Atlantic 252 closed down 20 years ago this month

JJKC

Does it really feel like 20 years since we last heard pop music on longwave ?

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058222690/atlantic-252-closed-down-20-years-ago-this-month

That's right - it was Thursday the 20th December 2001. The actual anniversary will be next Monday. Atlantic 252 provided valuable radio experience to many Irish, British and even North American deejays. Many of them had come from pirates, both offshore and onshore. Some have left Ireland completely, especially the non-Irish staff, but some are still involved here with radio.

Who went through Atlantic 252 at one point or another and are still on Irish radio? Here are some:

Liam Coburn, aka Batman Gomez - Dublin's Q102

Rick O'Shea - RTE Radio 1

Steve Hayes, aka Hollywood Haze - Cork's 96FM

Mark Whelan, aka Dickie Bow - Limerick's Live95FM

Al Dunne - RTE Gold and probably a producer elsewhere on RTE

Charlie Wolf, an American who came from British offshore pirate Laser, used to present on Cork's Red FM, but is now based in Britain. Henry Condon, aka Henry Owens, was the chief executive of Red FM, but sadly passed away a few years ago. Mark Byrne presented on a number of Dublin-based stations, but then left to pursue a career as a pilot, returning for part-time radio for a while. I last heard him two years ago on Christmas FM. Paul Kavanagh went on to be DG of Monaco-based Radio Riviera. Enda Caldwell had involvement with the latter and continues to be connected to a number of different stations around the world, including "New York's Only Dance Station" Pulse 87  - look him up!

Just a taster - there's a lot of ex-Atlantic 252 plying their radio trade outside Ireland, particularly the UK!

medoc

Who owns the rights to the Atlantic 252 name and other copyrights? It would surely be very popular if it reappeared online. Lots of online “jukebox” stations out there but I think the 252 of the mid 90’s would make a great addition. The music and jingles etc would attract people reliving their youth. Maybe even some live programs from time to time from some of the former dj’s.

joebloggs32

The phrase that pays!

I listen to longwave radio, Atlantic 252

Talk about nostalgia overload as i saw this pop up. Dozed off to sleep nearly every night listening to 252

corsav6

Woah, this brought me back. I have good memories of falling to sleep listening to LW 252.

JJKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118316808#Comment_118316808

All such copyrights were owned by "Radio Tara Limited" the parent company, However that company was dissolved 10 years ago https://www.solocheck.ie/Irish-Company/Radio-Tara-Limited-106571

ford fiesta

Al Dunne only has one weekend show on RTE Gold, he does not work for RTE. He has his own Media company: Unique Media

Declan A Walsh

I hinted at it there with certainly some of the presenters I mentioned in my earlier post, but I think the station will be remembered also for the funny names that many gave themselves. As well as some mentioned above, there was Jo King, Cliff Walker, Desperate Dan, Bam-Bam, Robin Banks, Sandy Beach, Wayne Scales, Pizzaman, Lois Lane, Cousin Brucie and of course Dusty Rhodes!

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118316876#Comment_118316876

RTL hold the rights to the name and branding of the station and they were fairly possessive about use of it at one point. There was an attempt by some well placed folk to set up a bona fide online tribute station some years ago but it was politely if promptly nixed by the suits in the Grand Duchy before it even got off the ground.

There is a stream on Tunein these days calls itself's Atlantic 252. It plays out a few of the old jingle's between a diet of 252 style 90's pop hits; a busy enough public tribute facebook helps keep the old spirit alive as well.

Declan A Walsh

Radio Tara was basically a joint venture between RTE and the RTL Group/Radio Luxembourg and the trading name of Atlantic 252. Pat Kenny was chairman of the station at one stage. Jeff Graham, one of the original presenters of Atlantic 252, left it to become PD of Radio Luxembourg and oversaw the latter's move from its legendary 208 metres on MW to the Astra satellite.

It must have been very annoying for all Atlantic 252's Irish competitors that the 20% rule for news did not apply to Atlantic 252 at the time.

irs

It's hard to imagine a Dance/R&B station on Long Wave as late as 2001. I had mainly switched to BBC Radio 1 by the spring of that year but I don't remember the sound quality being that bad in 2000 but I lived not far from the transmitter and it must have unlistenable for people living in Britain which was most of the stations target audience.

irs

The station would soon be replaced by the sports station TeamTalk 252 which lasted about six months which included the 2002 World Cup which 252 had "unofficial" commentary. There was a phone in one night after the Ireland-Saudi Arabia game where they were talking about Rivaldo being suspended and nearly every caller was acting a bollix.

sydthebeat

Didn't they use to do "the love shack" on Atlantic 252?

I used to have one of those massive headphone / radios which is put on at night as I'd fall to sleep listening to dusty Rhodes and the lads

JJKC

Atlantic 252 had 1.3 million listeners in the UK when it closed in 2001, some national dab stations in the UK today have less than half that amount of listeners. The current Chris Evans breakfast show on the latest version of Virgin Radio has 950k listeners

KildareP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118317980#Comment_118317980

For LW, it did sound very nice albeit very heavily processed.

