Recalling 6CK the first official radio station in Cork which broadcast from the old Cork City Gaol.
6CK was the first official radio station in Cork, established as an extension of 2RN, the national station set up in 1926. That station lasted just three years.
On 26 April 1927, the Cork radio station 6CK was officially switched on by JJ Walsh Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (pictured above).
Geraldine Neeson, broadcaster, and wife of the 6CK station director Seán Neeson speaks about her memories of the Cork station in an interview recorded on 28 December 1974.
The station was established in a former prison, which had last been used during the civil war. In 1927 the upper floor of the governor's house was converted into Cork's first broadcasting studio and offices. Geraldine Neeson describes in detail the physical layout of the station, from the curtains to the thick pile carpet. The station had one studio which had heavy curtains around the walls that had to be continually adjusted to get the acoustics in the right.
There was only one microphone, a square box with only one face to it in front of which the artists were grouped. Easy to manage for a solo item but raising problems when ensembles had to be arranged.
While the equipment in the studio may now appear primitive, the lack of resources meant that programme makers and presenters had to be creative. Geraldine Neeson describes the work done by her husband from sound, presenting, and singing.
It was pioneer work, exciting, demanding and rewarding.
Cork Radio Station closed in September 1930.
