The anatomy of an NUJ strike that silenced a radio revolution in 1986.

 

Courtesy of the #anoraksirelandcollection

The anatomy of an National Union of Journalists strike that silenced a radio revolution.

July 1983                    Following a relaunch of Kiss FM, Cary told the Sunday Independent that he ‘also decided "to get into bed" with trade unions. In the past Carey has threatened staff with dismissal for joining unions but now he has invited the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) to open discussions with him in what he describes as "a necessary evil" following pressure from existing NUJ staff members at Radio Nova.’

 

January 15^th 1984     Chris Cary closes Kiss FM following a prolonged period of FM frequency jamming by the State broadcaster RTE.

February 2^nd 1984     On the front page of the Evening Herald, Cary said he thought the laying off a 15 staff would be sufficient to keep Radio Nova open but announces the closure of Radio Nova leading to the redundancy of 57 staff.

 

February 3^rd 1984     Jenny McIvor, the chapel of the NUJ, Linda Conway, Shane McGabhan, David Malone, Ken Hammond and Brian Johnson, all member of the NUJ are sacked without statutory notice or redundancy payment offer.

 

February 7^th 1984     Official NUJ pickets are placed on Radio Nova’s headquarters at 19 Herbert Street. He is reported as saying ‘I did them all a favour by giving them jobs in the first place’.

 

February 11^th 1984   A newspaper report states that Cary carried out a poll of his remaining employees who vote by a 5-1 majority to have unions excluded from the radio station. 

February 27^th 1984   The striking NUJ workers have a letter published in the national newspaper stating their case and grievances. 

March 4^th 1984          The Irish Congress of Trade Unions grant the NUJ an all out picketing of Radio Nova, this prevents other union employees including ESB & Posts and Telegraphs workers passing pickets. Cary also refuses to attend the Labour Court for dispute arbitration. Nova has moved its entire operation to Nova Park on Stocking Lane in Rathfarnham.

March 10^th 1984        There another announcement from Cary that Radio Nova would be imminently closing following a £150,000 VAT demand from the tax man. Mike Hogan resigns from the station as General Manager. 

June 1^st 1984              The NUJ publish a warning to prospective employees following adverts for replacement employees, that before they take on a position at Radio Nova, that they should contact the NUJ. 

August 4^th 1984         The Irish Independent reports that a unfair dismissal hearing at the Employment Appeals Tribunal has been adjourned until a High Court case is heard. According to Radiowaves.fm, ESB refuse to cross the pickets now at the station’s transmitter site at Nova Park in Rathfarnham when power is lost. Cary was forced to purchase generators to power the station.

                                                            Courtesy of the DX Archive

September 17^th 1984 Ken Hammond seeks an interlocutory injunction to prevent Cary from interfering with his picketing at Nova Park. He said Cary had been abusive and threatening.

October 2^nd 1984       An injunction ordered to prevent Cary interfering with pickets. Hammond in an affidavit said that Cary told him ‘he would find out what real guerrierism was and that if necessary he would hire people and he (Hammond) would find out what thousands of pounds could do’.

 

October 9^th 1984        The NUJ objects to the renewal of the pub and dancing licenses for Nova Park by Uniminster Limited, a Cary company. Justice Thomas Donnelly granted the license saying that the union had no rights to object as they were neither an individual nor a resident affected by the awarding of licenses.

November 23^rd 1984  The Irish Press reports that after 9 months the strike has been settled. Two of the striking journalists had found employment elsewhere but four remaining NUJ strikers would be returning to Radio Nova the following Monday.

Courtesy of radiowaves.fm

April 28^th 1985          Cary’s opens a new sister station to Radio Nova, Magic 105. The station operated from the Nova Boutique on Leeson Street. A company called Tegrar Limited is set up to run the station and Radio Nova leases a news service from Magic in an attempt to out manoeuvre the NUJ.

 

September 22^nd 1985 Magic is suddenly closed with the 8 NUJ members of the news room are locked out of the station. The NUJ picket the station once more. On the Nova News, Sybil Fennell read out the news about Magic closing attempting to distance Cary and Nova from the closure. It was according to the radiowaves.fm website The story read on Nova can only be described as pure propaganda (at best), given that Nova clearly owned Magic in every way, and probably didn't fool anyone. It certainly didn't fool the NUJ, who had returned to the picket line with a vengeance, determined to crush Nova.

