Ireland

KCLR’s Light Up Carlow Kilkenny event is taking place tonight as part of the station’s Spirit of Christmas campaign.
At 7 o’clock on Friday December 6th thousands of people across Kilkenny and Carlow are set to light up their areas.
The station is urging individuals, homes, sports clubs, businesses and local neighbourhoods to join together to shine lights – candles, lamps, Christmas Trees, phone torches, whatever will shine some light – in support of Kilkenny’s Cois Nore Cancer Support Centre and St Claire’s Hospitality Kitchen in Carlow.
The station says that it is expecting a totally unique event as the response to the initiative so far has been overwhelming with messages of commitment flooding into the station since it was first announced as the kick off to the fundraising efforts to the stations annual Spirit of Christmas campaign.
“At a time of so much discord, uncertainty, war and disasters around the world, the response to our call to “Shine a Light” from all quarters across our area has been heartwarming,” according to Pat Gardiner, General Manager of KCLR.
“The Spirit of Christmas campaign is all about generosity, community spirit and people extending hospitality and kindness during the dark Winter months and raising funds for local charities,” according to Pat Gardiner.
As well as the “Light Up” initiative to assist Cois Nore and St Claire’s, the station is staging other events to help a wide range of other charities while sales of special Calendars produced by the young listeners of the John Walsh Breakfast Show are helping Carlow Kilkenny Homecare.
“Friday 6th is promising to be a really special occasion,” according to Pat Gardiner
“From people putting lights in their windows at home, to Kilkenny Castle, the Fire Service in Carlow, sports clubs, participants in the Streets of Kilkenny 10 k fun run, and street events in places like Bagnelstown and Ballyragget, as well as all the newly elected TDs, thousands will be taking time out to take part in this unique radio moment.”
As if all that wasn’t enough, the station is giving away Centre Parc Vouchers worth €3000 to people who submit the best photos of their “light up” events. […]

Christmas FM is back for 2024 from November 28th across Ireland.
The money-raising radio station plays nonstop Christmas songs and spreads festive cheer each year on FM and other platforms.
Third class in St. Saviour’s National School in Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow are to officially turn on the radio station tomorrow.
The class won a competition run by Christmas FM to find a team of very special little helpers to officially Switch Christmas On for 2024.
Christmas FM will be broadcasting live on FM from midday on the 28th November:

Cavan 92.8 FM
Clare 105.2 FM
Cork City, Part County 106.7 FM
Cork North, Part County 87.7 FM
Drogheda & Dundalk 104.2 FM
Dublin City & County 105.2 FM
Galway City 87.9 FM
Kildare North 88.1 FM
Kilkenny City 104.3 FM
Letterkenny 106.2 FM
Limerick City 105.5 FM
Longford 99.8 FM
Sligo Town 95.0 FM
South East 103.8 FM
Tralee/Killarney 105.0 FM
Waterford City 105.9 FM
Wicklow – Bray area 99.5 FM
Wicklow – Wicklow Town 106.6 FM

Christmas FM will also be available on the Christmas FM app, smart speakers, Virgin Media Channel 900 and eir TV.
Find out all the ways to listen here.
Christmas FM, which is celebrating its 17th year on air this year, has raised over €3.5 million euro for a range of charities since it began broadcasting.
It will be continuing with the Magic of Christmas Appeal – raising funds for three of Ireland’s leading children’s charities – Barnardos, Barretstown, and Make-A-Wish Ireland, along with a range of children’s charities across Ireland making a difference in local communities through Community Foundation Ireland.
The Magic of Christmas was launched in 2022, with the aim of raising €1,000,000 over a three-year period for the charities. The Magic of Christmas fundraising appeal raised almost €325,000 last year for the charities, with donations raised between 2022 and 2023 totalling €618,706 overall.
Garvan Rigby, co-founder of Christmas FM says: “We are so excited that Christmas FM is back to Switch Christmas On across Ireland for 2024, with the help of third class in St Saviour’s National School, for our 17th year on air. We can’t wait to sprinkle Christmas cheer and joy around the nation all throughout the festive season.
“An Post, Cadbury and Coca Cola have returned as premier FM sponsors for 2024 and The Clayton Hotel, Liffey Valley have also kindly donated their studio space again this year.
“Celebrating 17 years on air is a major milestone for us which we wouldn’t have reached without Coimisiún na Meán and our amazing listeners, fans and volunteers who have supported us and our chosen charities throughout the years.
“We are once again raising funds for The Magic of Christmas appeal, supporting a range of children’s charities across Ireland making a difference in local communities.” […]

Bay Broadcasting celebrated the launch of its refurbished studios in Castleforbes on Thursday.
Taoiseach Simon Harris attended the event to cut the ribbon on its new facilities which contains six full broadcast suites.
Bay Broadcasting CEO, Kevin Branigan, said, “This suite of six new broadcast studios represents a significant investment by Bay Broadcasting in our facilities, which will enable us to bring even more high quality programming to 2.8 million people in our various franchise areas.
“We were delighted to welcome An Taoiseach, Simon Harris, to cut the ribbon so that even more people enjoy our programme output through radio, social and digital into the future.”
Bay owns and operates Radio Nova and Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio from the same building in Dublin.

