Longwave radio Atlantic252

xzanti

Anyone remember this British radio station? I used to listen to it all the time as a kid/adolescent/teenager... Wonder what ever happened to it.. Great tunes

MarkR

I listen to longwave raaaadio atlantic two five two. He he..

swalsh

I used to listen to this too all the time. Always wondered what happened to it, as op said great music

Wishbone Ash

xzanti wrote: »

Anyone remember this British radio station? I used to listen to it all the time as a kid/adolescent/teenager... Wonder what ever happened to it.. Great tunes

I think RTE Radio One have that frequency now for their LW transmissions.

Atlantic 252 used to broadcast from Co Meath IIRC. I wouldn't have thought it old enought to be retro yet!

What about Radio Luxembourg in the pre 2FM days!

mental07

I hated Atlantic 252! They had a playlist of about 20 songs, and the sound quality was rubbish, it being on long wave and all. I was a 2FM kid

<jingle> The hotline.........TONYFENTON!

DarkJager

Atlantic 252 was a savage radio station... yeah the playlist wasn't anything massive, but the tunes they played were top quality!!

mental07

DarkJager wrote: »

Atlantic 252 was a savage radio station... yeah the playlist wasn't anything massive, but the tunes they played were top quality!!

But you could hear them on 2FM/any other station with decent sound!

DarkJager

I didn't think the sound was actually bad at all! Sounded the same to me as any other radio station...

mental07

DarkJager wrote: »

I didn't think the sound was actually bad at all! Sounded the same to me as any other radio station...

Nah it was all horrible and tinny.

2 stroke

252 sounded better than 2fm does in tipperary today.

Washout

is it where we were first introduced to Dusty Rodes?

mental07

Washout wrote: »

is it where we were first introduced to Dusty Rodes?

I think it was, and Rick O'Shea. Not to mention Robin Banks.

DarkJager

Can anyone remember the name of the show they used to have on on Saturday Afternoons??? Can't remember who was presenting it but it was like a mix of competitions and music, sort of like 2fm Saturday Show...

Wishbone Ash

DarkJager wrote: »

I didn't think the sound was actually bad at all! Sounded the same to me as any other radio station...

:eek: The sound on 252 was awful. I could never understand why anyone would listen to it when they had FM stations. I used to hate it, especially with those DJs with put-on British accents. I only even heard it when I had no choice but to hear it.

mike65

Dusty Rhodes, Sandy Beech etc!

Mike.

guinnessdrinker

Listening to longwave now, I know the sound is not great but as a kid listening to Atlantic 252 I don't think I knew the difference. All my friends used to listen to it at one stage. I remember the cash calls too, I listen to...

Ruu_Old

Yep, knew a fella who worked there who ended up working at at Red FM (I think he is still there).

Firetrap

There's a tribute site for it -> Atlantic 252.com. I loved it when I was a teenager and first started listening when they were doing the test transmissions. They used to keep playing Information Society's "What's on your mind" as one of the songs in the loop. Can't remember the others.

Wishbone Ash

guinnessdrinker wrote: »

I remember the cash calls too, I listen to...

Was that not Sunshine 101?

Sad people all over Dublin answering their 'phone with....

"I listen to the red hot sounds of Sunshine 101............" :rolleyes:

Ruu_Old

Were the cash calls the ones you had to guess how many pounds and pennies it was?

mental07

Eddie Temple Morris?! I remember him from MTV

byte

Ah, yes, I remember Atlantic 252 alright. Then it was replaced with TeamTalk 252, a station trying to rival BBC R5 Live and failing. Now it's just RTE R1.

Firetrap

That sports station was rubbish. It didn't last pissin' time
Back when Atlantic 252 started, there were still lots of cars on the road that didn't have FM radios in them. None of yer AM/FM nonsense - just MW/LW/SW. I'd say now you'd have to go out of your way to buy a stereo or a car radio with longwave on it. At least the signal was decent though - did anyone anywhere ever hear its sister station Radio Luxemburg in anything other than a fuzz of swirly noises and static? The kids with their DAB radios just don't understand.

L1011

xzanti wrote: »

Anyone remember this British radio station? I used to listen to it all the time as a kid/adolescent/teenager... Wonder what ever happened to it.. Great tunes

RTE owned, broadcast from Trim, transmitter in Summerhill.. it just PRETENDED to be British.

"And now, call the studio on 0035346...."

bullets

I remember 252 it was a popular station and played on the school bus
and every car when I was 16 years of age. I remember some song that
had lyrics "every where we go we always take the weather" (maybe the waterboys???) and also some song called the wind of change.

They repeated the songs over and over again. Only reason I remember
the station was that it was on all of the time when I was going on
a school trip to Achill Island where I lost my virginity to one of the
local girls.

