Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s what Happened
Last night was IMRO Radio Awards night. Those working in the industry made the annual journey to the Lyrath Estate Hotel in Kilkenny, all excited to see who would win big.
Let’s take a look at the big three winners from this year.
- Clare FM won local station of the year, crushing the dreams of WLR who were hoping to make it a 5 year streak. It’s interesting to see that it’s the smaller broadcasters who are winning this award year after year. Maybe the bigger players could learn a thing or two. Well done Clare FM, one to be very proud of.
- Spin1038 won music station of the year, snatching it back from Red FM who stole it from them last year. Music is a huge part of radio especially for younger audiences, so Spin will be happy with this.
- Finally it’s full service, wait, no, scratch that, national station of the year. This renamed award went to Newstalk. A recently rebranded station winning a recently rebranded award. How bad.
It felt like the IMRO Awards social media hype has cooled down a bit since its pandemic peak. The event was still trending last night, but it failed to hit that number one spot. Sure the Late Late Country Special is partly to blame, but there seemed to be a lot less excitement compared with other years.
For those in person though it seemed to be a great night. People were having fun well into the morning hours, which is always a good thing.
Congratulations to all the winners on producing great radio over the past year. Can’t wait to hear what happens on air in the next 12 months.
It’s time. We haven’t got to have one of these for ages. Yep, it’s time for
Jingle Review
96FM have gone with a new package from TM studios, following a station schedule shakeup making the old package redundant. A good chunk of the core production elements sound the same, with no change to the stations tagline or sonic logo.
Honestly when you listen to the intro for news and sport it’s hard for me to even say with 100% certainty that they’re different. To be clear I think they have changed slightly, but the differences won’t be noticeable for an average listener.
The new breakfast show sounds good with solid production, and there are slight changes to the melody from before. Everything has a definite TM Studios feel to it so if you’re a fan of that you’ll be happy enough.
Overall it’s hard to know what to say about this package. It really just feels like a slight modification to the previous set, rather than something exciting and new that will make you say yay, new jingles. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. 96FM has had solid imaging for ages as shown by their bronze win for best imaging at last nights IMROs, but they’ve certainly made the call to play it safe for this round.
With a new breakfast and drive time show on air it made sense to give everything a refresh, and sticking with something tried and trusted seems to be the aim of the game.
The most interesting move here is the choice to go with TM Studios. Most stations trying to get younger audiences seem to go with Wisebuddah by default. In this case I think 96FM can be happy that this call paid off.
It’s a nice sounding package, although it’s not exciting in my view. I’m sure it will do exactly what it’s designed to do which I guess is all that’s needed at the end of the day.
Listen to the package here
It’s not the best ever 96FM package or the best TM Studios Package, but it feels instantly familiar which I guess is what Corks 96FM wanted following all the shake ups.
Let us know what you think of the package over on X. You can find us by searching Radio Land Ireland.
Imagine you go out to do a small renovation job on your shed. Maybe you’re turning it into that home studio you’ve dreamed of, maybe it’s simply to clear up some space, or maybe it’s just because you want a little DIY project to get stuck into. Now imagine as you do that you find some war of independence era explosives and you need to get the bomb squad out, yeah, that’s a thing that can happen apparently.
Former RTÉ journalist Fergal Keane came across a stockpile of explosives this week when in an outhouse on his farm. Between 160 and 180 sticks of gelignite were found, which in the end resulted in three controlled explosions being carried out.
Fergal spoke of little sticks in an earthenware jar, with dozens more sticks in the wall and on the ground. He knew from his time working in Northern Ireland how unstable they could be, so he called the guards who called the defence forces. It just goes to show you never know what could be hiding right in front of you. Crazy stuff.
It’s a cool story to tell and certainly one that won’t be forgotten today or tomorrow. well done to everyone involved for getting this resolved safely.
Quick Bits
There’s something in the Today FM kitchen, but the email wasn’t very clear
Former RTÉ journalist and presenter Nicholas Coffey passed away this week aged 78
And that’s the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio news📻 and be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn for more fun from the world of radio.