Nova day coming up 37 years

Infoanon · 21-05-2020 1:07am

Losty Dublin wrote: »

There was portacabins at Stocking Lane for the masts. Cary didn't own the land at the time)

There are great pictures on the DX Archive of the Nova transmitter site from November 83.

The portacabins originally housed the transmitters (AM/FM )before the AMS where moved into the main building and the main FM up the mountain.

What's sometimes forgotten is that the then Green acres country club was the home of Treble TR - an AM station that was getting reception reports from far and wide.This attracted Cary to the site and ultimately ownership in 82 - but as Losty has said that is another story.

Truth or Myth - After the destruction of the Sunshine mast and the subsequent rebuild there was 24 hour security on the mast - it is alleged that Chris offered Robbie daughters boyfriend 2 tickets to go to New York leaving Robbie with the headache of having to personally do more security shifts.

Ger Roe · 21-05-2020 9:54am

Infoanon wrote: »

What's sometimes forgotten is that the then Green acres country club was the home of Treble TR - an AM station that was getting reception reports from far and wide.This attracted Cary to the site and ultimately ownership in 82 - but as Losty has said that is another story.

I have an interview with Jimmy Smith on tape somewhere where he said that the first he knew of Nova moving in on his site was when he began to hear test jingles leaking in all over his studio equipment. As Nova began to increase power and establish itself, the interference to Treble T was becoming more obvious to his listeners and he had to move out.

He was ultimately glad that he did and said that they were 'clutter free' Nova, and he was back to being 'Nova free' TTTR.

Declan A Walsh · 21-05-2020 10:13am

Infoanon wrote: »

..........................................

What's sometimes forgotten is that the then Green acres country club was the home of Treble TR - an AM station that was getting reception reports from far and wide.This attracted Cary to the site and ultimately ownership in 82 - but as Losty has said that is another story.
..............................

I did not realise (or I have forgotten!) that Treble TR was on AM at all. I remember it being on FM. I checked and it was indeed on 945 kh on Medium Wave, as well as its more well-known (I think) frequency of 99.5 FM.

During that summer, when there was speculation about how long the pirates would last after the big raids in Dublin, Capitol Radio appeared on the scene.

Infoanon · 21-05-2020 10:39am

Ger Roe wrote: »

I have an interview with Jimmy Smith on tape somewhere where he said that the first he knew of Nova moving in on his site was when he began to hear test jingles leaking in all over his studio equipment. As Nova began to increase power and establish itself, the interference to Treble T was becoming more obvious to his listeners and he had to move out.
.

There is a picture - probably DXArchive - where you can see Treble TRs wire antenna and in the background Novas massive free standing tower. Novas AM at that stage was a mere 3kw on 846/891 .The RF interference must have been huge (and add in the FM at 5kw erp).

True story - I recall a parish priest getting very irate at the breakthrough on his churches audio system with his sermons being interrupted by pop music and blaming RTE 2FM. I pointed to the mast a few hundred feet away - the Q102 AM mast......the issue was resolved quickly (by RTE according to the parish priest !)

Declan A Walsh · 21-05-2020 10:45am

Infoanon wrote: »

There is a picture - probably DXArchive - where you can see Treble TRs wire antenna and in the background Novas massive free standing tower. Novas AM at that stage was a mere 3kw on 846/891 .The RF interference must have been huge (and add in the FM at 5kw erp).

True story - I recall a parish priest getting very irate at the breakthrough on his churches audio system with his sermons being interrupted by pop music and blaming RTE 2FM. I pointed to the mast a few hundred feet away - the Q102 AM mast......the issue was resolved quickly (by RTE according to the parish priest !)

Even to this day, there are some people who are oblivious to the existence of Irish stations other than those owned by RTE, never mind pirates! Then there are other people who did not realise the stations they were listening to were unlicensed!

Losty Dublin · 21-05-2020 1:00pm

Infoanon wrote: »

Truth or Myth - After the destruction of the Sunshine mast and the subsequent rebuild there was 24 hour security on the mast - it is alleged that Chris offered Robbie daughters boyfriend 2 tickets to go to New York leaving Robbie with the headache of having to personally do more security shifts.