~B

guinnessdrinker

The cash call was when the dj rang somebody up and said something like; "do you know the phrase that pays", and the person recieving the call would have to say; "I listen to longwave radio atlantic 252". Then they would win the cash!

bullets wrote: »

I remember 252 it was a popular station and played on the school bus
and every car when I was 16 years of age. I remember some song that
had lyrics "every where we go we always take the weather" (maybe the waterboys???) and also some song called the wind of change.

Yeah I remember them constantly playing "weather with you", it was by Crowded House, the other one you mention is I think by The Scorpions. Early 90's radio!

Wishbone Ash

Firetrap wrote:

did anyone anywhere ever hear its sister station Radio Luxemburg in anything other than a fuzz of swirly noises and static?

Yes, but we listened to Luxembourg in 'hand-me-down' transistors from the 1960s!

bullets wrote: »

I remember some song that
had lyrics "every where we go we always take the weather" (maybe the waterboys???)

Crowded House.

Firetrap

I listened to it a bit in the late 80s because the pirate stations were gone and there wasn't anything any good on 2FM at night that appealed to my teenage ears. Once Atlantic 252 closed down for the night, there was nuthin' to listen to.

Another song that they were always playing was Charles & Eddie's "Would I Lie To You"

_blank_

Regulate by Warren g and Nate Dogg was another song they used to play the whole time.

I used to love Long Wave Radio Atlantic252

mikep

Apparently A 252 had the record for most plays of one song in 24 hrs...something like 30 plays in 24 hours of Love is all around (or whatever) by Wet Wet Wet!!!!:eek:
Another reason to hate it!!!

I always thought it was a waste to boradcast music on LW....

mike65

Wind of Change was Das Scorpions song.

Mike.

kc66

I used to live in Trim. A mate of mine worked there at night putting on the songs. He wasnt exactly a DJ, just had a list of songs he had to play. A few nights on the way home from the night club we would call up to him for a laugh. Played a few special requests and left with bin liners full of promotional CDs.
Those were the days.

kelle

Back in January 1989, all the pirate stations were put off the air and we were left with Radio 1 and 2, which were crap as they mostly played music by Irish artists only. How i missed Radio Nova, Sunshine 101, Boyneside and Carousel. I relied heavily on all my cassette tape recordings.
Then along came Atlantic 252 the following Summer, and it played English and American music which I preferred! It was a lifesaver.
It's amazing the difference nowadays, you have a huge variety of radio stations, then you can go to the internet and listen to stations broadcast from the States. Also, you can listen to whatever you want on u-tube plus you can download music

stovelid

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Was that not Sunshine 101?

Sad people all over Dublin answering their 'phone with....

"I listen to the red hot sounds of Sunshine 101............" :rolleyes:

The thing you would do for a few quid in the 80's..

Remember Radio Dublin?

kelle wrote: »

How i missed Radio Nova, Sunshine 101, Boyneside and Carousel. I relied heavily on all my cassette tape recordings.
Then along came Atlantic 252 the following Summer, and it played English and American music which I preferred! It was a lifesaver.

I think Radio Nova used to do Kasey Kasem's American Top 40..used to love it. Everyone had a dodgy tape collection with loads of songs hacked off at that start, because you were poised with your fingers over the record/play buttons waiting for the DJ to stop talking...

kelle

stovelid wrote: »

I think Radio Nova used to do Kasey Kasem's American Top 40..used to love it. Everyone had a dodgy tape collection with loads of songs hacked off at that start, because you were poised with your fingers over the record/play buttons waiting for the DJ to stop talking...

I remember that programme, it was on every Saturday afternoon. The presenter was Ricky something, can't think of surname.
Casey Kasem did an American Top 10 programme on Channel 4 in 1989 which was broadcast at 4 in the morning, so the VCR came in handy. It was great to see what all those singers / musicians from Atlantic 252 looked like!
I remember those taped songs having the beginning and end hacked off - God, i'd forgotten that! That reminds me - I loved the instrumental bit at the end of Careless Whisper, but could never get it on tape because the DJ would talk over it, it took me years to finally capture it!

_blank_

Here you go kelle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J-zdutEhhM

Dudess

Ruu wrote: »

Yep, knew a fella who worked there who ended up working at at Red FM (I think he is still there).

