From pirate stations to murder cases: Paul Byrne marks 40 years in media
Paul Byrne in 1998. Picture: Billy Higgins
Paul Byrne says he will never forget that first morning, four decades ago, his stomach sick from nerves, as he climbed the steps to Cork City Local Radio (CCLR), a pirate radio station based on French Church Street, and the first words he spoke on air, at 14-years-of-age: “Good morning everybody, welcome to Teen Beat.”
A demo tape submitted a week or two earlier had yielded his big break, his 15-minute Saturday slot soon being extended to 20 minutes, and later an hour. From there, he worked in most of Cork’s pirate stations, before landing in the original South Coast Radio, and then ERI, working alongside John Creedon (then John Blake) and Neil Prendeville (then Jim Lockhart), two men he credits as broadcasting heroes.
