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!

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

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!

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.

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!

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!!

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

not forgetting James Whale

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.....

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.