Capital 104 1989

Orange Pants

Why wasn't it successful ?

Declan A Walsh

First off, before we look into your question, it was called Capital Radio at the time!

Here are my observations and theories - not very scientific I'm afraid!

When Capital Radio was launched in July 1989, it was the first ever licensed commercial independent radio station in Ireland.

I'm sure that it had a pretty good listenership in the summer of 1989 as all the big pirate stations had closed down in 1988 and there was a handful around at that stage in 1989. Capital Radio's main competition at that point would have been 2FM.

By September 1989, there were two new competitors in the market:Atlantic 252 on Longwave and Century Radio on FM and Medium Wave. The former would have taken quite a bit of listeners as Longwave was in most (if not all) cars at that time and you could listen on long journeys without having to retune, and the music content was very similar. FM was not in all cars at the time. Century Radio, as we know now, did not make much of an indent in Dublin.

But in November 1989, another serious Dublin competitor on FM arrived in the shape of 98FM, or Classic Hits 98FM, as it was called then. Undoubtedly, depending on listeners' music taste, some would have switched over to 98FM.

Between the end of 1989 and 1991, other local stations were launched in neighbouring counties. This would have taken some more listeners, particularly those who were commuting or those living close to other counties, e.g. Horizon Radio/East Coast Radio, CKR and LMFM.

Furthermore, the pirate scene began to re-ignite significantly in 1991, and some began to eat into the audience of Capital Radio, for example DLR, as well as the continued existence of Radio Dublin.

I think the competition from various quarters forced the hand of the powers that be and they decided to target a particular type of audience by renaming and relaunching Capital Radio as Rock104 circa May 1991. This era lasted until April 1992. But other pirates had appeared from the summer of 1991 on such as NSR, Coast FM and Sunset Radio. So the market was getting more fragmented, even if Century Radio was now history.

So, it was relaunched as FM104 and got some focus back. Since then, it has withstood competition from dance pirates and other new licensed stations. Indeed, many of FM104's presenters now came from those very pirates it was competing against! Atlantic 252 faded away as Long Wave fell out of favour. The big pirates of the '90s and '00s are gone and now we are back to a handful.

98FM ultimately seems to have lost out, after reinventing itself, while the station formerly known as Capital Radio holds its own.

Declan A Walsh

This is not probably relevant to the original question posed, but it is interesting to see where some of the original presenters of Capital Radio are now.

Scott Williams (the first voice heard on the day of its launch) is Chief Executive/presenter with Q102. Liam Coburn and Gerry Stevens are also with Q102.

Jason Maine is retired.

Aidan Leonard is producer/presenter with 2FM. Colm Hayes, the first breakfast presenter on 104.4, returned to 2FM after many years with Capital Radio/Rock104/FM104.

Chris Barry returned in the last year to FM104, having been away from the station for a number of years.

Dave Kelly went behind the scenes into management after a year or two. He is still there. These days he is Group Controller of FM104 and Q102, as they are both owned now by UTV.

Mike Duggan is with Wicklow's East Coast FM.

I do not know what happened to Ross Allen.

chilloutrelax

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

This is not probably relevant to the original question posed, but it is interesting to see where some of the original presenters of Capital Radio are now.

Scott Williams (the first voice heard on the day of its launch) is Chief Executive/presenter with Q102. Liam Coburn and Gerry Stevens are also with Q102.

Jason Maine is retired.

Aidan Leonard is producer/presenter with 2FM. Colm Hayes, the first breakfast presenter on 104.4, returned to 2FM after many years with Capital Radio/Rock104/FM104.

Chris Barry returned in the last year to FM104, having been away from the station for a number of years.

Dave Kelly went behind the scenes into management after a year or two. He is still there. These days he is Group Controller of FM104 and Q102, as they are both owned now by UTV.

Mike Duggan is with Wicklow's East Coast FM.

I do not know what happened to Ross Allen.

What was the original schedule?

