Episode 3. Voices of Bray

In the third episode of this series Mark Quinn continues his journey through the history of Bray Local Broadcasting. As the 1980’s progressed BLB experienced significant growth and development, establishing itself as a potent presence in North Wicklow and South County Dublin. The station's programming expanded dramatically, offering a diverse range of shows that catered to various interests and communities. This growth was matched by an upgrade in its technical capabilities, with the installation of a more powerful transmitter, which greatly improved the signal strength and expanded BLB's reach. As a result, more voices from the local community were able to be heard, and BLB’s unique version of community radio flourished. The station became a vital platform for local expression, creativity, and connection, embodying the true spirit of community-driven broadcasting.

Credits: 

Sound recording by Mike Quinn 

Sound mixing by Luke Conlon 

High Wire Post Production, Dublin, Ireland 

www.highwire.ie  

Artwork by Jody Hogg Design 

www.jodyhogg.com  

Produced and presented by Mark Quinn 

The copyright for this podcast series is owned by Mark Quinn and is hereby reserved.

Bray Talking Heads – Stories from a Seaside Town. A podcast celebrating the stories, history, and people of Bray, past and present. Whether you're a lifelong Brayite or just discovering this special town, join us for conversations that connect, inspire, and bring our community to life - wherever you are in the world. Hosted by Mark Quinn, Leah Kinsella, and Pat Hannon. Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @braytalkingheads, or email us at braytalkingheads@gmail.com

https://blb.buzzsprout.com

Transcript

A radiogenic production.



BLB, sounds from the past, memories of pirate radio and stories ofBray Local Broadcasting. Episode 3.



 They were the authentic voices of the people of Bray.

 Yesterday afternoon on the seafront.

 I would like to wish BLB a very happy and successful future.

 I don't think any community is truly that without having its own radio station.

 The request is starting to flow in at the moment and if you would like...

 Bray needs communication and I think communication will open things up for everyone.

 Welcome to another Fall College Community Council programme.

 There was the Meath Road listeners, there was the Wolf Tone Square listeners, there was the Boghall Road... Hey, you are Glenn Curtin.

 A sad little ditty. A bad salad. Sorry, a sad ballad. Sitting on a dart coming home and someone said, "I liked your programme this morning." Oh, what on earth was that rubbish you played? It was wonderful.

 BLB, the magnificent service that it provided at the time, it really was the voice, the glue that made us what we are today. I think the town rediscovered its vibrant identity.



 Hello and welcome to another day's programmes here on Bray Local Broadcasting. BLB is your local community radio here in Bray.

 Bray Local Broadcasting grew rapidly through the 1980s, establishing itself as very much part of the fabric of Bray Town.



 A new premises was purpose built for the station on the seafront by Joe Duggan. And a new more powerful transmitter was bought from local engineer Bill Stapleton of Silver Pine Enterprises. And when this was installed, the station could be heard by many more listeners in the surrounding area.



 Underpinning BLB was a democratic structure, which we had developed from the very early days into a cooperative in which the station's members had a vote and a voice in how the station was run.



 There was a management committee which met every month and a general meeting of all members also held monthly.



 Studio managers looked after the day-to-day running of the station's output and this was overseen by an elected coordinator.



 In this episode, we'll find out more about what made BLB tick, the actual making of live radio broadcasting, by a bunch of people, mostly from Bray, who had to learn lots of new skills on the job and in most cases live on air. Here's Daphne Mitchell, JJ, Joe Ballard and myself discussing one very early piece of challenging radio technology.



 There was a yellow button and there was lots of black buttons.



 And for the life of me, I couldn't remember what the yellow button was.

 On the decks back then, there were two buttons. There was a grey button and a yellow button. Daphne had a habit of hitting the grey button instead of the yellow button.

 It was a square button. I can turn you to this day exactly where it was. No, I didn't know what colour it was.

 The grey button lifted the needle off the record.

 What was the yellow button for? To start the turntable.

 Oh, right. Started the turntable.

 So as soon as you'd finished your link, as you said, you'd hit the yellow button and hopefully everything would go according to plan.

