The last goodbye to longwave in Kildare

100 Years of Radio I BOUGHT a ‘wireless’ 30 years ago, not just any ‘wireless’ but a Bush DAC 90 valve set built in Shepherd's Bush, London; which inspired the company name.

Manufactured just after the end of World War II, it had already seen service for sixty years I bought it.

I had first seen a Bush DAC 90 in the kitchen of Hogan’s house on Leinster Street in Athy; the late Bridie Hogan had received it as a wedding present sometime in the 1950’s and it sat on a shelf in the kitchen tuned to Radio Eireann broadcasting on the Athlone 530 metre wavelength.

It was always on in the background, like an extra guest at the dinner table, the soft glow of the amber bulb lighting up the glass tuning panel with names of far-away places; Warsaw, Prague, Paris, Reykjavik, Hilversum, Budapest.

Athlone was at one end of the medium wave dial, and the BBC Home Service, later to be called BBC4, was available at the far end of the long wave receiver.

The DAC 90 is housed in a brown Bakelite case with the loudspeaker centrally located to the front, it is an iconic piece of radio history and widely collectable today.

I bought the wireless for one reason, to listen to ‘Test Match Special’, BBC broadcasts of test match cricket from Australia, the West Indies, India and tests from Lords, Trent Bridge, The Oval and Headingley on 1500 metres long-wave.

Most modern radios had dropped the long-wave band in favour of FM and in any cast the old valve sets had better reception.

Getting up at two in the morning in January and throwing a log into the embers of a dying grate while waiting for the radio to warm up; to listen to a broadcast from half a world away is something only cricket fans will appreciate.

With the advent of DAB radio and the wide availability of television coverage of sport, BBC moved the cricket commentary to Radio 5 Live in 2023 and there ended twenty years of listening to games through the crackle and hiss as the sun shone in Melbourne and the frost glistened on the concrete in the yard.

Sadly, the BBC closed down the last of the Radio 4 long-wave transmitters last weekend. I tuned in just after midnight on Friday to listen one last time to a radio station that has been part of my life for over forty years.

Al Ryan, from Kilcullen and formerly a presenter on RTÉ was reading the shipping forecast for Sole, Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea, Shannon, Rockall, Malin, Hebrides and Bailey.

Al was the last voice aired on the service after almost one hundred years of broadcasting.

He signed off, thanked the listeners for listening all through the years, and the last spoken words from the transmitter across the Irish Sea were spoken in his native tongue as he bid his listeners ‘Oiche mhaith’. It was a fitting farewell.