Radio Kerry

Infobox Radio Station

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name = Radio Kerry
airdate = July 14 1990
frequency = 96.2 MHz - 97.6 MHz, DAB
area = County Kerry, Ireland
format = Adult Oriented Pop Music with local news, sports and specialist programmes
owner = Raidió Chiarraí Teoranta
website = [http://www.radiokerry.ie/ www.radiokerry.ie]

Radio Kerry is a full service, licensed radio station that operates from the franchise area of County Kerry in Southwest Ireland.

Radio Kerry was established in 1989 and began broadcasting on July 14 1990. The station headquarters are in Tralee, the principal town of County Kerry, with remote studios in Killarney and Cahersiveen. The original studios were based at Park View, Tralee, New Street, Killarney and The Barracks, Cahersiveen. In April 1995, Radio Kerry HQ moved to a custom-designed building in Tralee town centre with digital broadcasting, production and editing facilities incorporating a television studio. Shortly afterwards, the station moved its Killarney studio to Rock View, off High Street, Killarney and the Cahersiveen studio was re-located to the O'Connell Centre in the town. Today, there are approximately 70 people employed at the station in full-time, part-time and freelance positions.

Broadcast

Radio Kerry broadcasts 24 hours a day, with a mix of live music and talk programmes between 7 am and 1am daily and music through the night from 1am to 7am. Many programmes are broadcast from Radio Kerry's Killarney studio and occasionally from the Caherciveen studio. The station broadcasts on five frequencies - 96.2, 96.6, 97.0, 97.2 and 97.6 MHz FM stereo throughout the county of Kerry. The station can also be picked up in parts of the surrounding counties of Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Clare. The RDS PS (identification) is simply "Kerry". The station streams live online using the Windows Media Audio format and has recently added an aacPlus stream. It is also available on the DAB trial which is currently available in Dublin City and County and parts of the greater North East region. The multiplex which carries it is using a frequency licenced for all of Ireland.

Development

In March 1999, Radio Kerry introduced an Outside Broadcast Unit which enabled the station to broadcast from towns and villages all over the county. In early 2005, the 6 broadcasting studios at Radio Kerry's Tralee Headquarters underwent refurbishment, to bring the facilities in line with industry standards. Also around this time there was a major investment to upgrade facilities at all 6 transmission sites. In June 2005, the new Radio Kerry Killarney studios were opened at Glebe Lane in the town. In September 2005, Radio Kerry completed the acquisition of Shannonside FM and Northern Sound Radio. This gave the Radio Kerry group access to the counties of Longford, Roscommon & South Leitrim through the Shannonside FM service and the counties of Cavan and Monaghan through the Northern Sound Radio service. Shannonside FM broadcast on 95.7, 97.2, 104.1, and 104.6 MHz. Northern Sound broadcast on 94.8, 96.3 and 97.5 MHz. Shannonside and Northern Sound have studios in Longford, Cavan and Monaghan and also stream live online using the Windows Media Audio format. As a result, the Radio Kerry group is now the largest independent radio group in Ireland. Radio Kerry's share of the commercial radio market in Ireland stands at 11%. The maximum market share allowed in the Republic of Ireland by a single radio company is 17.9%. Early 2007 saw the introduction of a brand new outside broadcast unit. It contains the very latest in digital broadcasting and IP technology which allows programmes to be transmitted over PSTN, ISDN and satellite.

Success

Radio Kerry has earned a reputation for quality local programmingFact|date=April 2008 and appears to have stayed in touch with its audience at both commercial and community level.Fact|date=April 2008 Radio Kerry's programme presenters and producers have been awarded Jacob's Awards, Sony PPI Radio Advertising Awards for commercial production, ESB Community Games Awards for consistent commitment to community games reportage and McNamee Awards for its sports programmes. It has also received a BT award for technical innovation. In October 2005, Radio Kerry was named BCI/Phonographic Performance (Ireland) Limited (PPI) Irish Local Station of the Year. In December 2005, it received 1st place in the 2005 BCI New Adventures in Broadcasting Awards for the "Keys To The Kingdom" programme series which focused on the uniqueness of being from County Kerry. In October 2006, the Radio Kerry Sports Team were awarded a PPI Radio Award for Sports Coverage, in particular the way which All Ireland Gaelic Football Campaign of 2005 was brought to the listeners.

Radio Kerry Training

Radio Kerry Training was established in September 2005. It designs and delivers targeted training packages for the radio sector and plays a role in identifying and developing new talent for entry level positions in the industry. Primarily, Radio Kerry Training delivers the City and Guilds of London Institute Diploma in Media Techniques 7501 (Radio Production) radio broadcasting course, run in conjunction with FÁS - Ireland's Training and Development Authority.

Radio Kerry Schedule

Monday - Friday

7.00 - "Kerry's Full Breakfast" with Elaine Kinsella and Francis Fitzgibbion9.00 - "Kerry Today" with John Greene11.00 - "11-1 Club" with Francis Jones13.00 - One O'Clock News13.30 - "Talkabout" with Deidre Walsh14.30 - "The Afternoon Show" with Andrew Morrissey17.30 - News 3018.00 - Terrace Talk with Weeshie Fogarty ("Mon") - Drivetime Request Show with Martin Howard ("Tues/Fri" only) - In Conversation with Weeshie Fogarty ("Wed" ) - Money Matters with Rory O'Sullivan("Thurs") 19.00 - Sounds Country with Demor Moriarty("Tues/Wed/Thurs") The Melting Pot with John Greene (Fri only)20.00 - South by Southwest with Ted Creedon("Mon" only20.30 - "Tinteain" with Maire Begley("Mon" only)21.00 - "Trip to the Cottage" with Danny O'Mahony ("Mon") / "The Global Village" with JJ O'Shea ("Tues") / "That's Jazz" with Brian Priestley ("Wed") / "Agritime" with Ted Creedon ("Thurs") 22.00 - "The Pulse" with Abigail Bernard

Saturday

7.00 - Andrew Morrissey's "Weekend Wake Up" 9.00 - "Saturday Supplement" with Frank Lewis11.00 - "The Saturday Show" with Francis Jones14.00 - "Saturday Sports" with Gary O'Sullivan18.00 - "Fresh" with Guest Presenters weekly21.00 - "Great Singers Great Songs" with Ian Michael23.00 - "The All American Country Music Show" with Martin Howard

Sunday

7.00 - "Classical Delights" with Ted Carroll9.00 - "Horizons" with Padraig McIntyre10.00 - "Seven Days" with Elaine Kinsella11.00 - "Oldies and Irish" with John Greene14.00 - "Sunday Sports" with Gary O'Sullivan18.00 - "Travels Through A Kingdom" with Guest Presenters19.00 - "Solid Gold Sunday" with Niall O' Callaghan20.00 - "Big Band Dance and Swing" with Ted Keane21.00 - "Kerrywide" with Sean Hurley22.00 - "Irish Favourites" with Sean Reilly

External links

* [http://www.radiokerry.ie/ Official website]
* [http://www.radiokerry.ie/training Radio Kerry Training website]
* [http://www.shannonside.ie/ Shannonside website]
* [http://www.northernsound.ie/ Northern Sound website]
* [http://www.ppiradioawards.com/ PPI Radio Awards website]
* [http://www.bci.ie/ BCI website]