What happened magic 105.1fm

[FarmerPug]

A few years ago i noticed that magic 105.1 fm in northern ireland stopped playing music, and its only with radio getting so terrible and me having to listen to cd's all the time for good music with no advertisments about falling at work, but does anyone know what happened to this and the other pirate stations that played good music.

[sirwiggum]

Snodden et al are horrendous.

In Belfast city Feile FM tend to play a lot of music.

Regarding the pirates, Kiss used to have a studio in Monaghan and broadcast into NI from just across the border from "Alien Mountain" until the RoI were pressured by RTE into raiding it and shutting it down.

Later the site was ran by Lawrence John with Energy 106. He claimed to have been abducted by aliens at this site.
It ran for a while until it too was raided by the department. The directional transmitters were cut off.

Energy never had a "studio" as such, it had a 6 hour loop of a recording on a VHS tape.

He claimed he hid positive intelligence signals in the broadcasts, which helped kick start the peace process

The transmitter ran at 10 megawatts to try and get the signal into the Belfast basin, the tower at the site is still present. ( Google streetview )

As far as I know, "Magic" was a seperate outfit, ran with a smaller power output from the transmitter site.

The authorities hate the pirates, as they can't control them. They would rather our minds get rotted away by Snodden and adverts and crap music and whatever hidden subliminal signals are embedded in their transmissions than making our own minds up as to what we want to listen to.

More info on Energy and Alien Mountain here http://wikibin.org/articles/energy-106.html

[FarmerPug]

a good station like magic or galaxy needs to come back to the airwaves, because at the moment the only half decent stations are radio2 and u105 and even at that they have too much talking or ads

[sirwiggum]

a good station like magic or galaxy needs to come back to the airwaves, because at the moment the only half decent stations are radio2 and u105 and even at that they have too much talking or ads

We need a good pirate, but the authorities would clamp down hard.
From a Belfast perspective, to get a decent signal in you need to be up on one of the hills. They had line of sight and a good strong signal from Alien Mountain but even it was patchy at best.

The days of the pirate are over.

U105 is a bit hit and miss. Between Frank "look at my trendy glasses / round and round and up the tree can you guess where the weather watching camera was? That's right! Loughbrickland!" Mitchell talking crap to oul dolls gurning about the airplanes or Carolyn "I'm hip with the kids" Stewart talking nonsense and not actually playing music.

Radio 2 is usually talking about some Westminster story.

Feile plays a lot of music but it too has its moments when it cuts into some broad Belfast accented dj talking about football or whats going on in the Basque region of spain or some other random topic.

Fridays can be quite good if timed right on Radio 1, Golden Hour on the way into work then the Wonder Years on the way home. That is, if they choose a good year and good tracks from that year, none of this hippity-hop r and/or b or boyband nonsense sir!

[flyerdave]

I have also given up with ITV and all the other advertising TV channels, radio stations. Far too many adverts, makes listening and watching very boring these days.

[sirwiggum]

ITV has gone way downhill. Their output now is mindnumbing lowest common denominator rubbish.

And I've noticed that adverts have gone the way of American broadcasting, a show only shows the credits now before it is into an advert break

[FarmerPug]

I dont know if you can get it in belfast but q101, and mid 106 really put effort into making the worst adverts on the radio

[Welly]

Like I said before, there is no 'Radio'.

[Doggy]

Like I said before, there is no 'Radio'.

I say Welton! Your absence has been noted.

- Therapy was it?

[sirwiggum]

There was no "radio"

All the way down the UK and back with no "radio". Just the same CD. On repeat. And skipping because of a dirty laser.

Now thanks to ebay, there is radio!
And the bits of the old one got another one going too!

[Welly]

I say Welton! Your absence has been noted.

You have imagined this, it is all part of adjusting to our community.......

[steve_earwig]

And the bits of the old one got another one going too!

*gives a virtual double-thumbs up*

[Gary406]

you guys in ireland have DAB ? i have a pure highway DAB radio in my car, its great

[sirwiggum]

DAB we get in NI yea, but I can barely get a decent FM signal never mind digital.

If its anything like digial TV, reception is either perfect or nothing.

DAB RECEPTION FAULT

[Gary406]

ye, DAB signal in my area wasnt great till i bought a different antenna for the pure highway, get full signal now were ever i go ..

FM is being switched off in the next 5 years , so the government say anyway, i read DAB+ is taking over everything even DAB we use now