I’m sad to hear of the passing a few days ago of Ollie Dowling, the founder of Jazz fm, Dublin’s only “urban” pirate radio station. He gave me a two-hour show between 1998 and 2002, which I called The Deep End and very much enjoyed presenting.. There were no playlists so we could play whatever we wanted (though one presenter did get fired for playing Stairway to Heaven, which is fair enough). He cheekily set the broadcast frequency to 89.8, exactly halfway between RTE Radio One and 2FM, so we were happened across by people from all over the city. At one point I was getting regular requests from listeners on the wings in Mountjoy Prison.

There was no better feeling than getting a call into the station on a sunny Saturday afternoon and being told I was playing a blinder, and that the caller had pointed the speakers out into the back garden so everyone could enjoy it.

I’ve put together a playlist of music I used to feature on the show - click image for link

Ollie had been a DJ in the Pink Elephant nightclub and elsewhere (you can read more about him on Nialler9’s site). As a station manager he was very diligent about monitoring the shows, and if any of us “forgot” to play the super cheesy ads every 20 minutes we could expect an call. He’d spent time in the army, and I imagined I could hear more than a little of the NCO in his tone. The one time he relented was when I put together a special show for Martin Luther King’s birthday, full of protest songs, gospel and snippets from MLK’s speeches. Ollie rang up to tell me he liked what he was hearing, to keep going and not to bother playing any of the ads - an honour indeed.

MLK Birthday Special - click image for link

He was in touch again last year, texting me links to particularly nifty remixes and songs that reminded him of my show. It was great to hear from him, and to see that his passion for wonderful music was undimmed.

RIP Ollie.