Irish pirate radio former CBC and CCLR stations along with some from the DJing circuit at the time of the closures of both CBC, CCLR with the introduction of the new Radio Licensing Laws which led to the closure of many pirate radio stations in Ireland. Radio City was the first station to use and switch from the medium wave transmitter to an FM transmitter. Most of the Radio City presenters went to national and local licensed radio stations. Other notable stations that came along were radio caroline cork the longest running pirate station of them all still on corks airwaves to this
Irish pirate radio weeks after the station opened. Sunshine Radio started on 531 kHz (announced as 539 metres) medium wave, adding an FM service a year later. Chris Cary went on to start Radio Nova in the following year, 1981, with studios in Herbert Street, Dublin. Nova was the first major Irish pirate to commence with FM, on 88.1 MHz (it ended up on 102.7 MHz). The station added an AM frequency at a later stage which varied between 819 kHz, 828 kHz 846 kHz and 738 kHz. After the success of Radio Nova on FM, Robbie Robinson broadcast Sunshine at high power