Kildare Community Radio

Kildare Community Radio started out in a garden shed but was based for the vast majority of its life in a large residential building called St Martin’s House in Naas. The studio was located in the attic which had an area for the presenter and a slightly larger area for conducting interviews.

There was also a workshop in the building in which station owner Enda Bracken built transmitters, like the one KCR broadcast on, and repaired all sorts of gadgetry.

The station started out as a bit of fun but it became very popular so it kept going.

Kildare Community Radio ran on a non-profit basis, with aspirations to be a true community station. Most of the original DJs were just young people in their late teens. As the station grew, up to twenty presenters came to do shows from all across the county on a voluntary basis, usually lasting three hours.

News was gathered through people calling the station and thanks to collaboration with the local newspaper. A long local news bulletin was broadcast a few times a day, read by Enda. News from RTÉ was also relayed at various times.

Trasa Bracken, daughter of Enda and a presenter on the station, told us the following:-

I remember Enda started the station about 1979 just as I finished school. It started in a back shed behind the house and eventually moved to the upper floor of another shed.

The Garda station on the main Street looked down on the Market House. If there were any complaints, the Gardaí would call and ask Dad to switch off for a couple of hours. They never bothered us or raided us.

I used to go to the local hospital every Saturday to collect requests for the Hospital Request Show on Sunday mornings. I’m sure I did that for a couple of years. The patients were delighted to see me coming Saturday afternoon or evening at visiting time. And people phoned in requests too.

There is one thing all the DJs would laugh about: we were not allowed to play ‘Je T’aime’ – for the obvious reason. We would play it to piss Dad off, poor man! He worked in his workshop, listening to the shows, and on more than one occasion he broke the record. We would just buy another!

My dad also helped set up a few stations around the country. I believe Kilkenny Community Radio at the time was one of them.

Years later whenever we spoke about the radio station my Dad would stay: “Kept you all off the street and we knew where you were.”

John Troy remembers his time at KCR:-

It was an AM signal only as far as I can recall. I had a long walk from where I lived In Naas to the KCR studios with a bag of albums and singles, no CD players. No car at the time. Great fun all the same.