Hot COUNTRY

ABOUT NIALL

Niall Cassidy’s love affair with radio started in the 1970s, when on a visit to his cousin’s house he discovered a radio transmitter that his cousin had built from a diagram in Our Boys Magazine (A school publication). He simply had to have it there and then. So after lengthy negotiations, a price of 50p was agreed.  Over the next few weeks Niall built an audience outside his house broadcasting any record he could find. Before we go any further the transmitter was only the size of a TV remote and therefore extremely low power 1/2 of 1 watt MW.

The radio bug had truly bitten Niall and he went on to present shows on Priate radio stations Radio 257, Radio City and Radio Annabelle. In 1981 Niall and some friends decided to open a their own radio station, and so on the 30th may 1981 at 3pm The Jacksons Can You Feel It was broadcast on Diamond Radio. A few short years later and Diamond closed due to lack of funding. According to Niall “potential advertisers found it hard to take 15 year olds with briefcases seriously”.

After a break of a few years Niall was back on air on South West Radio in Killarney remaining with the station for two years up to an end on New Years Eve 1988.

Niall got his first break in legal radio at Wicklow’s EASY 103 in the early 90’s after submitting a demo tape (remember tapes). After his time on Easy 103 it would be almost 20 years before Niall resurfaced on radio, this time in Dublin on temporary station Premier FM in 2007. Niall enjoyed the experience immensely however there was one slight problem, the last time Niall was on the radio it was records and carts, this time it was all computerized, However like a true professional Niall overcame this hurdle and appeared on two more temporary stations, Hot Country-CIMR and Christmas FM in 2008.