Inside Irish radio: how an upbeat market is vying to stay cheery

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Amid ‘cracking opportunities’ and post-pandemic resilience, stations are optimistic they can keep listeners in the age of the smart speaker

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Admittedly, the second quarter was “more challenging” than the first, but this was true for all media, says Ciarán Cunningham, the former media agency boss who now leads cross-industry group Radiocentre Ireland. Irish radio didn’t just have a good pandemic, it had a busy one, with German media conglomerate Bauer arriving in 2021 through the acquisition of Denis O’Brien’s Communicorp group to join Rupert Murdoch’s Wireless and RTÉ in a “big three”.

“BBC Radio 1 has a similar share to 2FM’s, but you don’t often hear people say ‘shut down Radio 1′,” says Healy. So, does Bauer have further ambitions to expand in the Irish market through acquisitions and would it be interested in RTÉ 2FM, were it for sale? “FM104 has a huge heritage, and it has had some audience challenges over the last number of years, we wouldn’t run away from that. But our goal is to get back to where we were,” says Scott Williams, group content director at Wireless Ireland, which has been owned by News Corp since 2016. A new show announcement is coming soon.

“The kitchen radio is now a smart speaker and, yes, that is harder because it is not tuned in all of the time,” agrees Williams. “I’m aiming for it to be out and about as much as possible,” says Cummins of the “Beat Beast”. Social media platforms Instagram and especially TikTok, meanwhile, have proven a vital “shop window” for Beat.Wireless – which also owns Q102, LMFM and Live 95, plus U105 in Belfast – has been delving into “podcastery”, while Healy says RTÉ's “interim” refresh of its radio app this summer will be followed in 2024 by a new product “with the functionality of BBC Sounds”.

While Bauer is “in a battle for the attention of younger audiences” like all entertainment companies, some 70 per cent of 15- to 34-year-olds still listen into Irish radio daily, he notes.

 

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