Whilst in California I had the most bizarre factory ever. I was manufacturing one-board Compukits and Microace computers. We had so many Mexican (illegals) working for us (as did all the other manufacturers) that every time a suspicious looking person came on to the factory floor the whole building would evacuate into the fields behind the building. In fact, the only way I could communicate with the workers was through the Postman (who was a legal Mexican) as he was the only person around who spoke Spanish. He used to rest his weary butt in our air-conditioned offices, and in return for his favour would go and bark the orders in Spanish to the boys in the back. Strangely, it worked quite well.

I was by now transfixed by the FM radio sound , which by now had progressed from long-haired hippie stations to now run full time Top 40 entertainment stations. Stations like Kiss FM, K-UTE and K-Earth. Also the Mighty 690 on AM. I went to see the different programme directors of these stations and learnt how to dissect formats, which is really quite easy to do. If you draw a one-hour clock and break it into segments and document what type of song is played during each of these segments and in which order. Very quickly you've cracked it and know which type of song will be coming up next, and how it will be presented. I've done this many times with many US markets. It also helps to ascertain which is the Number 1 station in the marketplace - and why.

I was told that they key to all this FM excitement was due to something called an 'Optimod' processor. Which in a nutshell looks at the whole spectrum of frequencies within the audio that's being played and corrects each segment. For example, if you use a normal compressor it will just trigger on the bass and make the whole sound 'pump', in essence you're trying to bring up the low audio parts and limit the high ones which if not driven too hard will produce a very loud sound without being too tiring. It would take a whole book to write about 'loudness' and 'loudness wars' which of course to the listener is perceived as power - which is all part of the game. So, my bloody heart led my head (as usual) and I decided that I had to have one of these optimods - which everyone told me would be well nigh impossible as they were back-ordered over a thousand units. But, lo and behold, I found a 'soft order' for an Optimod, a Phelps Dodge circular antenna array which was tuned to 88 Mhz (this I hope explains why I chose this frequency for Radio Nova) and a 1 Kw transmitter.

Constant communication with my friend Brian Mc Kenzie in Dublin as I enthused to him about this fantastic FM sound encouraged him to suggest that I brought this kit to Dublin where it had never been heard. I asked him if there was any activity on 88 FM. He told me that the FM band was empty, apart from RTE in Mono and spasmodic tests from Big D and Radio Dublin. Brian was commisioned to find suitable office/studio premises in the Ballsbridge area of South Dublin - and duly came up with 19 Herbert Street. Which deserves a plaque outside commemorating the fact that Radio Nova began there - as radio enthusiasts still make a pilgrimage to the building.

This is what commited me to using 88FM for Radio Nova in Dublin - not the fact that on old rubber band radios if you changed from AM to FM you would automatically go from Sunshine (on 531 AM) to Nova (on 88 FM). It never occured to me until Robbie Dale pointed it out. I could bask in the glory of how clever I was - but have to admit that it was actually an accident of logistics.

It was now May of 1980. All the equipment duly arrived in Dublin. Here we were all dressed up and nowhere to go. Then by another coincidence/quirk of fate, the ill-fated Radio Paradise boat pulled into Dublin harbour for some maintenance work before it set off for the Netherlands. Here I met A J Byrnes again (who was involved with RNI - Radio Northsea International) and the launch of the italian off-shoot which was called Radio Nova International. We were busy testing our Dublin radio station - with no name. A.J asked what we were going to call the station . I said 'you tell me'. As brain-storming goes a thousand names were thrown into the hat during the meeting and he thrust this cassette into my hands saying 'look after this, it's the only one there is: see what you think'. I was down the pub with Brian McKenzie that night and lo and behold spilt my drink over this damn cassette. Knowing how fastidiously correct A.J. was, I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd wrecked his tape - and hadn't even yet listened to it. As luck would have it, after a good shake and a haird-dryer the tape played back perfectly in Brian's house that night, and then we heard this wonderful french rendition of the Radio Nova jingle (which of course made sense as it was to be broadcast in the Nice area of France). I was spellbound by the melodic sound of the jingle (made by Steve England). So what the hell - Radio Nova it was to be.

