Atlantic 252
Atlantic 252 was a
long wave radio station broadcasting to the
United Kingdom and
Ireland on 252
kHz (1190.4
metres) which ran from
1989 until
2002.
The concept of Atlantic 252 can be traced back as far as
August 1986 when Irish state broadcaster
RTÉ announced it was to use their allocated
longwave channel for a new pop music station. They teamed up with
Radio Luxembourg to form
Radio Tara - the trading name of
Atlantic 252, which being longwave would enable reception on the British mainland as well as Ireland.
Two years later, RTÉ had built a 1000
ft broadcast
mast in Clarkestown,
County Meath, despite protests from local residents and farmers. Studios were set up in Mornington House, in the nearby village of
Trim. The station cost £6m to set up. Just over 47m people were in the station's broadcast area.
On
September 1st 1989, Gary King announced on 252khz longwave that he was the first voice listeners would hear on Atlantic 252. He then introduced the presenter lineup, including ex-
Laser 558 presenters such as Charlie Wolf, MaryEllen O'Brien and Andrew Turner.
Although the transmitter was in the
Republic of Ireland, the signal's reach meant that it was often considered to be a UK national station - the signal had been received in
Brazil at night time, and the Scottish musician
Mylo has claimed it was the only station with listenable reception on the
Isle of Skye. At launch there were no UK nationwide commercial stations (the first being
Classic FM in
1992), and the lack of a UK broadcast licence attracted the attention of the
IBA.
Initially, the station transmitted only from 6 am until 7 pm, at which time listeners were invited to tune to
Radio Luxembourg. Later, the station began broadcasting until midnight, then until 2 am, and eventually overnight with Jo King on The Big Mattress. The music format consisted of high rotation mainstream pop and rock music, with influences borrowed heavily from American Radio.
Commercial Radio and the
BBC initially objected to the station, seeing it as a commercial
pirate. However, as UK commercial radio developed and deregulation saw many more stations launching, formats similar to Atlantic's began to appear on
FM offering superior audio quality. Atlantic 252's audience began the inevitable decline. Attempts at repositioning followed, including "Real Music Real Radio" when the station attempted to tackle
Radio 1's "new music" format. At the peak of its popularity in the mid-
1990s, Atlantic 252 had in excess of four million listeners, but vastly increased competition from local radio stations with similar formats and superior
FM audio quality, as well as the renaissance of
BBC Radio 1 and the repositioning of
BBC Radio 2, saw this take a dive below one million by
2000.
The station responded by shifting its format to concentrate on dance music, but continued to lose listeners. In
1999, new studios were commissioned in the home of CLT UK Radio Sales at 74 Newman Street
London. Built in the basement, there was one on air studio and 2 production suites which were initially used for the Mark Brow breakfast show and to record specialist programming which was then sent over to
Trim for playout at a later date.
After the station was relaunched as The New Atlantic 252 the London studio remained empty for a few months, untill Drivetime Presenter Simon Hardwick took up residence in
April 2000. The studios were linked by a £30,000 leased line between
London and
Ireland. This was a two way line allowing the building to hear the station output since a longwave signal was not receivable in Central London.
A glimmer of hope emerged at the beginning of 2000 when the station was repositioned to play rhythmic hits under John O Hara's control. This bought a halt to the decline but only temporarily, as by then the station's fate was sealed. CLT (now
RTL) who owned 80% of Atlantic 252 were pulling out of the UK Radio market completely, and eventually the station was sold.
The very last live show on Atlantic 252 was presented by Enda Caldwell on Thursday
December 20,
2001, but continued broadcasting music without continuity for about two weeks afterwards.
It was briefly replaced by a sports station,
TeamTalk 252, which opened in the early days of January
2002. This faced competition from
BBC Radio 5 Live and
talkSPORT, and was itself closed in the summer of
2002, just a few months after its launch. The frequency is now used by
RTÉ Radio 1.
*http://www.atlantic252.com
*http://tx.mb21.co.uk/features/252/index.asp
*http://members.lycos.co.uk/gregsradio/newpage0.html
