Remembering Waterford's Super-pirate of the 1980's!
Contact us:
Tell us YOUR memories
Send us YOUR pictures
Send us YOUR archive recordings
If YOU were a part of the ABC team tell us where you are now!
e-mail: abc@abcthehotfm.com
"...and tell a friend...ABC is BACK!"
Hi, I just came across abcthehotfm.com and saw the post about Nigel Roberts "where is he now ?"
I'm a long time friend of Nigel, but haven't spoken to him for about three years, he seems to have gone off the radar, but before that I knew him constantly for about 15 years. The last time I spoke to him he was living on a small coaster on the River Thames, which he bought round about 1995 I think? He was also working for the specialist audio equipment company Chiswick Reach? I would dearly like to speak to him again myslef and catch up. All I can say is that he was well, and as always, had a keen interest in all thinngs radio and audio...
Come in Nigel !???
Tony Flynn
Remember as a young boy going camping in Tramore with my family (Sea View Campsite I think)...listening to the test tx and the following year you were on full-time..I remember climbing the hill in Tramore town as your tee shirts were on sale in a shop at the top...
Thanks for the memories!
Brendan "All Irish Radio"
Hello Lads at abcthehotfm.com,
It's all coming back to me now...
*Sleeping on the production room floor before weekend breakfast shows.
*Jonie Walls blaas and red lead from the dairy in Arundel Square.
*Interviewing my old English teacher.
*Eight in a Mini on the way back from New Ross.
*Dexys Midnight runners running out before I could run back from the loo.
*Ellis breaking The Bogmen's take on Floyds 'Brick' live on air (on my show!).
*Locking Clive in his car.
*The generosity of the public during The Christmas Toy Appeal.
*'The Battle of the Oldies'.
*Finishing ahead of WLR at the Southend F.C Pop Quiz (always!).
On and on it goes...
I never heard anyone mention 'work' and 'ABC' in the same sentence. For everybody it was a natural extention of social time, in a subtly structured and professional operation.
The upshot of all this is that I had a ball and formed lasting friendships.
Thank you all,
Ray Sarsfield,
DUBLIN
Hi all, wonderful site, so great to see the OLD faces, 20 fast years on and so many still in the radio game, thats love.
Have to say that my time with ABC was fun, a lot of learning and a lot of joy, and made great friends. Have to go a-rootin' now for the old tapes, thanks Clive & Andy for the memories.
I want to be a DJ when I'm big and fat and old......ahem, older.
Paul Dower,
Waterford
WHAT A SITE. Memories of how music on the radio should still sound like. Question- Somewhere in that excellent mix is a song which I believe is called "Streets of Paradise". Sounds like the Clash?? Any ideas??? (we've missed this one - if you spot it and have any ideas please e-mail us so we can let Mark know)
Best regards and well done.
Mark Hanrahan.
Bristol,UK.
Hiya abcthehotfm.com,
It's great to hear the super sounds of ABC The Hot FM! on the web.
Wow! We used to play some great music!
I have some photographs of me Tony Murrell, Clive Derek and Dave Hunt at a special broadcast we did in Dungarvan one time. The haircuts were scary, the outfits were highly dubious and the moustaches were quite possibly illegal.
I'll send them on if I ever work out how to scan a photograph.
Jimmy Ryan's late night affair was a great smooth listen.
All the best, fellow pirates,
Daragh Corcoran
BBC Radio Leeds.
Subject: The wives and girlfriends
Welcome back ABC, what a great buzz it is to see all the recent "young" faces of the DJ's.
You are all looking fantastic lads, honest! I often think of us poor wives and girlfriends who had to put up with the unsocial hours our men kept, not only did the job consist of your show but you then had the outside broadcasts and disco's at the weekends in O'Sheas, Snages, Breens, The stonecourt, ...God I feel old now!!
We would all meet up at around 7pm on Friday Nights in Egans after Tony Murrell's 'drive time' and the craic was always fantastic. Cheers to the gang, Joyce and Andy, Caroline and Clive, Marcella and Kevin, Clare and Andy, Heather and Neil, and of course Moi! I would love us all to meet up again, so start making those calls now!!
Maria O'Grady (Malone)
Hi guys!
Absolutely LOVE the website. It must have taken huge amounts of time to put all the audio and pix together.
Thanks on behalf of all former colleagues/friends! Any plans for a reunion??
Love and hugs, Kerry Graye x
Hello friends,
Great to hear "ABC The Hot FM" again.
I wish you were back on the airwaves!
You always had a great line up of DJ's - they were really classy and had colourful history from other pirate stations abroad and local.
