Atlantic 252 What happened?

Declan A Walsh

So, who from Atlantic 252 is still involved with Irish Radio?

Rick O'Shea - RTE Gold

Al Dunne - RTE Gold

Liam Coburn, aka Batman Gomez - Dublin's Q102

Enda Caldwell - Radio Nova (amongst all the other radio projects he is involved with!)

Mark Whelan, aka Dickie Bow - Limerick's Live 95

Steven Cooper - iRadio

Emily Owens (producer) - Head of Commercial Production with Today FM and Bauer Irl. As well as Today FM, the latter owns Newstalk, Spin1038, Spin SW, Dublin's 98FM and Red FM.

*Steve Haze, aka Hollywood Haze - Wireless Ireland Group Music Scheduling role - Wireless owns Q102, FM104, LMFM, Corks C103 and his old station Cork's 96FM.

Any more current examples?

*Steve Haze as Steve Kelly was yet another presenter on Sunshine 101.

its_steve116

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121785931#Comment_121785931

When was Enda last on Nova?

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121786454#Comment_121786454

Over the Christmas period and New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Okay, he may no longer be currently on Irish radio. He is a busy man with his different radio projects!

alzer100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121785931#Comment_121785931

*Steve Haze as Steve Kelly was yet another presenter on Sunshine 101.

Just on Steve Kelly and the Atlantic 252/Sunshine 101/HotHits format connection. Steve Kelly was the first jock to present the new format on Sunshine 101 at 7pm after Pat Courtney's drive time on air stunt. Although the first two weeks of the new format did not permit talking, as it purely consisted of back to back power A Listers and recurrents with ads. During this time Steve Kelly and other Sunshine presenters could only be heard doing a time-check and then casually introducing the news reader to read a reduced bulletin at 6-9 mins past the hour.

TAFKAlawhec

Just on the note of sound quality of A252 in its heyday - it's worth remembering that most LW (and MW) receivers sold in Europe from about the late 1970's onwards (inc. most high end receivers) had their audio frequency response in those wavebands sharply cut off in a lot of cases above 4kHz to help prevent adjacent channel interference at a time where a lot of services on MW & LW were still transmitting away and these bands were full across Europe. I'm not sure what audio bandwidth Atlantic 252 broadcast in its time with but I do remember that prior to its closedown RTÉ Radio 1 on 252kHz was providing 6kHz audio per sideband so I'll presume Atlantic 252 had that amount of room too - however unless the receiver had a wide enough filter to pass this full 6kHz on (and was more likely on older receivers e.g. those made up to around the 1960's), then it would have sounded quite muffled. There can be quite a noticeable difference between 4kHz and 6kHz audio bandwidth - no, 6kHz audio is never going to take on the 15kHz possible on FM in the quality stakes, but it can be surprising to hear how brighter it sounds compared to just 4kHz or even less. Then match that to the frequency response of the speakers of most transistor radios or even HiFi units.

An easy way to listen to the difference between the audio bandwidths of 4kHz & 6kHz is to use a modern SDR tuned to a strong enough station that passes at least 6kHz of audio per sideband - one you can try is the Malin Head Kiwi SDR tuned to Radio North on 846kHz (best to do this in the daytime as adjacent channel interference at hight becomes an issue) - the SDR will start with an audio bandwidth of just 2.5kHz (2500) - increase this to 4000 for 4kHz and as wise as possible for 6kHz (I think it stops at a maximum of 5998) and notice the difference you hear as you increase audio bandwidth. You only need to increase one sideband to change things.

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121780552#Comment_121780552

Can't say I'd blame them either. I remember being told years ago that it was a thing to change the DJ's name to basically distract attention away from the DJ's ID and to make it more about the music and the Now Now Now vibe of the place; ironic much how we are talking about their names decades later!

Anecdote; when PC was starting he was offered the name of Rick O'Shea or Elvis O'Brien, an easy one to make. Seemingly a rake of presenters turned down Elvis until a certain red headed gentleman from Castleknock bucked the trend....

Declan A Walsh

Going back to the Dublin superpirate Q102 connection, I only realized today that John O'Hara also did a stint there too. That's along with his time with Radio Nova and Energy 103.

So apart from Sunshine Radio/Sunshine 101, of which there are many examples, here are Atlantic 252 people that turned up on other Dublin superpirates.

