Dublin's Q102
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Dublin's Q102 is a
commercial radio Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship, for example. It was the United States' first model ...
station in
Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
, owned by Onic which is in turn owned by
News UK News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp. It is the current publisher of ...
. It broadcasts on 102.2 
MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...
FM. The station is licensed to target the 35+ age group, and must provide hourly news, as well as current events programming. It broadcasts under a contract from Coimisiún na Meán. Q102 broadcasts from Macken House in Dublin's Docklands. The station was launched as Lite 102.2. On purchasing the station, UTV rebranded it to Dublin's Q102 thanks to research of Dublin people aged over 35, who decided on bringing back the name of a former pirate radio station.


Original Q102 (1985-1988)

During the latter half of 1984, the Dublin 102 frequency was originally planned to launch as KISS-FM (similar to its original development for Radio Nova in September 1982), but was never materialized. With its original studios being located at Parnell Square, the original Q102 made its first FM test transmissions on 101.9 MHz between Christmas 1984 and January 1985, with medium wave tests being also heard on 1116kHz and 1134kHz in parallel on New Years Day 1985, but by the following morning, all transmissions had ceased due to the theft of the station's then-new equipment in the Dublin mountains. After being delayed for a few weeks, Q102 gave the green light and the station pre-launched with various launch promos and several hours of continuous music. A few hours later, the station launched on January 23, 1985 by disc-jockey Lawrence John, who also voiced its launch promo as a parody to both
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
and the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
. The first song Q102 played after launch is " Straight Ahead" by Kool & The Gang. It was marketed as an Irish owned and operated station in contrast to one competitor Radio Nova's severe union issues throughout the mid-1980s. Initial broadcasts were on 828kHz medium wave and 102.0 MHz in stereo. After several weeks, the FM frequency was moved up slightly to 102.1 MHz. The original Q102 featured a mix adult contemporary music alongside a handful of Top 40 and oldies titles, but quickly transitioned as a full-time Top 40/CHR station by the following year. Radio Nova was dying at the time, but the Q still faced Top 40 competition against Sunshine 101 and Energy 103. As a CHR station in the latter half of the 1980s, Q102's original music format features a primary 50/50 mix of American, British, and other European titles, alongside a very small amount of Irish titles. Q102 also aired special programming during its early years from the ABC Radio Network such as "Spotlight Special" and
Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio presenter who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40'', as well as the weekly syndicated televi ...
's
American Top 40 ''American Top 40'' (abbreviated to ''AT40'') is an internationally radio syndication, syndicated, independent song countdown radio programming, radio program created by Casey Kasem, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds, and Ron Jacobs (broadcaster), Ron Jaco ...
. Exactly five months right after Radio Nova closed in March 1986, Q102's programming was disrupted in July 1986 by a mysterious ‘phantom’ who managed to break into the VHF link to the AM transmitter and disrupt normal programming on 819 kHz. Reports from Anoraks UK say that the station received anonymous calls from Dublin, saying that the ‘ghost’ of Radio Nova was to return and later that day, the 'phantom' began whispering on the microphone, created a few sound effects, and stunting with music clips and Radio Nova's jingles produced by
JAM Creative Productions JAM Creative Productions, Inc., is an American company that produces radio jingles, promo music for television, and commercial jingles for advertisers. It has made more radio jingles than any other jingle company and has become part of America ...
on Q102's AM frequency. Engineers later discovered a person of interest on a bicycle with a
rucksack A backpack, also called knapsack, schoolbag, rucksack, pack, booksack, bookbag, haversack, packsack, or backsack, is in its simplest frameless form, a fabric sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders; b ...
and a homemade
dipole In physics, a dipole () is an electromagnetic phenomenon which occurs in two ways: * An electric dipole moment, electric dipole deals with the separation of the positive and negative electric charges found in any electromagnetic system. A simple ...
near the Q's transmitter site, but the hijacker escaped quick before capture. During the end of its hijack, the AM frequency played an edited version of a jingle cut from Capital Radio London as the hijacker's next target, it never happened. The Q's AM frequency immediately returned to normal programming afterward. In March 1988, Q102 bought the equipment of its rival Energy 103 after its sudden closure and took over all its frequencies, giving it the prominence on the AM and FM bands, and Q102 was rebranded as "Super Q102" three months later in June 1988. Since its rebrand and frequency upgrade, Super Q102 was also heard on both 738kHz and 819kHz medium wave, as well as several FM frequencies serving various parts of the city. As "Super Q102", its CHR format focused more on American titles than its 50/50. However, the Q still faced competition over Sunshine 101 which both stations were Top 5 in the Dublin ratings. Unfortunately because of Ireland's newly established legislation coming into play, many radio stations, alongside the original Q102 (or Super Q102), ceased operations on December 30, 1988.