 And she said, this time we're going to have John Travolta and nothing happened. Mark Queen was shouting.



 You could go, go, go, whatever she was saying. Press the yellow button. Next minute you hear the big shout coming in from outside. The yellow button, Daphne! Oh, yes, the

 famous yellow button.

 I got the hang of it in the end.



 Entertainment and information. For notices, requests or information, you can write to BLB, care of the Music Machine Record Shop, Unit 1, Bray Shopping Centre. Come spend your day. We were having a go at something that had never been done before. This was in a small town.

 John Matthews, or JJ, was one of BLB's first coordinators.

 We saw ourselves as pioneers. We were pioneers in this new type of a radio station that was a democratic setup. It was organised from the volunteers. So everybody had a say in it.

 Founding member of the station, Doug McGuire.

 We really believed that we had found a niche. Why go up against the Sunshines, the ARD, the radio Dublin's? They were commercial radio stations, albeit they were pirates. They were making money. We were smaller and we were in a different locality. And we all believed that we had hit on something that nobody else

 had touched at that stage. The very name of the station, Bray Local Broadcasting, it looked almost like a little bit of BBC, you know, BLB. It had a certain ring to it.

 Not only did the name have a ring to it, but the station had found its voice. And that was as a local communication service that served all the people of Bray with the widest range of programmes and presenters.

 We were talking about BLB, which is a very important part of our program. We were talking about the radio bubble, Bray.

 I think from the radio course and from our reading up on what we were going to do.

 Another founding member, John Murphy.

 We didn't have DJs. So DJs were just for music stations. We had presenters who were thoughtful and spoke a lot more, right? But not about the music necessarily.

 Well, hello, good morning and welcome along to Bray Local Broadcasting. From now till half eight, it's the breakfast programme with myself, Palm Goverin and myself, Ian Lacy. We hope you'll stay with us between now and then. Plenty of news and information at eight o'clock.

 John Ryan was involved in production and presentation.

 It was local news and local information for local people.

 AKA on the way with BLB's community notice board lost found for sale section, if you'd like to include anything on that. Only a little snippet of information about your club or organisation or anything perhaps that you'd like to try and sell over the airwaves of BLB radio. Phone us now on H29.

 It was Bray's internet at the time, because that was where you went to to find out what was happening in the town.

 It's hard to disagree with comparisons on a local level with social media today, given that BLB had a sort of access all areas approach to broadcasting. BLB community radio.

 The technology we had was very basic, but the way we operate was very like the American system where the guy did everything. One guy did the whole lot. He presented the programme, ran the discs, he played the ads, everything. So we didn't think of any other way being possible. So we just built our studio, two turntables, two tape players, little mixing desk, two microphones, and that was it. And also, I think you felt more in control because you could spin the record at the right moment. You didn't have to wave your hand and someone behind a glass do it for you, which you couldn't afford it anyway. So it was a real hands on experience.



 And a very good morning to you. It's exactly half past nine on this Tuesday, the 20th of August, 1985. And you're very welcome to the community notice board. I'll start by telling you that at the Community Information Centre here in Bray,

 The thing about BLB is we brought in our horizons with another load of residents. They realised that there's something for everybody here, not just one particular age group.

 Peter Carroll presented and produced many programmes.

 There was sport, there was community groups doing their own programmes.



 There's an auxiliary fire service, had their own information programme. There was rock and roll, there was country and wrestling, there was Beatle music, there was literally just everything.

 5.30 through until seven, it's tea time with Mark Nevin. And then from seven to eight this evening, it's Peter Carroll with sports time. From eight to 10, it's Jerry Hayes with the rock and roll revival.

 Radio's hard. Mark Mortell was another presenter.

 First of all, you have to prepare and organise. You have to think about what you're going to say and how you've got to plan it, how you've got to organise it, because you don't have any time to think once it's going. And then there is the fact that you're actually talking into a vacuum.

 And all the best broadcasters,

 versatile and regular producer presenter, Chris Conway.

 They make you feel good to listen to them. It's this two-way thing, having the smile on your voice and having just, you know, somebody who's like a friend on the radio.

