Remembering The Red Hot Sound of Sunshine 101 FM / 539 MW from Dublin...
Sunshine 101 was the first Super Pirate radio station in the Republic of Ireland and we started broadcasting on September 9, 1980 from a studio base on the grounds of The Sands Hotel, Portmarnock, County Dublin. Sunshine closed down for the very last time on December 30th 1988 at Six O’clock after eight wonderful, eventful y
ears having achieved the highest ratings of any Dublin radio station to this day. Our head office was in JWT House in Baggot Street in the heart of the city's commercial district. Sunshine Radio was set up by well known former Radio Caroline men Robbie Robinson, aka Robbie Dale, Chris Cary aka Spangles Muldoon aka “Harry” and ex-BBC broadcast engineer Jimmy White with some financial support from one of Radio Caroline's partners Phil Solomon.
*It had been Robbie Dale and Johnnie Walker who took Radio Caroline into illegality aboard the Mi Amigo on 14th August 1967. Shortly after making its first test transmissions Sunshine’s main aerial tower was vandalised and subsequently collapsed. Chris Cary and Phil Solomon backed out of the venture and sold to Robbie Dale only weeks after the station opened. Sunshine Radio started on 531 kHz (announced as 539 metres) medium wave, adding an FM service a year later on 91.6 FM initially. Sunshine initially was a full service ILR styled radio station and provided music and family entertainment, with hourly news updates to Dublin City and County. The Superpirates were raided only once, in 1983, leaving Nova off the air for less than a week and Sunshine a little longer because it waited for the District Court to order the return of its equipment confiscated in the raid. Sunshine 101 put a good signal into South and Western Scotland, as well as NW England on their 531kHz frequency, announced as 539m to rhyme with Sunshine. There were no VHF transmissions in the early days of Sunshine, although before too long a 91.6 stereo transmitter came on the air. Originally Robbie had wanted to use 88FM, so that anyone switching between AM and FM should have been close. Nova however jumped on the frequency first, after Chris Cary left Sunshine and went his own way. It was not until Radio Nova had been on the air and became very popular, that FM became well known to the public that reception was clearer. Sunshine was at this stage still running from 0300/2100 sign off. This was at least an extension on the initial 1800 sign off when we first made it to the air. In 1986, Robbie Dale hired Bill Cunningham from the Omaha, Nebraska in the United States, a radio ratings and format expert. Sunshine 101went from being almost a community station from Portmarnock, to Dublin's number 1 station, by a large margin. Phase one began by playing the same record over and over again, followed by phase 2. Remember "Mr Robinson Coo Coo Ca Choo", the generous manager, "The Big Kahuna", and "Don't say hello". Sunshine 101 stayed at the top of the ratings till the closedown in 1988. We’d like to bring back some of the music, the sounds, the pictures and the great memories of The Station The Belongs To The People of Dublin – Sunshine 101 FM.