September 29^th 1985 Nova says that the dispute has been settled and that they were recognising the union and offering striking workers contracts. The NUJ denies this.

October 21^st 1985      Sybil Fennell resigns from the NUJ. According to Fennell in an interview with Radio Today Ireland

‘The NUJ strike didn’t just ‘happen’ it was carefully orchestrated.  From memory I wasn’t working at Radio Nova at the time, I was hosting a magazine programme on LBC in London. I have no argument with the NUJ as a union, never have had, my argument was how every possible tactic was being employed to force Radio Nova off-air. The strike was a deliberate move to bring pressure to bear on Chris and to bring about the closure of Radio Nova – as was the jamming. RTE was not a happy bunny – their stations were haemorrhaging listeners not just to Radio Nova, although we were the most popular of the stations, but to a dial filled with radio stations delivering what the Dublin audience wanted.’

 

November 1^st 1985    A temporary injunction is granted to Cary and Fennell to prevent picketing at Nova Park on Stocking Lane after Fennell was verbally abused. The station has no telephones as Bord Telecom employees refuse to pass the pickets to repair the lines.

 

November 15^th 1985  Nova Media Services and Sybil Fennell fail to get injunction to stop the picketing but strikers said that they would picket in an orderly fashion and would refrain from calling Ms. Fennell a ‘scab’.

January 1^st 1986        Bernadette Cotter, described in the newspapers as one of the Nova strikers, made headlines when her daughter was the first baby born in Dublin for 1986. Her husband Paul was Nova’s station engineer.

 

March 1986               Nova closes. Cary lays the blame firmly at the door of the NUJ and the strikers.

1989                            When Cary and his Radio Nova team applied for the new National franchise from the Independent Radio and Television Commission told the commission he would offer £25,000 to the NUJ "to clear the air". His application was unsuccessful with Century Radio winning the franchise.

Further information of the Radio Nova story can be found HERE

Also at pirate.ie & The DX Archive

Sources

The Anoraks Ireland Collection at DCU

The Irish Newspaper Archives

pirate.ie

The DX Archive

radiowaves.fm

The British Newspaper Archives

The 1924 Dublin station NOT in Dublin

 

CC Baxter in the Middle

We are all well aware that in 1926, 2RN began entertaining the nation from studios located on Little Denmark Street just off Henry Street in Dublin’s city centre. But did you know that in June 1924 a radio station began broadcasting from Grafton Street, Dublin. It was operated by a store owner C.C. Baxter but rather than being a stones throw from St. Stephen’s Green, Baxter’s station was a fifteen watt operation from Grafton Street, Dublin, Texas.

KFPL was opened on June 30^th 1924 originally broadcasting from above Baxter’s Discount Store in downtown Dublin but quickly moved to a garage next to Baxter’s house on Grafton Street. It had four studios and initially broadcast many local musicians as the quality of 78s at the time were poor when broadcast. The station proved a boom for the Baxter’s Discount Store that expanded into the neighbouring saloon when prohibition was introduced.  The local newspaper the Dublin Progress reported in 1924 that the reception of the station was excellent with phone calls coming in from as far away as Forth Worth. Over the years the station was heard on various frequencies including 242m initially from June 30^th 1924, 252m (June 1925-June 1926), 275m (June 1926 – November 1928) 219m (November 1928-February 1929) and finally 229m (February 1929-March 1941).

Part of Baxter’s promotion of the station was to sell KFPL Mineral Water at a discounted price in his stores. The shop enhanced the success of the station and the station enhanced the success of the store. During the early 1930s, this was the only radio station in operation between Ft. Worth and Brownwood. The broadcasts reached 58 counties and around one million listeners. It has been reported that a broadcast from the station was once heard as far away as New Zealand.

The station remained on air until March 1941 when due to call ups to the armed forces, Baxter struggled to staff his beloved station and he handed the license back to the FCC with the license moved to a nearby town as WFTX.

The Grafton Street location of KFPL as it is today