 That's all the way from 1971. That's Cat Stevens from his album Tears in the Fire, and the beautiful Karen Shields

 presented many



 programmes including a late night music show.

 John Martin and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I remember doing a late night show with Guy Fountain and it was Cuddle Up with Karen. And Guy had got all this incredible music that you could only get in the States, this vinyl. And I paid out of my own savings to have this voiceover that I'd heard on commercial radio in Dublin. I thought, oh, my God, this voice, it's just sex on legs. Cuddle Up with Karen. I think what made BLB a success was professionalism from the word go. With, you know, the very basic of equipment initially. But everybody's heart was that this is proper radio. You know, we may have started off being a pirate, but the whole aim was to make community radio legal, a legal entity in Ireland. And BLB played such a big part in that that I don't think people quite realise how significant that input was. And then the wonderful eclectic mix from kiddies programmes, right the way to news programmes. And, you know, drama and creating comedy shows and experimenting. But above all, it was a radio station that was a serious radio station. And it was also a lobbyist there for something much bigger.

 That's a track from the Sun City album, which came out of the Sun City project featuring Gil Scott Herron, who has always been very vocal on political and social issues. The apartheid problem, though, has gone right across the board in music. It's not just the politically minded artists who are singing about it.

 The red light goes on and you know

 it's life. Freddie Morehan hosted a children's programme every Sunday morning.

 This is it. You're wrong.

 You're in the moment. You're on. There's no going back. You have to do it. It's it's exhilarating in lots of ways.

 See front yesterday afternoon and you saw all the fun and excitement of the Lord Mayor's election.

 Real radio works when people are talking from a place that's honest and authentic, but also being receptive to the audience in the way that they engage. And I think that was an understanding of being part of the community and engaging with that. While at the same time, knowing there's niches are going to be interested in this little bit and other niches. This

 has been great today for the past hour. I hope you enjoy the programme. If you have come back and join us again tomorrow evening between five thirty and six thirty.



 It's the body on B.L.B.



 It sure is him and me as well until eleven o'clock this morning.



 Christmas Eve on B.L.B. You're welcome along to Christmas Christ.

 Everything was on cassette back then. So you had a cue up except we had a phone ringing.

 Mike Duggan presented a variety of music programmes, including an anarchic series with Pat Hammond.

 You'd answer the phone live with a microphone. Hello. And then the answer was on the cassette as well. And it was carnage.

 It's B.L.B. for a good old Monday morning. Good morning. Oh, dearie me, here's the phone again.



 Hello. Hello. What is it? Yes. Is that anybody? Yes. Well, you're not trying to tell what's happening.



 Tasha Vigues do Claire, Ronan Outhoheig, Air Tim Court-Ray.

 This is B.L.B. broadcasting community radio on 456 metres, medium wave 657 kilohertz. The time is four o'clock.

 Thank you very much, Mark. And it's the Senior Citizens programme until 5 30.

 One of my favourite programmes in the area, this was Joe Naylor.

 Presenter Barry Nevin, who also produced the Civil Defence's weekly programme At Your Service.

 Like Joe Naylor would never have got a chance. And he did that fantastic afternoon programme for the B.L.B. folks playing music of their vintage and era.

 Bray Local Broadcasting Community Radio on 657 kilohertz. It's just after three o'clock.

 Wolf Tone Residence Association. They had their own programme, Little Bray Residence Association, Fassar Oh Residence Association. We had the afternoon programmes, Daphne, Moira Cullen. People would come in and chat to them. We had Moira Byrne, who did a more kind of politicised version of an afternoon chat show.

 My name is Moira Byrne and during the next hour, I'll be hosting a discussion on the main points as to why we should either accept or deny ratification of the Single European Act.

 In our innocence, we did things. We had a gay pride kind of week. Before anyone had vented the nickname Gay Pride and we lost advertisers because they didn't want to be associated with a gay programme. You can't imagine that happening now. We had a couple of women's weeks where we focused on women's issues for an entire week. And they were marvellous things to be doing. And they were very innovative because even the national broadcaster then mustn't do that kind of thing.

