BCI announce a Rock Licence for Dublin & Commuter Belt areas.

Bondvillain

"The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has today (March 28th) placed an advertisement in the national press, seeking applications to operate a classic rock service......."

" ....The service, which will be on the FM band, will be primarily music driven with a strong emphasis on classic rock music. The franchise area to be served is Dublin City and County and the commuter belt."


http://www.bci.ie/news_information/press173.html

I like the sound of this. There'll be a few hurdles to scale, but on the whole, I think it'll be a welcome addition.

Bard

Hmmm... like what Rock 104 used to be?

That'd be nice!

Genghis

Am I just being cycnical or is this going to become just another station that gravitates to the middle of the road? 98FM was supposed to be 'Classic Hits', FM104 supposed to be 'Rock', Lite/Q102 supposed to be 'Popular music' and yet they all appear to have very little difference in format to my ears - general popular music. Just like 2FM and TodayFM.

In a year or two, we'll have this proposed new station and the mew multi-city licence one. Whats the bets these two new stations get their licence, and 12 months in ask if they can tweak the format a bit so that we then end up with 8 variations on a MOR theme?

Bondvillain

Genghis wrote: »

Whats the bets these two new stations get their licence, and 12 months in ask if they can tweak the format a bit so that we then end up with 8 variations on a MOR theme?

I sincerely hope not.

It is always the fear I suppose, but taking Phantom as an example, not every genre station has to be a changeling.

Tails142

Last summer there was a station called "The Rock' which due to their licence only aired on weekends. Music was pretty good, not sure what happened to it after it shut down but maybe this licence is to accomodate it.

DMC

It is, via an open competition/beauty contest.

Phantom did two weekend-only over 10 weeks temporary licences with the BCI before getting the gig, after said beauty contest.

tbh

Tails142 wrote: »

Last summer there was a station called "The Rock' which due to their licence only aired on weekends. Music was pretty good, not sure what happened to it after it shut down but maybe this licence is to accomodate it.

I'd be delighted if The Rock got the license, as good as Virgin Classic Rock (i.e. the "standard" ) IMO.

Can't wait for this to get off the ground, whoever wins it.

Bondvillain

23rd May : The BCI have received 3 applications for the Regional Rock service licence.

(Link here)

Proposals from East coast Radio, Phantom FM and The Rock 94.9 will partake in the beauty contest, where they will no doubt parade in a sashaying fashion in front of the BCI, pad their swimsuits, apply Vaseline to their teeth for that 'friction-free smile' and tell the BCI that their ultimate ambitions in life are to End world hunger and play some Skynrd, Dude.

Good news. Best of luck to them all. Sound musical foundations, and not a usual suspect in sight.

Dudess

Smoke On The Water being played every few hours? Can't argue with that!

byte

Whoever wins it, I hope they also have a decent webstream for the rest of the country, a lá Phantom.

dulpit

Why why why can't this be national? Why why why??? :mad::mad::mad:

mike65

Dudess wrote: »

Smoke On The Water being played every few hours? Can't argue with that!

Dudess you really are my kinda gal! However whats much more likely is Sweet Child of Mine or Living on a Prayer Boo-urns.

Mike.

Dudess

Or lots of MOR - "tonight on The Rock, it's the essential... Boston!"

Bondvillain

There will be Zep. There will also be Steppenwolf, Zappa, Purple, AC/DC, Hendrix, Metallica & Rory. There will also be GnR circa when they weren't all wanky and holidaying up Axl's ringpiece. And maybe some Ween, if I have my way.

And I will.

mike65

Hey Boston were actually quite good. Just ignore More Than a Feeling stick to the uptempo stuff.

Mike.

Dudess

Now wait a minute: More Than a Feeling totally and utterly ROCKS!!! Ok I haven't heard one solitary other recording by them but I was led to believe the rest of their stuff sucked.

mike65

Heh! Maybe I'm just bored witless by it after 32 years of exposure.

Anyway back to the main plot - how does the BCI rationalise licencing a "genre" station to a specific geographic area? Logic tells me such a station should be availible to all or at least as widely as possible via whatever relay systems are affordable.