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Over €3.9 million in funding has been allocated for Round 54 of the of Sound and Vision Scheme by Coimisiún na Meán.
This latest round will fund the production of 35 projects across TV and radio by independent producers and broadcasters around the country.
97% of total funding as part of Round 54 has been provided to independent producers and approximately €1.4 million of all funding going to projects in the Irish language or bilingual.
Three of the awards include:
Joy to the World – This radio documentary series for KCLR 96FM celebrates Christmas with immigrant and New Irish Communities by joining in with their traditions, music, preparations, decorations, foods and exchanges of gifts
Mmanwu – This radio drama for broadcast on Newstalk delves into the complexities of maternal struggle, mental health, and the clash between tradition and modernity set against the vibrant backdrop of Dublin and Onitsha, Nigeria.
Voices of New Ireland – This thirteen part series for broadcast on Flirt FM explores cultural heritage, the Irish language, education, arts, and more, highlighting community achievements and integration through diverse cultures that shape modern Ireland.
Rónán Ó Domhnaill, Media Development Commissioner at Coimisiún na Meán said: “Coimisiún na Meán is committed to ensuring a diversity and plurality of content, reflective of the people of Ireland including their languages, traditions, religious, and cultural diversity.
“We are delighted to have an opportunity to support projects which give a voice to this diversity. This round of Sound and Vision will raise awareness of, and explore, the unique experiences and cultural values of new Irish communities while delivering a diverse range of high-quality culturally relevant content for audiences.
“I would also like to thank Minister Catherine Martin for the allocation of an additional €2 million in funding. Sound & Vision remains a vital funding source for broadcasters and independent producers, enabling them to create programming for audiences that would otherwise not get made.” […]

Coimisiún na Meán has published its Guidelines in Respect of Broadcast Coverage of Elections.
The Guidelines provide direction and advice to broadcasters as to how fairness, objectivity and impartiality can be achieved in their coverage of elections.
The Guidelines are being published in advance of the General Election, scheduled to take place on Friday, 29 November. The Guidelines come into effect from today, Monday 11 November apply to coverage of the elections until the closing of polling stations on 29 November.
Speaking about the publication of the Guidelines, Coimisiún na Meán’s Broadcasting and Video-on-Demand Commissioner Aoife MacEvilly said: “Elections and electoral integrity are a key focus for us at Coimisiún na Meán this year. Broadcasters play a central role in how people are informed during election periods and therefore they must ensure that all news and current affairs programming is fair, objective and impartial. The publication of the election guidelines today will aid broadcasters in their approach to programming during election periods and will help them to ensure their coverage is open and transparent. The guidelines are designed to help broadcasters meet their obligations.”
“Alongside these guidelines, we have published a Candidate Information Pack to provide information for candidates standing for election in Ireland and what they can do if they experience harm online. We are also engaging with online platforms to ensure that they play their part in upholding electoral integrity and ensuring that people across Ireland can make free, fair and informed choices about where to cast their vote.”
These Guidelines see the replacement of the Broadcast Moratorium with an Additional Care Requirement for broadcasters during the Critical Election Period. This decision follows a review of the Moratorium conducted by Coimisiún na Meán. This review included an examination of electoral silence periods in other countries, a survey of attitudes conducted with Ipsos B&A and a public consultation.
As well as providing advice on the new Additional Care Requirement, the Guidelines also advise that during polling hours, broadcasters should not feature speculation on the outcome of the election, including the coverage of opinion polls or exit polls, until the voting has concluded.
Broadcasters are also reminded of the requirements to achieve a fair allocation of airtime during election coverage, the prohibition on political advertisements and the requirement to have in place policies and procedures for handling on-air contributions via social media and to mitigate the risks of AI-generated deepfakes.
These Guidelines also state that it is not appropriate for persons involved with ‘election interests’ to present programmes during the election campaign period – ‘election interests’ includes candidates for an election.
The updated Guidelines for Broadcast Coverage of Elections and the Code of Fairness Objectivity and Impartiality can be found on the Coimisiún na Meán websitecnam.ie. […]

The latest JNLR audience figures show that 3.862m adults tuned into Irish radio stations each week across the period of October 2023 to September 2024.
That equates to 89.7% of the Irish 15+ population tuning in on a weekly basis.
The research also shows that the average listener is listening for over 4 hours daily, highlighting the continued strength of radio in the Irish market.

