Contact 94 was a radio station that broadcast from

Lessay Lessay () is a commune in the Manche department in north-western France. On 1 January 2016, the former commune of Angoville-sur-Ay was merged into Lessay. Geography Lessay is a small town in the centre of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. His ...

in Northern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

to Normandy and the Channel Islands between September 1988 and November 1991. The station broadcast on various frequencies during its time on air, including 94.4 FM, 93.8 FM, 94.6 FM and 97.7 FM.Contact 94
Jersey Wavelength.

Launch

Contact 94 launched at 6am GMT on 5 September 1988 by former

Radio Caroline Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. ...

disc jockey,Caroline and Kevin
Bob Le-Roi. Kevin Turner. The first song played was "

Good Day Sunshine "Good Day Sunshine" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1966 album ''Revolver''. It was written mainly by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. McCartney intended it as a song in the style of th ...

" by

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

History

Whilst the station was to broadcast Radio Nova, via satellite, overnight and the equipment had arrived in advance of the launch, the engineer who had been due to install the equipment was stuck in Jersey due to a heavy fog. On the opening night therefore Paul Easton broadcast between 11pm and 3am, with a sustaining music tape filling the remaining hours until resumption of live programming the following morning. Contact 94 carried the UK sustaining service

Supergold Supergold (Europe) was an oldies radio sustaining service originally operated by the Telstar Satellite Music Network (TSMN) and later by Chiltern Radio Network in the United Kingdom. Originally devised by entrepreneur and DJ Graham Kentsley, i ...

overnight from November 1988 until February 1989. On 3 February 1989 the station went off air on 97.7 MHz. Rumours surfaced that this was an enforced closure by the French police pending an investigation by the authorities regarding whether the station was a 'pirate'. It was decided by regional courts that the station was broadcasting illegally and transmission equipment was confiscated. An appeal was successful in overturning this ruling and the station returned to the air. The station used a 950 MHz link between the studios at Lessay and its transmitter and one humorous incident in the stations history was when this signal was overcome by the ETACS analogue mobile phone signals on the island operated by

Jersey Telecom JT Group Limited (doing business as JT) is the parent company of several subsidiaries including Jersey Telecom Limited and Wave Telecom Limited. Jersey Telecom is the former monopoly operator in the Bailiwick of Jersey. JT provides telecommunicat ...

in collaboration with

Cellnet O₂ UK (legally incorporated as Telefonica UK Limited, stylized as O₂) is a British telecommunications services provider, headquartered in Slough, England. It operates under the O2 brand. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ventu ...

,Our History
, JT Global. the result being that some local mobile telephone calls were in fact broadcast on Contact 94's FM frequencies.

Broadcast

The programming schedules of Contact 94 were published in both the CTV Times and the

Jersey Evening Post The ''Jersey Evening Post'' (''JEP'') is a local newspaper published six days a week in the Bailiwick of Jersey. It was printed in broadsheet format for 87 years, though it is now of compact ( tabloid) size. Its strapline is: "At the heart of i ...

.States of Jersey (1989). States Minutes. 28 February 1989, p.5. (Available Online fro
States of Jersey

Studios

The station had a complex of two studios,Contact 94 Reunion - September 2008
Paul Easton Flickr Page.Contact 94 Reunion - September 2008
Paul Easton Flickr Page. based above the La Campagnette restaurant in Lessay, Normandy. The building was owned by station backer Alain Tardiff.

Frequencies

During its time on the air, Contact 94 broadcast on various frequencies. The original frequency was 94.4 MHz, but the station later changed frequencies and was at various points heard on 93.8, 94.6 and 97.7 MHz. The reason for these multiple changes was never given. The 94.6 MHz frequency was the most problematic, being very close to BBC Radio 3's Jersey frequency of 94.8 MHz. The station broadcast using an 80 kW transmitter.

Output

The station broadcast twenty four hours a day at launch and this was a combination of twenty hours in English, with the remaining four hours broadcast in French.Campaign (1988). French Radio Station to Begin Bilingual Broadcasts to Channel Islands. Campaign, 18 August 1988, p.23 English broadcasts were produced by the station between 6am and 8pm, French transmissions followed this and the overnight hours were provided via satellite by Radio Nova.

News programming

News bulletins were provided hourly from launch and were originally in conjunction with

Independent Radio News Independent Radio News provides a service of news bulletins, audio and copy to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom and beyond. The managing director, Tim Molloy, succeeded long-term MD John Perkins in November 2009. Perkins had been ...

. From March 1990 news output was provided in conjunction with the short-lived Astra satellite service of ITN Radio News.Broadcast (1990). ITN Radio News Gets First Advert. Broadcast, 3 August 1990, p.15

Advertising

Local advertising sales for the station were originally handled by a company set up by a former director of the Guernsey-based marketing and advertising agency Wallace Barnaby; Malcolm Corrigan. Corrigan also worked for Contact 94. While national (UK) sales for the station were handled by Independent Radio Sales, a subsidiary of Crown Communications, who also dealt with advertising sales for other 'off-shore' stations;

Manx Radio Manx Radio (legally Radio Manx Ltd.) ( gv, Radio Vannin) is the national commercial radio station for the Isle of Man. It began broadcasting on 29 June 1964, almost ten years before commercial radio was licensed in the United Kingdom. The Isle of ...

and

Radio Gibraltar The Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) is Gibraltar's public service broadcaster. It has provided the community with a radio and television service since 1963. History Modelled on the BBC, the Corporation was established in 1963 with th ...