Myth. Cary and Phil Solomon had pulled out of Sunshine as a result of Cooke's nobbling the mast. I know that there was a watch on the replacement mast for a time but Chris was back in the UK by then and quite what he'd have gotten out of such an expensive bribe is anybody's guess.

Besides, I think that Robbie's daughter was in primary school at the time :pac:

radiowaves · 21-05-2020 2:56pm

I just stumbled across this thread - great memories one and all.

On our old site at Radiowaves.FM we had a small piece on the Raids, that was expanded and relaunched on Monday, the anniversary of the hit on Radio Nova.

If anybody has any memories, information or material that can be added to those pages please let me know.

Here's the link - I hope you enjoy it.

http://radiowaves.fm/ire/radiowavesnews/the-raids-of-1983/

thejuggler · 21-05-2020 9:34pm

Its great to read the details about Nova and Sunshine here.
As someone who didn't grow up in Dublin I knew of the superpirates by reputation and had heard some snippets of the raids and closedowns before (on Leon Tipler's The Irish Pirates Series )
https://www.mixcloud.com/irishradio/the-irish-pirates-part-1-of-8/

Nevertheless its good to read the full story here and hear some of the recordings. Amazing to think of the ERP these stations were putting out at that time.
24Kw on FM I think?

What became of their engineer Paul Cotter? Is he still involved in broadcasting? I know another engineer from the era Peter Gibney passed away some years ago while Joe King is still involved at the coalface with BTS.

How did these gentleman learn their craft?

Cork had its superpirates too (on a smaller scale) - ERI and Southcoast radio both inspired and influenced no doubt by the success of nova and sunshine in Dublin.

It was an exciting era - would like to have been part of it.

Infoanon · 21-05-2020 9:59pm

thejuggler wrote: »

Cork had its superpirates too (on a smaller scale) - ERI and Southcoast radio both inspired and influenced no doubt by the success of nova and sunshine in Dublin.
.

I believe Chris and Paul Cotter were invited down to ERI to advise on their transmision facilities.
The original South Coast would have the expertise of the late Keith York.

It was not unusual for an IBA station to ask for advice on how to set up their optimods - Sunshine and Nova where literally years ahead.

Sunshine and then Nova set the standards that exist to this day.

PacMan · 22-05-2020 7:46am

radiowaves wrote: »

http://radiowaves.fm/ire/radiowavesnews/the-raids-of-1983/

I really enjoyed reading this article, and each page reminded me of that day in Dublin, as a student, my favourite radio station, Nova was gone.
I was one of the many, who visited Herbert street that day. And I was one of the many, who phoned what I think was leinster House, as the radio stations were giving out numbers to ring to complain about the closures.

I am glad I was around when Nova was broadcasting, and of course Sunshine also.
Listening to the music of Steely Dan, Toto, Orange Juice and of Course "Its good to be the King", all possible thanks to Nova.

At that time, RTE appeared to be playing Big Tom on a loop, or at least that's how it appeared to this teenager, and finally Nova was there "For Me", playing all this fantastic music, with brilliant jingles and really professional presenters.

radiowaves · 22-05-2020 2:12pm

PacMan wrote: »

I really enjoyed reading this article, and each page reminded me of that day in Dublin, as a student, my favourite radio station, Nova was gone.
I was one of the many, who visited Herbert street that day. And I was one of the many, who phoned what I think was leinster House, as the radio stations were giving out numbers to ring to complain about the closures.

I am glad I was around when Nova was broadcasting, and of course Sunshine also.
Listening to the music of Steely Dan, Toto, Orange Juice and of Course "Its good to be the King", all possible thanks to Nova.

At that time, RTE appeared to be playing Big Tom on a loop, or at least that's how it appeared to this teenager, and finally Nova was there "For Me", playing all this fantastic music, with brilliant jingles and really professional presenters.

Thank you for the very kind words Pacman, and for sharing your memories.

You might also enjoy a new addition to our Radio Retro section.

On the 20th Anniversary of the raid on Radio Nova Ger Roe produced an excellent edition of The Anorak Hour airing memories of the day from the listeners perspective.