Relaunch

The station's relaunch in May 2000 was orchestrated by former Big Brother UK contestant Ray Shah, who took over the station until it was relaunched. The take over involved a defacement of Lite 102.2's website and the constant playing of " Mah Nà Mah Nà" during the transition period. The station's
Radio Data System Radio Data System (RDS) is a communications protocol standard for embedding small amounts of digital information in conventional FM broadcasting, FM radio broadcasts. RDS standardizes several types of information transmitted, including time, sta ...
PS name was changed to MUPPET during this time, before settling on Q102 afterwards. The first song played on the new Dublin's Q102 was " Night Fever" by
The Bee Gees ''The'' is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the ...
followed by " What About Me" by
Shannon Noll Shannon Noll (born 16 September 1975) is an Australian singer-songwriter who first came to prominence as runner-up of the first season of '' Australian Idol'' in 2003, which led to him being signed to Sony BMG. He has released five top-ten al ...
. In February 2025, Kathryn Thomas joined Q102 to present the breakfast show, with the station getting a new logo and visual identity.


Programming

The station broadcasts mainly
adult contemporary music Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, sou ...
aimed at the 35+ age group. The station broadcasts news on the hour (half-hour at peak times) along with sports, traffic and weather updates.


Presenters

* Kathryn Thomas (''The Morning Show'') *
Ryan Tubridy Ryan Tubridy (born 28 May 1973) is an Irish broadcaster. He currently presents the weekday mid-morning programme ''The Ryan Tubridy Show'' on Virgin Radio UK, as well as a weekend programme on Sundays. His broadcasting career with RTÉ spanned ...
(''The Ryan Tubridy Show'' / ''The Ryan Tubridy Show On Sunday'') * Liam Coburn (''Feel Good Afternoons'') * Elizabeth Hearst (''Dublin Today'' (Mon-Thurs)) * Hazel Nolan (''Dublin Sport Today'' (Friday/Saturday)) * Paul Bradley (''Saturday Breakfast'' / ''Sunday Mid-Mornings'') * Johnny Bowe (''Saturday Mid-Mornings'' / ''Sunday Afternoon'') * Martin King (''Saturday Afternoon'') * Lisa Armstrong (''The Feel Good 80's Party'' (Sat) / ''The LoveZone'' (Sun)) * Emma Ní Chearúil (''An Blas Beag'') * Lynsey Dolan (''Overnights'' / ''Sunday Breakfast'')


Q102 News

The news focus is local to Dublin, with coverage of national public interest stories, and major international events. Main news bulletins are simulcast on sister station,
FM104 FM104 is an independent local radio station broadcast across Dublin, Ireland, on the frequency 104.4 MHz. It is operated by Capital Radio Productions Limited (unconnected with, and not to be confused with, Capital Radio plc), and is a sub ...
.


Q102 News Team

* Kevin O’Mahony ''(Head of News)'' * Jonathan Byrne * Hazel Nolan * Louise Phelan D'Cruz * Elizabeth Hearst * David Seagrave


Q102 sports reporter

* Peter Branigan


References


External links

* {{coord missing, County Dublin Adult contemporary radio stations in Ireland Mass media in Dublin (city) Radio stations in the Republic of Ireland News Broadcasting Radio stations established in 2000