Author: Brian Greene

Listeners to DAB in Cork will have even more choice from this weekend when Ireland’s alternative music station, 8Radio, launches with a blend of ‘quality new music and forgotten gems’.

Digital Radio took a big step forward in the summer with the launch of the Ireland’s first small-scale DAB trial. The multiplex, operated by éirdab, serves a population of a quarter of a million people in and around the city of Cork, adopting new technology that makes it more affordable for new stations to broadcast on DAB.

Since launch, two of Ireland’s leading Christian broadcasters, Radio Maria and UCB Ireland, have been broadcasting on the trial. Now 8Radio is set to join them.

8Radio Founder, Simon Maher, sees this as a major milestone in the development of his station: “We’re delighted to be part of the Cork DAB trial. It’s a great opportunity for us to extend our reach into such a music loving city and I’m confident that this is just the beginning for a whole range of quality niche broadcasting being available through terrestrial platforms.”

Éirdab’s Head of Content, John Evington, says the primary objective of the trial is to demonstrate the potential of DAB in radically extending listener choice: “It’s our aim to enrich the listening experience by carrying services that complement, rather than competing with, the existing stations broadcasting to Cork. 8Radio is a wonderful addition to our ‘ecosystem’ of new formats and alternative music fans are going to love it!”

8Radio joins the multiplex at midnight on Friday 19th October and will be on-air every weekend until Sunday 18th November. Listeners in Cork can receive the new service by simply running an ‘autoscan’ on their DAB set.

No not like Make Poverty History. Radio is 100+ years old, it already has its history. Radio.ie has organised an important radio history event on October 20th in the Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin 2-5pm where we want you to tell your pirate radio story. Over 100 people have registered already and it looks set to be the pirate radio gathering of the year. 2018 marks 30 years since the wide scale close downs of pirate radio in Ireland, join us as we look back on these exciting broadcasting decades of the past.

Pirate.ie has been set up as a home to collect radio stories and your oral history. The period of piracy is important to radio historians and scholars. The material will be recorded for broadcast in December and our archive and will be sent on to DCU Media History Collection also.

If you have a story to tell get yourself a free ticket on Eventbrite.

See you on the 20th.

DCU’s Mark O’Brien discusses the Pirate Radio Archive at DCU & Morning Ireland’s Bryan Dobson talks about the importance of media collection to our social and broadcasting history.

Ahead of the October oral history event in Ballsbridge Hotel Brian Greene spoke to Dave Fanning on RTÉ 2FM

In a couple of weeks time Radio Nova turns 8.

Any excuse to play a gem of radio archive.

August 5th 2010 Liveline tackles the Radio Nova name issue with Sybil Fennell, David Tighe, Gareth O’Callaghan, Paul Clarke, Jim Miley.

• Joe Duffy
• Sybil Fennell
• Gareth O’Callaghan
• David Tighe CEO Radio Nova
• Caller 1: Sheila Fletcher
• Caller 2: Adrian
• Caller 3: Paul Clarke
• Caller 4: Mickey McPhillips
• David Tighe
• Joe loves the Jingles
• Next caller – The French Radio Nova want their Jingle back
• Jim Miley 4FM
• another Jingle – 2FM doesn’t get licence fee says Joe Duffy

I have a google alert for the term ‘radio luxembourg’ so when the alert chimes I read the news article. Today it was another ‘listening under the pillow/blankets’ article. Barry Upton on 96FM Pattaya People Radio.

In the article it says
“The majority of the radio listening audience are travelling in cars but there is a growing number of online listeners and those who are discovering the FM tuning option on their Smartphones. There are also many options to choose a modern style of radio with USB inputs and Bluetooth, some of which include a docking station for your Smartphone so that it can be charging whilst using the larger quality speakers to play through.”

Some comments in review of these points

• Cars yes but online is not the opposite of car
• FM is not in the majority of phones and less so in leading models. Either not enabled or no FM chip at all
• Radio with BT & USB, so just tune to 96FM then
• There is no link to Pattaya People Radio in the whole article (bar main menu)
• What is needed is a simple big button on the web page that works on mobile too! see green play button at top of this post

Radio listening is popular because radio is a great communications tool and it should be easy to use out of the box or when the page loads! Don’t complicate it. Use your imagination, and keep it simple stupid (KISS).

Now you have me listening – why? why am i listening. How am I listening? am I an ambient blip never to return? what is my reason for being here? The good news is that you don’t have to find out. You just need to know how interested I am, can you find out who I am so you can remarket to me next week when you have a big guest about to arrive in studio? You can see why this would be a moment to send a push notification to me and the 1000s of other listeners. But you’d need an App for that I hear you say. Nope, just my email on your list. ASK ME.

Right now there are 2 people listening to Pattaya radio online – me and probably the server listening to itself.

The capacity is 1000, the extra cost of filling the 998 is zero to Pattaya People Radio, they already paid for that. The value in maximising the 1000 listener seats (computer jargon for your 2 ears) is a very excited studio – a happy radio executive and then the possibilities mount. Of the potential 998 extra listeners how many will be brand advocates for the station? how many will buy merchandise in your store and how many will converse with other listeners in a social media environment under your brand?.

Radio is more than talent / automation / adverts / imaging and staying on air. Invent your own healthy back channel with engaged audience and watch the enthusiasm leak on air. Make that phone hop – except nowadays that phone isn’t in your control room – it is in your listeners hand.

Go invent.

PS. this post is in no way an attack on PPR. We all know people with online and on air stations that have small listening numbers. My latest (unpublished) research shows that On Air stations are getting 0.3% to 5% of audience streaming online through web and app players. 1 in 300 to 1 in 20. This is a measurement of web stream server admin logs compared to audience research (face to face) for the Average Quarter Hour (AQH) of local and national stations on air in Ireland (August 2018).

Sign Up via onaircoach@gmail.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBsjy9yf_A0

Radio.ie are setting up a tribute station / site for the 30th anniversary of the pirate radio shut downs in 1988 in Ireland. Simply called PIRATE.IE this radio project aims to be a place to create oral history and share memories of December 1988 and before. The small and the not so small radio ventures. I’m looking for help to put this together. If you can help with tapes or tea or studios get in touch via reception@radio.ie Thanks in advance.

I grew up listening to Bill Mitchell’s voice overs and jingles – wow – what a voice. A BBC documentary ‘Bill Mitchell: The Man Who Wrestled Pumas… Probably’ is due for rebroadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra July 18th 06:30am. If you listened to radio in the 70s and 80s you can’t have missed this voice on European radio from Ireland to Israel. The best VO voice you’ll ever hear. Probably.

Here is a copy of the broadcast from when it first aired.

*** Correction: The Radio 4 Extra listing refers to a broadcast in 2013.

Miriam Margolyes presents a documentary charting the life and career of her late colleague and friend Bill Mitchell, the voice-over artist who informed us the latest blockbusters would be ‘at cinemas near you from Sunday’, told us ‘Carlsberg was probably the best lager in the world’, and that Denim was ‘for men who didn’t have to try too hard’.

Born in Canada, he admitted that heavy drinking and smoking from his teens helped preserve the voice, and indeed drove his excessive lifestyle. He ‘had to’ abuse his body to maintain the voice and he ‘had to’ be in a Soho pub because it was handy for the recording studios.

Bill’s career spanned acting, voice-over work, plus a brief spell as 1970s pop outfit Yin and Yan with friend Chris Sandford. His remains ranked as one of the greats within the advertising industry.

Featuring contributions from Bill’s daughter Amanda McAllister, musicians and friends Zoot Money and Kenny Clayton, and industry moguls Nick Angell and Rob Townsend.