 We have two more guests in the studio now, Kathleen Kinsella and Valerie Keegan. And they've both been closely involved with the Tidy Towns competition and the Gardening competition, which we had here in Bray this year.

 Local people want to know local stories. There could be things going on, terrible things in the world. But people would turn on BLB to hear what's happening in Bray.

 In the main street in particular, there were two eyesores which at the present time are being cleaned up. There are a few left, of course. There's where the old Turkish bats were. And there's also the site down at the station where the old international hotel was, which have just been left. And the developers have left them alone. I think this is not only a local problem, it's a national one. And it's time it was tackled.

 There was a milk strike on and people were all going mad for the milk. They couldn't get the milk anywhere. And this particular Sunday morning, when the lance came at me, he says, "There's a milkman outside. He wants to tell what he can come on the radio." And I said, "So, yeah, bring him in. Bring him in." And he said, "See, he's not getting all the milk." And he said, "See, at the moment, I'm going up to such and such a shop." And he said, "See, I'll be up there in 10 minutes." And he told me afterwards, he like, emptied the whole van out of milk. Because nobody had any milk. But people were listening to the local radio station to find out, "Is the water off? Is the power off? Is the football match is going to be on? Is slash and rain, has that been raining all night? Are the matches going to be on?" Yes, no. They are hydro on BLB. So, all of a sudden, BLB became the local Google.

 Good afternoon. It's exactly one o'clock on Brain Locker Broadcasting. My name is Jonathan James, and bidding you welcome to the Bog Hall Community Marathon, sponsored, of course, by Nixdorf Computers on the Bog Hall Road, where there are about 450 runners anxiously waiting up at the Bog Hall Road. So we go over live to the St. Fergal's Community Hall and Vincent Caron. Hello, Vincent. Hello, JJ. How are you? I'm fine. I've got my sandwiches here and I've got my cups of coffee. How are you doing up there? Keeping warm?

 We're keeping warm here. Yes, there's great activity here altogether.

 Outside broadcasts like this one became a regular feature of BLB's output. Thanks to the technical skills of Frank Duffy, Ronan O'Farrill, Lawrence Hallet and John Murphy, a portable FM transmitter was built, and this was used to send a signal right back to the studio from any part of the town, so that the microphone could go right to the streets of Bray and be broadcast live, and presenters in the studio could interact with presenters on the street. The Bray St. Patrick's Day Parade would never be the same again. From 1983 onwards, a team of BLB presenters brought the parade to the airwaves.

 Now, who have we got at the moment in the outside broadcast?

 Hello, I have a young lady standing beside me, and I believe that she's going to do a turn for us on stage after the parade has passed by.

 On the reviewing stand this morning, the Minister for Education, Chairman Hussey TD, Wicklow TD, and she's sitting right next to the President of the Bray Chamber of Commerce, Mr Michael Collins, I see Jane Murphy, Finn again up there, and Liz McManus from the Workers' Party, enjoying, I would say at this stage, the 1983 St. Patrick's Day Parade here in Bray.

 On Patrick's Day, the caravan being parked there, and people, they were physically seeing the apparatus of radio on their street.

 Very very Latin feel to this, this is the returned development of workers' float.



 Very very Latin. Is that a tape or are they actually singing? No, they are actually singing. Yeah, go ahead.

 Actually singing, all right. Right behind them are Curran Brothers, and two of their lorries, very well decorated, with bags of coal. English coal, Polish coal, Texan coal, Wonder coal, Economy coal, Nuggets and Slack.



 And there's another lorry which I'll allow Claire to read out, I'm not going to read out this next.

 Actually I can't quite see it yet.

 It's coming.

 The first lorry is still passing me by at the moment, and they're actually trying to find their way around the crowds, it's like a maze at this stage with so many people down here.

 The lads came to our shop one day and asked, "would you do an outside broadcast?" And it was a Saturday afternoon, and we said, "yes, Grant." And I couldn't believe, it seemed to be so simple, they just seemed to plug in here, plug in there, plug in... And then all of a sudden they started playing music, and so I said, "oh, see, we're broadcast, we're broadcasting." So geez, that's unbelievable.

