Nova: Born 1980 - Died 1986
(but had a habit of coming back from the dead)


Sybil Fennel: The News Room
Pic courtesy of  Offshore-radio.de


Peter Madison in Nova
Pic courtesy of The DX Archive

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Anything with "new" means it has been uploaded in the last month!

   
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1986 1.43 min Listen!

"Barry McCall will force the station to cease broadcasting from Nov Park in Rathfarnham..."
Gary Hamill reads the news just days before Radio Nova was forcibly
closed. Hamill recalls quite vividly how he was directed to read this
script, which he himself did not actually write. Make sure you check the
two sets of audio below for a continuation of this!

1986 1.43 min Listen!

"You're listening the final half hour of broadcasting on Radio Nova..."
Gary Hamill reads the final news on Radio Nova in 1986, when Cary had a go at the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). Make sure you listen to Cary in the audio just below this one. But on this one we hear Gary doing the news and George Talbot sounding a little sad. "I'm having my last cup of tea here on nova, and my last cigarette", he says, in the days when everyone smoked everywhere lol!


1986 5.42 min Listen!

"I'm rather pleased that the National Union of Journalists didn't have the opportunity to close us down...it was another one that did it, but never mind..."
Chris Cary closes Radio Nova down for the very last time. No really! This was the third time the station had closed, and it was Final. Hang on, I have to take that back. Later in 1987, Energy103 started calling itself Nova again..haha! Cary just couldn't help himself! That only lasted weeks before the licence of legal radio shut everything down. (You can hear a jingle from Energy/Nova just below) Anyway, back to 1986, and the reception here is a little dodgy, but definately worth a listen. I think it was recorded from mainland UK. Some other well-known DJ's on this clip also.

1987 0.12 sec Listen!

As you have read above, Cary kept re-introducing the name Nova to his stations in one form or another. Here is a jingle with both the names Energy103 and Nova, which must have confused the hell out of the listeners!!!

1984? 0.28 sec Listen!

This is simply a promo for Club Nova, circa 1984 - but not sure.

1984 1.35 sec Listen!

This is the news on Radio Nova, read by David Malone. Following this is Casey Casem's Top 40.

1984 2.38 sec Listen!

This is also the news on Radio Nova, read by myself (George Long), followed by my good mate Dave Johnson. We were on in the evenings, while Disco Nova were blaring 80's hits directly below us. Lucky we had sound proof studios!!

1984 5.42 min Listen!

"And then he's going to be working for Sunshine Radio because he won't be working here anymore."
Chris Cary decides to go on air on his own radio station, radio nova, doing the Euro Top 40 (ET40). He tries to play a song, but the cart (on which the songs were stored) which are loop tapes, was not brought back to the start by the previous DJ, and Cary goes nuts, because the song wont play! Incidentally, the next day the press hammered Cary for doing such an awful job of it. I (George Long) was on the afternoon shift and there was a nervous energy in the air when he was about to go on.


1984 1.37 min Listen!

"And don't forget Monday we've got Greg Gaughran back on the radio."
More of Chris Cary on that famous night, doing the Euro Top 40. He talks about the revolution that was (annd is) MTV, and predicted that even "here" (in Ireland) there would be music TV in the future. How right he was! Oh, and by the way, Greg Gaughran did not start on the following Monday as Cary had proudly announced. he fled to Q102!!!

1984 28 sec Listen!

"Enjoy the bank holiday and if you're going out, take a raincoat ."
This is the last link of the ET40 from Chris Cary on Nova in 1984.

1984 30 sec Listen!

This is the last link of the ET40 from Chris Cary on Nova in 1984.

1984 8 sec Listen!

N...O...V...A the famous dry voiceover


1985 48 sec Listen!

TOTH (Top Of The Hour) Nova ID and a Vox Pop of people saying "I listen to Nova because they play the best music" in order to receive a ten pound note. Not much yakka to earn a tenner eh?


1984 30 sec Listen!

The french part of the famous nova song. Very melodic indeed. It's just part of the whole jingle, which has english in it, which you can find on other parts of this site.


1984 51 sec Listen!

"Ruth, are you sitting down?."
Ruth Bissett from Walkinstown wins five thousand pounds in the great 5K giveaway, and this is a promo after the event, driven beautifully by Tony Alllan. This was the second time Nova tried to give away the irish part of the promotion, which was 5k for listeners in the UK and 5k for listeners in Ireland, but the telephone system crashed under the weight of calls in the Irish republic, as you can hear on the audio clips directly below this one. At the end of the clip I am introducing the news...


1984 51 sec Listen!

"It's already been proven to be a great race for both men and women alike .."
Some TOTH (top of the hour) jingles herre for Nova, followed by a Tony Allan promo for the 1984 Puma 10k race which raised money for charity. Boy Nova had it all over RTE in those days! Dublin town virtually shut down when the Puma 10 race took place and there was nothing RTE could do about it!!!


1984 51 sec Listen!

"What I didn't need was a dead body in my apartment. I was lucky. I didn't have one..."
This is a quite funny promo by Lawqrence John, who was doing overnight (graveyard) shifts on Radio Nova in 1984. Worth a listen too!

1983? 51 sec Listen!