The transmitter was on significantly more power back then than it is now for RTÉ Radio 1, and it was 100% modulated due to it being music driven so cut through.

I remember listening to it one year while the folks took us on holidays to the north of France as our young innocent ears weren't allowed listen to local French radio since they played the uncensored English versions of songs 😁

There are some recordings made by someone in the UK of airchecks from the 2000-era on Youtube which sound extremely clean.

Somewhat ironically, when played through a typical modern smartphone speaker they don't sound far off a lot of full bandwidth, stereo radio stations do today... Capital FM London immediately springs to mind!

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118317980#Comment_118317980

That was the last rebrand of the station as it now had a lot more competition from other radio stations, particularly in the UK, and people were not listening to Long Wave as much. In it's first year, Atlantic 252 used to have Classic Rock Sunday!

apache

God I feel so old...

RINO87

Charlie Wolf and the Pizzaman..... Loved these guys as a kid. Atlantic 252 was a staple in my mams Mk 2 fiesta, no FM there!!

I only ever remember it being on in the background. Maybe I'm slightly too young to have been aware of it at peak, but it's still remarkable that a long wave station, given the audio quality limitations of the technology, managed to be a major music station in the 1990s.

An interesting era of broadcasting history. I doubt we'll ever hear anything like it again. It was very much the last hurrah of classic radio.

messrs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118316831#Comment_118316831

Used to love listening to love letters in the sand!! Then fall asleep to the soppy songs after

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118318031#Comment_118318031

I would wager that DAB and other operators combined costs are less than it takes to run 252LW.

JJKC

Is it true that Atlantic was originally going to housed at the RTE radio centre but due to the anger about the mast in Clarkstown, RTE thought that by putting the studios in Meath, people would be more accepting if the radio station created a few jobs locally ?

ford fiesta

I was an avid listener and follower of Atlantic 252 from 1989 to 2001.

I used to love when they played a song that was not on their playlist, like hearing a song from the 70s or 80s on Classic Rock Sunday, Our Tune, Love letters in the sand etc.

I remember I heard Bob Dylan "lay lady lay" one night and it sounded great on big LW.

cute geoge

Used dusty rhodes come as guest dj to Banna beach disco ,the likes of maxi ,Jim o neill all used to guest dj there ,the place used be hopping .My youth spent listening to Athlantis 252 up on my Leyland 272 bombing down the road at silage and hay ,bare bith of skid in the brakes just dont know how I was not killed off that tractor she was super fast tractor with the radio blaring

Declan A Walsh

The music selection on Classic Rock Sunday was not a million miles away in content from what (current) Radio Nova's music selection was like in its first year or two of broadcasting.

Gary King was the first presenter on the station when it launched September 1st 1989. I think he might have been the first to leave as well! He went on to BBC Radio One at the time. A lot of of the UK presenters on Atlantic 252 used it to give them that boost they needed to further their radio career.

Two of the more surprising British voices to hear on the station:

• newsreader Andrew Turner (Atlantic 252 used to have news headlines), who used to be involved with BBC Radio One's news service and then went on to offshore pirate Laser. A number of staff had come to Atlantic 252 from Laser.
• Simon Bates presenting "Our Tune", which I thought was a syndicated program. I just checked and it turns out he had revived on Atlantic 252 a feature of a show he used to present on BBC Radio One! What brought him to Atlantic 252 is a bit of a mystery!

ford fiesta

not forgetting James Whale

Also Jeff Graham - was the final presenter on old Radio Luxembourg in Dec 1991

JJKC

It wouldn't have been cheep in those days for Jeff Graham to be flying from Luxembourg to Dublin and back every weekend.

TheBMG

Seemingly one of the reasons Trim was chosen (apart from the nearby TX!) was its accessibility to Dublin airport.

Its also fair to say that several British jocks (perhaps used to larger cities) didn’t realise that Trim wasn’t a suburb of Dublin … until they landed!

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118320904#Comment_118320904

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118320926#Comment_118320926

I mentioned Jeff Graham in one of my previous posts in this thread.

He left Atlantic 252 for Radio Luxembourg as its PD - he wasn't flying into Dublin from Luxembourg!!

Mickeroo

I seem to remember a phase where they became "your real music station atlantic 252" and only played indie/alternative/rock music for a while. Did I hallucinate this?

JJKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118321027#Comment_118321027

No but it was a pretty short phase, March to December 1999

ford fiesta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118321027#Comment_118321027

correct - a lot of the weekend output (even Daytime!!) in 1999 / 2000 was Alternative with Eddy Temple Morris being one of the main presenters.

In the last 2 years it was known as "Non Stop Rhythm and Dance" to reflect its Chart and Dance Output

Declan A Walsh

I was not aware of the alternative/indie period of Atlantic 252 at the time, and I had stopped listening to it at that stage. I might have had I known. Around Dublin there were other options anyway, particularly Phantom.

ford fiesta

2 presenters from Ireland did not work in Irish radio after they departed Atlantic 252 and only worked on Irish pirates before joining: Robin Banks and Paul Kavanagh.