I have 700 cassettee tapes of Radio stations including many of ABC, some rare ones like Kerry Gray standing in for Billy Power, Dave Windsor on Riveria 104, some of Billy Power, and lots of other ABC Jocks.
Best wishes for ABC's future!
Keep The Dream alive! remember ......................................
Joe Cashin,
County Kilkenny
John Sauvage contacted abcthehotfm.com:
"Well done on a fabulous website! Injustice how we didn't get license. Have some old tapes of shows if you want them. Went off to train greyhounds in last number of years - still interested in radio and music though. Now married and living in Mooncoin, County Kilkenny. Still available for radio work. Say hello to all the lads - and great website - nice to see so many old faces!"
Regards John
Subject: Hi from Steve Marshall
Hi guys what a great website - abcthehotfm.com certainly brings back some great memories! I remember the early days with Clive and Simon and Andy etc broadcasting from the caravan n Tramore great days!
since then I have worked all over Europe and a few other interesting places, I'm currently involved in running a radio station in Spain, both in Programming and Sales also do a daily morning show!
All the best
Steve
From "DeargDoom" commenting on abcthehotfm.com on radiowaves :
Great site! I used to love going on summer holidays as a kid; no matter where you went you'd bring the radio along and tune into whatever local pirates were out there. There'd normally be two decent ones and a shite one no matter what town you were in.We used to go to Wexford a lot so we'd tune into ABC on AM (Irish people rarely drove cars with FM radios in the 80s!). ABC was up in the premier league really; themselves, Kiss in Monaghan, Coast in Galway were the slick sounding stations around the country.
Hi, I've just come across abcthehotfm.com by accident, and it's wonderful to see the faces of old friends and colleagues, and Kerry looks just as beautiful as she did when we worked together. It's marvelous to know that the contribution we all made such a long time ago has not been forgotten.
Bill Everatt,
Wales
"Fine print" commenting on abcthehotfm.com on Radiowaves:
Yes great site! Excellent Radio Station back in the day too!
To be honest probably one of the forgotten heroes in a way. Put the border pirates to the back of your mind for a sec - this was a station!
When ABC sounded hot, it was very hot. When it sounded poor, it was very poor - but who cares, nothing is perfect - but the sound quality, man that was as close as, and I have to say was way ahead of it's time. I used to drive that way just to hear the signal, there was great stereo separation and clarity ... and deserves it's seat in the memory of Irish 80's Radio
Great to hear you back again. I got an Internet Radio for Xmas, so it was a great and pleasant surprise to see ABC The Hot FM at the top of the list when I started browsing around all the stations - it's been locked on to ABC The Hot FM ever since!
Boy! It was a world away wasn't it? - it made me chuckle when I hear presenters say "..here's xyz song on Phillips CD" - how quaint!
I've got loads of recordings on cassette which I'll have to get round to digitising - much of it 1026 received in west Wales, some later stereo stuff and some early 729kHz stuff. Probably some photos somewhere too! Also some recordings of your "sister station" ABC103 in Manchester! (its been reported that in the mid 80's a station appeared in Manchester, England sporting very familiar sounding voices and jingles!)
Any live or new programming expected soon....?
Glyn
Bristol,
ENGLAND
"shockwave" on boards.ie:
Oh the memories, I remember abc radio as being a major part of my teen years. It was a great station with great music,so much better than bland WLR. I wonder how things would have turned out had they got the license instead of WLR?
"Roen12" on boards.ie:
I used to have an ABC T-shirt (the station, not the band). Wasn't today or yesterday though :)
alinton:
ABC started in Tramore in March '82, moved to Arundel Square in 85 and to Egans about 18 months later.
The studios above Egans were good - great to work in. If you look up at the top right window even now you can see part of the white desk that the news was compiled at. The main studio was the two windows to the left of that.
ABC was ahead of its time in many ways. First to use FM Stereo in the country, first to use CDs on air, actually tested AM Stereo, had satellite news feeds, NUJ journalist, first to use proper audio processing, and latterly had AM transmitters in Tramore and Wexford and a network of FM transmitters that covered most of counties Waterford and Wexford.
I have tapes of it, and I have to say it beats most of today's bland stations hands down.
I was there; Great days.
Andy
Really great to hear ABC again, such wonderful memories of a very special time for all of us who were lucky to be involved.
Love the site, just thought I would drop you a line, I am the one in the middle of the photo on the home page (Under Dave Hunt's chin!!). I did late nite ABC on Sundays for around 10 months back in 1984, I then went to Radio West where I met my wife.
I'm still involved in radio, been with East Coast FM doing the OB's and roadshows since 1999, and more recently with Country-Mix 106.8.
Hope you are all keeping well,
Kind Regards
John Hughes
Loving the station. It was the best Irish station ever and
it's sorely missed.