 One, two, can you hear me? Yes, indeed, we can.

 Well, I'm very glad you got us. A little bit later, but we're only here now at last.

 Mark, just before you go on there, Mark. Yeah? Yeah, you're a little bit loud on the mic there, maybe if you just step back from the mic a bit.

 It's a bit of a problem, immediately.

 And the music is a little low as well.

 A little bit of music now, because we have another record coming up, 9 seconds.

 OK, right, off you go. It's all yours.



 Complete with live, on-air technical adjustments, that was Mark Mortell and myself winging it on an early outside broadcast from Bray's Main Street.

 I remember there was the festival in Bray, and we were doing an outside broadcast.



 And this man came up and I thought, I'd interview him, and he had a nappy thing on.



 That's all he was wearing.



 And I said, what's your name?



 And he said, my name's Dick. And because he was wearing a nappy, it kind of threw me. And I couldn't carry on talking. I just didn't know what to do.



 Four minutes past, 10 o'clock on Bray local broadcasting, AM. State FM for North Wicklow, South County, Dublin.

 We had no training in this. We kind of trained each other. And as it went on, then we would try and train people coming up. Obviously, we made mistakes. How would we not? That's it from me for today. I hope you've enjoyed it. Join me again tomorrow, same time, same place at half past five. Broadcasting to Bray and the surrounding areas on 456m medium wave and 96.3mhz FM. This is BLB and here's Peter Carroll.

 Thank you, JJ. It's the T-Connection.

 In January 1985, the station employed its first full-time station manager, Sally Reynolds. Up to that point, there had been studio managers and station coordinators.

 When you're managing something, I thought, you are conscious of the quality. You know, it can't drop. We had people who were paying money to have their ads played. You know, when it came down to it, you know, you couldn't have a mess. And therefore, there were moments where you were put a bit to the pin of your collar in terms of, you know, somebody who maybe just wasn't quite, you know, hitting it and you, somebody else could do it instead and managing that process from one to the other. I mean, you know, we did it. But I think, again, that group feeling was very strong. It is the message that matters. And so if I'm listening to a jazz program, I would much prefer to have somebody presenting it who really knows their jazz and who can give you a breed, seed and background to every single record that they play, rather than somebody who's got a nice voice. And I think in BLB, we were very conscious of that. We really had genuinely people who knew their music and knew. And when it even came to current affairs and we were doing roundabouts and stuff, there were people from here, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't gloss by any manner of means. And that's a lesson I've carried with me all my life. And so far as the gloss is really not important. It's the content.



 It's going to be on this Monday evening. It's time for your weekly dose of Rock and Roll. My name is Ger Hayes and I'm with you until nine o'clock this evening.

 In the early 80s, there was a comeback of Rock and Roll and Rockabilly.

Ger Hayes, presenter of the Rock and Roll Revival Show.

 And you had the likes of the Jets and the Stray Cats and Matchbox even on top of the pops. So that really reinforced it and people had a great interest in it. And the likes of the Elvis Appreciation Society contacted us and the Buddy Holly Appreciation Society contacted us and they came down and spoke about it.

 I can hear me over there. Yeah. Well, I think we'd have to organise this microphone first.

 I was lucky enough to interview some of the great son grades, Carl Mann, Carl Perkins, Sleepy LeBeouf, people like that through the show, because there's such an interest that these people were coming to the top hat on Dunlary and to the Magnet in Pier Street. And through the radio, I got to meet these people, interview them and play their interviews on the radio. It was fantastic. Living the dream. Absolutely.

 BLB provides an important and genuine community service. If you would like to contribute to BLB or wish to contact the station, write to 1 Strand Road Brae or telephone us.

 We mentioned that Freddie Moreland presented the children's program, but here's how he got started.



 I didn't really love what I let myself in for. I went home and my wife said to me, where are you going to do? I said, "I don't know." I'd worked in Butlins and I thought it was just a matter of walking out on the stage and things would come into your head.



