Local radio focus on surfing and racing

KILKEE-based community radio station Raidió Corca Baiscinn is ending 2010 with a flourish as it broadcasts new documentaries on surfing and the Kilkee Strand Races this month.

During the year, the station has produced a range of exciting and interesting documentaries and new programming, broadcast to South-West Clare, ranging from issues concerning the handball alley in Querrin, the Irish College in Carrigaholt, gardening food producers, sports and outside broadcasts from many of the local festivals across the region. The station also featured a series of programmes where a storyteller visited local schools to tell a story. Some of these programmes are being broadcast this month.
Surf Clare is a two-part series presented and produced by Conan Brophy, himself a keen surfer. Part one gives a snapshot of surfing in Clare, where it’s at and where it might be going, why people come here and where they go once they arrive in Clare. Part two takes a look at the phenomenon of big-wave surfing in the county and the attraction of waves like Aileen and Riley, two of the biggest and most challenging waves in the world. It will also examine tow-in surfing, where waves that are too powerful to paddle into, require surfers to be towed in using jet-skis, as there is no other way for a surfer to catch them.
The documentaries have been recorded over a number of months through the surf season, and include interviews with Tom Buckley, John McCarthy, Fergal Smith and many other local surfers and surf experts.
Part one will be broadcast on Monday at 4pm with a repeat on Thursday, December 16 at 6pm. Part two will be on Monday, December 20 at 4pm with a repeat on Christmas Eve at 6pm.
The documentary on the Strand Races in Kilkee was recorded in the run up to the races held in September and during the event itself. It includes interviews with organisers Willie McGrath and Pat Russell, together with local people such as Paddy McDonnell, who recalls the race meetings of the 1940s and 1950s. Bookies, owners, trainers and jockeys are interviewed about the excitement and great racing to be had on the strand at Kilkee and the atmosphere of the day is captured by interviews with onlookers and winning riders.
This documentary will be aired on Wednesday, December 22 at 6pm and again the following day at 4pm.
Raidió Corca Baiscinn is committed to producing programmes directly related to and involving the local community of South-West Clare, and more documentaries covering subjects as diverse as shipwrecks and local walks are planned for the new year. The frequencies are 92.5 ad 94.8 FM.