3 Communicorp licences up for renewal

Well. Strictly speaking, the licences are not up for renewal, they expire.

Anyone can apply for them, if no one apart from the incumbent applies there is a fast-track process to relicense them.

But if a competing company applies, and fulfills certain criteria, the incumbent has to do a full licence application and in theory has no advantage over the new applicant.

However, of course the process is by no means transparent, and there's not a hope in hell that Today FM and NewsTalk won't get their licences back.

Look who owns them.

Everyone in the industry knows this, which is why no one else will bother applying.

CatFromHue wrote: »

I know this is DOB bashing season but those stations are big successes by themselves.

TXFM isn't a success by any metric...

Again, as I said, in theory the success of the incumbent should have no effect on the chances of the licence being re-awarded to them if it goes for full application.

Their application and that of the new group are supposed to be judged on their own merits, and that one of the applicants is already on their air isn't counted as an advantage - since that would be an unfair one over a group that's not currently in air.

Note I keep saying 'in theory' and 'supposed' etc. The BAI, being mortally terrified of making a bad decision and a station failing, always go for the sure thing, even if that means allowing format changes, deviations from licence conditions etc.

And again, look who owns NT and Today FM.

As far as the BAI are concerned he seems to be able to do no wrong.

I think there are quite a few salient points in here. Trick of the Tail is right when he says that nobody else will apply for the Today FM or Newstalk licence. It's one of the occasions where DOB's meglomania and the BAI's wishes dovetail nicely. Newstalk will never make money and exists only because DOB pays the bills. Today FM has traditionally helped to balance the books between the two and that is a status quo likely to continue. In terms of media control and influence, the Newstalk licence is an important chip so expect DOB to make sure he hangs on to those two.

The TXFM licence is a more complex one. The station loses money by the bucketload and is propped up by DOB once again but on this occasion is its strategic value worth the ongoing and likely permanent funding? Over on this side of the pond in the UK, there have been quite a few examples of the larger radio groups like Bauer, Global, UTV et al divesting themselves of smaller stations in order to stay on the right side of ownership/control rules. At present, even with its microscopic share, retaining TXFM effectively debars Communicorp from applying for future Dublin or regional licences.

I've worked all my life in marketing and advertising and it has taken me a long time to realise that sometimes major decisions are not always about the bottom line. Interesting times ahead.

RadioAnalyst

L1011 wrote: »

There are no similar non-DOB stations to Today and Newstalk...

In what way? Other than being national, whats the difference between them and say , FM104 or Q102 and why do they have their licences perpetually renewed without the "and well you know who owns them" ****e.


(something, something, something, anti DOB comment) - to try get the obligatory EOTR thanks that goes with same.:)

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

In what way? Other than being national, whats the difference between them and say , FM104 or Q102 and why do they have their licences perpetually renewed without the "and well you know who owns them" ****e.


(something, something, something, anti DOB comment) - to try get the obligatory EOTR thanks that goes with same.:)

They're national stations. They're all the national commercial stations we have, actually. That's a pretty major distinction.

There were no other applicants for any of the Dublin licences when renewed *except* Sunshine in the last round.

Trick of the Tail wrote: »

Am I correct in surmising that the Dublin talk licence and quasi-national talk licence are being advertised separately?
.

Is it not DCAL's licence? "Special interest" rather than commercial, and not marked as new.

If it is a reissue of the old Dublin licence for Newstalk, don't expect any applicants.

Trick of the Tail wrote: »

Am I correct in surmising that the Dublin talk licence and quasi-national talk licence are being advertised separately?

Because NewsTalk's licence was originally Dublin, then a quasi-national talk licence was advertised especially for them, which of course they got. Which in effect left the Dublin talk licence vacant.

Does this really mean they're going to look for applicants for a Dublin-only talk licence?

It's also interesting that the Kilkenny community licence will be advertised for the use of Kilkenny City Community Radio, but Tramore Community Radio haven't been offered one.

It's not really accurate to say that the quasi-national talk licence was advertised especially for NT - they lobbied for several years and then a quasi-national licence was advertised in a public tender. There were two applicants for the licence - Newstalk and a group of former Anna Livia people - and Newstalk won it. They had proposed in their application that they would resign the Dublin-only licence they had if they won the national one and this they did. That Dublin-only talk licence is gone/withdrawn from circulation now. The BAI are perfectly within their rights not to readvertise a licence if they feel it would not be viable. Clearly, a Dublin-only talk licence would not be viable so it is gone, and jolly good that it is too as the frequency it would use could still be used for something else in the future.

Dublin City FM were licenced as a special interest, city-wide community station in the early 90s and their licence is different to the Dublin-only one that NT had.

Interesting re the Tramore question - perhaps people in Kilkenny have been more convincing in their arguments for this?

StaticNoise wrote: »

SimonMaher wrote: »

Next phase is Expressions of interest which will decide whether the renewals will be fast-tracked or whether they go out to Competitive award procedure. /quote]

Would there be another, certain radio station that might consider declaring interest? For example, one that has a strong following and has enjoyed a number of successful temporary license runs in Dublin and multicity? One that has those involved who were involved in another passionate radio station in the past?

Interesting question StaticNoise. If I was that station or a person involved in it then I think it would most certainly be worth having a look and at least seriously consider declaring an interest at this stage. I would imagine said people are working towards making such a decision even as we speak

Simon