 So he went down with me a few records and a lad called Mick Ray was on the desk. So he played the records. He said, "What's your fourth record?" And I gave him the record, and he just pointed at me. I didn't know what to say. I just didn't know what to say. I had no preparation whatsoever. I didn't realise what I was like to present the program on the radio.



 The fourth week anyway, it was a total disaster.



 And to win my voice. This morning, Jim McLaughlin. And thanks to all the boys and girls who went to the competition. The following week I said I'll be a little bit more prepared.



 There was nothing more terrifying than sitting behind a deck and doing your first ever broadcast when you put the red light goes on.

 Bach McCann was a producer and presenter.

 And then suddenly with experience it just comes natural. But just that one moment, you're all prepared for it.

 And there in the background, beautiful stuff from Dave from Quincy Johnson, his album I heard that. And there's the metal track called "Brown Soft Shoe".

 Bach and that kind of style, just wild style, it was just terrific. They were all very, very different characters and very different people. So I think what BLB had was a richness in terms of its programming that really was very different.

 Well, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another Boghall Community Council program. This beautiful Sunday afternoon. It is really and truly lovely outdoors. But I hope that doesn't stop you from listening to us for the next hour and a half.

 We had a lot of talk. We had a lot of interview. We had a lot of specialised programs. Civil Defence, I produced with Louis O'Rourke at your service.

 I totally enjoyed it. And I think the people that were involved with me like Betty and Barry Nevin and all the other people that had helped out over the years. I think we all got great track out of it. It was good fun. And not only was it good fun, but we did a good service at that time.



 I felt it was a community effort.

 Vincent Kerwin had a keen interest in local sports and presented a weekly show.

 And football is part of the community. Let's get the results out to the community as quick as we can because matches are played on a Sunday. The results were in the weekly people, which didn't come out down until Friday. So if you could get them out on radio a little bit quicker.



 And we used to get them out on Monday night. The fact that I did it made me feel a little bit proud that I brought local sport to the radio because local sport was never on the radio before that. And I broadcast in 1990 from Turkey. I think it was probably the first local radio station to do a live broadcast from as far away as that. When Bray Wanderers played in the Cup winners' Cup in Travsond in Turkey, I did a live broadcast for the second half of that. And I think that's probably a record that B&B hosts,



 that probably a lot of people don't even know about.

 I produced and presented sports programs over a while. And I'd be covering the local North Wicklow schoolboys district league. And I'd get stopped on the street next day and say, "My son scored two goals and he said he only scored one."



 All right, now I was also told of instances when the program went down on the air half seven on a Monday evening that the coronation street now was turned down. So the kids could hear their own name mentioned, "Dareff, this quarter goal." And Biggie Alpert would go into different houses right across the community. So that's identifying with your audience straight away, you know.

 All of this making radio was great. And as we've mentioned, we trained each other on how to do it. And for some, initially, it was an uphill struggle. Here's Jimmy Byrne.

 B&B used to go from nine in the morning to nine at night. And then they were going to extend from 9pm to 11pm. But I got a Monday night slot. Mark Quinn then came and mixed for me the first time. Jay Roach done two or three. And then after that, on the fourth week, I'll never forget, Jay Roach got up and said, "Right, you're on your own."



 And for one hour and 55 minutes, I was terrified. Microphone records, left deck, right deck, make sure the phages were up. And I was terrified. I don't know how I got through it.

 Ireland's only blind presenter at the time was our own Joe Ballard.

 Unfortunately, people who can see have a problem. They have to look at everything they do. It's a waste of time me doing that. Well, I'm sorry we have to fade that one there. The fields of Athens, right there from Paddy Riley. So what you've got to do is you've got to put your hand out and feel the microphone and get the judgment between there and there and the microphone. I can keep my head in front of the microphone and still do that with one hand, but it's all touch.

 Adrian Kennedy was a presenter and station manager.

 So you play one add on this cassette tape and one add on this cassette tape.

 Take off this winter with Eugene McGee travel.

 The craft was to make the outbreak flow seamlessly, which didn't always happen.

 When one record was playing, you would have to queue up the other record on the other deck. Now, you'd have a listen on a PFL or a pre-fade listen. You get it right to back to the beginning of the record.