Mike.

tbh

please mr radio man can I have lots of:

Hendrix, MC5, Stones, Beatles (latter day), Faces, Kinks, Who, Doors, AC/DC, Zeplin, Sabbath, Queen, Pink Floyd, Dylan, Bowie (who yeah man), Steve Miller, Neil Young, Cream, Meatloaf, GFR, Eagles, as well as all the classics by the one hit wonders (not naming any names COUGHtheknackCOUGH).

the rest I leave up to your discretion.

love,

tbh.

mike65

tbh wrote: »

please mr radio man can I have lots of
classics by the knack

the rest I leave up to your discretion.

love,

tbh.

Great song.

Mike

Bondvillain

mike65 wrote: »

Great song.

Mike

Better version.

My Sharona was originally to be the song in the Pulp Fiction scene where Bruce Willis selects his weapon before going to save Ving Rhames' ass (literally), and the scene was rough-cut to the thumping beat, but the Knack's guitarist had found Jesus in the 90's and refused Tarantino permission for the song on the grounds that the scene contradicted his new-found views, so QT stuck with the underlying Surf theme of the soundtrack and used The Revels' "Commanche" instead.

Bondvillain, bringing you all the useless facts you'll never need.

Dudess

tbh wrote: »

please mr radio man can I have lots of:

Hendrix, MC5, Stones, Beatles (latter day), Faces, Kinks, Who, Doors, AC/DC, Zeplin, Sabbath, Queen, Pink Floyd, Dylan, Bowie (who yeah man), Steve Miller, Neil Young, Cream, Meatloaf, GFR, Eagles, as well as all the classics by the one hit wonders (not naming any names COUGHtheknackCOUGH).

the rest I leave up to your discretion.

love,

tbh.

Sir, I salute you. Except you left out Lizzy.

tbh

::slaps face::

my mam actually went on a date with phil lynnott once. Now I know loads of people probably say that, but he deffo knew her - when I was a kid, he walked up to my mam at the airport and said "howya <my mams name>" and gave her a kiss on the cheek - I nearly passed away with excitement and mam was delighted

DMC

Looking at the applications, I can see that they are proposing to use 100.3kHz... but Today FM is on that frequency for Dublin, are they moving from 100.3 or just going to use Kippure 100.9 for Dublin coverage?

SimonMaher

DMC wrote: »

Looking at the applications, I can see that they are proposing to use 100.3kHz... but Today FM is on that frequency for Dublin, are they moving from 100.3 or just going to use Kippure 100.9 for Dublin coverage?

DMC, Today FM are leaving 100.3 and their frequency in Dublin will be 101.8. They are currently simulcasting on both and will move to the 101.8 later in the year full time.

Simon

DMC

Cheers Simon, I was wondering why Today FM was killing Classic FM north of Drogheda.

Fuzzy Clam

DMC wrote: »

Looking at the applications, I can see that they are proposing to use 100.3kHz... but Today FM is on that frequency for Dublin, are they moving from 100.3 or just going to use Kippure 100.9 for Dublin coverage?

I'm open to corrrection on this but I don't think Today should ever have been granted use of 100.3. It's a 10 kW frequency which is why it been reallocated to the new franchise holder.

Bondvillain

It has been mentioned elsewhere, but in a less relevant thread, so to clarify :

Radio Nova 100 , the syndicate behind former temp station The Rock has been awarded the Classic Rock licence for Dublin and the Commuter belt to go on air Aug 2009.

From Radiowaves :

"Spokesman for the group Kevin Branigan of Bay Broadcasting said: "We are delighted to be awarded this licence. We have put together a very realistic and well-researched proposal for a station that will be the only local operator in Dublin to include the commuter belt region in its franchise area. Our shareholders combine business leaders with experienced radio investors, who have proven their commitment to the radio sector over the long term. We are 100% Irish owned and we have a passion for classic rock music. We will have a highly-experienced management and presentation team with an enviable track record and are very much looking forward to being on air in August 2009."