Pirate Premises - Radio Stations Based In Hotels or Pubs

My recent writeup of 1001099 Bonnington Hotel reminded me of its important place in Dublin's pirate radio history - and how licenced premises have often had close links to the pirate scene. Nightclubs - or specific club nights - were often the only advertisers on the dance pirates I listened to in the early 2000s; and when we go back to the "super pirate" era many of the major players were based out of hotels. In many cases, particularly for the medium wave stations, their entire setup including transmission was at the site of a suitably located hotel; but some of these are only studio locations.

On the linked pages, extensively on dxarchive.com, you will notice many of the major names of Irish radio of recent decades including Ian Dempsey and the late Tony Fenton as working at these stations.

This is an attempt to be exhaustive; but absolutely can't be - I didn't live through much of the pirate era and despite working in radio I don't know everything that came before!

The Bonnington was the Crofton Airport Hotel back then, and was home to ARD - Alternative Radio Dublin as mentioned in that writeup; but the one I was always more aware of was the base at the Portmarnock N0318 White Sands Hotel for Sunshine Radio - unconnected to the current station of that name. Southside Radio's longest standing base was at the Hotel Victor - now S0787 Rochestown Lodge Hotel

Radio Nova's setup was possibly the most complicated, with the station actually taking over the Green Acres Country Club and operating it as "Nova Park". This location in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains was their transmission site and a commercial enterprise but not their studio location, which was on Herbert Street in the city centre. Treble TR also used to broadcast from the same site. I had actually been unsure if this was a pub until today, when a specific archive dig found reference to it for sale with a standard (7 day) publicans licence. Many country clubs/golf clubs are members clubs and aren't in my normal scope.

An odd aside to this was a brief attempt at a pirate television station - Channel D - initially broadcast from the now demolished Camelot Hotel on the Malahide Road.

The introduction of Independent Radio in 1989 reduced the number of stations onair in an area and marginalised the remaining pirate operators, however it did not die out entirely - Phantom broadcast from S0120 Whelans during their pirate era, with their spiritual successor online/temporary licenced station 8Radio having done so also until moving to offices attached to S3175 Mercantile Hotel.

While outside of Dublin, one other example I am aware of is the licenced station for Cavan - Northern Sound - used to have studios at the Cavan Crystal Hotel until destroyed by a fire in 2003.

And finally, we have a seasonally appropriate ending to this, the temporary licenced Christmas FM has broadcast from a hotel for its entire operational life - initially the now demolished S1388 Clyde Court Hotel before moving to the adjacent D4 Hotels complex, then the S3883 Alexander Hotel and returning to the then renamed S0775 Ballsbridge Hotel, where was based until that hotels closure in 2021. It moved to 1013363 Clayton Hotel Liffey Valley for its 2022 season.


Update May 2020
As an aside to some other research, I landed on a reference to ABC Radio Dublin operating from the "Ivy Rooms" - now known as N0906 The Gate Hotel - or Fibbers to most people.

Update November 2020

Another case of running in to something after the original article - Double R Radio is referenced as to having operated from the Waldorf Hotel (now N1195 Clifton Court Hotel) and later N1133 Lucan Spa Hotel in 1981/82

Update June 2023

Despite working in broadcasting of various kinds for the guts of a decade over the years, I was never aware that there had been an actual radio station (as opposed to unscheduled broadcasts) prior to Radio Éireann 2RN - but there was, and it broadcast from a licenced premises. 2BP broadcast in 1923 from S0311 Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire