Nova: A New Star in the Sky

Radio Nova, Britain's first satellite radio station, took to the air in May, boasting deejays like Tony Blackburn, Greg Edwards and Timmy Mallett. Ken North pays a visit to the station which aims to introduce Pan-European broadcasting where Laser 558 failed. From September 1988.

On the outskirts of Camberley in Surrey, in the corner of an industrial estate sandwiched between the M3 and a railway line, is a new hi-tech radio station. It is this unlikely location that Chris Cary has chosen to establish his latest venture, Radio Nova International.

Cary is no stranger to broadcasting. He started his career in the sixties on Radio Caroline, as Spangles Muldoon. He later moved on, via Radio North Sea, to Radio Luxembourg where he became station manager. As well as his talents in radio, he's also been involved in the electronics and computer industries. Perhaps his greatest claim to fame, though, is as boss of Dublin Super-pirate Radio Nova. During the early eighties, Cary built up Nova to be Ireland's leading station, exploiting the chaotic Irish broadcasting laws to the full. His latest project, however, is totally legal, operating under the auspices of the Cable Authority.

The concept of Radio Nova International was formulated in early 1987, when Cary applied for transponder space on a satellite. The request was not granted until March 1988. In only six weeks, the Radio Nova studios were then constructed, on the upper floor of a modern factory unit, the ground floor occupied by Cary's electronics company. Test transmissions began on 29th April and full programming on May 1st. The station was officially opened on 4th May, by the Minister for Broadcasting, Timothy Renton MP.

The Satellite

The signal from Nova's Camberley studios is sent via landlines and a microwave link to the Telecom Tower in London's West End. From here it is beamed to the BT Teleport in Docklands where the signal is uplinked to the Intelsat VA F11 satellite, in geo-stationary orbit 26,000 miles above the earth.

If you're in the fortunate position of being served by a cable TV network, then Nova will probably also be be available to you. Several networks are supplying the station so far, including those in Windsor, Greenwich and Swindon. Some Independent Radio stations may be relaying Nova at night, but it seems likely that none of these will be near London. So, you'll probably need your own satellite dish and receiver.

Programming

So, assuming you can receive Radio Nova, what will you hear? The music policy is strictly CHR – Contemporary Hit Radio – a mix of current hits, oldies and chart breakers, in a style reminiscent of Laser 558 in its heyday. Nova are running 'While the others keep talking, we keep rocking' jingles.

The station is targetted at the 15-39 age group and is heavily formatted. The top 9 records each week make up the 'A' list, the rest of the Top Forty the 'B' list and 6 climbers the 'C' list. In addition, records from the US Top Forty which have yet to break in Europe and oldies from 1980 onwards are played.

CLAMMed up

The schedule is compiled using the Selector computer package, each hour's output timed to the nearest second. The system details information about the record, like name, artist, length of the intro, etc. It can even help with the pronunciation of difficult names. Also included is a code to enable the track to be selected from the Computerised Library and Music Management System (CLAMM).

At Nova, DJs don't carry out mundane tasks like putting records on turntables – it's all done by CLAMM. To pick a track, the DJ keys into a computer terminal in the studio. CLAMM then selects the required track automatically from a bank of 20 multiple CD players, each containing 6 compact discs. This gives instant access to over 1,400 tracks. Nova buys special CDs from the states containing US hit records. UK singles that are not available on CD are copied onto cartridges to be played by the CLAMM system.

At present, Radio Nova are carrying Independent Radio News at the top of the hour. In addition, the station is running UK weather forecasts. This may appear a little parochial for a pan-European station. However, Nova's Head of News Sybil Fennel suggested that as Nova's continental audience consisted mainly of ex-Brits who were quite happy to pay a small fortune for a two-day-old newspaper, the style of news was quite satisfactory. Nova plan to install a feed from Reuters' European Service soon. When this is available, they will produce their own news bulletins.

Personalities

An impressive line-up of DJs has been assembled at Camberley. Famous names with daily programmes include Tony Blackburn, Paul Burnett, David Hamilton and Greg Edwards. Other DJs include Pat Sharp, Mark Wesley, Brian McKenzie and Liam Quigley. The station carries the syndicated Rick Dees US Top Forty on Saturdays. So far, there are no female DJs on the station.

There may be some conflict in commitment for the big names. When Radio Today visited the station at the end of May the 'Tony Blackburn Show' was being aired. However, our number one soul – or should that be oldies – man was nowhere to be seen. In the studio an engineer was cueing up records using the computer and running a reel-to-reel tape backwards and forwards to select appropriate comments from Tony. The results sounded indistinguishable from a normal Tony Blackburn show. I still can't decide if this was due to the skill of the engineer of the prefabricated style of Blackburn!

Apparently, Tony Blackburn was visiting Nova once a week to do a live programme at this time. While he was there an additional hour-long tape with comments and record introductions would be prepared. This would contain sufficient material for another four programmes to be produced. After his departure from Radio London, he is now doing all his programmes live.

Advertising

Nova's programmes are supplied free to cable networks. The station will be financed from selling airtime to advertisers. The scope and content of advertising is controlled by the Cable Authority using guidelines similar to the IBA's. For example, cigarette advertising is not allowed. A one-off 30 second spot would cost you £250. In the couple of hours programming heard during Radio Today's visit, only two adverts were heard: for Nova Sweatshirts (a snip at £15.99) and a satellite TV decoder.

Night Network

The future of Nova obviously depends on their success in attracting advertisers – many of whom will only come when they're pulling in a larger audience. The station has just launched 'The Nova Night Network' which they are hoping to sell to Independent Radio stations, but are facing some opposition from within the industry.

Chris Cary has created a good service, let's hope he can make it a success with the advertisers too. Sybil Fennel claims "Nova is the ultimate radio experiment". She's probably right!

Radio Nova is transmitted on Transponder 63 of the West Spot beam of Intelsat VA F11 using sub-carriers 7.38 and 7.56MHz. The downlink frequency is 11.175GHz (horizontally polarised). Write to Radio Nova International at PO Box 1065, London, W2.