Cork's 96FM

Cork's 96FM

Broadcast area	Cork City and County
Slogan	Playing the Hits You Can't Get Out of Your Head
Frequency	95.8 - 96.8 FM
First air date	Thursday August 10th, 1989 (as Radio South)
Format	Adult Contemporary
Language	English
Audience share	38% (Thursday 20th August 2009, JNLR)
Owner	UTV Media
Sister stations	C103 (Dual franchise) [1]
Webcast	Here
Website	96fm.ie

96FM is one of three local radio stations licensed by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland^[2] for Cork City and County in Ireland (the other two being its sister station C103 and youth music station Red FM).^[3] It broadcasts from studios at Broadcasting House, St. Patrick's Place in Cork City.^[4]

96FM is operated as a dual franchise with C103 by County Media Limited which is owned by UTV Radio, part of UTV Media plc.^[5][6] The station's sound broadcasting contract (and thus its broadcasting licence) is advertised together with that of C103 and one company is required to operate the two stations, in a similar situation to that of Shannonside FM and Northern Sound Radio in the north-west of Ireland.

History

Radio South

Founded by four former Cork Examiner journalists, with backing from a number of Cork business people, Cork's 96FM launched as "Radio South" at midday on Thursday August 10, 1989. However, that name lasted for less than a year. Radio South was the third of the newly licensed commercial stations to come on air in the country (Dublin's Capital Radio and Mayo's Mid West Radio being first and second respectively).

The first voice heard on air was the station’s first Head of Programming Frank Murphy who introduced the new station in both Irish and English. This was followed by Neil Prendeville's first show, the first song played was "A New Flame" by Simply Red – a chart hit at the time. The then Lord Mayor of Cork - Councillor Chrissie Aherne, who had been flown by helicopter to the station's studio (located just to the north of the city at Whites Cross), then officially opened the station for business.

The first day's broadcasting featured several outside broadcasts from across the coverage area. Local dignitaries, were invited by the station to an event that night in Cork's Imperial Hotel which was attended by several hundred people. The attendance included the then chairman of the IRTC (now the BCI) former Supreme Court Judge Seamus Henchy.

Many of the original voices on the new station were familiar to Cork listeners; Tadgh Dolan was formerly of RTÉ's local radio service, RTÉ Radio Cork, while Neil Prendeville, Tony Magnier, Joe O’Reilly, Gerry McLoughlin, Paul Byrne, Rob Allen and others had formerly been heard on now defunct local pirate stations, such as ERI, the major pirate station in the area which closed around midnight December 30, 1988.

The initial Radio South provided a wide ranging format, and a number of special interest programmes, including an hour-long country music show at 18:00 every weeknight presented by local country music authority Roger Ryan. Joe O'Reilly presented the 'Oldies and Irish' show on Sundays, a vestige from Radio ERI. Radio South broadcast 24 hours a day from the outset, unlike many other of the new local stations who closed overnight in their early days.

Competition

Unlike independent local stations elsewhere in the country, Radio South faced competition from the RTÉ Radio Cork opt-out, which was well regarded for its coverage of current affairs and sports, especially by older listeners. However the audience for the RTÉ service dwindled with time and was eventually closed in 1999.

Print media constituted major competition to local radio in Cork, with the then Cork Examiner and Evening Echo daily newspapers based in the city. There was also competition for advertising from a (now defunct) local TV service, available on the Chorus cable TV service in the city.

Hits and Memories 96FM

Mediocre listenership figures for Radio South, lead to a relaunch in July 1990 and a name change to 'Hits and Memories 96FM'. The station was now under a 'Classic Hits' format imported from Australia, similar to that of the by then successful 'Classic Hits 98FM' in Dublin. By this stage the original special interest programmes of Radio South were gone (except the ‘Oldies and Irish’ show on Sundays which, thanks to public support, survived the upheaval). The new format lead to a gradual increase in listenership.

Broadcasting House, the headquarters of Cork's 96FM and the Cork City studios for its sister station, C103

Merge-over with County Sound & Relocation to Patricks Place

In 1991, a 'merge-over' took place between 96FM and the Mallow-based County Sound 103FM coming under a common ownership and combined JNLR figures. Some years later, the station moved premises from the rural Whites Cross (the former Radio ERI studios) to a city centre location at Patrick's Place, in a building which was formerly the location of Christian Brothers College. The station named its new premises 'Broadcasting House'.

The Late 90's

The late 1990s lead to the complete discarding of the 'Hits and Memories' moniker, and some programming changes, with night-time programmes to appeal to younger listeners (not heard in Cork since the Radio South days) being introduced. The late 1990s and early 2000s also saw the introduction of new transmitters to provide practically full coverage of the county (the original licence was for Cork city and part of the county, but this was later extended to allow the whole county to be covered).

Frequencies

• 95.6 Fermoy-Mitchelstown area
• 95.8 West County Cork
• 96.0 Carrigaline-Cobh
• 96.1 North County Cork
• 96.2 (a) Macroom (b) Clonakilty
• 96.4 (a) Cork city and surrounding county areas (b) Bantry
• 96.8 (a) Youghal (b) Kinsale

(main frequencies in bold)

96FM News

96FM News known as "The Word on News" plays without back ground music (no bed). The sports section has a light bed. The news focus is on Cork stories. Bulletins run for five or six minutes throughout the day, and the flagship 1pm and 5.50pm runs for ten minutes.

The News team is

• Barry O'Mahony
• PJ Coogan
• Victoria Nichols
• Pearse McCarthy
• David O'Sullivan

References

1. ^ "Radio in Ireland". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_in_Ireland#Cork_ILRs. 
2. ^ "Local Radio Services: Cork's 96FM". Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. http://www.bci.ie/licensed_operators/local_radio_cork.html. Retrieved 2009-08-20. 
3. ^ "Licensed Operators - Local Radio Services". Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. http://www.bci.ie/licensed_operators/local_radio.html. Retrieved 2009-08-20. 
4. ^ "96FM - Contact Us". 96FM. http://www.96fm.ie/station/contact-us.aspx. Retrieved 2009-08-20. 
5. ^ "ABOUT UTV - Corporate Structure - UTV Radio - Ireland". utvmedia.com. http://www.utvmedia.com/radio.asp?sub=au&sublk=cst&fursublk=ra&id=17. Retrieved 2009-08-19. 
6. ^ Jason Deans (2000-11-23). "UTV moves into radio by acquiring County Media". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2000/nov/23/citynews.broadcasting2. Retrieved 2009-08-19. 

External links

1. 96FM Website
2. 96FM Page on Broadcasting Commission of Ireland Website
3. C103, 96FM's dual franchise sister station
4. 96FM at Radiowaves.fm