You can tune in to it here:
https://www.mixcloud.com/radiowaves_fm/phantom-fms-anorak-hour-may-18-2003/

Infoanon · 22-05-2020 7:06pm

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Tony Allen had a powerful voice. I'm pretty sure that was his voice used for at least one jingle on Dublin pirate Capitol Radio in the 1980s: Capitol, playing all you want to hear! I have a vague memory of another jingle that may have used his voice: Capitol - the city sound!

"Move over to Capitol " was the most used Tony Allen liner.
The phantom jammer altered this to 'Move over Capitol '

Infoanon · 22-05-2020 7:31pm

To answer the query on Kiss:

KISS 102.7 was Novas FM only sister station. The station was launched for a number of reasons including taking some of the advertising strain off Nova where at times there were 14 minutes of ads per hour.

Kiss went off the air when it's transmitters where seized from its Woodtown site.

Kiss did not return to the airwaves until the P&T returned the equipment in October '83.

However during the period from May to October '83 Kiss programming was effectively carried on the FM split service Super Nova on 88FM.

When Kiss did return it became more MOR.

After a successful Christmas '83 trading period for Nova and Kiss,Nova where hit by the intensive RTE jamming to their 88FM service and to the microwave links from Herbert Street to Rathfarnham.
Kiss was carried on AM for a day - presumably the 1kw rig that was later used for Magic up to its closure .

However the Kiss service was closed shortly afterwards with Nova replacing it on 102.7.
There are many reasons put forward for the Kiss closure but in hindsight it was the right move as RTE would go on to jam Nova on 88FM and 102.7FM and jam Sunshine on AM ( which would/could have been the Kiss AM).

Novas 2 other AM transmitters - 10kw and 50kw would not suffer jamming.

The Kiss studio equipment along with the Nova equipment was moved up to Stocking Lane.

A second studio was fitted out in Stocking Lane which was used for Exidy738.

In the past former Nova staff have referred to Kiss as the creme de la creme of the FM band.

Darc19 · 22-05-2020 8:22pm

Infoanon wrote: »

Any good stories you can share about Sunshine or Q?

Unfortunately not as I was in sales and the office was well separated from the music end of things.

Declan A Walsh · 22-05-2020 9:08pm

radiowaves wrote: »

Thank you for the very kind words Pacman, and for sharing your memories.

You might also enjoy a new addition to our Radio Retro section.

On the 20th Anniversary of the raid on Radio Nova Ger Roe produced an excellent edition of The Anorak Hour airing memories of the day from the listeners perspective.

You can tune in to it here:
https://www.mixcloud.com/radiowaves_fm/phantom-fms-anorak-hour-may-18-2003/

Great package put together by Ger Rowe for Phantom back in May 18th 2003. It was interesting to hear all those voices from that period in 1983. Incidentally, it was also interesting hearing those Phantom voices from 2003, including one Pete Reid, aka Simon Maher, with his radio news roundup at the end!

radiowaves · 23-05-2020 1:34pm

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Great package put together by Ger Rowe for Phantom back in May 18th 2003. It was interesting to hear all those voices from that period in 1983. Incidentally, it was also interesting hearing those Phantom voices from 2003, including one Pete Reid, aka Simon Maher, with his radio news roundup at the end!

I think Ger said that is one of his favourite episodes (he must've had my bits muted!) and only he could've thought of approaching the 1983 Raids from an anorak's perspective - making the listeners a very important part of the unfolding drama. As they/we were. It was as much about the government taking away OUR stations as it was about THE stations being taken away.

BTW there's loads more in our dedicated Anorak Hour archive section Declan, and we're adding more all the time.

http://radiowaves.fm/ire/blog/tag/the-anorak-hour/

thejuggler · 23-05-2020 5:18pm

Just wondering did the P&T/authorities ever come after pirates on the grounds of not having planning permission for their masts etc? I imagine if you erected a 200ft mast in an urban area today you might attract attention from your local authority planning office and people would be queuing up to object.