Q102/SuperQ: John O’Hara, Al Dunne, Liam Coburn and Henry Condon

Radio Nova: Paul Kavanagh, Henry Condon and John O’Hara

Energy 103: Cass Jones, John O’Hara and Liam Coburn

I am not aware of anybody who was involved with Radio Nova's sister station Kiss FM, another superpirate, that was also connected to Atlantic 252.

California Dreamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121785931#Comment_121785931

Sean Ashmore was on 252 for a brief stint but cant remember the name he used

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121818047#Comment_121818047

I have it on good authority that Sean Ashmore used the name Mark Little on Atlantic. Sean is currently one of the co-owners of Kildares's KFM and a weekend presenter on, and a director of, Sunshine 106.8.

alzer100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121818555#Comment_121818555

Correct! Sean Ashmore's 252 name was Mark Little. He was only on the station for about a year in 1997-1998 at weekends mainly.

Declan A Walsh

My post above re the "other" super pirates has been updated to include Cass Jones for Energy 103.

Re the Radio Luxembourg connection, the list includes David Lee Stone, Gary King, Jeff Graham, Cass Jones, Sandy Beach and Enda Caldwell. Henry Owens/Condon did voice overs for promotions on Luxy as well. I wonder are there more, particularly among the UK presenters.

California Dreamer

https://chrismoyles.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=26965

alzer100

Sandy Beach (Real name Adrian Greene) is now out of prison and living somewhere in Cyprus. His radio station (Sunshine Cyprus) and other businesses have long since been dissolved. For a while Dusty Rhodes was running the station after Sandy Beach went to prison but the station had no success due to the stigma connected to the owner so it had to be dissolved. He is still making and producing audio but anonymously under another name or in "stealth" mode.

TheBaldyRef

Hi lads, was only discussing A252 in work yesterday. There was a competition around 1994 that when they played three songs in a row the 252nd caller to ring won a grand. Haddaway what is love REM the sidewinder sleeps tonight and there was one more any ideas what it was?

its_steve116

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121836443#Comment_121836443

I'm going to a take a wild guess and go with "What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes.

TheBaldyRef

One of the lads said the same last night.

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121836443#Comment_121836443

I thinks I vaguely remember that competition. Did A252 (like the name!) have any more money competitions?

squonk

Funny, I thought those “pay to listen” competitions were $hít at tge time but now I kind of miss them from a nostalgic standpoint. Think either 98FM or FM104 did likewise. Onv the 98th or 104th caller… yadda yadda.

alzer100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121836542#Comment_121836542

The song is Simply Red "Stars" you are looking for. In fact its mentioned by Mark Byrne on the tribute co-produced by Eric Murphy and Enda Caldwell which was broadcast on the station closedown 20th December 2001 at 5.pm.

Atlantic ran many competitions over its 12 year history from The Daily Star Name Game in 1989 to The Millennium's Most Awesome Holiday in 2000-01. Many of the winning Triple plays happened in the 91-95 Hot AC era and were sponsored by the likes of Trebor and many more. There were dozens of them. Other notable comps were the Cadbury's Boost Daily Free Money Hit, "His n' Hers Jeeps For Keeps" Charlie's Rotten Sneaker Contest , "Live Free For A Year" "Get High For Free" the 12 in a row competition, The Midland Bank Cashcall and so many, many more fun, innovative and interactive competitions. They also brought back the Sunshine 101 "Don't Say Hello" Promotion too. As the listeners loved the station there was no question of listeners being "bought" as these were already proven, successful ratings boosters which did not affect music flow (like a huge 5 min Cashcall sequence on bauer stations) or long, ponderous sequences like the Dublin market was synonymous with. Most of the competitions involved listening to the musical output and spotting a sequence or cue. These were large bona fide US competitions on UK / European Hit Radio. Not some local Irish or RTE type scams (like the Late Late text competition etc).

alzer100

Listen to Atlantic 252 Tribute *33rd Anniversary Special* by Enda W. Caldwell on #SoundCloud

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?show_artwork=true&visual=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F42049152#

TheBaldyRef

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121838219#Comment_121838219

Thank you. Now I'll sleep again 👍👍

EveryoneKnowsNobodyCares

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121758557#Comment_121758557

Hmmm! I think some guy did one in the afternoon, I can't remember the name of the slot, but it shared the name with the theme music, which was some sort of instrumental. Might have been "Our Song" or something, sorry. Very distinctive opening four notes. Think it went G-A#-A-D (long) on a flute. Then at night time there was another one, which tended to run along these lines:

Dear ...,

I'm so heartbroken. This summer, I went on holiday and met a boy. We got on really well and we fell in love [etc etc]. Now the summer is over, we're back in our home towns, but he lives in Newcastle and I live in Southampton [etc etc to the end of the letter]

Then usually (and even predictably at one point), I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston.

