Atlantic 252 What happened?

alzer100

Why did they phase out the HotHits format that made that Radio station so successful between 1989 and early 1992?

Enda Caldwell

A more Hot AC / Adult Contemporary format during the day 5am to 6pm and CHR nights 6pm to 5am was adopted and ran from November 91 on. It broadened the variety and delivered Atlantic's best figures of between 4 to 11m people in The UK. The Hot Hits format was fine we broke the hits. Then we became a station that was a cross between both breaking new stuff and better well known 80s 90s recurrents.

tinytobe

I still remember Enda Caldwell on Atlantic 252. I think he went to the US, namely to New York for a while, then returning to Europe, possibly to the UK.

animalinside

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121564422#Comment_121564422

Wait a second - is that not Enda Caldwell there?

maninasia

This conversation is very meta .

Please continue lol.

tinytobe

It would be interesting if they were to bring back Atlantic 252 on DAB in the UK. Same music same slogans, I bet they would have a following. Virgin came back on DAB, why not Atlantic 252.

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121747508#Comment_121747508

Well, for starters, it was partially owned by RTE and was run from Co. Meath. Its original USP was the fact that it was on Long Wave. I would say a kind of tribute version online might work better.

alzer100

Does anyone have a particular favourite era or presenter of 252 and why?

Burt Renaults

I used to listen to it a lot in the mid '90s, but I couldn't see myself listening to any potential resurrection. I mean, if I wanted to listen to Seal's Kiss from a Rose, Whigfield's Saturday Night, Lisa Loeb's Stay, on a constant loop, I could just as easily find them on Spotify.

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121747792#Comment_121747792

89-96.

I did enjoy the rhythmic format that John O’Hara introduced towards the end of 252 but it was just too late. They had the programming but not the right waveband.

If they had hung on for another couple of years it could’ve been so different. Perhaps DAB could’ve been the savior of Atlantic 252.

alzer100

Mine was 89-92

This kept me connected to Atlantic on the move back in the day. On the RHS Sony provided a mini headphone jack. With high quality headphones 252 sounded great!

Yes, the LW platform was eventually going to kill it regardless of format.

John O'Hara did a fabulous job but for me my favourite time as listener had to be under Kavo.

JoeA3

I remember it being very popular around 1992-93, it was definitely the iRadio / Spin of its day, except it probably had far bigger listenership than the current offerings as there was literally no other alternative back then! In the west of Ireland your alternatives were 2FM and local radio - which mostly catered for much older audiences.

TBH I couldn’t ever really take to it though. The LW audio was dreadful compared to FM stereo and the silly DJ names and mid Atlantic accents were all a bit ridiculous. I thought it was so bizarre then that this UK/US sounding station was actually based in Co. Meath and never referenced that fact. It was definitely very much of its time.

There’s a glut of early ‘90’s music that still gets airplay to this day that always reminds me of Atlantic 252!

A few years later we had the likes of Dusty Rhodes and Rick O’Shea (still using the daft names) turn up on 2FM. I remember Dusty used to use some of his old Atlantic jingles / voice overs on 2FM!

ford fiesta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121748114#Comment_121748114

Of course LW doesn't sound as good as FM !!

But A252 sounded fantastic on LW.

I disagree about the DJ names, they were not silly..stations around the world named their jocks in a similar fashion of the time.

Rick (Paul Crossan) and Dusty (Ivan Nolan) and others did quite well out of their 252 names post 252 (yeah I know Dusty was on Sunshine before A252).

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121747831#Comment_121747831

It wouldn't sound right unless I put my speaker into a plastic bucket and threw some clothes (preferably 90's tie-dyed t-shirts with The Orb on them) in on top of it. As much as anything else, I associate Atlantic 252 with the distinctive sound of Longwave. It was better than nothing at the time but it was a terrible format for music radio.

end of the road

the rhythm and dance era of 252 was brilliant IMO.

the UK at least got fm based alternatives like galaxy and vibe ETC but we here had to still rely on pirates which could be gone at any time, and 2fm and local stations at the weekend, so atlantic when it ended was a bit of a loss to be honest.

but it was never going to last on LW ultimately, a pitty but that's the way it is.

Tork

It filled a market that wasn't there at the time. I loved the station in the early 90s because there was such little choice out there for a teenager who wanted to listen to the Top 40. While 2FM had its moments, it also had Gerry Ryan's talk show in the mornings and oddities like Alan Corcoran playing Declan Nerney records on Saturday evenings. There were no wall to wall music stations at the time. We seem to have come full circle, with so many presenters now playing music that's chosen for them and an emphasis on content creation. That's a topic for other threads!

I don't remember it in its later format but it sounds like it was again catering for an audience which wasn't getting its music elsewhere? I was surprised to see it kept going until the end of 2001. I thought it'd had folded years before that. I find it fascinating that people are saying it sounded great on LW. I always thought music sounded awful on it but it was better than Gareth O'Callaghan's endless Michael McDonald records or the crappy BBC Radio 1 signal we could get.

john457

Charlie Wolfe on breakfast

john457

Favourite memories?

Charlie Wolfe on breakfast. Just brilliant, challenging breakfast radio. Charlie’s conservative worldview was unheard of in the media. These days we have huge podcasts like Ben Shapiro. Back then…nothing.

Politics and hit music. Brilliant.

alzer100

Atlantic 252 in it's early days or should I say 89-92 was essentially Sunshine 101 on LW. Some may have hated that format but if you were a teenager looking for your fix of current hits (unlike 2FM and other CHR stations that exist in Ireland today it wasn't based on the UK Top 40) it was a 'go to' station.

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121752130#Comment_121752130

I have no recollection of Charlie doing anything remotely political in those days tbh .. he was a cheeky chappy and nothing more

Bummer1234

What a station,I remember the summer months driving an old banger car in my uncles field and the only station you would really get on the radio was A252, towards the end did it turn into a sports news channel?

end of the road

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121752375#Comment_121752375

yes, the station was bought and it became teamtalk 252.

it didn't last a year if i recall.

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121752295#Comment_121752295

I don't remember him being political either. He just played the records just like everybody else but he was a bit different because he was American. I was surprised when he resurfaced some years later wearing a political hat. Back in those days, there wasn't as much politics on the radio and I can't help but think that was a good thing. There were news bulletins but I don't remember much about them other than the newsreader being obsessed with the BBC soap Eldorado.

RINO87

https://youtu.be/iHQp5cAo91o?si=6Rxb6gkySo5prlgv

The Pizza Man in full flight!! Intense 😂

Still coukd you imagine today's social media starlets even attempting this with a desk?!

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121754350#Comment_121754350

Sadly Gary AKA the Pizzaman passed away quite recently. Great presenter

funkey_monkey

Was there a dj called Cliff Walker?

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121754581#Comment_121754581

Yes. Went to TodayFM for a bit

RINO87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121754549#Comment_121754549

I did not know this. Another voice from my childhood gone.

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121754350#Comment_121754350

Isn’t that the problem with radio these days? That’s a man who knows his gear inside out and has his job down to a fine art. A lot now just seem to rely on shíte aka social media and the WhatsApp to fill the show for them.

ford fiesta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121754350#Comment_121754350

They wouldnt even be able to queue up and play a CD.

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121756673#Comment_121756673

Why would they need to though .. it’s out of date tech. I’m sure they couldn’t tape load Manic Miner onto a 48k Sinclair Spectrum either.