RTÉ lyric fm

Infobox Radio station
name = RTÉ lyric fm
slogan = "Where Life Sounds Better"


airdate = 28 February 1999
frequency = 96.7-99.6 (95.2 northeast) MHz
Digital terrestrial television
[http://www.rte.ie/radio/liveplayer_av.html?3,null,200,http://dynamic.rte.ie/av/live/radio/lyric.smil Online]
area = National - Ireland
format = Classical music
owner = Radio Telefís Éireann
website = [http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm/ www.rte.ie/lyricfm]
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RTÉ lyric fm (Irish: "RTÉ liric fm"), part of Radio Telefís Éireann, is an Irish radio station. It plays mainly classical music and jazz music. The station, which is based in Limerick, was launched in 1999 and is available on FM in Ireland (96-99 FM), on satellite, Sky Digital TV in Ireland and Britain and via the Internet.

RTÉ lyric fm developed from FM3 Classical Music, which began broadcasting in November 1984 [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/archive/1984/1106/Pg010.html Irish Times - RTÉ Radio's New Quality Service 6/10/1984 (Subscription required)] . FM3 broadcast classical music on the RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta network at breakfast time, lunchtime and in the evenings. The station was rarely marketed, except via promotions on RTÉ Radio 1, and had low listenership ratings. It was probably best known for occasionally simulcasting the stereo sound track of movies being shown on the RTÉ television channels prior to RTÉ's deployment of NICAM digital stereo.

As Raidió na Gaeltachta expanded broadcast hours FM3's service hours changed to 19:30 till 01:00 and 06:30 till 08:00. Eventually it stayed on air until breakfast time when RnaG came back on.

In 1999, RTÉ put in place an additional national FM transmitter network, and it was decided to separate FM3 from Radio na Gaeltachta, and expand its remit to include other types of minority music [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/features/1998/0917/98091700096.html Irish Times - Classic Moves 17/9/1998 (Subscription required)] . This was partly on the model of Classic FM in the UK. The resulting station was Lyric FM (since rebranded to: RTÉ lyric fm). It also moved from Dublin to Limerick as part of a policy of regionalisation [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/features/1999/0428/99042800086.html Irish Times - The Man From Lyric 28/4/1999 (Subscription required)] . At the time of its launch, RTÉ lyric fm’s digital studios in Cornmarket Row in Limerick were the most advanced in the country.

RTÉ lyric fm won PPI National Station of the Year for the second time in 2004 [http://www.ppiradioawards.com/entry_archive.htm PPI Radio Award Archive] .

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm Official site]