Munster and local radio celebrate 30th anniversary

IT has been 30 years since Munster’s famous victory over the All Blacks and they will celebrate that magnificent achievement with a return game against the mighty New Zealanders at Thomond Park on November 18th.

Munster’s historic win sent shock waves around World rugby and has gone down as one of the great victories for the underdog.

Thirty years ago in Limerick another great happening took place but it has not been so readily documented.

Local radio was born in 1978 and one of the first stations in Limerick was Big L.

Big L was owned by Mike Richardson and operated out of a little basement in Ellen Street.

Mike is an electronic genius and the station, with just a humble little transmitter and one table for three microphones, produced a terrific sound.

Big L was a pirate station. The only official radio with a license in Ireland back then was RTE.

Local politicians however secretly welcomed the pirates as they quickly realized they could express their views on radio. They had no chance of getting on the National airwaves.

Former European Commissioner Pat Cox had a fascinating politics programme on Big L.

There is a book to be written on the local pirate stations but that’s for another day.

The late Tommy Hynes was chairman of the Big L Sports Team.

Tommy recruited his own team as only he could do. Tony McMahon was the senior soccer man. Sean Murphy was our GAA main man.

Mr. Athletics Ronnie Long looked after athletics and the minority sports. Des Fitzgerald read the horse racing results every night and Jim Upton was our tennis correspondent.

Pat Flash Gleason looked after junior soccer and I was the rugby man.

Pat Grace of Kentucky Fried Chicken sponsored the sports and the big Saturday morning show went out from 10 to 11am.

Thirty years on and the main Saturday sports show still runs at the same time on Limerick’s Live 95FM.

Tony Ward was the main man on the Garryowen, Munster and Irish team at the time. Wardy would add over 1000 fans to the gate in Dooradoyle when he was playing for the ‘Light Blues’.

Max Boyce’s ‘Hymns And Areas’ was my theme song for the rugby slot and Wardy, who owned a sports store with Dave Mahedy, was a great fan of that song.

In 1980 Tommy Hynes took the sports team to Radio Lui

mnigh and Leonard Burke joined Tony McMahon in the soccer slot.

We spent 10 very happy years there with John ‘The Man’ Frawley, Walter Stanley, Alf de Lacey, Don Murray, Mike Hogan, Joe, The Dane, Hayes, Larry and Margaret.

John was a natural radioman and he had the priceless ability of a term I call the ‘link’. He could communicate with people via the radio microphone and make them think he was talking directly to them across the kitchen table.

World famous comedian Billy Connolly spoke openly about his affection for Radio Luimnigh to Gay Byrne on the Late Late in the 80’s.

Billy said every time he passed through Limerick he couldn’t wait to tune in. “The guy who runs that station is off the wall” said Billy. “You just have to listen to him”.

Gay Byrne was a bit disingenuous in his reply “Oh yes”, he is the fellow who reads out the death notices”. He said with a snigger.

The death notices are now the main stay of every local radio station in the country.

I didn’t get to broadcast on that famous Munster and All Blacks game in ’78 as our equipment was a bit primitive then, but I hope to readdress that on November 18th on Limerick’s Live 95 FM.

Irish squad train at UL THE AIB All Ireland League First Division teams will have a break until November 29th with Shannon, Garryowen UL/ Bohemians and Young Munster taking time out to evaluate where they stand.Clontarf, Blackrock, Saint Mary’s and Old Belvedere are currently in the top four with just four games played but as has often been said you don’t win trophies in October and the Limerick sides know that very well.The Autumn Internationals now take centre stage.

The Irish squad is currently in camp at the magnificent University of Limerick sports complex with their first International taking place against Canada at Thomond Park on November 8th.It will be interesting to see what team Declan Kidney picks against Canada.

He won’t have the luxury of experimenting too much as the three autumn Internationals will have a bearing on Ireland’s World standing and we don’t want to be going to Russia to qualify for the next World Cup.Ireland should beat Canada but the other two games against the All Blacks on November 15th and Argentina on November 22nd will be torrid affairs.We have never beaten the All Blacks at International level but we could do the business against Argentina.Interesting times ahead for the coach and his players.

Irish squad train at UL THE AIB All Ireland League First Division teams will have a break until November 29th with Shannon, Garryowen UL/ Bohemians and Young Munster taking time out to evaluate where they stand.Clontarf, Blackrock, Saint Mary’s and Old Belvedere are currently in the top four with just four games played but as has often been said you don’t win trophies in October and the Limerick sides know that very well.The Autumn Internationals now take centre stage.The Irish squad is currently in camp at the magnificent University of Limerick sports complex with their first International taking place against Canada at Thomond Park on November 8th.It will be interesting to see what team Declan Kidney picks against Canada.He won’t have the luxury of experimenting too much as the three autumn Internationals will have a bearing on Ireland’s World standing and we don’t want to be going to Russia to qualify for the next World Cup.Ireland should beat Canada but the other two games against the All Blacks on November 15th and Argentina on November 22nd will be torrid affairs.We have never beaten the All Blacks at International level but we could do the business against Argentina.Interesting times ahead for the coach and his players. 

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