EveryoneKnowsNobodyCares

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121762595#Comment_121762595

Yes, I think you're completely right! I remember now thinking some songs sounded higher pitched then elsewhere (or maybe that some songs sounded lower pitched on 2FM)

alzer100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121852386#Comment_121852386

"Simon Bates Our Tune was the feature you are referring to and it was prerecorded in the London Studios and sent over on DAT, carted up and played out daily during middays around 94/95 after Simes had left Radio 1."

It was a popular feature and capitalised on the fact that the feature "Our Tune" had record audiences previously on BBC R1. It transferred really well to Atlantic.

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121852386#Comment_121852386

I'm pretty sure there was a version of that on 2fm many moons ago. Colm Hayes springs to mind for some reason. Did he have an afternoon show?

Glaceon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121852593#Comment_121852593

Gareth O'Callaghan's "Your Song" slot I'd say. He still does it on his Classic Hits show on Saturdays.

sekefhiijj

Aidan Leonard also did such a feature while he hosted an afternoon 2fm show around 95-99. You'd be amazed at the amount of features like that which are recycled all the time.

squonk

Mark Byrne I think it was did something like that evenings on Cevtury around 8 or 9pm weekday evenings. Even at the time as a young teenager I thought it was dross lol!

alzer100

Atlantic had another variant of this at night called "The Loveshack" and before that it had been titled "Love Letters In The Sand" (with Sandy Beach) and prior to that "Love Letters In The Sack with Tony West. 1 Love Letter 1/2 songs at around 11.15pm at Night. It was another version of "Dedicated To The One I Love" from Sunshine 101's successful evening show. A feature which Mark Byrne incorporated into his Century evening show. Dross or not it got massive audiences wherever it was used as a feature. In the days prior to smartphones, social media etc. - radio was #1 and was the media used at night on a school night by the youth of not just this nation but worldwide. Nighttime CHR was king.

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121853966#Comment_121853966

Definitely. Even outside of the love slots there were requests and messages played for people going out with each other. Then 2FM also did a class slot at one stage where a class picked a bunch of tracks that got played. Class Tracks I think it was called. On the love songs vein, Lorcan Murray had a slot I think on his Daturday evenjng show in the late 80s if I remember. lol they were all at it really.

Declan A Walsh

There is a Capital Radio (London) connection with Atlantic 252 staff: Gary King, John O'Hara, Sandy Beech and Kevin Palmer. Any more?

ford fiesta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121853966#Comment_121853966

I liked "The Loveshack" that featured just one song each night (I think) - it was a chance to hear some love songs that were not on the usual tight 252 playlist ..... such as Bob Dylan "Lay Lady Lay" and Kate Bush "Wuthering heights"

thejuggler

Many memories of 252 during its imperial early 90s phase. I remember them playing recordings of one liner jokes from stand up comedians 3 or 4 times a day at the top of the hour. (9, 2 and 5?) Jo Brand used to feature regularly. The imaging was memorable too. Bumper Morgan jingles etc - one that stands out was Hey we’re on long wave - we can do whatever we like’ - it really summed up the irreverent feel of the station which appealed to many.

alzer100

Andrew Turner of Atlantic 252 News has died on Wednesday. He was at BBC Radio1 in the 70s, then Laser Hot Hits 576 on The Communicator. Then Atlantic 252's main anchor, later he went to Capital Gold reading the news for Tony Blackburn. A father, a friend and storyteller. The utmost professional of Newscasters.

alzer100

With immense sadness, I have to inform that Andrew Turner passed away yesterday.  

His fantastic storytelling on and off air, and his booming voice will be so so missed.  

His last show was with Tony Blackburn on Capital Gold breakfast show, and since then he continued to be a greatly supportive father and gave his weekly prompt phone calls, only like a professional newsreader would.  

I loved hearing stories of his time at Atlantic 252. If you have any stories you’d like to share, please do. 

