The Anorak Hour with Ger Roe

The Anorak Hour was one of the longest-running programmes of its genre! It ran for 13 years, on three different - albeit related - radio stations. It appeared as a pirate flagship programme; under two temporary licences (with a change of name) and eventually ran its course under a full licence.

Borne out of an anorak chat segment on Coast FM, the Anorak Hour first appeared in 1994. Ger Roe brought the structure of previous shows such as the Pirates Promotion Programme on Radio Dublin Channel 2 and the FRC Show on Radio Annabel from the 80s, to run alongside the news segments broadcast weekly by Pete Reed.

Sunday 1pm was the time decided on; a time that survived the programme's run on a second station, Spectrum 105, through to its third home on Phantom FM. Only a fully licensed Phantom necessitated a time change.

The format was perfect; 45 minutes of archived recordings; interviews; nostalgia; features from across the radio world, leading to Pete Reed's 15 minutes of fame as he brought the show to a close with the latest radio industry news, discussed in depth with Ger.

Our association with the programme came at the start of 2000 when we started carrying an on-demand version of the show straight after it aired on FM. This proved so popular that a permmanent archive of the programme was established and this is its present, and final, incarnation.

Naturally there are gaps, very definitely pre 2000 (you will find some episodes at The Anorak Hour page in our FRC history section and the odd episode here and there beyond 2000. Let us know if you can help fill the gaps.