{"id":1052,"date":"2020-03-28T13:05:27","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T13:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?p=1052"},"modified":"2021-08-06T20:41:35","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T19:41:35","slug":"aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985\/","title":{"rendered":"Aircheck: Radio Nova from 1985"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1234\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1052-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/19850929_Nova_Jessie_Brandon_Zoo_Crew.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/19850929_Nova_Jessie_Brandon_Zoo_Crew.mp3\">http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/19850929_Nova_Jessie_Brandon_Zoo_Crew.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/19850929_Nova_Jessie_Brandon_Zoo_Crew.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?powerpress_pinw=1052-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/19850929_Nova_Jessie_Brandon_Zoo_Crew.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"19850929_Nova_Jessie_Brandon_Zoo_Crew.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"403\" height=\"270\" src=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jessie-Brandon-Laser-558.jpg\" alt=\"Aircheck: Radio Nova from 1985\" class=\"wp-image-1050\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jessie-Brandon-Laser-558.jpg 403w, https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jessie-Brandon-Laser-558-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 403px) 100vw, 403px\" \/><figcaption>Jessie Brandon on offshore pirate Laser 558 in 1984. Courtesy offshoreradio.co.uk and Offshore Echoes magazine. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>This is an aircheck of Radio Nova from September 29th 1985, featuring legendary American DJ Jessie Brandon who took up a job with the new offshore pirate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.laser558.org\/\">Laser 558<\/a> in 1984. Jessie moved to Nova in October 1985 and was one of only a handful of female presenters on the commercial pirates of the era. In this recording she plays &#8216;the JAM song&#8217;, a selection of jingles made by JAM Creative Productions in Dallas, Texas whose clients included Radio Nova. There&#8217;s an interesting interview with Jessie in Charlie Connelly&#8217;s excellent book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2019\/jan\/19\/last-train-to-hilversum-by-charlie-connelly-review-in-search-of-the-magic-of-radio\">Last Train to Hilversum<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The recording also includes a promo for the new &#8216;Zoo Crew&#8217;, presented by Colm Hayes and Bob Gallico, a riotous breakfast show which ran from October 7th 1985 to January 24th 1986.  Sybil Fennell is also heard on news but a bitter dispute between Nova and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) had resumed by this time and contributed to the demise of the station in March 1986.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Nova fan Kevin Branigan, September 1985 was a pivotal month for the station. At the start of the month, Nova was powerful and untouchable, was giving away \u00a310,000 in cash, still running easy listening station <a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-magic-103\/\">Magic 103<\/a> and packing out club night Disco Nova. By the end of September Chris Cary had closed Magic 103, fired the journalists, the NUJ was back on strike and big name DJs were departing for other stations such as the rival <a href=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/q102-imaging\/\">Q102<\/a>. Magic 103 transmitters and studio equipment were sold by Cary to Q102, allowing it to surround Nova on the FM Band and with the help of ex-Nova talent, move into the big league. It was the beginning of the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We thank Kevin Branigan and Ian Biggar for help with information and analysis.     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is an aircheck of Radio Nova from September 29th 1985, featuring legendary American DJ Jessie Brandon who took up a job with the new offshore pirate Laser 558 in 1984. Jessie moved to Nova in October 1985 and was one of only a handful of female presenters on the commercial pirates of the era. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Aircheck: Radio Nova from 1985&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[488,11,153,233,172,31,10,231],"class_list":["post-1052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airchecks","tag-488","tag-chris-cary","tag-dublin","tag-jessie-brandon","tag-magic-103","tag-q102","tag-radio-nova","tag-sybil-fennell"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Aircheck: Radio Nova from 1985 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aircheck: Radio Nova from 1985 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is an aircheck of Radio Nova from September 29th 1985, featuring legendary American DJ Jessie Brandon who took up a job with the new offshore pirate Laser 558 in 1984. Jessie moved to Nova in October 1985 and was one of only a handful of female presenters on the commercial pirates of the era. &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Aircheck: Radio Nova from 1985&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-28T13:05:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-06T19:41:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jessie-Brandon-Laser-558.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Walsh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Walsh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985\/\",\"name\":\"Aircheck: Radio Nova from 1985 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jessie-Brandon-Laser-558.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-28T13:05:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-06T19:41:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jessie-Brandon-Laser-558.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Jessie-Brandon-Laser-558.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Aircheck: Radio Nova from 1985\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/\",\"name\":\"Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive\",\"description\":\"Open Free Radio Archive\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/a6eb579c7ad730e14f91e6455b207f00\",\"name\":\"John Walsh\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80a5b6baea2fd739c3be046233f2ad61?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/80a5b6baea2fd739c3be046233f2ad61?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Walsh\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/author\/john\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Aircheck: Radio Nova from 1985 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pirate.ie\/archive\/aircheck-radio-nova-from-1985\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Aircheck: Radio Nova from 1985 - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive","og_description":"This is an aircheck of Radio Nova from September 29th 1985, featuring legendary American DJ Jessie Brandon who took up a job with the new offshore pirate Laser 558 in 1984. 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