Century Radio, also marketed as Century 100 and later Century FM, was an early shortlived national commercial radio station in Ireland (the first was Atlantic 252). Ireland ( Irish: Éire, ˈeːrʲə is a country in north-western Europe. Atlantic 252 was a Long wave radio station broadcasting to Ireland and Britain on 252 kHz (1190
Transmission
Initially its highest frequency transmitter was at 100. Frequency is a measure of the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit Time. 3 MHz, with all others sitting in the 98 MHz band. The hertz (symbol Hz) is a measure of Frequency, informally defined as the number of events occurring per Second. E. g. Limerick was 98. 4 MHz at 50 watts and Cork 98. 8 MHz at 500 watts (effective radiated power). In radio Telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power (ERP is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency (RF Within the first year the frequencies were eventually changed, ranging from 100. 0 to 101. 8 MHz, matching what Today FM is now broadcasting on. For the similarly named Australian Radio station see 2Day FM Radio Ireland Ltd trading as 100-102 Today FM is an Irish Century also broadcast on 1143kHz AM in Dublin and Cork. These two AM transmitters were introduced some weeks after the station launched.
History
Founded on September 4, 1989, Century were intended to be the first licensed alternative to RTÉ Radio 1. Events 476 - Romulus Augustus, last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed when Odoacer proclaims himself Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) RTÉ Radio 1 ( Irish: RTÉ Raidió 1) is the principal radio channel of Irish The licence was issued in an attempt to kill the pirate radio tradition in Ireland. The term pirate radio usually refers to illegal or unregulated radio transmissions Full coverage of Ireland was achieved in early 1990. The station closed in November 1991, having lost £7 million (Punt), a huge amount for an Irish business at the time. The Irish pound ( English) or punt Éireannach ( Irish) was the Currency of Ireland until 2002
Dogged by problems from the start, it has recently been revealed that Century's licence was issued illegally, as the then Minister for Communications, Ray Burke received a bribe in the region of IR£100,000 to issue the licence. The Minister for Communications was the minister in the Government of Ireland created by the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment Act 1983 to replace the Minister for Raphael Patrick "Ray" Burke (Rae de Búrca born 30 September 1943 in Dublin, Ireland. Its investors, who included Terry Wogan and Chris de Burgh were anxious to secure a quick return on their money, and were unwilling to wait to see would the station's fortunes turn around. Sir Michael Terence Wogan, KBE DL (born August 3 1938 more commonly known as Terry Wogan, is a veteran Irish Radio and Television Chris de Burgh (born Christopher John Davison on 15 October 1948 is a half Irish musician and songwriter who holds British nationality. Oddly, its major competitor, RTÉ broadcast Century over their transmitter masts without claiming their fee, which they repeatedly reduced in the hope of actually receiving the cash. RTÉ Network Transmission Limited ( RTÉNL) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Radio Telefís Éireann which runs Ireland's principal terrestrial television and radio
A £400,000 advertising campaign for the station was doomed to failure, due to the confusion over its frequencies – those living outside of Dublin would not find the station even close to 100–102, if they could even find it at all, thanks to the poor coverage.
The station may be remembered for its variety of main stream hits from the 70s and 80s along with slick production and its punchy jingles from JAM Creative Productions in Dallas. A jingle is a memorable Slogan, set to an engaging Melody, mainly broadcast on Radio and sometimes on Television commercials. JAM Creative Productions Inc is an American company that produces Radio jingles promo music for television and commercial jingles for advertisers A daily 10 minute show Captain Kremmen from Kenny Everett is still fondly remembered. Captain Kremmen was a Science fiction radio serial set in the early 21st Century (The pilot opens in 2005) Kenny Everett (born Maurice Cole in Seaforth Lancashire; 25 December 1944 – 4 April 1995 was an English radio DJ and television entertainer Unsuccessful attempts to acquire "big names" also made problems for the station. After their IR£1 million offer for Gay Byrne to move to them was turned down they tried unsuccessfully to poach several other RTÉ personalities, though they did secure the services of leading Radio 2 DJ Marty Whelan. This article is about the Irish television presenter See Gabriel Byrne for the Irish actor RTÉ 2fm, or 2FM as it is commonly referred to is RTÉ 's second national radio station. Martin Whelan (born June 7, 1956) is an Irish radio and television personality
Century's sports service did earn many listeners, with Capital Gold's live football commentaries relayed on "Ireland's Scoreboard" on Saturday afternoons. Gold is a network of oldies Radio stations which was formed by the merger of the Capital Gold network and the Classic Gold Network in August 2007
Capital's two main commentators at the time, Jonathan Pearce and Steve Wilson, were to later feature on Match of the Day. Jonathan Pearce (born 1959) is a British football Commentator for the BBC. Match of the Day (sometimes abbreviated as MOTD) is the BBC 's main football Television programme
Other notable sports coverage included live commentaries of Dundalk FC's 1991-92 European Cup campaign, and in a major coup, Century were first to announce the starting line-ups for the 1990 All-Ireland Hurling and Football Finals. Dundalk Football Club ( Cumann Peile Dhún Dealgan) is an Irish football club based in Dundalk, County Louth. Hurling (in Irish, iománaíocht or iomáint) is an outdoor team Sport of ancient Gaelic origin administered by the Gaelic Gaelic football ( Irish: Peil, Peil Ghaelach, or Caid) commonly referred to as " football " is a form of Football
The State did a number of things to assist Century, including Ray Burke's imposition of a cap on the maximum amount of advertising RTÉ could carry. However, this just made it harder for Century to exist, as it reduced the rates RTÉ charged to carry advertising, which had the knock-on affect of reducing how much Century could charge. The Cap was not abolished until the Labour/Fine Gael Government came to power in the mid-1990s. The Labour Party (Páirtí an Lucht Oibre is a Democratic socialist and Social democratic Political party in the Republic of Ireland. Fine Gael – The United Ireland Party, shortened to Fine Gael (ˌfina gail meaning Family of the Irish or Tribe of the Irish, is the second largest
When Century finally closed, its franchise was left idle for 6 years, and then re-issued to Radio Ireland, who were allocated frequencies in the 100–102 MHz band from the start (except 105. For the similarly named Australian Radio station see 2Day FM Radio Ireland Ltd trading as 100-102 Today FM is an Irish 5 in the North East of Ireland).
See also
- The Mahon Tribunal (Corrupt payments to obtain broadcasting license)