Infoanon · 23-05-2020 5:27pm

thejuggler wrote: »

Just wondering did the P&T/authorities ever come after pirates on the grounds of not having planning permission for their masts etc? I imagine if you erected a 200ft mast in an urban area today you might attract attention from your local authority planning office and people would be queuing up to object.

The short answer is No ,however......during the dispute between Nova and the NUJ word got out that Nova did not having planning permission for the 220 foot mast at stocking lane.
Planning permission was sort ,however many locals where against permission being granted on the grounds of Health concerns around the 50kw transmitter (which ironically was now switched off with the CSI 10kw on instead. ).

Planning permission was refused and shortly before Nova closed they carried requests for a new site for the AM .

As an aside the 50kw was switched on again for a few days in early '86 for Nova (Country) on 254 LW with transmission power circa 15 kw.

Losty Dublin · 23-05-2020 5:48pm

Infoanon wrote: »

The short answer is No ,however......during the dispute between Nova and the NUJ word got out that Nova did not having planning permission for the 220 foot mast at stocking lane.
Planning permission was sort ,however many locals where against permission being granted on the grounds of Health concerns around the 50kw transmitter (which ironically was now switched off with the CSI 10kw on instead. ).

Planning permission was refused and shortly before Nova closed they carried requests for a new site for the AM .

As an aside the 50kw was switched on again for a few days in early '86 for Nova (Country) on 254 LW with transmission power circa 15 kw.

P&T couldn't have done anything about stations on a basis of planning permission issues as such matters were a matter for the respective county council of the day. At best the Dept could have applied to to the courts for an order to dismantle a mast but they'd have needed pretty strong reason to do as such, such as actual evidence of interference from the site and they'd need to be 100% sure on matters such as site owners and or leasers, transmission sources and who was creating same. Nova had a maze of companies around it's operation and it would only take for one shelf company to appear, claim responsibility for such and such and any such action would be rapidly dismissed.

More importantly though, the time and money, accusations of abuses of power and the wider political fallout of such a measure would have caused a lot of political damage for all parties. Bad and all as the Wireless Telegraphy was, it was functional enough to allow for raids to take place if and when the will was there.

Ironically enough it was the maze of shelf companies employed by Cary to run the station, his rapid expansion of Green Acres as a broadcast facility and general planning and other licensing issues that all played their parts in the demise Nova. That and the fact that he clearly wasn't the nicest man in the world to deal with at times

Infoanon · 23-05-2020 6:48pm

Just to be clear the P&T played no part in Novas planning permission issue.

Some commentators have talked about Novas company structure but in reality it was no different from other companies and the various inter company relationships and trading activities where in truth standard business arrangements.

One other thing - from '84 onwards raids where very rare and where for very specific reasons - only 3 come to mind:
Nova TV - RTE had gone ballistic
Boyneside - a TX that was causing interference was seized.
Kiss FM Dublin (not Novas one) , interference .

Where there any others ?

Declan A Walsh · 23-05-2020 7:06pm

radiowaves wrote: »

I think Ger said that is one of his favourite episodes (he must've had my bits muted!) and only he could've thought of approaching the 1983 Raids from an anorak's perspective - making the listeners a very important part of the unfolding drama. As they/we were. It was as much about the government taking away OUR stations as it was about THE stations being taken away.

BTW there's loads more in our dedicated Anorak Hour archive section Declan, and we're adding more all the time.

http://radiowaves.fm/ire/blog/tag/the-anorak-hour/

I listened to that Anorak Hour over the years on Coast FM, Spectrum and, of course, Phantom! Before Ger Rowe came on board Coast FM with his recordings, Simon Maher/Pete Reid used to do a 15-minute bandscan and some radio news on Sundays at lunchtime. That was great fun and was like a warm-up for what became the Anorak Hour. The last 10 or 15 minutes of the Anorak Hour would include Simon's bit. When Phantom became legal, the bandscan bit was removed and it became a full hour of anorak memories from Ger Rowe, as far as I recall. Initially, during the temporary license phases, it was known as Media Beacon.

Infoanon wrote: »

............

As an aside the 50kw was switched on again for a few days in early '86 for Nova (Country) on 254 LW with transmission power circa 15 kw.

