Radio in Ireland

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Licenced radio in Ireland is one element of the wider media in Ireland, with 85% of the population listening to a licenced service on any given day.

Contents

[edit] Licencing

Aside from the stations operated by Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), radio stations in Ireland operate under sound broadcasting contracts issued by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI). This body supervises and regulates the commercial Independent National, Regional, and Local Radio stations, as well as the non-profit Community Radio stations, Institutional Services and Temporary Services.

This article deals with the legal radio stations of the Republic of Ireland. For a discussion of the extensive illegal broadcasting scene in Ireland, see Irish pirate radio.

[edit] Transmission

All stations broadcast on FM barring the RTÉ DAB Multiplex, which broadcasts on VHF Band III; and mediumwave and longwave versions of RTÉ Radio 1 mainly intended for reception outside of Ireland. RTE radio services are also available free-to-air on digital satellite.

Mediumwave (AM) licences were issued for new commercial stations for Limerick and Galway in 2002, although these services never reached the air; and a mediumwave licence is currently being offered for a quasi-national religious service.

During 2006, a group, Choice FM, applied for and received permission to broadcasting on MW in the Dublin area over a period of thirty days. The 'easy listening' radio station relayed its FM programming on 1278 Khz MW, and operated opt-out programming at various times. The group is said to be interested in obtaining one of the four MW channels that are allocated to the Dublin area, however the BCIs future schedule for licencing does not indicate that any MW licences will be offered on a permanent basis.

[edit] Ownership

Ownership of commercial radio in Ireland is largely by three companies. Emap, with three stations, Communicorp/Radio 2000 with 4, soon to be 5; and UTV Radio with 5. The rest of the stations, mostly small services, are generally owned by local businesses, with notable proprieters of stakes including Thomas Crosbie Holdings, the Roman Catholic Church and the Mid Western Area Health Board.

[edit] National stations

[edit] RTÉ (national state broadcaster)

[edit] Independent National Radio

  • Today FM (formerly Radio Ireland) - Popular music with some speech programming.
  • Newstalk (quasi-national) - Speech-based.

[edit] Independent Regional Radio

[edit] Youth licences

  • Beat 102-103 - Counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford and South Tipperary.

Two new services have been licenced for this format, i105FM for Galway, Mayo, Longford, Roscommon, Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal; and Spin South West for Kerry, Limerick, Clare, North Tipperary and South-West Laois. One remaining licence, covering the rest of the country barring counties Cork and Dublin, is currently being advertised.

[edit] Independent local radio

There are 25 commercial stations (Independent Local Radio - ILR) licensed on a regional franchise basis. Often several counties of Ireland are covered by one station only, but Dublin and Cork have several:

[edit] Dublin ILRs

Except for the two original ILR licenses - 98FM and FM104 - each additional ILR license in Dublin was awarded for a specific format, intending on meeting demands which it was felt that 98FM and FM104 were not catering to.

Newstalk have been awarded a quasi-national licence, and have returned their Dublin ILR licence although retaining its frequency. It is not known if this licence will be re-advertised.

[edit] Cork ILRs

[edit] Leinster (excluding Dublin) ILRs

[edit] Munster (excluding Cork) ILRs

[edit] Connacht/Ulster ILRs

  • Galway Bay FM - Galway City and County
  • Ocean FM - County Sligo, North Leitrim, and South Donegal.
  • Mid-West Radio - County Mayo
  • Shannonside FM - Counties Longford, Roscommon, East Galway and South Leitrim. Dual franchise with Northern Sound Radio, covering Counties Cavan and Monaghan.
  • Highland Radio - County Donegal.

[edit] Community radio

Community Radio covers specific local communities or communities of interest. These operate on a non-commercial basis. In Ireland the BCI requires that community radio stations subscribe to the AMARC Community Radio Charter for Europe. Community radio in Ireland is represented by CRAOL.

[edit] Special interest services

Special interest services resemble ILRs in most ways, but must be of specialist interest—e.g. heavier local interest content, or specialist music. Only one such station is currently licenced, Dublin City Anna Livia, who brand themselves as DCAL FM on-air.

[edit] Institutional services

The BCI may also issue licenses to institutions, such as hospitals and colleges, for the provision of low-powered FM services.

At present, there are six such stations in operation; all of them are hospital radio stations with the existing student radio stations operating under community radio or temporary licenses.

  • Beaumont Hospital Radio - Beaumont Hospital, Beamount, Dublin
  • CUH FM Hospital Radio - Cork University Hospital, Cork
  • Mater Hospital Radio - Mater Hospital, Dublin
  • Regional Hospital Radio - Mid Western Regional Hospital, Limerick
  • South Tipperary General Hospital Radio - South Tipperary General and Maternity Hospital, Tipperary, Co. Tipperary
  • St. Ita's Hospital Radio - St. Ita's Hospital, Portrane, Co. Dublin

[edit] Temporary services

Stations may also be licensed to operate for shorter periods, with temporary licenses allowing stations to operate for up to thirty days in a given twelve month period.

These licenses may be used by stations providing a service to coincide with local, cultural and sporting events or festivals.

Another group of stations to avail of this type of license are those that are being run as pilot projects; successful stations may later be established as Community Radio stations.