GSF

Orange Pants wrote: »

Why wasn't it successful ?

Wasn't the problem more that Capital got a good audience but it was very focused on the young age range that advertisers didnt want to pay big money for. 98fm by contrast with its classic hits format got the housewives audience and the advertisers money. So Capital changed format first to a male oriented rock format and then to a slightly older version of the original version of Capital where it largely remains today

STB.

Orange Pants wrote: »

Why wasn't it successful ?

Portacabins on a roof dont work!

@ Declan. How could you forget Liam Coburn!

Other who did stints on air, Martin Block, Gerry Stevens, John Power, (the tall one, perhaps the tallest man in Irish radio ever) KP and Dave Dennehy.

The late TA was there as well.

Half of the "20/20" newsroom are now on RTE, Mark Costigan, Maura O Neill, Avril Hoare, Patsy McGarry, the Jacksons, Donal and and and and the famous one who didnt end up in RTE but in the klink.

They had perhaps the most imaginative advert writers in TA and Pat Harkin. The late Garrett Scully was there also!

weh eh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FETnecUbBk8

Fran1985

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

I think the competition from various quarters forced the hand of the powers that be and they decided to target a particular type of audience by renaming and relaunching Capital Radio as Rock104 circa May 1991. This era lasted until April 1992.

So the rock 104 era didnt even last a year??? This isnt even a full listenership book (provided they had jnlr type surveys then). Was there a change of ownership/management that resulted in this happening?

Declan, when are you going to write a book on this stuff?

STB.

John O Hara......also !

Anorak overload.....more soundchecks than you shake an old blue cart at.

http://www.dxarchive.com/downloads_craigavon.html#capital_104

chilloutrelax

STB. wrote: »

John O Hara......also !

Anorak overload.....more soundchecks than you shake an old blue cart at.

http://www.dxarchive.com/downloads_craigavon.html#capital_104

Wow... Overload indeed!! Thanks.

Any fm104 in the 90s or even Rock104?

soc160

STB. wrote: »

John O Hara......also !

Anorak overload.....more soundchecks than you shake an old blue cart at.

http://www.dxarchive.com/downloads_craigavon.html#capital_104

Jaysus... there goes my weekend....

Declan A Walsh

STB. wrote: »

Portacabins on a roof dont work!

@ Declan. How could you forget Liam Coburn!

Other who did stints on air, Martin Block, Gerry Stevens, John Power, (the tall one, perhaps the tallest man in Irish radio ever) KP and Dave Dennehy.

The late TA was there as well.

Half of the "20/20" newsroom are now on RTE, Mark Costigan, Maura O Neill, Avril Hoare, Patsy McGarry, the Jacksons, Donal and and and and the famous one who didnt end up in RTE but in the klink.

They had perhaps the most imaginative advert writers in TA and Pat Harkin. The late Garrett Scully was there also!

weh eh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FETnecUbBk8

I didn't forget Liam Coburn, or, for that matter, Gerry Stevens. I mention them with Scott Williams in my post!

In relation to John Power, he joined the station when it became Rock104 - I was looking at the presenters who were there at the beginning.

When was David Dennehy with them? Martin Block - he was the first Chief Executive of Capital Radio if I'm not mistaken. I did not know he was on air - when and doing what?

STB.

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

I didn't forget Liam Coburn, or, for that matter, Gerry Stevens. I mention them with Scott Williams in my post!

In relation to John Power, he joined the station when it became Rock104 - I was looking at the presenters who were there at the beginning.

When was David Dennehy with them? Martin Block - he was the first Chief Executive of Capital Radio if I'm not mistaken. I did not know he was on air - when and doing what?

Sorry Declan, had missed that!

John Power was there when it was Capital when it moved to O'Connell Bridge. Martin did the occasional on air stint here and there, filling in. Tony Allen defo did one too.

Dennehy, John Power and Kieran Phillips did some of the swing gigs.

chilloutrelax wrote: »

Wow... Overload indeed!! Thanks.