I did not know about that station. It was extremely rare AFAIK to have any pirate activity on long wave. Chris Cary broke the mold in so many ways.

SimonMaher · 24-05-2020 12:41pm

radiowaves wrote: »

I think Ger said that is one of his favourite episodes (he must've had my bits muted!) and only he could've thought of approaching the 1983 Raids from an anorak's perspective - making the listeners a very important part of the unfolding drama. As they/we were. It was as much about the government taking away OUR stations as it was about THE stations being taken away.

BTW there's loads more in our dedicated Anorak Hour archive section Declan, and we're adding more all the time.

http://radiowaves.fm/ire/blog/tag/the-anorak-hour/

John, Ger,

My memory is dodgy enough at the best of times but was the Nova special the last Anorak Hour on Pirate Phantom? Wasn't "Black Tuesday" that week?

17 years ago...I need a lie down.

Simon

Infoanon · 24-05-2020 12:45pm

SimonMaher wrote: »

John, Ger,

My memory is dodgy enough at the best of times but was the Nova special the last Anorak Hour on Pirate Phantom? Wasn't "Black Tuesday" that week?

17 years ago...I need a lie down.

Simon

Black Tuesday was indeed the same week as the 83 raids - I was expecting a thread about that particular day (s) - very different type of raid.

Ger Roe · 24-05-2020 3:21pm

SimonMaher wrote: »

John, Ger,

My memory is dodgy enough at the best of times but was the Nova special the last Anorak Hour on Pirate Phantom? Wasn't "Black Tuesday" that week?

17 years ago...I need a lie down.

Simon

Jaysus Mr Reid, your memory must be getting as fuzzy as mine... there was one more Anorak Hour before the pirate days ended.

The 2003 raids happened the Tuesday after the Nova edition prog when ComReg hit the Dublin south west TX sites and what we originally thought was a power cut, slowly made its way up Kiltipper Hill, taking out one site at a time.

The 3 rock sites were hit the following morning, but Phantom was already off air having removed the 3 rock TX late on Tuesday afternoon. I was waiting at the Blue Light car park that morning and watched the raid party arrive on the road and call in to each station site to remove equipment. Phantom came back on the following Saturday around noon (from 3 rock) with Dan Hegarty doing the return prog (I think).

I already had the next Anorak Hour ready to go (focus on the Sunshine raid and return) so it went out on the Sunday and that was the last pirate prog. You arose earlier than normal from your usual Sunday slumber, and came into the studio (instead of a phone in) and we had a good rant, explaining that Phantom was not going to engage in cat and mouse operations and so was closing that night to continue on the web.

I also remember Ian Dempsey and the Gift Grub gang on Today FM, getting a bit of grief over a comedy sketch that they did that week where they slagged off ComReg, expressed sympathy for Phantom being off the air and hoped that we would be back.

Fun times.

Infoanon · 24-05-2020 3:39pm

Hi Ger ,

I always thought that there where 2 raiding parties ?, with only Jazz on air on the Wednesday morning from the mountains before being raided ?.

A few stations had managed to remove their TXS before the raiding teams arrived iirc - Nova947/Sun 101 and Phantoms 91.6 ??

I seem to recall Cabra Choice being off air on the Tuesday evening yet getting a knock on the door and their equipment seized ??

Great memories of the anorak shown and 'Petes' radio news - thanks to Ger and Simon there is a factual archive of historic and current for the time of radio events.

Declan A Walsh · 24-05-2020 5:49pm

Infoanon wrote: »

Hi Ger ,

I always thought that there where 2 raiding parties ?, with only Jazz on air on the Wednesday morning from the mountains before being raided ?.

A few stations had managed to remove their TXS before the raiding teams arrived iirc - Nova947/Sun 101 and Phantoms 91.6 ??

I seem to recall Cabra Choice being off air on the Tuesday evening yet getting a knock on the door and their equipment seized ??

Great memories of the anorak shown and 'Petes' radio news - thanks to Ger and Simon there is a factual archive of historic and current for the time of radio events.

