Have radio stations stopped plugging their frequencies ?

The John Greene Show

Do Today FM for example ever mention 100/102 anymore? One time every link and jingle mentioned 100/102

dxhound2005

I think I hear Newtalk announcing 106 to 108. Which is misleading if you are listening on 103.3. Same for Today FM if they announce 100 to 102, they are also on 105.5.

JDxtra

The number of FM radios without RDS will be very small at this stage, so the actual frequency is largely irrelevant.

Worst one ever - 4FM plugging "94 to 105FM". It's literally over 50% of the band! Pointless.

DopeTech

I guess frequencies are becoming less and less relevant with rds, dab, online listening, smart speakers etc. Once you know the name you'll find what you are looking for.

JDxtra

Surprised "Spin 1038" haven't yet dropped the "1038" part from their branding yet. It would allow cross branding with Spin South West.

ford fiesta

Remember in the late 00s, Dublin's 98FM rebranded to just "98", it did not last long and they reverted back to "98FM"

BBC Radio 2 really push their FM frequencies coming up to hourly news time and if you ask Google Smart Speaker, it says "Streaming 88 to 91 BBC Radio 2 from the BBC"

RandomViewer

Highland radio seems to have moved from 95.2 to 104.7

coylemj

RandomViewer wrote: »

Highland radio seems to have moved from 95.2 to 104.7

No movement, they're both current frequencies.....

Highland Radio 95.2 Aran Mor
Highland Radio 104.5 Back Mountain
Highland Radio 94.7 Ballybofey
Highland Radio 102.6 Crocknaneeve
Highland Radio 102.1 Feirn Hill
Highland Radio 104.7 Moville
Highland Radio 104.7 Mulmosog
Highland Radio 103.3 Scalp Mountain

marno21

They use a combination of "Spin" and split imaging during networked shows. While it would be useful to have the same name for that purpose, most networked stations seem to get on fairly ok with the split imaging and split links especially when there's only 2 outlets here.

It sounds a lot worse on the Bauer stations in the UK, Radio City often has Rock FM imaging on. At least on Capital/Heart they have the same generic name, but trying to do it with Rock FM/Radio City/TFM etc makes it a mess.

marno21

RedFM since their rebrand in 2014 have used imaging after links with the frequency and location e.g. "On 104.2 in Crosshaven". They never added their 106.1 relay in Millstreet which came on air in 2017 though.

KReid

Stations frequencies are totally redundant now with online and digital listening on the rise.

To be honest the FM part is just their as the brand, Today FM for example is turning into an Entertainment and News outlet like Joe.ie but with a traditional output.

bobbyss

coylemj wrote:

Highland Radio 95.2 Aran Mor Highland Radio 104.5 Back Mountain Highland Radio 94.7 Ballybofey Highland Radio 102.6 Crocknaneeve Highland Radio 102.1 Feirn Hill Highland Radio 104.7 Moville Highland Radio 104.7 Mulmosog Highland Radio 103.3 Scalp Mountain

What does all that mean? If you live in Moville you tune to 104.7 etc?

ED E

JDxtra wrote: »

Surprised "Spin 1038" haven't yet dropped the "1038" part from their branding yet. It would allow cross branding with Spin South West.

Spin is one of the better names. Its not about FM now, its about SEO.

"Alexa, play Spin FM" will probably get you some station from Kentucky. "Alexa play Spin 1038" works every time. It gets FM104 wrong 2/3 of the time.

coylemj

bobbyss wrote: »

What does all that mean? If you live in Moville you tune to 104.7 etc?

As has been pointed out, in most cases you don't need to know the frequency but if you have an old radio with a manual tuner (no RDS), it can be useful to know your local frequency.

ford fiesta

Why do things like FM frequencies have to be phased out, I would advise radio stations just leave them alone.
Not as many listeners listen to FM as they did previously and the youth may not know what "1038" is, though that's their tough and it's good for branding.

Look what youth radio Radio 538 did in the Netherlands, referring Radio Veronica wavelength from 50 years ago.
That 538 brand and Group is huge with TV etc spin offs

marno21

ford fiesta wrote: »

Why do things like FM frequencies have to be phased out, I would advise radio stations just leave them alone.
Not as many listeners listen to FM as they did previously and the youth may not know what "1038" is, though that's their tough and it's good for branding.

