Chris Cary 1946 - 2008

mike65

Sad to report the passing of a man who was for many one of the great "pop-culture" figures of the 1980s. Chris Cary came saw and conquered the Dublin radio market with Radio Nova, he fell ill with a severe stoke while in Spain.

From Carys other half Sybil

My dearest friends.

This is the hardest of all the messages I have ever written, or will ever write.

Chris has died.

I still find it hard to read what I have just written.

Anyway, it probably won´t have escaped your notice that today is February 29th. Leap Year. So typical. As unusual is death as in life.

Sybil

Full text here

Mike.

FlutterinBantam

Aaah jaysus!!

Word on the street was that he was a total bollix, but thats only opinion.

Rest in peace.

Milktrolley

Wasn't even aware that he had a stroke, not that that would have made the news any less surprising. RIP.

Hagar

I used to love Radio Nova. Thanks and RIP.

DMC

Rest in peace.

bbability

Never knew the man personally but you can be sure he was one of the major figures in producing some of the best radio that was ever heard in this country. If it wasn't for Chris Carey who knows what we would would be listening to today. I watched Dobbo reading out the news that he had passed away last night. Funny an ex-nova man telling us this sad news. Also Dave Redmond this morning reminding us why we got involved in this madness in the first place! A little thing called Radio Nova.:rolleyes:

RIP Chris Carey.:(

Hissing Sideban

bbability wrote: »

I watched Dobbo reading out the news that he had passed away last night. Funny an ex-nova man telling us this sad news.

Here's a link to the news report.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0229/careyc.html Video here http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0229/careyc_av.html

Yes, absolutely right, hearing Nova back in 1981/2 for the first time made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, it was so good! - it was light years ahead of anything else in Europe at the time.

I had just returned from the Voice of Peace, and had my first taste of FM audio processing - hearing Novas' Optimod (with the little bit of added reverb from a Bandive GBS) - it drove me and some friends onwards to start a station, and he taught us that attention to detail is all!

Had last dealings with him a few months ago, before he went to the Canaries, when he was testing a Nova stream from his Surrey base

May he Rest in Peace indeed, and condolances to Sybil and the rest of his family

mike65

I hope someone ie Bryan Dobson puts together a retrospective of the mans career goodness knows there is plenty of material to draw on.

Mike.

popebenny16

mike65 wrote: »

I hope someone ie Bryan Dobson puts together a retrospective of the mans career goodness knows there is plenty of material to draw on.

Mike.

Well, it wont be Ken Hammond who'd do it

Carey actually started Sunshine with Robbie Robbinson, they worked on Caroline together long ago, but when the original Sunshine mast, er, blew down one calm night Carey decided it was a little bit too illegal for a respectable businessman.

As for Nova, well, Nova started a trend in automatic radio which can still be seen today in fm104 and 98 and Spin and the like, a format which is regularly decried as being base, banal, moronic ect. What those who do decry it dont know is just how bad things were before Robinson and Carey arrived in the early 80's. I prefered Sunshine to Nova, it had a more community feel to it, i hated the "Bay Area" stuff, but then to compete Sunshine brought in the Hot Hits format and it all went crap (well, to me anyway ) and it got worse.

There are those who remember the good days - like when Nova closed down and all the car horns hooted throughout the city and the evening we all tried to get Nova TV on our telly, god that was excitment I'm not joking or being sarky. There are also those who remember the bad days - the Nova Strike being one of them and the bitterness that ensued with accusations of scabs and all those entailed. Eventually, he kept coming back, with another station in the mid 80's whose name I cant recall, but which was always fighting with Q102, which i think became what is now today fm104.

His first business was computers, a sort of Alan Sugar thing. He spent some time in the clink for white collar fun and games, but, in all fairness those who were even peripheral to it all (like mise was back in the day) would say that, whilst Flutterin's description is one many would agree with, in comparison to some of the shady, dangerous and, in the case of Eamonn Cooke, perverted persons involved in the pirate world of the 80's, he wasn't the worst.

So, may he indeed Rest in Peace.

DMC

Likewise, benny, I was more of a fan of Sunshine. By 1984/5, Nova seemed to be overtaken by Sunshine, then the original Q102.

Nova, iirc, reappeared as NRG 103. What I'd do to get a copy of "Radio Radio" now!

mike65

I'll sell you my copy for an outrageous amount!

Mike.

berliner

I used to love listening to the american top 40 with casey kasem on nova.In drab dublin i imagined i was in sunny california.88fm if i recall.Thanks chris for the memories.

mike65

You have just hit upon the single biggest reason the SuperPirates succeeded - it did'nt sound like drab damp Dublin on the radio even if one glance out the window told you otherwise.

Mike.

bbability

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

Word on the street was that he was a total bollix

Word on the street in other words you didn't know him.
That was one to keep to yourself considering the corpse is still warm:mad:

DMC

mike65 wrote: »

I'll sell you my copy for an outrageous amount!

/me puts little finger on lips

One Million Dollars!!

mike65

Some reading from the book

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/mike65/NovaPage1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/mike65/NovaPage2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/mike65/NovaPage3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/mike65/NovaPage4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/mike65/NovaPage5.jpg

Mike.

FlutterinBantam

bbability wrote: »

Word on the street in other words you didn't know him.
That was one to keep to yourself considering the corpse is still warm:mad:

Saying as it is man.

He shook things up in fairness, but I'm entitled to my opinion.

Rest in peace.

DMC

mike65 wrote: »

Some reading from the book

You are the dude. Thanks

Pataman

Do you remember the "phone ins", cant remember how much was on offer but it shut down the complete phone system. Didnt he then go into selling satellite cards?

The Muppet

He had had his faults but he knew his stuff when it came to radio. He gave us Sunshine and Nova when there wsa no legal music station here. May he rest in peace.

mike65

Pataman, thats right about the phone in - they played 3 disks in a certain order the whole of the north Leinster phone system collapsed as thousands hit thier Northern Telecom phone dials at the same moment. P&T/Telecom Eireann not happy!

Mike.

DubTony

IIRC it was £5000. A years wages for me back then. They left it to the last day to play the 3 songs, at about 5 in the evening. It was amazing anyone got through. I had a direct connection to a neighbour who told me I was caller number 12 and to hang up and try again. When I did, he told me I was caller number 11, then 10, then 9 ... so funny.

Hearing Dave Redmond report his death on Saturday morning brought a lump to my throat, and floods of teenage memories which all seemed to revolve around Radio Nova. There were about 10 of us hung around together and the dial on somebody's Stereo Radio Cassette Player never moved from 88fm. RIP Chris Cary. And thanks.

cathald

Rest in peace, man!

tbh

used to love reading about him in Phoenix magazine, sounded like a truly larger-than-life character. And of course, I grew up listening to the red hot sounds of sunshine 101

bbability

Here's a link to John Clarke's tribute to Chris Cary on 2fm last weekend. Who ever thought they'd hear radio nova jingles on 2fm:eek:

http://www.radio.ie/archives2/chris_cary/jc_020308.ram

Greenman

DMC wrote: »

Nova, iirc, reappeared as NRG 103. What I'd do to get a copy of "Radio Radio" now!

I'll swap for an internet radio.

DMC

Cheers dude, I have a copy on notice, if that fails, I might approach ye!

Greenman

DMC wrote: »

Cheers dude, I have a copy on notice, if that fails, I might approach ye!

I'll be in Dublin in 2 weeks if things fall through.

OFF TOPIC But have you seen those internet radios in Dublin recently? Like in stock. Prices Damo. Thanks.