The following day the test transmissions included the french and english versions of the Radio Nova jingles (by now transferred onto cart). They played every 30 minutes as they were the only stations IDs we had. The name was now set in stone. My previous contacts in California had already told me that Jam was the only jingle company to use, so I contacted Jonathan Wolfert and commissioned the original Radio Nova 88FM jingle package. Jonathan in turn pointed out the importance of the loyalty/feel-good factor and we added to the package the 'I'd rather be in Ireland with Radio Nova' jingle.

I was the first station announcer, when all the jingles arrived and were duly carted up. Ken Harley was our first Music Adviser, who worked his clogs off (literally) bringing to fruition every mad idea I had. Tony Allen (once we'd got him out of the pub) was already in Dublin doing VoiceOvers for Brian McKenzie's Bay City Recording Studios and was added to the Radio Nova team. My knack always seems to have been to make the best of what's given to me - and I was really lucky this time with Bay City, Tony, Jean (who wrote many of Nova's commercial scripts) Brian and Ken already in town.

The first employee of Radio Nova was Mike Edgar (as Newsreader and Disc Jockey). Then came the impromptu arrival of Jon Clarke (who was auditioned on-air, given twenty 'idiot' cards with the only phrases to be said - which were 'Nova Clutterfree' and'Nova Playing Your Favourites') After three hours, which must have seemed an eternity, I went back to the studio and told Jon he was hired. Anne Laird was the first member of the administration team (and remained to the end of Radio Nova). Our first on-air 'star' was Terry Riley. Our first local advertiser was the Red Corner Shop, and Silvikrin Shampoo was our first national agency ad.

Because 88 FM is predominantly used in the UK for BBC Radio 2, in odd parts of Dublin they clashed. To put it simply!. Paul Cotter was seconded to change the exciter frequency until we found a slot (I think 88.5 FM was the most successful). We hopped about quite a lot around 88FM trying to find the best and clearest spot. Clearly not the most professional way - but it worked. As we usually undertook this experimentation at 2am and had to hare around the streets of Dublin to see if the signal had improved.

The phrase that summed it all up for me, at the time, was "Chris Cary - undercover, Paul Cotter - under stress and Tony Allan - under the influence!"

I really want to say that I had luck on my side. RTE was such a poor network at the time that Noddy could have beaten them. There was never really any competition : to stoop to such levels as to jam the competition, which inadvertently led to the NUJ strike. How was there ever going to be any reconciliation when RTE were paying them and promising them work if they destroyed Nova. Never mind moving the goalposts - we had no goalposts. A very unpleasant situation - but they had to be beaten and they were. In spite of their dirty tricks we managed to main a Number 1 Radio Station, and build a very successful NightClub.

What else could I have done, when our income had been cut from about £25,000 a week to £6,000 - due to the inconsistency of the signal as a result of the jamming. My first offer to the unfortunates (as I had to maintain one good service which meant I was employing about 40 People too many) was to put everybody on half-wages until the problem could be solved (which I estimated would take about a month - this estimate turned out to be correct). This was unfortunately turned down, and the next I knew there was a picket line wholly financed by RTE and the NUJ. This wasn't a genuine strike about poor working conditions, or any of the normal reasons, but was in fact an RTE masterplan to destroy the competition by dividing and conquering.

Some unsung heroes : Paul Cotter for his genius and patience during my insatiable quest for perfection. Brian Edgar who climbed the Nova mast in snow, rain and sparks for his courage and stamina.

Finally, I have great admiration for the Irish Government for allowing this radio experiment to continue for as long as it did.

I know it was instilled into everybody to be responsible at all times when it came to any political matters, and to abide by the same broadcasting codes as RTE. I think to that end it paid off. We had a good Number 1 position for five years, and closed down when asked. Obviously it couldn't go on forever. But a licence would have been nice.

I just wasn't prepared to bung.