.Media Week (1989). Crown Communications Subsidiary to Sell Radio Gibraltar's Air Time. Media Week, 6 January 1989, p.4 IRS even went as far as offering a special rate card for those wishing to advertise on the 'offshore' stations they represented. In August 1991, the station switched its national sales representation to a new company The Satellite and Radio Sales Company which had been set up by Gary Miele, former Sales Director at

Kiss FM Kiss FM, Kiss Radio or variants may refer to: Asia-Oceania * Various Kiss FM-branded stations in the Philippines ** 95.1 Kiss FM, Lucena, Quezon ** 102.3 Kiss FM, Tagbilaran, Bohol * Kiss92 FM, Singapore * KISS 969, Sri Lanka * Kiss Radio Taiwan ...

.Media Week (1991). Radio Station Contact 94 Switches National Sales to The Satellite and Radio Sales Company. Broadcast, 9 September 1988, p.6

Jingle packages

Package 1 (1988) –

Alfasound Alfasound was a radio jingle production company based in Manchester from late 1970s to mid-1990s founded by Alan Fawkes and ex-Piccadilly Radio DJ Steve England. Alfasound was responsible for some of the most memorable radio jingles in the 80 ...

The station's jingle package was a resing of the 'Latest Hits, Greatest Memories' jingle package, originally created for

Beacon Radio Free Radio Black Country & Shropshire is an Independent Local Radio station based in Birmingham, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Shropshire, Wolverhampton and the Black Country. As of Sep ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Staff

Presenters

Included: * Dave AsherThe Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame 80's Supplement - 80s Disc-Jockeys A
The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame * John Bennett
Radio London * Phil (Hopcyn) BirdHopcyn Bird
UK Screen * Danielle Berrou * David Brown * Max Buchannon * Fabrice Collet * "Steaming" Steve Cromby *

Alex Dyke Alex Dyke (born 19 February 1962) is an English broadcaster and radio presenter on BBC Radio Solent. Career 1970s Dyke started life as a DJ at Shanklin Youth Club in January 1975 at the age of 12. At 16, Dyke had managed to gain work at several ...

* Paul EastonHans Knot's International Radio Report - August 2004 (Part 2)
Hans Knot's International Radio Report, The Offshore Radio Guide * Gavin Ford * Paul Gledhill
Gledders.co.uk * Richard Harding
Digital Spy Forums * Rob Harrison
Woodley Net * François Head * Caroline Martin * Mark Matthews
(Original French Version), Translation available a

/ref> * Liam Mayclem * Neil McLeod * Colin Nixon * Chris PearsonPresenters - Chris Pearson
BFBS Radio * Alex Ritson * Steve Ryan *

Steve Satan Steve Satan started his career as head of rock on the pirate radio station Radio Caroline, using the pseudonyms Andy Bradgate and Colin Mueslibar. He went on to work for Contact 94 in France, Sunshine Radio in Luxemburg and Merlin Network One. He ...

Hall of Fame
Wireless Waffle Web Site * Tim Smith * Kevin Turner * Jon Tyler
Hans Knot's International Radio Report, The Offshore Radio Guide

Station Staff

At launch, the station staff were led by Peter MacFarlane who had previously worked for the Portsmouth and Southampton

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003, ...

station;

Ocean Sound Heart Hampshire (formerly Ocean FM and Ocean Sound) was a British independent local radio station serving South Hampshire, West Sussex and Isle of Wight primarily for Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester and Chichester. The station served an a ...

.Broadcast (1988). Contact 94 Threatens Radio Row in Jersey. Broadcast, 9 September 1988, p.6 By the time the station closed in 1991, the sales director was Chris Kirby. Other station staff included Malcolm Corrigan and Colin Cawthaw.Contact 94 Reunion - September 2008
Paul Easton Flickr Page.

Ownership

Contact 94 was owner by an Anglo-French consortium, whose original members included the Jersey-based businessman, travel agent, tour operator and hotelier Stephen Clipp and the French restaurateur Alain Tardiff.It Was 20 Years Ago Today...
Paul Easton. Clipp withdrew from the consortium during 1990.

Closure

In November 1991 the

Radio Authority Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitt ...

advertised an

license for Jersey, with a proposed frequency of 101.3 MHz. Those running the station at the time decided to enter the bidding process for the license and as a result, the decision was made to close Contact 94. History - Broadcasting Milestones - Island of Jersey
Jersey Wavelength. Contact 94 ceased broadcasting on 29 November 1991.

Contact 94 after closure

After closure the equipment was removed from the La Campagnette studios, although apart from this they remained intact even some seventeen years later.It Was 20 Years Ago Today... Part Two
Paul Easton. Those running the station had decided to bid for the Independent Local Radio license for Jersey and in March 1992, along with three other competitors (one had already withdrawn) they submitted their bid under the name of Jersey Music Radio. Despite a petition being signed in support of the application by Contact 94 fans,
Aircheck UK. the license was awarded to rival bidder; Channel Radio Limited in May, and they began broadcasting on an amended frequency of 103.7 MHz in October 1992 as

Channel 103 Channel 103 is an independent local radio station broadcasting to the island of Jersey on 103.7 FM and DAB+ digital radio. The station launched on 25 October 1992. Channel 103 is part of Tindle Radio, which also owns Island FM in Guernsey and ...

Internet streaming

On 12 August 2013 an online radio station began broadcasting at https://web.archive.org/web/20140630174137/http://www.contact94.net/ and established a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/contact94. The online station offers a variety of different music streams themed by decades. The station subsequently rebranded as 'Bailiwick Radio', changing its web address to www.bailiwickradio.com In September 2018 the previous owner of Contact 94 launched an internet radio station ''Contact Classic Hits''.