Two people from there ended up in Red - both gone. Other than those two guys, Dusty Rhodes has a DAB production company now and one of its shows, hosted by him, is on Red on Sunday evenings.
Another 252 presenter, Hollywood Haze, has been with Cork's 96FM (Red's rival) for a few years now - but using the more langer-friendly moniker of Steve Hayes.
I remember Atlantic 252 well - often tuned into it between '90 and when it finished up, which was when? Around '98? Don't know why I did - it was awful. Same handful of songs on a loop. Despite broadcasting from Tara, it was marketed as a British station and so many of the presenters were Irish but put on British accents. Often people who phoned up from Ireland would get the piss taken out of their accents ("oh you're from oirland are ya?!" etc). Where was the revenue coming from? I don't remember ads. There was a guy called Al Dunne - he owns a PR company in Dublin now. And there was a plummy-accented news-reader on in the morning. Strange station. I thought it was sh*te but I still got into the habit of listening to it - I suppose kinda like the way you get used to a bad odour, and even miss it when it's gone . Yep, have to say I had a bit of affection for the old Atlantic.
Wishbone, it probably seems a bit too recent to be retro to you since you're, ahem, of a slightly different generation to the average Boardsie - even if this is All Things Retro! I think stuff from the early 90s is retro now. But mid 90s, no, not yet. However, some Boards users were BORN in the early 90s - :eek: ANYTHING is retro to them!

kelle

Aw, thanks a lot DesF!

jamieh

I remember years ago they rang my granny looking for the phrase that pays and she didn't know it!! She missed out on lots of monies

Firetrap

They used to have ads for teenage sort of things like nail polish and tampons. The plummy voiced newsreader was Andrew Turner IIRC. He had a bit of an obsession with El Dorado, the ill-fated BBC soap. I'm not sure whether El Dorado should be filed under retro or under kitsch!

Drag00n79

kelle wrote: »

I remember that programme, it was on every Saturday afternoon. The presenter was Ricky something, can't think of surname.

Rick Dees is probably the guy.

kelle

Shamrok wrote: »

Rick Dees is probably the guy.

That's him! Thanks for that, Shamrok. So he's still going strong.

L1011

Dudess wrote: »

I remember Atlantic 252 well - often tuned into it between '90 and when it finished up, which was when? Around '98? Don't know why I did - it was awful. Same handful of songs on a loop. Despite broadcasting from Tara, it was marketed as a British station and so many of the presenters were Irish but put on British accents. Often people who phoned up from Ireland would get the piss taken out of their accents ("oh you're from oirland are ya?!" etc). Where was the revenue coming from? I don't remember ads.

Closed in 2002 after a while of being a dance station.

Transmitter was about as much in Tara as the motorway will be (e.g. it wasn't - it was in Summerhill, nearer to Kilcock almost)

Revenue = peak of 4,000,000 listeners x small amount of ads = ching ching. The joint owners made a LOT of cash off it in the 1990s.

Was so succesful in the UK as they had no indepedent national radio until 1992, and no mainstream one till 93; and they do to this day listen to AM a lot more than we do...

Dudess

Well that general area in Meath - I knew I wasn't 100% correct but I didn't expect pedantry.

kelle

MYOB wrote: »

Transmitter was about as much in Tara as the motorway will be (e.g. it wasn't - it was in Summerhill, nearer to Kilcock almost)

Is that transmitter still there? I haven't been out that way in a while, I haven't noticed whether it is or not.

cazzy

252 is still been used now and again. Wasnt it used in that charity radio station thing on rte - where irish celebrities became DJ's for a week and they broadcast on LW 252.

I loved it as a teenager too. Everyone went out buying radios that had LW on them again ! I had to buy one especially as a lot of new radios didnt have LW then. I knew it was broadcast from Ireland but they wanted to broadcast to a British audience. Presumed it was to make more advertising money so it was meant to be perceived as British with a London mailing address and phone number which was redirected to Ireland !

I rememebred all the shops hairdressers etc at the time all had 252 on .. it was seen as the cool station that had no talk just music - like the early MTV - was strange the way it was so popular in Ireland for a while and then just dropped off the radar so quickly again !
I miss the old MTV too - non stop videos and music - with no silly programs of beavis and butthead or paris hilton carrying around a dog thats smaller than a cat. Just like the beat box on a sunday morning. That was good too. Bring it all back .....

L1011

kelle wrote: »

Is that transmitter still there? I haven't been out that way in a while, I haven't noticed whether it is or not.

It is and its in use *every day* to carry RTE Radio 1...

L1011

Dudess wrote: »

Well that general area in Meath - I knew I wasn't 100% correct but I didn't expect pedantry.

Wasn't meant to be pedantic... but its like claiming Balbriggan is the "general area" of Sandyford

The parent company was called something like "Radio Tara 2000" or something corny like that, however.

Boardsbud

Radio Tara was jointly owned by RTL (who also owned Radio Luxembourg) and RTE. Plank Kenny was the chairman of Radio Tara afaik. Open to correction here but I think the Summerhill mast is the tallest structure in Ireland.

Dudess

MYOB wrote: »

Wasn't meant to be pedantic... but its like claiming Balbriggan is the "general area" of Sandyford

Definitely my mistake so. And I'm half Meath! For shame!

Antenna

Boardsbud wrote: »

Open to correction here but I think the Summerhill mast is the tallest structure in Ireland.

no,
The Tullamore one is a bit taller (RTE on 567kHz)