Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s what happened
Niall boylan is moving on from his daytime show on Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio. He’s not leaving the station entirely though, as he’ll be sticking around to continue hosting at night.
Niall’s show was sometimes controversial, but he has said in the past that he doesn’t consider himself a shock jock. The show has had a lot of awards success at both the PPI/IMRO Awards, as well as the New York Radio Awards,
Classic Hits are reportedly extending the night time show, and dropping the daytime talk show at least for now. Trina Mara has had her show extended to fill the gap left by Niall.
Niall is now moving into podcasting, so it will be interesting to see how he stacks up in the digital world.
This move is particularly interesting as it brings another Daytime phone in show to an end. It’s really just LiveLine and Lunchtime Live fighting for those ears now, so we’ll need to wait to see if they receive a bit of a Boylan Boost.
Best wishes to Niall and his team on their new endeavours. Love him or hate him, you can’t deny his impact.
Some temporary stations are returning to the FM band in the next while. The Sound Of Ireland went back on air this morning, while Irish language service Raidió Rí-Rá is back on air from Monday.
The sound of Ireland is broadcasting on FM in Dublin as well as online, with Raidió Rí-Rá broadcasting in a number of counties.
It’s great to see smaller stations taking a shot at FM, as it can be a good way to promote online offerings. While Raidió Rí-Rá is already a well established brand with 7,135 Twitter followers at time of writing, The Sound Of Ireland is much smaller with just 82. It will be interesting to see how much The Sound Of Ireland can grow with a week on FM.
Right, time for the frequencies. Where exactly will these stations appear you might ask?
Raidió Rí-Rá
- Dublin/Baile Átha Cliath – 105.2fm
- Cork/Corcaigh – 106.7fm
- Limerick/Luimneach – 105.5fm
- Galway/Gaillimh – 87.7fm
The Sound Of Ireland
As for the Sound Of Ireland, they are broadcasting in Dublin on 94.3fm. They went back on air at 7am this morning so you should be able to hear them now if you turn the dial a little bit.
Wait, what, you wanted to hear this mornings launch? Your sad because you missed it? Don’t be sad little one, I recorded it just for you.
It’s nothing fancy, it’s literally just an ad and top of hour sequence. Fair play getting a government sponsorship with 82 Twitter followers by the way, gives me hope that I can get Radio Land a sponsor some day. Worth noting that Christmas FM and The Sound Of Ireland are linked so those connections probably helped.
I recorded the first link too.
Go give the stations a listen and let us know what you think over on Twitter.
Very best of luck to both stations going back on air. A huge amount of work goes into bringing a station to the airwaves, so very well done.
Details for The Sound Of Ireland Are Here
Finally this week, beat 102-103 has been named the best place to work at the SFA Small Business Awards.
Radio can be a tough business, but it really is great to hear of a radio station genuinely caring for the mental well-being of its staff.
Beat did a lot that impressed the judges. Here are just some of the great initiatives that helped them win the award.
- They appointed an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion champion.
- They recognised a trade union. This is really interesting as outside of journalists this would be fairly rare in radio.
- Sustainability initiatives at the broadcast Center.
“Everyone who comes in to The Broadcast Centre comments on the positive vibe and great work culture. It’s brilliant for the team to be acknowledged in this way so a big thank you to the Small Firms Association. We’re thrilled to be selected as winners alongside so many fantastic small firms in Ireland.”
Gabrielle Cummins, CEO at Beat
It’s great to see Beat supporting employees like this, but what’s it like across the industry? You can now anonymously share your views over on our Instagram story, so tell us how you feel.
Hopefully we see more good news like this again soon. Well done Beat, keep up the good work.
Quick Bits
Ronan Collins is now hosting a daily 3 hour show on RTÉ Gold
The BAI has published a review of its gender action plan.
Laura Fox has spoke about how pageant’s helped her get connections in media
There was a great article profiling three talented women in radio
And that’s the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio news📻 and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for extra stories.