[edit] Defunct stations

[edit] RTÉ radio

  • Atlantic 252 - a joint venture with RTL, eventually failed financially
  • RTÉ FM3 Classical music/arts service, had existed prior to the launch of Lyric FM. FM3 time-shared the same national FM network as RnaG, resulting in limited broadcasting hours.
  • Radio Oglaigh na h-Éireann 1960s-era shortwave service offering Radio Éireann programming to Irish UN Forces serving in Congo, ended when no longer needed
  • RTÉ Radio Cork, (was originally 'RTE Cork Local Radio', changed name in 1989 to 'Cork 89FM', and relaunched again in 1994 as 'RTE Radio Cork') - an opt-out of Radio 1 for the Cork area on mediumwave and secondary FM transmitters, closed in 1999 due to declining interest
  • RTÉ mobile Community Radio station, existed during the late 1970s and 1980s, this mobile station provided temporary community radio services to towns and cities around the country.

[edit] Independent Local Radio

  • Limerick 95 FM (Radio Limerick One) (105 MHz FM). Lost franchise mid-term for stated misbehaviour - subsequently operated on a pirate basis.
  • CKR FM and Radio Kilkenny - franchises redrawn at end of contract, Kildare area awarded to KFM, Carlow and Kilkenny to KCLR.
  • Tipperary Mid-West Radio - held a very small franchise for South West Tipperary. Its franchise was merged with the rest of Tipperary franchise (held by Tipp FM). The station continues, being re-licenced as a Community Radio station.
  • North West Radio - subsidiary of Mid West Radio. Replaced by Ocean FM at end of contract.
  • Easy 103 - held a licence for part of Wicklow and Horizon Radio held a licence for north Wicklow. These two stations merged to become East Coast Radio.
  • Fresh 95.5 - short lived North Dublin-targetted station from LMFM.
  • Dublin Weekend Radio - station that broadcast from Dublin City University, it time-shared transmission with Raidio na Life. Facilities are now used by DCUfm.

[edit] Independent National Radio

[edit] Future stations

The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland has either awarded, advertised, or announced its intent to advertise a large number of new services to launch within the next 24 months. These include a licence for an AM station, something which has never lasted commercially in Ireland, and the first attempt to licence such since 2002; as well as what will amount to four stations easily receivable in most of Dublin city and county.

It is expected these may be the last commercial analogue services to be licenced, as the FM band will be highly saturated in Dublin and the midlands of Ireland. DRM on Irelands many unused ITU-allocated mediumwave frequencies is expected to be the next round of licening, particularly as some of these allocations are 15 to 20 kHz wide, which is enough for FM-alike quality with the latest DRM+ coding methods. DRM has already been used by RTÉ to broadcast some content on shortwave. Eureka 147 Digital Audio Broadcasting is also expected to be rolled out for national services, and has been in testing in 2006.

[edit] Independent national radio

A licence for a national religious station to broadcast on mediumwave was advertised in August 2006. Five applications were received, from CCN Ireland, Radio Maria, Spirit Radio, United Christian Broadcasters and Yes Radio.

[edit] Independent regional radio

[edit] Youth licences

A licence for a South West Regional youth-targeted service was advertised in 2005, with three applicants respsonding. These are Red FM, an existing Cork ILR; Spin 1038, an existing Dublin ILR; and FRESH FM. Kerry, Limerick, Clare, North Tipperary and the south-west of Laois would be covered by this franchise. The FRESH FM application was not allowed proceed to the second stage; an oral hearing was held on July 17, 2006. Spin South West were awarded the licence.

A licence for a North West Regional youth-targeted service has been advertised in 2006. It would cover Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo , Mayo, Longford, Roscommon and Galway. This received 5 applications, again from Spin 1038, Red FM and FRESH FM, but with the addition of Vibe FM and i105 FM. i105 FM were awarded this licence on November 13, 2006.

A licence for the now-combined Midlands & North East regional licence was advertised in September 2006. Five applications were received, again from Spin 1038 and Red FM, i107 (same group as i105), ICE FM (part of TV3 Ireland) and FM107 (part of Midlands 103). The first three were allowed proceed to the second round.

RedFM was essentially a pilot for this type of franchise, offering a service to a larger area than traditionally served by Independent Local Radio. On 8 September 2005 the BCI announced that it would extend independent regional radio to a number of other areas, with youth-based franchises being offered for the South West, North West, and North East and Midlands. These will cover the entire country barring counties Dublin and Cork, which each have more than one ILR as it stands.

[edit] Country & Irish licences

Two country and Irish licences will be advertised by November 2007, the first North East region covering North Kildare, Meath, Louth and parts of Cavan and Monaghan; and the second Mid West region covering Limerick, Galway, Clare and parts of Tipperary and Kerry.

[edit] Independent local radio

[edit] Dublin ILR

A further Dublin ILR licence will be advertised in September 2007, for a classic rock format station. This will bring the number of Dublin licenced stations back up to its former level now that Newstalk is an INR.

[edit] Multi-city ILR

An easy listening "Classic Gold" service with a single contractor holding licences for Dublin (and its "commuter belt", a yet to be defined area), Cork, Limerick and Galway stations will be advertised in April 2007.

[edit] External links

  • The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) The Commission licenses independent broadcasting services in Ireland
  • Radiowaves.FM A site detailing both licensed and pirate radio stations in Ireland
  • RadioFeeds Ireland An up-to-date list of Irish radio stations also broadcasting on the internet
  • FMLIST is a non-commercial Online database of FM stations, including bandscan and logbook tool (FMINFO/myFM)
  • FMSCAN reception prediction of FM, TV, MW, SW stations (also use the expert options for better results)
  • Radiostation World
  • Radioviews.com A message forum for those interested in radio broadcasting in Ireland
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