I102-104FM

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i102-104FM (formally trading as i105FM) is a regional station in the Republic of Ireland which was launched on 7 February 2008. The station won the licence for a 'youth' orientated station that would broadcast across seven counties in the northwest and west of Ireland; and was part of a strategy by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland to create a network of regional youth stations across the Republic to challenge the monopolies of national broadcasters RTÉ 2FM and Today FM.

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[edit] Overview

The station has its studios in Galway City and is licenced to cover Counties Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo. As the 'i' in the title suggests, the company intends to use integration of different media sources, such as social networking sites and mobile phones, to make the station 'interactive' and attract listeners from what is a very diverse area spanning three provinces. High profile figures such as the comedians Tommy Tiernan and Hector Ó hEochagáin, have been signed up in an effort to raise the profile of the station, and a nationwide 'talent hunt' was launched to try and recruit the 40 people the station expects to employ when fully operational.[1]

There had been five competitors for the lucrative northwest licence (currently only 26% listen to local radio with the rest tuning into national stations Today FM (33%) and RTÉ 2FM (32%)),[2] with bids coming from Dublin's Spin 1038, Cork's Red FM and the northwest station, Ocean FM through 'Vibe FM', and was granted to i105FM in November 2006. i102-104FM is owned by a consortium called iRadio, that has applied for several other of the regional youth licences on offer from the BCI, winning the northeast and midlands licence through i107FM. iRadio is headed by Dan Healy, formerly of Communicorp's Newstalk and its other owners include fellow ex-Communicorp worker Deborah Fagan, as well as Boundary Radio, an investment management company, and the businessman Cormac McAlinden.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Alan Swan
  2. ^ Sunday Business Post - 2006/11/19 - Healy’s €20m radio licences fund

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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