- RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta
Infobox Radio station
name = Raidió na Gaeltachta
airdate =2 April 1972
controller = Edel Ní Chuireáin frequency = 92.6-94.4, (102.7 for northeast) MHz Digital terrestrial television
area = National - Ireland
format = Irish-language
owner =Radio Telefís Éireann
website = [http://www.rte.ie/rnag www.rte.ie/rnag]
|RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta IPA| [ˈɾˠadʲiːoː n̪ˠə ˈɡeːɫ̪t̪ˠəxt̪ˠə] (RnaG; Irish for "Radio of the
Gaeltacht ") is the Irish-languageradio service ofRadio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ) in Ireland, and is available on 92-94FM (102.7 in the Northeast) in Ireland and via the Internet. It began broadcasting on2 April 1972 , and was the second legal radio station in Ireland. Initially RnaG broadcast for only a handful of hours a day and was only available in or near the three largest Gaeltacht districts, but following the putting in place of a fourth RTÉ national radio transmitter network (used forLyric FM ), the station expanded to 24 hours from1 October 2001 . Listenership figures are hard to come by as the station does not make payments to be included covered in theJNLR listenership survey. Some critics allege this is because the station doesn't want it to be widely known how low their listenership is. Defenders of the station point out that as it doesn't carry advertising (the only Irish radio station not to do so) paying to be included in a survey organised mainly for the benefit of the Irish advertising industry would be a pointless waste of scarce funds. It is generally believed that listenership is high amongst fluent Irish speakers but its appeal among those learning the language is not as high asTG4 .RnaG is based in
Casla , Co. Galway. It also has studios at:Gaoth Dobhair ("Gweedore"), Co. Donegal;Baile na nGall inArd na Caithne , Co. Kerry;Castlebar , Co. Mayo; and the RTÉ Radio Centre inDublin . The station is operated by RTÉ, but has a separate advisory council, Comhairle Raidió na Gaeltachta, which is appointed by the RTÉ Authority. RTÉ also appoints the Ceannaire, or Controller, of RnaG, who has day-to-day responsibility for the service.RnaG was long criticised by some for its "no English lyrics" policy, which kept most popular music from being played on the station and hampered its appeal to young people. Others commented that the station has provided a much-needed dedicated communication medium for Irish, which is by far a
minority language in Ireland. For many years it was the only Irish-language broadcaster in the country; in recent years it has been joined by atelevision service, Telefís na Gaeilge (TG4 ), and by regional community radio stations, such as the Dublin independent stationRaidió na Life .In March
2005 , RTÉ announced that RnaG would allow songs with English lyrics to be played between 21:00 and 01:00, as part of a new popular music strand. In April2005 , it was announced that the name of this strand would be "Anocht FM" (Tonight FM). On weeknights the strand includes a new programme, "Geill Slí" (Give Way), as well as the existing long-running "An Taobh Tuathail" slot. "Anocht FM" will also be broadcast at weekends with different programmes. The new service was launched on2 May 2005 at 21:02 Irish Summer Time. The first track with English-language lyrics played was "Blister in the Sun " by theViolent Femmes , chosen by public vote.ee also
*
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal - Scottish Gaelic ("Gàidhlig") radio service & Raidió na Gaeltachta's sister station.
*List of Celtic language media External links
* [http://www.rte.ie/rnag Official site]
*List_of_Celtic_language_media
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