Learning Waves put out a great piece on sponsorships during the week. It provides great insight into how brands are looking at radio sponsorship during the pandemic. Lots of interesting information so well worth a read.
Finally this week, a happy radio story. Earlier in the week we posted a story showing the true power of radio and how much it can mean to people. Great seeing some good news once in a while.
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.
It all started with a Reddit post. A few days ago, Someone posted in the r/Ireland subreddit asking for some help. What happened next is a story of kindness, family and the power of radio in peoples lives.
The original Reddit post ( I’m hoping someone can help me hear my mammys voice again)
This is an absolute long shot I know but I’ll cut a long story short. My mother passed away when I was 17. In 2008 Today FM ran a thingy where you text in a wish you’d love to come true. At the time my mam was very ill and needed some cheering up. At that time Paddy Casey had done a version of John Lennons ‘Woman’ so I thought it’d be nice if I could arrange for myself and Paddy to sing this to her. Fast forward a few months myself and my sister went to Dublin and went on the Ray D’Arcy show. We talked to mam and I sang with Paddy. Horribly mind you but I sang none the less. They gave me a CD of it and I had it for years and years.
My dear wife got rid of the CD player I kept it in, not knowing the CD was in it. Anyway, my daughters never met their nanny (this has just set me off and I’m bawling now) and I’d love them to hear her voice. anyway I emailed and called the radio station but no joy.
Any chance anyone would no how I could get that audio back? It’s a million to one shot but anyway I said I’d try. She told me on the recording that she loves me and it’s mean the world for me to get that love back.
Thanks in advance!
Following this post, Reddit got to work. After many comments and upvotes someone suggested getting in touch with Bauer Media. After a few days waiting we got an update from the original poster.
Update post (Got to hear Mammy’s voice again!)
Just wanted to update everyone and say a huge thank you to everyone who pitched in to help me find the mp3 of my mam from Today FM in 2008. Mad to think that stuff is kept somewhere for that long! Again, big big thanks to everyone. I can’t wait to have my daughters hear their nanny’s voice! Much love ❤️
How awesome is that? basically when the poster got in touch with Bauer, they got in touch with Chris. Chris did a bit of searching and eventually the recording was found.
Radio Land spoke to the original poster who wanted to publicly thank Chris from Bauer.
I can’t state enough how grateful I am for his help. The fact he was reaching out to me out of office hours, he really went above and beyond for me and it’s lovely to see there’s good people still out there!
u/kballs on Reddit speaking to Radio Land
Well done Chris from us at Radio Land. Well done for going that extra mile.
Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Hears what happened
There’s a new station on the FM band today as freedom FM starts broadcasting. The station will broadcast to Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway for the next 30 days after being granted a temporary licence from the BAI. we spoke to station founder Sean power ahead of the stations launch so click the link to read the piece.
East Coast FM’s Declan Meehan, RTÉ Lyric fm’s George Hamilton, C103’s Patricia Messinger and BBC Radio Ulster/Q Radio’s Stephen Clements RIP are all now members of the IMRO Hall of Fame. They were awarded plaques on Wednesday at an event that was streamed online.
Also this week RTÉ has some radio sponsorships to sell. Both Today with Claire Byrne on Radio 1 and seven day sport on 2FM are now available for sponsorship. The today show can be yours for the next year at a cost of €350,000, and 2FM sports is dirt cheap at just €150,000
As mentioned last week, RTÉ radio 1 has new imaging for news and some other shows. That means one thing, it’s time for another Jingle Review.
I like the sound of the new sonic logo and the orchestra did a great job on it. What really will make or break this package though is how presenters use it long term. I’ve heard presenters talking over the sonic Logo a few times this week but that comes with getting use to it.
Considering the fact that Radio 1 hasn’t really had imaging like this before, it’s understandable it will take presenters time to get use to. When they do start to get it right consistently though it’s going to sound great. All in all a fantastic package.
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.
In March 1995 a new pirate station called Freedom FM started broadcasting across Dublin. Tomorrow the station returns after they were granted a temporary licence from the BAI.
After the team revived freedom FM as an online station in 2020, they decided to take another shot at FM and applied for a temporary license which has now been granted. Not only will the station return to the airwaves in Dublin tomorrow but they’re also landing in Cork, Limerick and Galway for the first time.
Sean Power in the new Freedom FM studioThe new Freedom FM studio
We spoke to station founder Sean Power ahead of the station launch. Sean wasn’t able to tell us the transmitter power when we spoke as that hadn’t yet been confirmed by Comreg, but we asked other nerdy questions as well.
When the decision was made to try return to FM, what made you decide to go down the legal route? Was there ever a part of you that wanted to go pirate again?
Over the past year of running Freedom FM online, we have seen a continual growth in our online listenership, so the natural next step in developing the brand was to apply for a 30day temporary multi-city FM license from the BAI, going down the pirate route is not in our stations ethos.
Your current BAI licence is to broadcast for 30 days, does the team have any ambition to maybe apply for a full time licence down the road if things go well?
At the moment there isn’t any permanent FM licenses available, our ambition would be to apply again next year for another 30day license and expand on our FM coverage to bring the brand to a wider audience.
What playout software/ studio tech are you using and how are broadcasters doing shows from abroad?
We have been using Playoutone Pro with Music Master Scheduling software the past couple of months which has allowed shows both voice tracked and live to be done remotely, Playoutone Pro is a feature rich industry standard playout system, utilizing their webvt and livemic features, our DJ’s and Presenters are doing both voice tracked and live broadcast shows from a far as Melbourne, New York and Canada as well as locations around Ireland.
Will many shows be pre recorded/voice tracked or will everything be done live?
Due to Covid health & safety, Our goal is to provide 8 hours of live studio based content each day with other shows been broadcast live from presenters own home studios. Full schedule details are available on our website http://www.freedomfm.ie
Here’s how to listen
The station will be available on FM from tomorrow and will continue broadcasting on FM until October 17th
You will be able to listen by tuning your radio to
Dublin 105.2 FM
Cork 106.7 FM
Galway 87.9 FM
Limerick 105.5 FM
You can also listen online by using the Radio Land listen page where the station is now listed. Scroll down and you’ll find them in the other stations section.
Best of luck to the Freedom FM team from us here at Radio Land.
Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s what happened
A new education bursary has been set up in memory of RTÉ broadcaster Marian Finucane. The fund will support women financially, helping them to access further education.
“There is a simple basic truth – if you educate a woman, you educate a family: If you educate a man, he gets a job. This has been proven time and time again.”
John Clarke husband of Marian Finucane, via RTÉ News
Everyone has a youthful side, and RTE is no exception. The new schedule for RTÉ Junior radio was published this week and there’s plenty to keep you or the little ones tuning in. You can listen to RTÉ Junior radio using the RTÉ radio player app, on the radio land listen page and by telling Alexa to play RTÉ Junior. It’s so simple a child could do it.
finally this week Rosses Radio has a new home. We reported a few weeks ago about the station having to leave their old premises but now the story has a happy ending. There’s still a lot of work to be done as the new home still needs electricity and broadband but the stations 34 volunteers are working hard to get back on air.
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.