Thank you

Jamie Lee Turner

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121867095#Comment_121867095

That’s sad news. Met him on a number of occasions and he was a gregarious man and generous with his time.

ford fiesta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121867626#Comment_121867626

Of all the shows I listened to on Atlantic growing up in Ireland, hearing Kevin and Andrew in the morning made it even more unbelievable they were both broadcasting from Trim, Co. Meath !!

Rest In Peace, another 252 legend gone but not fogotten.

thejuggler

Sad news. Andrew also co hosted breakfast with Charlie Wolf. Has anyone heard any recent update on Charlie? I know he is battling Parkinson’s disease and effectively retired from media engagements as a result.

Tork

Cripes, this thread has taken a grim turn. Jail, death, Parkinson's... I didn't know Charlie Wolf had Parkinson's but it would explain why he didn't sound great any time I heard him on the radio talking about Trump etc.

L1011

Charlie's had Parkinson's for a while now. Never a fan of his style but impossible to deny he was very good at it

Enda Caldwell

Andrew was a one-off as Kevin and Donie Quinn said to me tonight! Charlie was too! What is a very sad moment for all of us from Atlantic 252 is made more sad to think of the folks he left behind his daughter Lauren and his son Jamie Lee. Thinking of them at this difficult moment. Jamie told me he lives in France and yet Andrew in recent years as his dad would call him at 5pm every Sunday in the professional newsman manner that he always had. In fact he was quite the legend to be in the presence of as a 14 year old wannabe anorak in those hallowed halls of Mornington House in 89/90 hangin' out at Atlantic 252 back in the day. Anyone who met Andrew or worked with him at BBC, Laser 576 or Capital Gold only had good words to say about him. In the current climate of "radio is dead" & "streaming + spotify is king" "social influencers" and celebs taking up certain international shifts way above their talent base it MUST be remembered that Andrew Turner along with Domino (Anthony Lini) and Steve Wright are some of the most talented and creative broadcasters we are ever likely to hear in our lifetime.

And to quote a great post I just caught on Digital Spy:

"https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/1637839/andrew-turner"

Bobson Dugnutt

I remember 252 as a teenager. I certainly don’t have the same fond memories of it as others. Terrible audio quality, pretty useless “zany” djs who obviously weren’t good enough to secure work on 2FM etc, bland and generic music choices. You’d think it was the greatest coming together of raw radio talent ever seen by the way some people go on about it.

end of the road

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121888346#Comment_121888346

to be fair it was more a UK and ireland station rather then an irish station, so some of the DJS would not have been looking for work on 2fm anyway, if even any of them.

i'm sure a few of them would have got it if they did want it.

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121888346#Comment_121888346

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121892535#Comment_121892535

Dusty Rhodes went from Atlantic 252 to 2FM. Rick O'Shea went from Atlantic 252 to FM104 to 2FM. Enda Caldwell was on Atlantic 252 and Today FM concurrently - weekdays and weekends/PM drives respectively. Enda continued on Today FM after Atlantic 252 closed down, while working weekdays on Cool FM. Mark Byrne, who had come from Century Radio, later turned up on Radio Ireland/Today FM. Nails Mahoney had previously been on 2FM before he joined Atlantic 252 and was later to do a few stints on Radio Ireland/Today FM. On the UK side, Gary King left Atlantic 252 early on for BBC Radio 1. Indeed the late Andrew Turner had previously been a newsreader on BBC Radio 1.

ford fiesta

Dusty went straight from Atlantic to 2FM in early-mid 1994

The only DJ after that to join 2FM after that was Rick O'Shea who joined 2FM in mid-2001 (after 5 or so years on FM 104 and then a short stint on Cork's 96FM)

Gary King only stayed at Atlantic for around 6 months after the launch, then he joined BBC Radio 1 early breakfast.

thejuggler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121892987#Comment_121892987

You learn something new every day! Never knew Rick was on 96FM

Lewis_Benson

Do you know the phrase that pays?

waywill1966

Being relaunched , well the name is,on smaller scale dab in the uk but will be available online!

http://stream3.themediasite.co.uk:8330/listen.pls?sid=1

https://radiotoday.co.uk/2024/06/atlantic-252-name-to-return-as-digital-radio-station/

ford fiesta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122262523#Comment_122262523

I wouldnt pay much heed there.. not too many happy old listeners and anoraks on the 252 memories facebook page

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122262560#Comment_122262560

not too many happy anoraks anywhere to be fair! I was a fan of A252 but let it be.