September arrived and Radio Nova was still, essentially, in the test broadcast stage, although the average listener wouldn't have known the difference.
With the 'Bay Area' now rocking to the great new sound of a radio station the like of which they hadn't ever aurally witnessed, things were about to get very serious indeed.
On the evening of September 11th, Radio Nova launched its medium wave transmissions – emanating from a beast of an aerial at the Green Acres Complex in Rathfarnham. Whilst the FM broadcasts had wowed the local audience, Nova’s 10kw of 846kHz MW power very quickly wowed a vast listening audience not only in much of Ireland but in a great deal of Britain too.
The new signal was a signal of intent. Nova was here to stay and Irish radio would never be the same again. In October they very briefly flirted with 891kHz ('The Mighty 890') but returned to 846kHz.
With the increase in listeners came an increase in listenership. The pirates, and Nova and Sunshine in particular, were now making serious inroads on market research surveys that were documenting radio listening habits - especially amongst the lucrative teens to mid 30s age group, the very people that advertisers adore. And they responded. By November Radio Nova were fully booked up to the end of the year. The new breed of professional radio management was reaping its rewards.
Which hadn't gone unnoticed just down the road in government circles. The annual announcement sounding the death-knell for the unlicensed stations came at the start of December and this time their plan was to do away with competition for RTÉ altogether by introducing community-style stations with very little commercial interest.
Chris Cary reacted to the announcement with a metaphorical shrug of his shoulders - he knew that the day would come eventually.
It could never come soon enough for RTÉ. Rather than wait (futilely as it turned out) for the government to do away with their opposition, they decided to take matters into their own hands. June 29th 1982 was the day Radio Nova chose to celebrate the completion of one year of broadcasting. It should have been a day of celebration. The state broadcaster had other ideas, though.
They hijacked the celebrations by hijacking Nova’s signal, unwrapping a birthday present consisting of a high-pitched tone for their arch-enemy with the intention of jamming it off the air. It was a deliberate act of vandalism that demonstrated just how threatened RTÉ were now feeling by the continued existence of Radio Nova, who they considered to be outright illegal and stealing their advertising income, ultimately threatening their jobs. The question was begged but never really asked. How would they cope if/when a properly organised ‘legal’ network of commercial stations operated throughout the State.
Radio Nova’s transmissions were very sophisticated. Their studios were based in 19 Herbert St, in the heart of Dublin city. The transmitter was based in Rathfarnham. The connection between the studio and Rathfarnham was made via a microlink.
It was this microlink frequency that was hijacked by a loud, screeching noise for close to half an hour from around 4.30pm on Monday, June 28th, 1982.
On the following day, the signal was again interfered with from just after midday. This time the jamming forced Nova off the air for over three hours, until they managed to set up an alternative link. Nova’s engineers, including station boss Chris Cary, traced the source of the jamming to a mast on top of a building in Rathmines. This building was in the direct path between Herbert Street and Rathfarnham. The building belonged to RTÉ who denied the allegations made by Nova that they were the source of the jamming signal. As evidence goes though, the case against RTÉ could at the very least be described as ‘stacked’...the jamming stopped after they were rumbled.
Vox Box: Right Place
Dublin in the ’80s had a young population and plenty with money in the middle class southside areas who were more liberal and really frustrated as hell with the Catholic conservatism etc.
RTÉ really was a different world – Radio 2 at the time focused a lot on the rural market.
Dublin was set up for Chris. Nova was the station people wanted – it had a west coast liberal feel, playing a lot of brilliant US music produced to sound great on FM stereo – so right place, right time with an owner who knew exactly what he was doing.
Chris also had an uncanny knack for unearthing great on air talent and he gave so many an opportunity that has led to near 40 year careers. For me Chris Cary was the most influential person in Irish radio over the past 40 years.
Ronan Segrave