New North West radio License

donegalman1

I see the new license has been awarded for a youth station.

Interesting to see someone from outside the region got it and their only studio will be in Clare Galway.

Wonder if it will be remote from Donegal for example and become just like another Dublin Station. Interesting though and should offer an alternative from Highland who've had a great monopoly for years. I suppose Highland have the older market well cornered for years so some sort of alternative was needed for the younger market.

Still, it will be seen whether they can compete with BBC Radio 1 for local younger listeners who know what they want.

According to the local press every other candidate had proposed a studio in wither Sligo or Letterkenny or both.

jimmycrackcorm

It seems that the overriding concern of the BCI was to stop existing radio conglomerates from building radio station empires. Given the lack of local studios I'd imagine that it will seem as remote as 2FM.

muffler

Doesn't make an awful lot of sense to me when a station which is to service the North West will be based or broadcasting from Galway

Carrickman

Bring back Glencoe Radio I say:eek:

byte

Glencoe? THe country station broadcast from the top of Mountcharles? :eek:

Bring back KTOK!!

byte

From BCI.ie:

BCI wrote:

The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has today (Monday 13th November) announced its decision regarding the award of the North-West Regional licence, following its board meeting earlier today.



The Commission has awarded a ten year licence in principle to I Radio Limited (trading as i 105FM) for the provision of a new youth-based licence for the north west of Ireland. This service will cover the Counties of Galway, Mayo, Longford, Roscommon, Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal.The award is subject to the successful outcome of contract negotiations and these are expected to be completed in the coming months.

El Linkos

Since the station has to cover Galway and environs, it makes some sense that it is broadcast from the main city.

Anyway, it was probably a good idea not to award the license to existing radio stations.

I suppose there is nothing to stop the station having regional studios if the channel is popular enough?

Paddy20

byte wrote:

From BCI.ie:



El Linkos

Since the station has to cover Galway and environs, it makes some sense that it is broadcast from the main city.

Anyway, it was probably a good idea not to award the license to existing radio stations.

I suppose there is nothing to stop the station having regional studios if the channel is popular enough?

This is the first I have heard of this, looks like another 'Done deal' before ordinary N.W. peasants get a look in .

P. :cool:

muffler

The BCI need to brush up on their geography a bit.

There would have been one helluva row if for example Dublin and Wicklow were thrown in the melting pot for coverage in the South East Region

jimmycrackcorm

byte wrote:

From BCI.ie:



El Linkos

Since the station has to cover Galway and environs, it makes some sense that it is broadcast from the main city.

Anyway, it was probably a good idea not to award the license to existing radio stations.

I suppose there is nothing to stop the station having regional studios if the channel is popular enough?

Perhaps someone in the BCI confused Claregalway (their only studio) with Galway.

magnumlady

I'm looking forward to it, must be better then Ocean fm anyway.

JIZZLORD

i would have thought spin or red fm would have got it, though i'm glad the guys from ocean and the former northwest didn't get it. dear christ, i remember hearing that northwest wouldnt get their licence renewed, a steaming pile of sh ite that deserved banishment, only to be replaced by ocean who realised that if they dont become a clone of nw they were screwed!

because of the great ocean fm con i'm cynical, and from looking below you should see why it could be oh so wrong

Sligo Weekender:
As part of their submission, i Radio Limited commissioned Dublin company RedC to undergo various research studies into the needs of the target listenership.
It was afterwards that the decision to name the station i105FM came about as it taps into the generation of iPod users.

jimmycrackcorm

how delightfully ironic - after all if you are an iPod user you actually won't be listening to radio!

byte

iPod users probably won't benefit much, but people who buy better mp3 players like Creative, iRiver or iAudio, will have an inbuilt FM radio which is handy if ye get sick of your tracks or wanna change.

smashey

They can call this station whatever the hell they want. The simple fact is that it has no relevance to the North West based in Claregalway.

donegalman1

Read some of the submissions and I thought the Vibe one was quite good also. As for Ocean/NWR I've tuned in on one occassion to hear people complaining its not NWR and they wanted things brought back like The Angelous.

Most stations locally will up their game I am sure. But the underlying effect of this decision I believe is that The North West will only play a small part in the new station. I105 will not open extra stations and did not propose to. AFAIK they have to stick fairly religiously to their submission. It does not particularly matter where a station's studio is more their broadcast infastructure ie masts and their content. Donegal in particular is still very peripheral from everything and I doubt if this will be any different.

nanook

have to agree with donegal on this one, where they are based does not make a difference, it is the content and what they can offer to the listeners is the only thing that will guarantee it existence.

For all of you who are going to disagree, Radio luxembourg and Radio Caroline.

We all, for those of us are the age, tuned in and listened to a crappy MW broadcast.
Another station, Atlantic 252 LW, worst broadcast quality, but every car i ever got into had it playing.

muffler

nanook wrote:

Another station, Atlantic 252 LW, worst broadcast quality, but every car i ever got into had it playing.

My god, you're older than I thought nanook

donegalman1

Have to agree about the older stations.... but they broadcast on MW or LW which could reach far and wide. Ironically Paul Kavanagh the man behind Atlantic 252 was involved with Vibe. Moreover they planned more transmitter sites than anyone else involved and I doubt if I105 will be available in peripheral areas like west Donegal or even parts of Mayo. The building next door to a studio cant get reception if a transmitter doesnt have reach to it never mind the outter reaches of Donegal

byte

Radio Caroline is still going, and is on Sky digital now too. AFAIK, it was on Worldspace too, dunno if it still is. Dunno if it still has similar output to the days it broadcast from MV Caroline

As for Atlantic 252 with "stars" such as Dusty Rhodes, Sandy Beaches, Rick OShea, etc, it's not that long ago. Then for a short period the frequency was used for Teamtalk 252, now RTE Radio 1.

bkehoe

i105 have quite a few transmitters covering Donegal - Holywell Hill in the North, Aranmore island on the West coast, and the south will be covered by Truskmore. The only real gap is in Malin - Vibe (Ocean) had proposed a transmitter there, but i105 won't have one there. Mayo is pretty much completely covered - looking at the maps in their application everywhere is pretty much equally covered.
It won't have the coverage RTE does, but I think people will be impressed by where it does cover.