6CK was the first official

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and formed part of the national radio service of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between th ...

. The station was set up in 1927 as an expansion of 2RN, the national station established in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

the previous year. It aired on

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytime ...

, initially on the 400-metre band (749 kHz); on 15 January 1929 it switched to 222 metres (1350 kHz) and on 10 June of that year switched to 224 metres (1337 kHz). 6CK operated primarily as a local relay for 2RN as the signal from that station was too weak to be heard in Cork without much difficulty. However the station also had its own programmes and made a significant input to the national service. The station was initiated by

J. J. Walsh James Joseph Walsh (20 February 1880 – 3 February 1948), generally referred to as J. J. Walsh, was Postmaster General, (later Minister for Posts and Telegraphs) of the Irish Free State from 1923 to 1927. He was also a senior Gaelic Athletic A ...

who was Minister for Posts and Telegraphs of the Irish Free State and was responsible for broadcasting, having launched the first station, 2RN, the previous year. Walsh had been a local TD for Cork Borough and this may have influenced his decision to set up a second station in Cork. The station operated as 6CK for just under three years when, in September 1930, it was subsumed into the national network which later became "Radio Éireann" and eventually

Raidió Teilifís Éireann Raidi (; ; also written Ragdi; born August, 1938) is a Tibetan politician of the People's Republic of China. He served as a vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 2003 to 2008, and the highest ranking Tibeta ...

(RTÉ). However the studios continued to produce a considerable amount of material for the national service and the transmitter continued as a local relay for many years. The studios of 6CK were in a section of the old

Cork City Gaol Cork City Gaol is a former prison, now a museum, located in Cork City, Ireland. History In 1806 an Act of Parliament was passed to allow the building of a new Cork City Gaol to replace the old gaol at the North Gate Bridge (the old gaol, whi ...

Sundays Well Sunday's Well () is a suburb of Cork city in Ireland. It is situated in the north-west of the city, on a ridge on the northern bank of the River Lee. Sunday's Well is part of the Dáil constituency of Cork North-Central. The area's GAA club i ...

. The prison had only been recently vacated, having been used as an overflow prison for political prisoners at the end of the Irish War of Independence.

External links

6CK page at Radiowaves.FM

References

* Information from an audio recording of a programme "60 Years of Radio in Cork" first broadcast on

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

in 1987. ** {{DEFAULTSORT:6ck Radio stations in Ireland Defunct radio stations in the Republic of Ireland 1927 establishments in Ireland 1930 disestablishments in Ireland Culture in Cork (city)

See also

External links

References