79.5% of people aged over 15 years listen to radio each day (3,422,000)
89.7% of people over-15 listen to radio every week (3,862,000)
521,000 people listen to radio daily on smart speakers, computers, or via phone or TV, and this is growing among listeners aged 15-34.
On average listeners tune into more than one station per day and tune into just over 4.1 hours of live radio every day.
Irish radio has 13.9 million connections or followers across Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.

A total of c 16,600 people were interviewed during the survey period by Ipsos B&A, on behalf of JNLR – Joint National Listenership Research – that is commissioned by all national, regional and local stations, AAI, IAPI and Coimisiún na Meán.
Around the stations
RTÉ Radio 1 remains the only radio service with a weekly reach of over +1 million, increasing by +2,000 YoY
RTÉ 2FM has a weekly reach figure of 762,000 of adults 15+, increasing by + 35,000 YoY but down on last quarter’s 791,000. It has lost listeners in both Breakfast (149,000 to 142,000 listeners) and Drive (157,000 to 145,000 listeners).
RTÉ lyric fm has 314,000 listeners on a weekly basis, increasing by +1,000 YoY

Radio Nova is celebrating its increase to 254,000 weekly listeners, making it the number one music radio station across the Dublin Commuter Belt region with audience increases for almost all programmes on the station.
Newstalk’s national market share at 8.5% is up .9% YoY. Weekly reach for the station performed strongly at 861,000, up 39,000 YoY.
The Pat Kenny Show remains the most listened to show on commercial radio with 241,000 listeners tuning in daily.
Newstalk also retains its status as the second most listened to radio station in the country every day with 508,000 listeners, up 42,000 YoY.
Today FM‘s weekly reach of 973,000 is down from 988,000 last quarter, but represents a lift of 14,000 in the last year.
Ian Dempsey now commands the largest audience on Today FM with a listenership of 209,000. Meantime, Ray Foley wins the afternoons with an audience boost to 169,000, an increase of 14,000 since the last results.
Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio has scored its highest daily and weekly listenership in its 15 year history today. The multi-city station now boasts 382,000 weekly listener and has broken through the 200,000 mark on daily listenership. The station has also shown a 13% increase in market share to 5.4%.
In additional to daily, weekly and market share growth, the station has also experienced strong growth in its daytime schedule, with its breakfast show, ‘Colm & Lucy in the Morning’ adding 10,000 listeners to 78,000, Classic Hits with Trina Mara increasing by 10,000 to 90,000 and Damien Farrelly in the Afternoon by 8,000 to 88,000 daily listeners.
98FM delivered increases on all key audience metrics including a 0.7% increase on Market Share to 5.5%.
5,000 more people now start their day with 98FM’s Big Breakfast with Rebecca and Brendan, reaching 42,000 listeners. Brian Dowling and Suzanne Kane also increased its audience by 5,000 to 38,000.
SPIN 1038 recorded a daily reach of 143,000 in Dublin and continues to lead in 15-34 year olds. SPIN1038’s flagship breakfast show Fully Charged with Emma, Dave and Aisling, is up 11,000 in the last year to an audience of 59,000.
SPIN South West has 150,000 listeners each week. Fully Charged with Ed and Valerie stands at 30,000 listeners while SPIN Hits with Michaela Hayes has increased audience to 38,000.
Red FM continues to dominate the Cork market, with a share of 20.7% and a weekly reach of 174,000.
The biggest commercial radio show in Cork is The Neil Prendeville Show with 78,000 listeners (up 3,000).
Red FM Breakfast with KC reaches 50,000 listeners while Ciara Revins lunchtime show reaches 64,000 listeners.
The newest addition to the Bauer Media Audio Ireland portfolio holds a 14.6% market share in the South East, up .6% since the last results. Beat Breakfast now stands at 50,000 listeners (up 3,000) while Beat Drive now attracts an audience of 44,000.
iRadio now holds an 8.1% market share, up 1% over the last year with a weekly reach of 344,000. Dave and Fionnuala have recorded an audience of 83,000, up 9,000 in the last year.
Wireless Ireland’s urban media network of stations now reaches 978,000 adults every week according to the research released today.
In Dublin, Wireless Ireland’s Q102 grew weekly reach by 22,000 year on year to 188,000, while FM104 also increased year on year to 260,000 listeners.
In addition, the combined Cork stations 96fm and C103 offering delivers weekly reach of 218,000, Limerick Live 95 delivers 92,000, while LMFM has 111,000 weekly listeners.
Partner stations Galway Bay FM and WLR also both showed growth with Galway Bay FM adding an additional 18,000 listeners year on year to reach 129,000 weekly and WLR reaching 65,000 listeners.
Quotes