Any fm104 in the 90s or even Rock104?

Not much have a look at the links below. The first one is very good for 2fm early 90s, but there are other Irish ILR's in there too


http://aircheckdownloads.com/uk.htm


http://www.jinglenews.com/airchecks/

Losty Dublin

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

When was David Dennehy with them?

Dennehy was on Century, certainly from 1990 and covered a lot of shows asides from his time on Easy 103. If he was on Capital then it would have been in the early days.

STB.

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Dennehy was on Century, certainly from 1990 and covered a lot of shows asides from his time on Easy 103. If he was on Capital then it would have been in the early days.

He was.

After Sunshine, Dave was at BHR, Century, Capital.

Horizon merged with Easy and became East Coast FM and if I remember correctly, Dave was on the Horizon side. The late Jim Kenny was running Easy from the old BOI in wicklow town at the end after the departure of Hunter and dave C.

Losty Dublin

STB. wrote: »

He was.

After Sunshine, Dave was at BHR, Century, Capital.

Horizon merged with Easy and became East Coast FM and if I remember correctly, Dave was on the Horizon side. The late Jim Kenny was running Easy from the old BOI in wicklow town at the end after the departure of Hunter and dave C.

I remember applying as a 15 year old to BHR for work experience and actually speaking to DH and thinking "wow". I did some shows there and afterwards he told me that I was more than welcome to visit the station with view to get more experience on air. I called in one day, he was there and he sent me packing saying it was too busy for me to be there and that there was unlikely to be any shows for me to cover. Thanks a bunch; I should have dealt with Eddie West instead

STB.

Eddie West. Theres a name I haven't heard in a long time.

I see he is gone from DTR/Cool. What happened there ?

thejuggler

Wasn't Neil Prendeville (Later of Corks 96FM/Redfm) on Capital at the beginning? He left to join Radio South in Cork in August of 1989

Losty Dublin

STB. wrote: »

Eddie West. Theres a name I haven't heard in a long time.

I see he is gone from DTR/Cool. What happened there ?

Not being smart but I dare say he got too old for their demo, and that's saying something :-)

RadioRetro

Mark Costigan was one of James Reilly's special advisers when he was Health Minister, dunno what he's at now.

When last I heard Ross Allen was working behind the scenes at WLR but that was a while ago. Prior to that he did lunchtime on South East Radio.

I still have a couple of Rock 104 stickers I found down the back of a desk when we were packing up FM104 to move from the Liver Building to Hume House.

STB.

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Not being smart but I dare say he got too old for their demo, and that's saying something :-)

or got sick of the music! He was PD last time I checked.

vince

thejuggler wrote: »

Wasn't Neil Prendeville (Later of Corks 96FM/Redfm) on Capital at the beginning? He left to join Radio South in Cork in August of 1989

Yes

Declan A Walsh

vince wrote: »

Yes

I never knew Neil had any connection with Dublin radio. What did he do on Capital and when?

Weekly_Top_40

STB. wrote: »

and the famous one who didnt end up in RTE but in the klink.

Who was this?

STB.

Weekly_Top_40 wrote: »

Who was this?

Vinnie Connell

vince

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

I never knew Neil had any connection with Dublin radio. What did he do on Capital and when?

It was hes first irish radio job after returning from canada. I personally never neard the show I think it was a current affairs show. He went onto radio south after.

thejuggler

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

I never knew Neil had any connection with Dublin radio. What did he do on Capital and when?

He mentioned it in 'The Jolly Roger' the new book by Trevor & Noel Welch about the Cork Pirate radio era. Basically said he came back from Canada where he was doing news current affairs and worked with Capitol for a few months before Radio South came on air. Said he had to leave when management in Radio South found out he was working for Capital. (He had already signed contracts with radio south to work for them)

Incidentally the book is a good read for anyone who remembers the Cork pirates - not sure if its available to purchase outside Cork though