Highland Radio

Infobox Radio station
name =


slogan = Ireland's No. 1 Local Radio Station
airdate = 1990
frequency = 103.3 MHz (Burnfoot), 95.2 MHz (Arranmore Island), 94.7 MHz (Ballybofey), 96.9 MHz (Ardara) and 87.9 MHz (Malin) + relays, [http://www.highlandradio.com Online]
area = Donegal North
format = MOR, Country & Dance
owner = Communicorp
website = [http://www.highlandradio.com www.highlandradio.com]
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Highland Radio is an Irish radio station operating under a licence from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, and is the licenced local radio service for the "County Donegal (North)" franchise. It began broadcasting in 1990, and is currently franchised until 2014. The head of news at Highland Radio is Greg Hughes. Highland's headquarters are located at the Mountain Top in Letterkenny.

It promotes itself as "Ireland's Number One Local Radio Station", a claim backed up by having both the highest reach (69%) and market share (64.3%) of any local station in the country. Highland Radio employs 21 full-time and 40 part-time employees.

The station's schedule comprises a mix of MOR and country music and dance music, with its flagship shows including the "Shaun Doherty Show" featuring discussions and debates on current affairs and the "Power Hour" dance music request show.

History

On May 31 2005, it was announced that the station was to be purchased by Scottish Radio Holdings for €7M, however SRH itself was acquired by EMAP 21 days later. [http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0531/media.html] The deal was cleared by both the BCI and the Irish Competition Authority. EMAPs sole changes to the station to date have been increasing the bandwidth of their web streams from 20 kbit/s to 128 kbit/s, with no format or presenter changes.

On 16 July 2007 it was announced that Denis O'Brien's Communicorp had agreed to purchase FM104, along with national station Today FM and Highland Radio. The sale was however subject to both the Competition Authority and Broadcasting Commission of Ireland approval. [cite news | url = http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0716/obriend.html | title = O'Brien's company buys Irish radio stations | publisher = RTÉ | date = 2007-07-16 ] [cite news | url = http://www.emap.com/press-office-item.asp?Resource=2834 | title = Sale of Republic of Ireland radio stations | publisher = EMAP | date = 2007-07-16 ]

On 8 October 2007 the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland approved the proposed sale by EMAP to Communicorp of Today FM and Highland Radio, but did not approve the proposed sale of FM104 to the company owned by Denis O'Brien. [cite news | url = http://www.rte.ie/business/2007/1008/communicorp.html | title = Today FM and Highland Radio Sale approved | publisher = RTÉ | date = 2007-10-08 ]

A company owned by the Rabbitt family completed the purchase of Highland Radio from Denis O'Brien's Communicorp Group in July 2008. Gerry Rabbitt is a founder shareholder of Galway Bay FM and was managing director of Galway Bay FM for 10 years. . [cite news | url = http://www.rte.ie/business/2008/0725/communicorp.html | title = Rabbitt family completes Highland buy | publisher = RTÉ | date = 2008-07-25 ]

Presenters

Current

Tuesday variations

Friday variations

References

External links

* [http://www.highlandradio.com Highland Radio]
* [http://www.bci.ie/licensed_operators/local_radio_highland.html BCI licence details]
* [http://www.highlandradio.com/jnlr.php JNLR listenersip summary]
* [http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0531/media.html Scottish to buy Highland Radio for €7m] - RTÉ article