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At the turn of the millennium Atlantic changed its format to rhythm and dance.
This was Atlantic's last big chapter in its life. The change of format didn't increase its low listenership figures by much.
Its thought that what was killing the giant was more local FM stations coming on air in The UK and Ireland with similar music
formats.
National Stations face a bigger challenge these days in the face of more localised radio and are under more pressure than
ever to innovate. |
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ABOVE : A young Dickie Bow from the old days. The original Dickie Bow lasted just one week. He left without telling anyone
and has never been heard of since !!
But Mark Wheelan soon sorted that problem out when he was hired by the brain child of Atlantic 252. Mark was the NEW Dickie
Bow and made a serious impact from breakfast with almost 6 million listeners to the top 7 at 7. Some people still say that
HE made the top 7 @ 7 for what it really was.
Greg has 15 minutes of Marks links on cassette presenting the top 7 at 7 which was recorded on the studios FM feed. Mark can
be heard using doughnuts and hot ramps into songs. There are other archive recordings from this recently discovered official
research tape dated 5-11-96.
Wyane Scales, Hollywood hayes, Dickie Bow and The Pizza man are on this tape and all of which sound verrrrry hot and so far
in your face you might feel as if a sledge-hammer hit you and buried itself there !
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Some of the last video footage of ATLANTIC 252.
The pictures you see are from the video.
ABOVE: Greg with his long time friend Mark wheelan also known as Dickie Bow who keep in contact to this day. Both Jocks get on like a house on fire as they have enormous respect for each other and a lot in common.. even the same star sign. BELOW: Greg Parke at his second RTL station except NOW on air.
Greg would like to thank Stephan Hensel of RTL Berlin for his help and adivce.There is no doubt he would love to be part of any RTL station again.The only thing is no other language except english please as this was his only handicap in Berlin. |
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ABOVE and BELOW: James underwood or better known as Jamie Wood giving a blast accross the UK and Ireland on the long wave giant. As far as we are aware Jamie now works to produce the Pepsi chart. |
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ABOVE: DOING A HOT LINK! Mark on Breakfast. By this time ( in 2000 ) Mark was working for TIPP-FM and was asked by John o' hara to join the team five days a week.
But Mark and Greg knew ATLANTIC was going down and were looking elsewhere.
These days Mark can be heard on Live 95fm. |
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By clicking on almost all Radio station logos on this site you will open a link page to their site. |
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ABOVE: American Jock Hollywood Haze on-air at ATLANTIC 252.
He was the Drive Time Jock on Corks 96fm but as far as we are aware he is now head of music as well as administration.
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BELOW : Before we have one last look at the transmitter site, this was ATLANTIC 252's London studio. Almost all shows were presented from the village of Trim Co.Meath 25 miles north west of Dublin. The London studio used ISDN to link back to Ireland. |
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Another look at technical. |
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Side by side, two giant transmitters. |
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ABOVE: On video, Tom Hand ( chief engineer ) about to give a tour of the transmitter site. |
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Above: Part of the workshop.
BELOW: Part of the cooling room. Two large 10hp fans ( with 6 foot blades ) can be seen taking cold air into a large stainless steel bath of water through wall louvres. Rate of flow, 148 gallons per minute! The flow pipes are ice cold ( also seen ) and return pipes are too hot to touch. There is a futher 6 fans ( smaller and not in this picture ) used for cooling. A non
conductive fluid was used elsewhere. Cost of fluid, about 1000 pounds per litre. The electricty supply to the station was
10kv with the transformers in another building for safety.
Total cost in the 1990's to run the station for 24 hours was about 1100 pounds a day. |
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ABOVE: For Radio Ham and DX enthusiasts, the QSL card. |
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