Michael Kelly, Chief Executive of the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland, commented: “Independent radio stations are delighted with the results of the latest research. This is welcome proof of the strength of radio as a medium, which is highly-trusted and valued by Irish listeners. Radio is free to access, and has a unique connection to listeners. It is responsive, interactive, and flexible for advertisers and listeners. Radio delivers news and current affairs, music and entertainment, sports coverage, information and much more. Most importantly, it provides companionship to millions of listeners in Ireland.”
Nova’s Kevin Branigan, said, “The latest JNLR ratings are out and it’s been an astonishing book for Radio Nova. Not only have we now exceed a quarter of a million listeners, we are now the the Number One music radio staiton in the entire Dublin Commuter Belt. Also, pretty much all of our programmes have increased in audience, showing that more and more people enjoy our seriously addictive music and presenters. We’re so proud that so many people enjoy listening to what we do and we never forget the loyalty of everyone that listens”.
As Chief Executive of Classic Hits, Kevin added: “It’s great day for us here! Our total listenership has increased, yet again, with 382,000 people now listening to us across the country, our highest ever figure. We’ve also increased our share of radio listening and pretty every one of our day time shows from Colm & Lucy in the Morning right through to Nighttime Talks with Niall Boylan has increased considerably. We’re delighted to be the home of the 80s and 90s for more and more people than ever before! Thank you to all of our listeners in Dublin, Cork, Limerick Galway, Clare and further afield – for listening to Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio.
Bauer Media Audio Ireland CEO Chris Doyle said: “We are thrilled for Bauer to reach this historic milestone, becoming the largest radio group by audience in Ireland. The achievement is a result of the dedication, creativity, and hard work of our entire team.
“Thanks also to our partners and clients for your continued trust and support, we look forward to continuing to deliver exceptional value and innovative solutions that drive success.”
Mark Simpson, deputy managing editor of Newstalk said: ‘We’re happy to see that Newstalk remains the most listened to daily talk station of choice for 20-44 year olds in Ireland, a real indication that our strategy of delivering a broad range of engaging, informative and compelling conversations that reflect what our audience are talking about, is working. The Pat Kenny Show remains the No.1 commercial show on Irish radio and we are delighted that Pat leads our team into the busy election period ahead as one of the country’s most respected and trusted broadcasters.
On the latest figures Ray Foley said: “This is frankly absolutely ridiculous, that we have managed to get away with this for 538 shows. That anyone is listening at all is mind boggling, but 169,000 pairs of ears? That’s just daft! I’m so happy and proud. Thanks for listening”
Fyona Smith, Managing Editor of Today FM said: “Todays FM’s results provide moments of celebration and highlight areas for even greater impact. We’re energised by the opportunities ahead to continue connecting with our audience and driving results as well as in class entertainment across all shows, even higher. With Ray Foley welcoming huge audiences to afternoon’s, we’re excited to connect with even more listeners and elevate our entertainment across all programs.’”
Sean Barry, Managing Director of Wireless Ireland said: “Audio is in a very exciting place in Ireland right now and our strong audience numbers across our markets highlight the important role our brands are playing in Ireland’s key urban centres.
“Today’s figures, alongside a very successful RAJAR performance from our Belfast based station U105 last month, gives us a very strong base from which to launch exciting new initiatives in 2025.
“We’re also very happy to see then continuing audience growth on Q102 where the addition of Ryan Tubridy to the schedule has added listeners across the board.”
Patricia Monahan, Director of Audio, RTÉ said: “We are very proud that more than 2 million people choose to engage with our stations every week underlining again the important role public service media plays in Irish life. RTÉ broadcasts 17 of the top 20 radio programmes in Ireland across a wide variety of genres including News and Current Affairs, Music and Entertainment, and Sport.
RTÉ Radio 1 remains the only station with a weekly reach of over 1 million listeners, with gains of 2,000 listeners year-on-year. RTÉ 2FM has a weekly reach of 762,000, an increase of 35,000 year-on-year, and RTÉ lyric fm now reaches 314,000 listeners every week. As we head into a General Election campaign, our focus will continue to be on delivering trusted information and engaging content and to reflect the experiences of audiences across Ireland.” […]