Most of them are making their brand names simpler and less of a mouthful. Live95FM in Limerick is now Live95 for example, WLR FM is now WLR on RDS but I think they still use WLR FM on air. Beat 102 103 just go as Beat now. Same in the UK - Capital/Heart/Smooth don’t use FM or frequencies on air even during local programming (Capital still do use frequencies in logos)

Ireland has quite a few frequency based station names (96FM/C103/Live95/98FM/FM104/Spin/Q102). These would be quite difficult to drop for obvious reasons.

KReid

ford fiesta wrote: »

Why do things like FM frequencies have to be phased out, I would advise radio stations just leave them alone.
Not as many listeners listen to FM as they did previously and the youth may not know what "1038" is, though that's their tough and it's good for branding.

Look what youth radio Radio 538 did in the Netherlands, referring Radio Veronica wavelength from 50 years ago.
That 538 brand and Group is huge with TV etc spin offs

It probably doesn't matter much either way... If you look at the leading stations in the UK like Capital, Smooth, Radio X...they don't advertise regional frequencies and UK listenership is tipping towards DAB, and it takes 5 seconds to Google them, but dropping the frequency makes it more of a brand, say "SPIN", its easier to market it as more than just a Radio Station that way, and as liar wing habits change, they won't be confined to just Dubli, you can listen on the app from anywhere.

... But having said that, I can't see any of the mains staples changing, we have FM104, Q102 etc and it probably doesn't hinder them, people just accept thats the name.

The old argument is if you are listening to Newstalk for example, what's the point telling you what frequency you are listening to...

I think the youth stations are better set for the future, Iradio, Spin and Beat are brand names and not station names as such, easy to break away from tradition that way.

Antenna

marno21 wrote: »

Ireland has quite a few frequency based station names (96FM/C103/Live95/98FM/FM104/Spin/Q102). These would be quite difficult to drop for obvious reasons.

Another one being Midlands 103.

Though five of their 9 transmitters listed, including ones in major towns, are in the 95-96 area of the band.

95.4fm in Athlone
95.7fm in Tullamore
96.1fm in Castlepollard
96.2fm in Portlaoise
96.5fm in Mullingar
102.4fm in south Laois
102.6fm in Stradbally
102.6fm in Borris-in-Ossory
103.5fm Everywhere

Antenna

marno21 wrote: »

Ireland has quite a few frequency based station names (96FM/C103/Live95/98FM/FM104/Spin/Q102). These would be quite difficult to drop for obvious reasons.

What was originally called 'County Sound' was planned to use 97.4 from nowen hill when it was extending into west Cork in late 1990. However some reason was found to change the frequency - to 103.3 - with the advantage that the existing '103FM' jingles and branding could continue to be used from the original north-Cork County Sound - (It was initially a north Cork franchised station launched in early 1990 before the IRTC (became BAI) re-advertised a county licence shortly afterwards after another group failed to get on air).

Wonder would the name 'County Sound' still exist if it was not possible to have all their frequencies around 103

fmfan

dxhound2005 wrote: »

I think I hear Newtalk announcing 106 to 108. Which is misleading if you are listening on 103.3. Same for Today FM if they announce 100 to 102, they are also on 105.5.

What is the point of Newstalk on 103.3 plenty of alternative frequencies cover this tsa.

Glaceon

fmfan wrote: »

What is the point of Newstalk on 103.3 plenty of alternative frequencies cover this tsa.

Can’t speak for Newstalk (not sure where it’s on 103.3) but Clermont Carn’s frequencies are all over the place, probably due to its proximity to NI. 2FM is on 97.0, Today FM on 105.5 and RnaG is somewhere in the 100s too. Radio 1 used to be on 95.2 and Lyric on 87.8 but they were swapped around.

flazio

When iRadio came about after the merger of i102-104 and i105-107 I think they missed a trick not calling the station i102-107.

ford fiesta

flazio wrote: »

When iRadio came about after the merger of i102-104 and i105-107 I think they missed a trick not calling the station i102-107.

That's too wide of a range on the FM dial