Regards,
Brian Cleary
Tell us YOUR memories
Send us YOUR pictures
Send us YOUR archive recordings
If YOU were a part of the ABC team tell us where you are now!
e-mail: abc@abcthehotfm.com
"...and tell a friend...ABC is BACK!"
Hi, I just came across abcthehotfm.com and saw the post about Nigel Roberts "where is he now ?"
I'm a long time friend of Nigel, but haven't spoken to him for about three years, he seems to have gone off the radar, but before that I knew him constantly for about 15 years. The last time I spoke to him he was living on a small coaster on the River Thames, which he bought round about 1995 I think? He was also working for the specialist audio equipment company Chiswick Reach? I would dearly like to speak to him again myslef and catch up. All I can say is that he was well, and as always, had a keen interest in all thinngs radio and audio...
Come in Nigel !???
Tony Flynn
Remember as a young boy going camping in Tramore with my family (Sea View Campsite I think)...listening to the test tx and the following year you were on full-time..I remember climbing the hill in Tramore town as your tee shirts were on sale in a shop at the top...
Thanks for the memories!
Brendan "All Irish Radio"
Hello Lads at abcthehotfm.com,
It's all coming back to me now...
*Sleeping on the production room floor before weekend breakfast shows.
*Jonie Walls blaas and red lead from the dairy in Arundel Square.
*Interviewing my old English teacher.
*Eight in a Mini on the way back from New Ross.
*Dexys Midnight runners running out before I could run back from the loo.
*Ellis breaking The Bogmen's take on Floyds 'Brick' live on air (on my show!).
*Locking Clive in his car.
*The generosity of the public during The Christmas Toy Appeal.
*'The Battle of the Oldies'.
*Finishing ahead of WLR at the Southend F.C Pop Quiz (always!).
On and on it goes...
I never heard anyone mention 'work' and 'ABC' in the same sentence. For everybody it was a natural extention of social time, in a subtly structured and professional operation.
The upshot of all this is that I had a ball and formed lasting friendships.
Thank you all,
Ray Sarsfield,
DUBLIN
Hi all, wonderful site, so great to see the OLD faces, 20 fast years on and so many still in the radio game, thats love.
Have to say that my time with ABC was fun, a lot of learning and a lot of joy, and made great friends. Have to go a-rootin' now for the old tapes, thanks Clive & Andy for the memories.
I want to be a DJ when I'm big and fat and old......ahem, older.
Paul Dower,
Waterford
WHAT A SITE. Memories of how music on the radio should still sound like. Question- Somewhere in that excellent mix is a song which I believe is called "Streets of Paradise". Sounds like the Clash?? Any ideas??? (we've missed this one - if you spot it and have any ideas please e-mail us so we can let Mark know)
Best regards and well done.
Mark Hanrahan.
Bristol,UK.
Hiya abcthehotfm.com,
It's great to hear the super sounds of ABC The Hot FM! on the web.
Wow! We used to play some great music!
I have some photographs of me Tony Murrell, Clive Derek and Dave Hunt at a special broadcast we did in Dungarvan one time. The haircuts were scary, the outfits were highly dubious and the moustaches were quite possibly illegal.
I'll send them on if I ever work out how to scan a photograph.
Jimmy Ryan's late night affair was a great smooth listen.
All the best, fellow pirates,
Daragh Corcoran
BBC Radio Leeds.
Subject: The wives and girlfriends
Welcome back ABC, what a great buzz it is to see all the recent "young" faces of the DJ's.
You are all looking fantastic lads, honest! I often think of us poor wives and girlfriends who had to put up with the unsocial hours our men kept, not only did the job consist of your show but you then had the outside broadcasts and disco's at the weekends in O'Sheas, Snages, Breens, The stonecourt, ...God I feel old now!!
We would all meet up at around 7pm on Friday Nights in Egans after Tony Murrell's 'drive time' and the craic was always fantastic. Cheers to the gang, Joyce and Andy, Caroline and Clive, Marcella and Kevin, Clare and Andy, Heather and Neil, and of course Moi! I would love us all to meet up again, so start making those calls now!!
Maria O'Grady (Malone)
Hi guys!
Absolutely LOVE the website. It must have taken huge amounts of time to put all the audio and pix together.
Thanks on behalf of all former colleagues/friends! Any plans for a reunion??
Love and hugs, Kerry Graye x
Hello friends,
Great to hear "ABC The Hot FM" again.
I wish you were back on the airwaves!
You always had a great line up of DJ's - they were really classy and had colourful history from other pirate stations abroad and local.
I have 700 cassettee tapes of Radio stations including many of ABC, some rare ones like Kerry Gray standing in for Billy Power, Dave Windsor on Riveria 104, some of Billy Power, and lots of other ABC Jocks.
