Licensed radio in the Republic of Ireland is one element of the wider media in Ireland, with 85% of the population listening to a licenced service on any given day.[1] This article deals with the legal radio stations of Ireland. For a discussion of the extensive illegal broadcasting scene in Ireland, see Irish pirate radio.
Regular radio broadcasting in Ireland began with 2RN's test transmissions in 1925. [2] 2RN has since become RTÉ Radio 1, which celebrated 80 years of uninterrupted broadcasting in January 2006, making it amongst the oldest (if not the oldest) continuously operating, continuously public service radio station in Europe. RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta joined in 1972, and RTÉ Radio 2, now 2FM, launched in 1979.
Commercial radio was outlawed in Ireland until 1989, leading to the development of Irish pirate radio. Upon legalisation, licences were advertised and awarded on a franchise system explained in the article for a national service and a network of regional services covering the country, These all took to the air during 1989 and 1990, and although the national service (Century) eventually failed, all the local services lasted until their licence was revoked, or still exist. Additional licences have been added on an erratic basis since the late 1990s.
An "international" service, Atlantic 252, also operated on long wave between 1989 and 2002, although it was aimed solely at the UK and Ireland. It was never subject to the authority of the BCI (nor, much to its annoyance at the time, the UK's Radio Authority), and was operated under RTÉ's remit as a joint venture between RTÉ and CLT-UFA. After a short period as a sports station (TeamTalk), the frequencies reverted to sole RTÉ control and are now used as an additional frequency for RTÉ Radio 1.
In Ireland, Community Radio has been active since the late 1970's however it took until 1994 before the Independent Radio and Television Commission established an 18-month community radio pilot project to explore and evaluate the potential offered by community broadcasting in an Irish context. This project went operational in 1995 when licenses were issued to eleven community and community of interest groups across the country. 2004 saw the establishment of CRAOL the Community Radio Forum of Ireland. [3]
Aside from the stations operated by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), radio stations in Ireland operate under sound broadcasting contracts issued by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). 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. After the Broadcasting Act 2009, the BAI now is responsible for RTÉ also.
All stations broadcast on FM barring those on the DAB Ireland multiplexes, which broadcast on VHF Band III; and the longwave version of RTÉ Radio 1 mainly intended for reception outside of Ireland. RTÉ radio services are also available free-to-air on digital satellite, as is Newstalk, and a number of recently licenced services or applicants have used satellite transmission to homes as part of the licence applications.
Mediumwave (AM) licences were issued for new commercial stations for Limerick and Galway in 2002, although these services never reached the air (with the licences being withdrawn); and a mediumwave licence has been awarded 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 BCI's future schedule for licencing does not indicate that any MW licences will be offered on a permanent basis.
During 2007, a radio station called 'The Rock' obtained a temporary 'classic rock' music service. The station broadcast on 94.9 FM and also on 1278 kHz MW. The Rock was operated by the same group that operated Choice FM during 2005 and 2006, although different MW facilities were used by the group during 2007.
Raidió Teilifís Éireann and Communicorp dominate the national radio broadcasting sector. RTÉ own the more popular Radio 1 and 2FM stations, the Irish Language station RnaG and classical station Lyric FM. The 2 national commercial stations are both owned by Communicorp - Today FM and Newstalk.
Ownership rules were relaxed in the mid-2000s which saw several companies buying up local and national commercial stations including Scottish Radio Holding who sold their stations to Emap, who eventually sold on those stations to Denis O'Brien's Communicorp. The ownership of commercial radio in Ireland is largely by two companies, Communicorp with 5 and UTV Radio with 5.
The rest of the stations, mostly small services, are generally owned by local businesses, with notable proprietors of stakes including Thomas Crosbie Holdings, the Roman Catholic Church and the Mid Western Area Health Board.
RTÉ also broadcast 6 DAB stations, however DAB is not widespread.
Broadcasting to Greater Dublin (Dublin city and county; limited parts of County Kildare, County Meath and County Wicklow), Cork city and county, Limerick city and county, Galway city and county and County Clare.
All services are licensed for "youth" content, no franchises area geographically overlap, and the entire country is served apart from County Wicklow and the cities and counties of Cork and Dublin, both of which have "youth" licensed services (Red FM and Spin 1038 respectively). Beat 102-103 was the first to air and was a pilot for the rest of the system.
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. The majority of the ILR stations collectively own the sales house, Independent Radio Sales.
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. The majority of stations heard in Dublin can also be heard in North East Kildare, South Meath and North Wicklow.
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. Currently there are 20 fully licenced community radio stations on air in Ireland, with offers of contracts from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland while there are 42 stations in the process of obtaining a licence.
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 licenced, Dublin City FM, which brand themselves as 103.2 Dublin City FM on-air, and DUB CITY on RDS. Dublin City FM are essentially a community station with specialist traffic reports around rush-hour periods.
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 five such stations in operation; all of them are hospital radio stations with the existing student radio stations operating under community radio or temporary licenses.
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, or run for a permanent license.
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 Ireland's 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 and longwave. Eureka 147 Digital Audio Broadcasting is in the process of being rolled out, having begun in 2006. The suspension of analogue licensing prior to the completion of this plan would further suggestion a termination of analogue licensing entirely.
A licence for a national religious station to broadcast on mediumwave with low power, FM infills was advertised in August 2006. Five applications were received, from CCN Ireland, Radio Maria, Spirit Radio, United Christian Broadcasters and Yes Radio. Spirit Radio were awarded the licence on April 17, 2007. As of October 2010, they have yet to launch, with indications that they may only launch on their FM frequencies providing far less than national coverage.
Two regional country and Irish licences will be advertised in the future, 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. These services were meant to be advertised by November 2007 but the suspension of the radio licensing programme by the BCI has deferred this.
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