Posted by Kevin on March 8, 2008, 11:47 pm, in reply to "Chris"
89.100.53.115
I also hung around Nova in Rathfarnham around '84 and '85 on half-days from school, mainly sitting in with Aidan in Swift, chatting to the engineers or talking to the strikers at the front gate. Nova was a really great place to visit. Everyone was busy doing their jobs but they all had time for me, a 15 year old kid hanging around, probably getting in the way all the time! It was a fascinating station - everytime I visited something new had happened - all the transmitters were buzzing away as you went in the door, if you were lucky, you could even make your way down to the on air studio and pop your head around the door and see who was on air!(They tightened up on this after a while, maybe because of me!)
I remember lots of times when Chris would come into the production studio talking about jingles and promos and other stuff, I even remember him rushing into the studio one day saying "####s sake, put a bit of bass into that" and reaching over Aidan's shoulder and tweaking the bass control. He was very hands-on!
Another time, after Magic 103 had closed, Nova was being relayed on 103.5 as well as 102.7 and a taxi service was cutting in on the link.. every time it happened, Chris would jump up and run into 'The Surgery' and switch off the link to the TX so he could hear what the taxi's were saying so saying so he could figure out who it was that was causing the problem... he was quite excited about it - and showed us the links and what he was doing.
Another time, the second last day of Nova in March 86, I went up to visit the Park and ended up talking to Chris. He was in great form and chatting about Nova closing down at the end of the month. When I asked him if I could have a Nova sticker as a momento -he said "you can have a whole roll or stickers". Off he went, into a press' and came back and gave me a roll of 500 Nova stickers! "Don't stick 'em all in the one place, they'll be worth something some day", he said. He was then asking what we were going to listen to once Nova closed and we chatted about Q for a bit, and Sunshine.. I wonder, in hindsight, did he intend to close it down at all at the end of March as was being announced - but, next day, Nova Media Services was put into receivership and it was all gone!
A few years later, in 1991, I was applying for a summer job, sitting in the reception in Stillorgan Park Hotel and in walk Chris and Sybil to meet Pierre Doyle (have to admit I was earwigging a bit!). Next thing I knew, Chris was pacing up and down the reception walking up and down past me as he was waiting, so I went over and said 'hello'. At the time, Century Radio was on and was struggling so I asked him was he thinking of taking over Century, to which he replied that he 'wouldn't touch it, too many problems'. Then he was called off for his meeting. 30 minutes later, I'm still sitting waiting to be called for interview and Chris comes out with Sybil. Just as he was going past, he turned and said "See ya Kev". Made my day!
Point behind these stories is that we all hear about Chris over the years - major business man, radio guru, perfectionist, brilliant, tough to work for, flamboyant, moody, etc... but they are examples of Chris taking time to talk to a 14 year old kid, allowing young anoraks to hang around Radio Nova and learn and being a general nice guy when he didn't have to be.
Nova was a huge station, Chris was an important man - yet he still had time to show a 14 year old kid the links and transmitters, chat to me about radio and allow me to hang around his radio station - when he could easily have had me turfed out.
Thank you Chris!
Kevin
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