Best wishes for ABC's future!
Keep The Dream alive! remember ......................................
Joe Cashin,
County Kilkenny
John Sauvage contacted abcthehotfm.com:
"Well done on a fabulous website! Injustice how we didn't get license. Have some old tapes of shows if you want them. Went off to train greyhounds in last number of years - still interested in radio and music though. Now married and living in Mooncoin, County Kilkenny. Still available for radio work. Say hello to all the lads - and great website - nice to see so many old faces!"
Regards John
Subject: Hi from Steve Marshall
Hi guys what a great website - abcthehotfm.com certainly brings back some great memories! I remember the early days with Clive and Simon and Andy etc broadcasting from the caravan n Tramore great days!
since then I have worked all over Europe and a few other interesting places, I'm currently involved in running a radio station in Spain, both in Programming and Sales also do a daily morning show!
All the best
Steve
From "DeargDoom" commenting on abcthehotfm.com on radiowaves :
Great site! I used to love going on summer holidays as a kid; no matter where you went you'd bring the radio along and tune into whatever local pirates were out there. There'd normally be two decent ones and a shite one no matter what town you were in.We used to go to Wexford a lot so we'd tune into ABC on AM (Irish people rarely drove cars with FM radios in the 80s!). ABC was up in the premier league really; themselves, Kiss in Monaghan, Coast in Galway were the slick sounding stations around the country.
Hi, I've just come across abcthehotfm.com by accident, and it's wonderful to see the faces of old friends and colleagues, and Kerry looks just as beautiful as she did when we worked together. It's marvelous to know that the contribution we all made such a long time ago has not been forgotten.
Bill Everatt,
Wales
"Fine print" commenting on abcthehotfm.com on Radiowaves:
Yes great site! Excellent Radio Station back in the day too!
To be honest probably one of the forgotten heroes in a way. Put the border pirates to the back of your mind for a sec - this was a station!
When ABC sounded hot, it was very hot. When it sounded poor, it was very poor - but who cares, nothing is perfect - but the sound quality, man that was as close as, and I have to say was way ahead of it's time. I used to drive that way just to hear the signal, there was great stereo separation and clarity ... and deserves it's seat in the memory of Irish 80's Radio
Great to hear you back again. I got an Internet Radio for Xmas, so it was a great and pleasant surprise to see ABC The Hot FM at the top of the list when I started browsing around all the stations - it's been locked on to ABC The Hot FM ever since!
Boy! It was a world away wasn't it? - it made me chuckle when I hear presenters say "..here's xyz song on Phillips CD" - how quaint!
I've got loads of recordings on cassette which I'll have to get round to digitising - much of it 1026 received in west Wales, some later stereo stuff and some early 729kHz stuff. Probably some photos somewhere too! Also some recordings of your "sister station" ABC103 in Manchester! (its been reported that in the mid 80's a station appeared in Manchester, England sporting very familiar sounding voices and jingles!)
Any live or new programming expected soon....?
Glyn
Bristol,
ENGLAND
"shockwave" on boards.ie:
Oh the memories, I remember abc radio as being a major part of my teen years. It was a great station with great music,so much better than bland WLR. I wonder how things would have turned out had they got the license instead of WLR?
"Roen12" on boards.ie:
I used to have an ABC T-shirt (the station, not the band). Wasn't today or yesterday though :)
alinton:
ABC started in Tramore in March '82, moved to Arundel Square in 85 and to Egans about 18 months later.
The studios above Egans were good - great to work in. If you look up at the top right window even now you can see part of the white desk that the news was compiled at. The main studio was the two windows to the left of that.
ABC was ahead of its time in many ways. First to use FM Stereo in the country, first to use CDs on air, actually tested AM Stereo, had satellite news feeds, NUJ journalist, first to use proper audio processing, and latterly had AM transmitters in Tramore and Wexford and a network of FM transmitters that covered most of counties Waterford and Wexford.
I have tapes of it, and I have to say it beats most of today's bland stations hands down.
I was there; Great days.
Andy
Really great to hear ABC again, such wonderful memories of a very special time for all of us who were lucky to be involved.
Love the site, just thought I would drop you a line, I am the one in the middle of the photo on the home page (Under Dave Hunt's chin!!). I did late nite ABC on Sundays for around 10 months back in 1984, I then went to Radio West where I met my wife.
I'm still involved in radio, been with East Coast FM doing the OB's and roadshows since 1999, and more recently with Country-Mix 106.8.
Hope you are all keeping well,
Kind Regards
John Hughes
Loving the station. It was the best Irish station ever and
it's sorely missed.
Regards,
Brian Cleary