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Blast FM

When I heard there was a radio station in Belfast called Blast FM I did think it was a tongue in cheek. When I heard their antenna was on top on the most bombed hotel in Europe (The Europa) then I knew it was tongue in cheek.

Broadcasting to the Students and Youth market in Belfast Blast is on 106.4FM and in a volunteer based community station.

From their about page

Blast 106 is licensed by the national regulator (Ofcom) to broadcast across Greater Belfast on 106.4FM – an area of 80km2.

Although you may not realise it from the quality of our broadcasting, Blast 106 is volunteer-led and provides a variety of opportunities for people to get involved in the operation of the station. Whether that is behind the mic or behind the scenes – every volunteer contributes to the life of our station and the life of our community. We provide a structured and professional Induction & Training Programme for all volunteers and a Mentor is appointed for those new volunteers who wish to broadcast. We also provide schools placements in March and November each year.

The station had a licence breach case in 2013 which ended up being sorted in the courts in Belfast with the station getting its licence extended.

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Feat. Station: Union JACK

Part of the 2nd multiplex DAB in the UK Union JACK broadcasts on DAB+ in 24 kbit/s Stereo HE-AAC v2. Also online and therefore available in an app

What they say about themselves

Union JACK is the home of the Best of British. We’re all about playing the Best of British – music, comedy and general nonsense.

We’re the only radio station in the universe that plays just British music. Oh, and did we mention you pick every ruddy song that plays? Snazzy.

Launched just under 1 year ago they turn 1 on September 9th 2017.

Launch Sequence

They opened with Good Morning Britain by Aztec Camera

Twenty years and a loaded gun
Funerals, fear and the war ain’t won
Paddy’s just a figure of fun
It lightens up the danger.
And a corporal sneers at a catholic boy
And he eyes his gun like a rich man’s toy
He’s killing more than celtic joy
Death is not a stranger.

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The Luxembourg Effect

80 years ago Radio Luxembourg transmitted on 252KHz now home to RTE Radio 1.

But the power of Luxembourg unlike RTE was heating up the ionosphere causing what radio scientists call the Luxembourg Effect.

This is where signals mix in the ionosphere and carry the weaker and further away signal on the back of the strong signal.

Luxembourg Effect Research is still happening to this day into how this radio frequency trick can happen and how it can be exploited.

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International Lighthouse & Lightship Weekend

After Radio Caroline, Manx Radio & BBC Essex remembered the Marine Offences Act 50 years on from a Lightship on Monday it is now International Lighthouse & Lightship Weekend!

via IRTS News

Plans are in full swing for next weekend Saturday 19th August and Sunday 20th August. Make sure you mark next weekend on your calender for the following event. We have a good number of clubs in Ireland planning to take part in the International Lighthouse & Lightship Weekend this year.
With over 378 stations being set up in 41 countries around the world, this event coincides with International Lighthouse Heritage Weekend and is intended to raise the profile of lighthouses, lightvessels and other navigational aids, promoting maritime heritage. Details of which can be found at illw.net and at www.alk.org.uk/events/ilhw.html

Hook Lighthouse – Fran Byrne
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Coast FM but it’s Shortwave

from the logs of Glenn Hauser worldofradio.com

** IRELAND. 6205, Coast FM; 0326 pop/rock music playing hide-and-seek with my atrocious noise floor; its fairly rare to pull in Europirates here on the “Third Coast”; very poor; 9 August. (Robins MI)

6205, Coast FM (Euro-pirate relays Coast FM in Tenerife, Canary Islands) 2044 English pop music program; fair/good via KwiSDR Hooksiel, Germany; was heard fairly well a week before at a DXpedition in central Ohio around 0000; August 6 (Andy Robins, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Icom R-75 with active mini-whip; Tecsun PL-880 and PL-660 with 45′ PAR EF-SWL end-fed wire or 25′ Sangean reel, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD)

send us more details on this and other SW Irish Pirates in the 49 meter band (or any other bands) to reception@radio.ie

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Dublin Podcast Festival

Want to see what is lined up for next months Dublin Podcast Festival? Details + tickets.

BRIAN REED ON CREATING S-TOWN
WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE
MY DAD WROTE A PORNO
CRIMINAL / THE MEMORY PALACE
SCROOBIUS PIP – DISTRACTION PIECES
AN IRISHMAN ABROAD FEAT RODDY DOYLE / PERSONALITY BINGO
THE BIG INTERVIEW
LIVE with Graham Hunter: Ireland World Cup Qualifiers focus with very special guests.
TRUTH & MOVIES
A Little White Lies Podcast (and Screening) with James Richardson
FASCINATED WITH GEAROID FARRELLY
ALISON SPITTLE / JUVENALIA
DUBLAND / REVIEWABLES
MASTERCLASS – The ultimate guide to creating a successful podcast with Ben Green, Senior Producer at the Guardian

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Tests hiding in plain sight

c2009 Maryrose Lyons on the RTE’s The Business programme. cue point 22:21

Audio File #1

now using TIME​JUMP – DEEP LINKS FOR PODCASTS. TimeJump seemlessly adds deep linking capabilities to HTML5 audio and video podcasts. It works quietly behind-the-scenes to add a standardized API to your episode pages.

The older way of doing this was with qued.tv

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Vincent Hanley Comin’atcha

Last April 17th (Easter Monday) Tipp FM and Clare FM broadcast a documentary about the Fab Vinny.

If you are too young to remember when MTV played music videos all day long, you will be too young to remember when Vincent Hanley sent a weekly music video show back to Ireland for broadcast on RTE TV. It was called MT USA (Music Television USA) and it was light years ahead of the grey scale TV we had in Ireland at the time. So the bright lights of NYC and OUR Fab Vinny and the videos we could hardly see elsewhere were an oasis in an 1980s Ireland media desert.

Full Radio Documentary via FanningSessions on Mixcloud