Here are some jingles from KissFM and Radio Nova from the early eighties. The news at 1 jingle is done by Tony Allan. Interesting. I do not remember that jingle at all and I was working there lol! Have a listen. This file is in .wav format, and it quite big, 4MB. If you have a slow connection you might like to right-click and save the file to your hard disk first!

1983? 51 sec Listen!

"Can we have our 5 thousand pound winner to the stage please! ..."

This is very interesting. First brief clip I think is Chris Barry, and then it flicks to Chris Cary and possibly Colm Hays. The setting is the new Disco Nova and there are hundreds of people cheering as Chris Cary asks for the winner to go to the stage, but she's not there!

1983? 51 sec Listen!

"Not one, but two five thousand pound payoffs..."

Chris Cary does a promo for the two five thousand pounds giveaways to people in Ireland and the UK. However, the Irish phone system crumbled so Nova could only award the British prize, as you'll hear in the clip directly below this!!!

1983? 51 sec Listen!

"Due to a breakdown of phone lines we were only able to give the British $5000..."

Chris Cary does a promo for a second chance to win 5000 pounds as the phone system totally crashed in Ireland when they played the "three songs in a row" because of the weight of the calls on the network. Hilarious!

1985 51 sec Listen!

"Don't forget the quid - it's all for a good cause..."

Chris Cary puts on his best voice and wears his sunday clothes for the Nova Christmas appeal...It's nice to hear an Xmas version of the Nova jingles here.

1986 1:22 min Listen!

"We're live from Dublin, to Dublin and right across Europe..."

This was the revival of Nova at 144 Upper Leeson Street Dublin and a great "Dave Johnson" jingle heard here. The new Radio Nova was not to last though...

198? 59 sec Listen!

"We're looking for a caller from outside the Dublin area..."

Nova could be heard almost right across Britain, never mind outside the Dublin area! This was the Nova 100 pounds giveaway. George Talbot talks to a caller and gives her a couple of quid for saying the right thing, when she eventually did! What year was this? [email]

1985 35 sec Listen!

"It's all happening at this weekend at Disco Nova..."

Disco Nova was custom-built underneath the Nova studios in Rathfarnham, Dublin. "boogie-busses" carted Nova fans from outside Trinity College Dublin up to the hills where Nova was located. The Niteclub was state-of-the-art and girls got in free! At one stage Nova's newsreaders would read the news "live" from the bar downstairs.

1985 35 sec Listen!

"I was told that you were suffering from shock from Declan (Meehan) going..."

Colm Hayes is doing the breakfast show on Nova, and welcomes Bob Gallico back to Nova breakfast. Had Bob been on Q102 for a time and returned to Nova? [email]

1981 1:35 min Listen!

"As a birthday present from RTE it turned out to be a damp squib"

Bob reports on the interruption to Nova's microlink by RTE. This happened on Nova's birthday. Nova were in the unusual position of having to ask their engineers OVER THE AIR to switch "to our other link", a desperate move usually reserved for the shoestring pirates.

1981 1:16 min Listen!

"Normal programming will be resumed as soon as possible"

Bob Gallico asks listeners to call RTE and complain about the interfearance. A very young sounding Sybil Fennel has a word about it, and then theres a minute of the gaelige language being spoken!

1981 41 sec Listen!

"Call the department of communications..718211 extension 211"

Yes, another jamming session! Just before news with Ken Hammond, Greg Goughran again reminds listeners that they should complain about the squealing sounds on 88FM

1981 1:24 min Listen!

"It's Jameson Jewellers time"

Jameson Jewellers bought the lucritive top of the hour ad. Here we have a number of news entries by Sybil etc and jingles including "Hugh O'Brien".

1984 1:33 min Listen!

"Okay, my man, 5 to 1 on New Years Day in 1984"

Jase the Pace struts his stuff! Declan Meehan has a word in there. Lots of New Year cheer and a mention that Jason Mayne is getting married that year!

1984 40 sec Listen!

"The next time you hear a cart thats misqueued on Radio Nova...find out who did it, and the prize is a public execution"

Chris Cary makes a rare "appearance" on his own radio station, and papers the next day are quite critical of his broadcasting skills!

1984 44 sec Listen!

"This is Chris Cary with the news, no it's not, I left it on the mess room table!""

From the same night, Chris Cary reminisces about his days on Radio Caroline

1982 1:26 min Listen!

"Jessie Brandon here, comin' back with Hall and Oates"

Jessie is on the air and sounding fantastic. Theres a Ten pound giveaway for a listener who says "because it plays the best music".

1986 1:32 min Listen!

"Barry McCall's action would result in...putting 25 Nova employees including NUJ members out of a job"

Newsreader Gary Hamill reads the news, of which most of it is about NUJ member Barry McCall and how he threatens the jobs of employees at Nova's Rathfarnham studios. These were tough times for the superpirate..

1982 1:26 min Listen!

"Weather for dublin..."
Colm Hayes in the mid-morning. Top of the hour news clip with Cogy Clarke. Colm reads the weather, and reads the weather, and reads the weather...!

1981 16 sec nova88.ram not currently available

All dry jingles, mostly by Tony Allen




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