Of the few female presenters on the station, none of them were Irish.

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118322467#Comment_118322467

That's interesting about Robin Banks (Christian Richardson) and Paul Kavanagh. According to Wikipedia, Robin Banks previously was involved with the pirate Radio Nova - he would have been a teenager at the time if true!!

Female presenters:

I think Mary Ellen O'Brien was one of those that had come from offshore pirate Laser 558. She was either American or Canadian - can't remember. I'm fairly sure she did actually turn up on the aforementioned pirate Radio Nova. She was one of the presenters on Classic Rock Sunday as well as being a newsreader.

There was the newsreader Lois Lane. EDIT: Real name is Katherine Orman.

I believe Becky Chippendale was yet another newsreader! EDIT: She was a presenter - there have been a few threads about Atlantic 252 over the years!

ford fiesta

I think Robin Banks was involved in pirate radio in his home county Kilkenny and Radio Nova International.

Yes he would have been very young at Nova.

Declan A Walsh

Some of the other threads about Atlantic 252:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2057187436/rte-and-atlantic-252

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2057569123/atlantic-252-final-broadcast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/79223510#Comment_79223510

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058098597/atlantic-252-a-good-example-of-a-red-pill

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/72094175#Comment_72094175

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2057593758/who-kept-their-funny-atlantic-252-names

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/66940864#Comment_66940864

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058056895/should-rte-bring-back-atlantic-252-from-time-to-time-for-fun

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/61586814#Comment_61586814

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/92271467#Comment_92271467

Ger Roe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118322862#Comment_118322862

Hi Declan, it was Jessie Brandon who was the female ex Laser presenter who did a stint on Nova. She came to Nova from Capital Radio in London when her UK work visa expired. After Nova, she also did a stint on Luxembourg and various radio stations in America, before working for the TV news agency Feature Story News. FSN sponsored some of this year's Radio Caroline North broadcasts. I was in contact with their CEO and he is a big Caroline fan - he acknowledged that his offshore radio interest was encouraged through working with Jessie. One of the highlights of my Anorak Hour days was after a programme broadcast a few weeks on from the 9 11 attacks, the phone rang when I had signed off and it was Jessie on the line, she was listening in while on a short break in Dublin and it was a great surprise to talk to her.

These days, Jessie is involved in horticulture, but she is still on air and is presenting on WCLZ in Portland, Maine.

https://989wclz.com/jessie-brandon/

Mary Ellen O.Brien is now an author and professional Psychic.

https://www.amazon.com/MaryEllen-OBrien/e/B001K8MYQE%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118324307#Comment_118324307

Ah yes - Jessie Brandon! I may have got the Radio Nova connection wrong, but I suspect Mary Ellen was also involved with Laser.

Great info Ger.

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118322892#Comment_118322892

Yeah he worked in AMS Kilkenny I think before a brief stint at satellite Nova in 1989.

He also presented a guest show on Sunset FM in 1992 (for the craic!) using the name Nick McGuinness.

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118324576#Comment_118324576

I particularly like his connection to Sunset FM! Incidentally, another Atlantic 252 presenter Enda Caldwell did a slightly longer stint on Sunset FM as Enda Storey!

Declan A Walsh

Speaking of dance pirates, I wonder did many of Atlantic 252's later presenters come from any? Robin Banks/Nick McGuinness was mentioned above - of course, he may not have been playing dance music! Enda Caldwell/Storey did play dance music on Sunset: I heard him at the time! Enda and another future Atlantic 252 presenter Greg Parke set up a dance station in Navan, Co. Meath, called Energy Radio in 1994.

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118326624#Comment_118326624

Steven Cooper had been on Kiss 103.2 back in 1994.

JJKC

Screenshot_20211213-232949~2.png

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118327145#Comment_118327145

Strictly speaking, Kiss 103.2 was not a dance pirate, but a chart-oriented pirate. I forgot that Steven Cooper was with Atlantic, which is ironic because that was the first station I associated with him!

Larbre34

In my parents old house, there were 3 telephones on an old analogue line. The line in to the house and the main phone were in the Lounge, but for whatever reason of frequency or resonance, on the two extension lines in the Kitchen and in my parents bedroom, whenever you took a call on those phones, you could hear the Atlantic 252 broadcast faintly in the background for many years. Not clear enough to understand spoken word, but you'd definitely know which song was playing and the station jingles that came on.

It was the oddest thing, talk to your mate and absorb the Top 40 by osmosis at the same time.....

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118327997#Comment_118327997

my Grandmother lived near Summerhill and it was possible to get 252 on her kettle 😂

JJKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118327997#Comment_118327997

How Near the mast was the house?

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Its almost like 252 switched overnight from a top 30 playing station to playing really really obscure tracks that you wouldn't hear anywhere else... What happened there?

Declan A Walsh

For the first year or two, Atlantic 252 used to cease broadcasting at 7pm. I think it was something to do with foreign stations coming in at night time on nearby frequencies.

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118328024#Comment_118328024

20 kms or so.