A first independent radio station for Ireland Capital Radio hits the airwaves.
DJ Scott Williams played the first song, 'Old Town' by Phil Lynott on the new Capital Radio 104.4FM.
The breakfast show with Colm Hayes broadcast live from the station’s temporary studio in the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre.
Minister for Communications Ray Burke the man who took the pirate radio stations off air attended the new station’s breakfast launch at the Berkeley Court Hotel.
The former bosses of Radio Nova and Q102 were also at the launch as they went legal with Capital Radio. Along chief executive Jim Aiken, the former pirates have raised £1.2 million to turn a radio licence into the new radio station.
During the 1970s pirate radio stations such as Radio Dublin and Radio Carousel in Dundalk operated on tiny budgets and were characterised by 24 hour music. However the Radio Bill stipulates that stations must broadcast almost 5 hours of news and current affairs daily.
Despite initial teething troubles Capital says it will be meeting that target from day one.
Director of Capital Radio Mick Hogan does not expect the station to show a profit in its first year and calculates it will lose £200,000.
I’d like to see a net profitability at the end of year three in the region of 10 – 15% on turnover.
In cash terms he thinks this will equate to £200,000 – £250,000 in year three.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 20 July 1989. The reporter is Maggie O’Kane.