The very last ever Anorak Hour was on fully licensed Phantom on April 1st 2007. I happened to be around that morning and heard it -by that stage, it was on 9-10am on Sundays. I remember Ger Rowe had to emphasize that it was not an April Fools joke! Being CEO of Phantom meant his time was taken up and, sadly, he had to drop his program. That was over twenty years with Simon Maher-connected stations, but Ger had been doing programs like this since the 1980s I believe.

radiowaves · 24-05-2020 6:05pm

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

The very last ever Anorak Hour was on fully licensed Phantom on April 1st 2007. I happened to be around that morning and heard it -by that stage, it was on 9-10am on Sundays. I remember Ger Rowe had to emphasize that it was not an April Fools joke! Being CEO of Phantom meant his time was taken up and, sadly, he had to drop his program. That was over twenty years with Simon Maher-connected stations, but Ger had been doing programs like this since the 1980s I believe.

A sad day indeed, and guess what...

http://radiowaves.fm/ire/blog/2007/04/01/the-anorak-hour-l22/

SimonMaher · 24-05-2020 7:47pm

Ger Roe wrote: »

Jaysus Mr Reid, your memory must be getting as fuzzy as mine... there was one more Anorak Hour before the pirate days ended.

The 2003 raids happened the Tuesday after the Nova edition prog when ComReg hit the Dublin south west TX sites and what we originally thought was a power cut, slowly made its way up Kiltipper Hill, taking out one site at a time.

The 3 rock sites were hit the following morning, but Phantom was already off air having removed the 3 rock TX late on Tuesday afternoon. I was waiting at the Blue Light car park that morning and watched the raid party arrive on the road and call in to each station site to remove equipment. Phantom came back on the following Saturday around noon (from 3 rock) with Dan Hegarty doing the return prog (I think).

I already had the next Anorak Hour ready to go (focus on the Sunshine raid and return) so it went out on the Sunday and that was the last pirate prog. You arose earlier than normal from your usual Sunday slumber, and came into the studio (instead of a phone in) and we had a good rant, explaining that Phantom was not going to engage in cat and mouse operations and so was closing that night to continue on the web.

I also remember Ian Dempsey and the Gift Grub gang on Today FM, getting a bit of grief over a comedy sketch that they did that week where they slagged off ComReg, expressed sympathy for Phantom being off the air and hoped that we would be back.

Fun times.

Ha! You warned me that once I had kids I would remember nothing. You were right

They were fun times although that was a stressful week. I remember the final pirate Anorak Hour well and the ranting too. Intense and all as it was at the time, I do recall there being a sense of it not being the end, just the beginning of the next chapter and what an adventure it turned out to be!

Apologies for taking the thread off topic by the way - back to 1983!

Simon

johnner64 · 25-05-2020 10:57pm

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Myth. Cary and Phil Solomon had pulled out of Sunshine as a result of Cooke's nobbling the mast. I know that there was a watch on the replacement mast for a time but Chris was back in the UK by then and quite what he'd have gotten out of such an expensive bribe is anybody's guess.

Besides, I think that Robbie's daughter was in primary school at the time :pac:

I have often wondered how Cary was on Sunshine in (I think) November after he had pulled out. Amazed Robbie let him back on or had Robbie not raised the cash at that point?

Ger Roe · 26-05-2020 3:06pm

Infoanon wrote: »

Hi Ger ,

I always thought that there where 2 raiding parties ?, with only Jazz on air on the Wednesday morning from the mountains before being raided ?.

A few stations had managed to remove their TXS before the raiding teams arrived iirc - Nova947/Sun 101 and Phantoms 91.6 ??

I seem to recall Cabra Choice being off air on the Tuesday evening yet getting a knock on the door and their equipment seized ??

Great memories of the anorak shown and 'Petes' radio news - thanks to Ger and Simon there is a factual archive of historic and current for the time of radio events.

From my memory... Jazz was indeed still on air from a house just up from The Blue Light pub. I watched from a safe distance while the raid party went in and switched off the rig before taking it out. They then went to the other TX sites on the road and knocked in - even those that were not broadcasting at the time. They may have removed equipment too, but I can't be sure - some, as you say had already been removed.

I remember that Choice was hit later that day too.

Nova day coming up 37 years

Comments