involved in radio of "one
kind or another" since the age of 14. Post 1988 the Irish Pirates
gone, I joined Downtown Radio part time as a newsreader.
On finishing Uni I went full time and read News until
Downtown split it's Belfast frequencies and launched Cool FM in
February 1990. There I stayed for 9 years. I quit in July 1999,
not because of any massive fallout or spectacular fisticuffs in
the boardroom, but simply because I felt I'd gone as far as I could
go within the structure that existed there - it honestly was a case
of keep taking the money and become increasingly frustrated or go
elsewhere.
As a child, along with radio, I'd always been interested in BBC
TV Continuity. Not the "sit in front of a camera and smile
type" I must stress, but "the voice behind the little
blue globe that presses buttons type" - the fact that you KNEW
you were watching BBC Wales, BBC Scotland or BBC NI from the start
of a junction to the end of a junction always interested me. Much
to my poor parents horror I did have a rather intriguing collection
of DX Masts upon the roof of family home (some of which remain to
this day!).
With
the advent of the BBC's digital services, this interest was rekindled
and so I headed off to the BBC where I presently reside as a Continuity
Director for BBC NI. I will freely admit to being hughly influenced
by early Downtown, Sunshine and Nova
- I was, if I'm honest, always fasinated by the various Dublin formats,
nothing like NOVA had been heard here before and I guess that's
probably why my radio career ended up in formatting and music production
than on-air jocking.
Hi, I'm Henry O'Donovan.
I broadcasted under the name George Long. I am doing the design
for this website, and loving every minute of it! My first broadcast
was in 1977, at 15 when I climbed through the window of my dormitory
in a boarding school at 1am to work on LBC radio in Limerick. I
spent nearly 2 years climbing through that window!
After
boarding school in Limerick, I went to my home town of Dublin and
got a job reading news on Southside Radio. I worked on a number
of stations including Radio City, Capitol Radio, Radio Nova, Q102,
Magic103, and Energy103. Mostly a newsreader, I would sometimes
get a chance to do some DJ work.
Now, at 39, I am a web designer, copywriter (electronic media) and
PC technician and I live in Sydney Australia. I came across Paul
Buckle's website about three years ago and soon realised he had
done more work than anyone else in getting actual sounds from the
Irish Pirates on the web. He was kind enough to let me restructure
his site, and I have to say it's a great pleasure to do so! I have
never met Paul so I felt somewhat intrusive about reshaping his
site. However, I am passionate that the irish radio industry's history
be clearly defined and credited in as best an environment we can
manage. Our vision is in no way limited. This site is in its infancy.
irishpirates.com will grow steadily on a daily basis. The emphasis
on this site is audio. There is no more direct way of "showing"
people what went on in Dublin in the 70's and 80's than to let them
hear it. And hear it you will!
(Click on the pic for a larger version)
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