East Coast FM

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

East Coast FM
Broadcast area	County Wicklow and the rest of the Irish east coast
First air date	1989
Frequency	94.9 MHz, 96.2 MHz, 99.9 MHz, 102.9 MHz and 104.4 MHz (Arklow)
Format	Lively music and talk
Owner	East Coast Radio Limited
Website	www.eastcoast.fm

East Coast FM (formerly known as BLB, Horizon FM, then East Coast Radio) is an Irish local radio station broadcasting from Bray, County Wicklow.

Based in Bray's State of the Art Radio Centre, East Coast FM has been broadcasting since 1989 and has established itself as one of the leading independent radio stations in Ireland.

The station operates an extensive transmission network throughout County Wicklow and into the adjoining counties of Dublin, Kildare, Carlow and Wexford, broadcasting on the following frequencies: 94.9FM, 96.2FM, 99.9FM, 102.9FM and 104.4FM in Arklow. To achieve coverage of all of its franchise area, it requires a transmitter located well outside of its area in Red Gap in County Dublin.

East Coast FM is owned by East Coast Radio Limited Denis O'Brien's Radio Two Thousand group, is a shareholder in the station. The station shares its premises with Dublin's Country Mix 106.8. It has the largest weekly reach (56%) of any station measured in County Wicklow, however conversly this is the second-lowest reach of any rural ILR. The station also has the worst market share of any non-city ILR in the entire country, at 23.4% [1].

The station has recently won 2 industry awards; in October 2006 A PPI General Music Programming award was presented to Joe Harrington for his show 'East Coast Lunch' and at the Radio Advertising Awards held in March 2007 the station won an award in the 'Advertiser Promotion' category.