Radio Nova's 40th Anniversary. A Radio Behemoth & Broadcasting Revolution

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of perhaps Ireland's most influential and important radio stations in the history of Irish broadcasting, here are a selection of the recently received archives from Anoraks Ireland. Radio Nova, the brainchild of the late great Chris Cary, began broadcasting 'clutter free' music to Dublin on June 29th 1981. In its five years on air, the station, its owner, its ethos and its commercial success revolutionized Irish radio and created an industry that thrives today. 
This is an early daily schedule for the station

One of the most successful double acts ever in Irish radio was Declan Meehan (who began his pirate career as Arlo St Jude) and American born Bob Gallico. The Deckie Wekkie Brekkie Trekkie was the number one rated show on Radio Nova and while Declan continues in radio today on East Coast Radio, Bob alas passed away in 2013. This is the letter sent to him by Sybil Fennell (later to become Chris Cary's life partner) to say that his demo tape had won their attention and as they say the rest is history. 

https://radiotoday.ie/2013/08/tributes-paid-as-bob-gallico-dies-at-83/

Note in 1982, Nova's stationary were dual language English and Irish. 

One of Nova's enduring legacy's was their charity broadcast 'Operation Novacare', which is forever associated with by a certain generation of listeners with the track  'I Won't Let You Down' by Jim Diamond.

Radio Nova attempted to spread its wing by focusing more on broadcasting into Britain and began announcing that rather than broadcasting 'to Dublin' they were broadcasting 'from Dublin'. They at one time opened an advertising office in Liverpool. This is an opinion poll sheet used in Liverpool.

The end came in 1986 for Radio Nova as industrial issues and increased competition for advertising forced Nova from the airwaves. The company went into liquidation and a local auctioneering firm were tasked with disposing of what assets they could. 

For further information on Radio Nova see

https://ibhof.blogspot.com/search?q=radio+nova

https://radionovainternational.co/?fbclid=IwAR0aVthVfbkdYzIrmNOUMthxHbn0gWYNxP-3gRqczOPoCKuGZGyrCdlfgAc

The images above are from the Archives of Paul Davidson & Anoraks Ireland which have recently donated to the Irish Pirate Radio Archive at Dublin City University

 

Radio Nova, Playing All Over Liverpool...NOW

(c) DX ARCHIVE

 

For Chris Cary, his powerhouse and revolutionary Radio Nova was the dominant station in Dublin and the greater part of Leinster. His station built its success on ‘broadcasting to Dublin’ but for a broadcaster to cut his teeth on board Radio Caroline in the North Sea, the conquering of his homeland was the next big adventure. Because of his powerful transmitters on both FM and AM, Radio Nova’s signal travelled across the Irish Sea, sweeping over the Isle of Man and reaching the coast of Merseyside. Cary realised that he could tap into a newer and bigger market on mainland Britain. National commercial radio had yet to arrive in Britain and in large cities like Liverpool listeners had the basic choice of BBC local radio or an ILR.

 

Radio Nova began announcing that they were ‘broadcasting from Dublin’ and Liverpool, a city with a large Irish diaspora, was the first primary target, with what he hoped would be a powerful longwave transmitter to follow and cover a large swathe of Britain. By late 1984, Nova was a popular choice for listeners in Liverpool, challenging the positions of Radio City (ILR) and BBC Radio Merseyside. Other choices including the national BBC Radio One were being quickly left behind. Cary through his UK based company ABC Music Radio Limited opened an office in Liverpool city centre at Suite 411, Cooper Buildings, Church Street. The two legal stations in the city were hampered by regulations when Cary was not. Radio City was limited to ‘9 hours needle time in every 24 hours’[1], while their BBC counterpart was under even tighter constraints limited to ‘3 hours needle time in 18 hours’.

 

To generate publicity in August 1984, Nova divided it on air promotion of £10,000 into two prizes with one to be won in Ireland and one in the UK. Problems arose as the Dublin phone system was overpowered by the volume of entries and was deferred to a later date but the UK winner was former Blackpool resident Sue Wheldon from the Wirral, who was flown with her family to Dublin and collected her cheque from Cary himself at Nova Park. By September their jingles were already promoting ‘Radio Nova playing all over Liverpool..now’.

 

 

The station generated more newspaper stories when they ran a competition to find new on-air personnel including DJ’s and newsreaders. In October 1984, they announced that DJ’s on Merseyside would be auditioned for the positions at the station that could earn them up to £25,000 per year, considerably more than was offered at either Radio City, Merseyside or even RTE Radio 2. The Liverpool Echo[2] was reporting that through a locally based advertising agency, Nova was spending £50,000 on promoting the station within the Merseyside and Lancashire areas.

 

The station despatched DJ’s to headline gigs in the Merseyside area including their participation in an anti-heroin campaign which was launched at Mr Pickwick’s nightclub in February 1984, headlined by Nova DJ’s.

 

Only a handful of British advertisers used Nova and the office closed, this despite the fact that Nova aimed their programming at a British audience with British news, weather and traffic reports. As one commentator reported "What would the guy listening in the Liberties, Dublin want to know about traffic jams on the M6"[3].

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[1] Liverpool Echo Newspaper November 16^th 1984

[2] October 10^th 1984

[3] The Sunday World

Chris Cary / Spangles Muldoon 1968

Chris Cary who passed away in 2008 is famous in Ireland as the man who revolutionised Irish Radio with perhaps the greatest ever station to broadcasting in Ireland, Radio Nova (1981 -86). He was famously known as Spangles Muldoon during his days on Radio Caroline out in the North Sea but on land he fell foul of the law in 1968 and 1969 when raids in London by the GPO detectors closed Radio Free London in August 1968. The following are some newspaper reports of both the raid and the subsequent court case.