 You're taking off a record and you put the back on again.

 Sally Byrne was involved in office duties and she also presented and produced programs.

 You're lifting over the needle and you're putting that on. And hopefully it works right for you.

 And here we have the carpenters.



 As it sort of took off and the turntable hadn't hit the speed.

 Last jump we got on the Arshira vision entry and take him home.



 Timmy Hannigan is so hunky.

 And we're up to this week's number four.

 You had Technics SL-1200s.

 Another presenter was Timmy Hannigan.

 Direct drive decks and they started in a quarter turn full speed. You had slip mats. You had decks that were quartz locked.

 The worst thing of course go wrong was you'd play the record the wrong speed.



 You put a 33 and a third on and you'd play it at 45. Now that may not make sense to a lot of people today. But they were real records. They were actually real hardcore. They were vinyl records. And you press it at the wrong speed. Well you had the chipmunks.



 On AM and FM this is BLB Community Radio.

 Thomas Kane presented the Ballads program.

 I used to have a few jokes as well. You know and a whole lot and read out different things. Somebody might say to me, "Oh that was a crap joke at all last night." And "Oh where did you get that from?" They'd say, "Thanks very much. Hope you enjoy the program." There was just some buzz there you know. Sitting in front of a microphone and talking to people or the person listening to me out there. I absolutely loved it. To be stopped in the street and someone recognised me voice. Oh I was in the alley.

 You're pulling all these parts together to make this sound. And that's a mixture of you know the spoken word. It's a mixture of music and silence at the right time.

 Obviously you couldn't have dead air. But you could rely on somebody in the toilet behind you flushing the loo. So you never had dead air then. There was the loo flushing. And that gave you a second to get your thoughts together to say, "Oh it's raining heavy outside today." Which film did this come from? 829359 if you know. And you could win yourself a little prize.

 When I started doing the Anything Irish program I mixed myself.

 Another regular presenter was Nick Eogan.

 Probably made lots of mistakes and I still have tapes to prove that. That I did make mistakes and who cares. It was fun at the time and it was real community radio. I've interviewed all the top Irish artists during those years. The people I met, the people I interviewed, incredible. When Bray lost his community radio they lost a huge chunk of information that was passed to people around the place. It's not the same in Bray anymore.

 So until we meet again, this is Nick Eogan saying do have yourselves a good day. If you're driving, drive safely and we'll see you again tomorrow.

 Between any one of us who presented programs on BLB we were always trying to improve. And the station managers had the job of keeping the standards up through gentle encouragement.

 The last time we were doing it was as hobby past time. But they were very good at it, really good at it. And I couldn't come to somebody and say you need to do it this way. You had to tiptoe around it in the sense that you said look this is a good idea, try it this way. And it worked and I think in the end we made really good radio.

 We tried to have standards in broadcasting, you know, balance, fairness, clarity.



 But then we didn't try to be a professional in the old sense of it being slick. Professional was about the content and about how we sounded rather than sounding slick fast. That wasn't what we were about.



 In our next episode we'll hear about the interviews that gave local politicians access to the airwaves for the very first time and how they lapped it up.

 At the moment I'm not quite satisfied with the bylaws. They go back to 1886. I will be putting that proposal forward at the next meeting of the council that the bylaws be amended.

 I feel that we did have a chance to do something about it. And unfortunately the rest of the council didn't grasp the chance.

 We'll also hear about the advertising that became so much a part of the sound of BLB and how producing those ads sometimes brought its frustrations. Prepare for some colourful language.

 Shop tonight at Mr T and leave your Saturday free. Yes, Mr T is open every... Ah, shite.



 Big names at low prices at Bray Wear. Fuck it.

 And that's all to come next time. My sincere thanks to all of the participants in this series. Sound recording was by Mike Quinn and sound mixing was by Luke Conlon, both of High Wire post-production Dublin. BLB, Sounds from the Past, Memories of Pirate Radio and stories of Bray Local Broadcasting was produced and presented by me, Mark Quinn and is a radiogenic production.