New Station Coming - 8Radio.com (online and on temporary licence)

Declan A Walsh

There is a reference to this article on the Phantom forum:
http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/8radio-com-841241-Mar2013/

I would never have known about 8Radio.com otherwise. What does the name mean??

This new station is brought to you by Simon Maher, one of the original founders of Phantom - probably its inspiration. According to the Phantom forum, Steve Conway (another ex-Phantom deejay) is also involved. Judging by the music-mix mentioned it will be more than just a return to Phantom as a pirate - more like an albums-oriented station. The twist is that during the day it will be indie-oriented. In fact, it might be vaguely like Simon's old station Coast FM from the first half of the '90s.

I am looking forward to this. It is about time we had something slightly different on the airwaves, particularly in temporary licence land, but also in permanent licenced land where there are so many overlaps between stations. Okay, it will overlap with Phantom somewhat, but it should have that freshness and enthusiasm that used to be a hallmark of Phantom.

I wonder will there be a few other familiar names from the ghost of Phantom past on 8Radio.com. Will this see the return of "The Anorak Hour"?

Next Saturday 8Radio.com goes live on FM - first of fifteen weekends.

soc160

Its about time the BAI offered a few more licenses out, in reality we have so little in terms of radio stations when the potential is there to make more, some might fail, some might work, but it's great to see people like Simon not get burnt from his previous experiences and take a gamble on another station, although consider the success of Phantom in the early days it might not be a gamble.

gavindowd

soc160 wrote: »

Its about time the BAI offered a few more licenses out, in reality we have so little in terms of radio stations when the potential is there to make more, some might fail, some might work.

They would mostly fail, its not worth the risk and hassle for the BAI....

SebBerkovich

I heard that Perl is going to have a show, haven't listened to phantom on a Sunday ever since she left.

Can't wait for this station to kick off, in serious need of hearing some good music coming from my radio.

Skid X

Simon posted about it here (in the radio Job Spot thread, although I think the deadline for volunteers has now passed)...
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=82963574

SimonMaher wrote: »

8Radio.com is a new online radio station from Dublin which will commence broadcasts in Spring 2013. The 8Radio musical philosophy is simple – “Playing the music we like”. This means playing the songs we like, regardless of genre, with all choices being based on song quality.

Genghis

Been listening to the test transmissions, very diverse, really great music. Good use of TuneIn too, album art, artist and song name for every track.

Can't help drawing the analogy to BBC 6Music (a v. good thing imho).

Name: 8Radio / 6Music
Slogan: "Playing the Music we like" / "Playing what we like"

Ciaran

SebBerkovich wrote: »

I heard that Perl is going to have a show, haven't listened to phantom on a Sunday ever since she left.

Can't wait for this station to kick off, in serious need of hearing some good music coming from my radio.

Some info on the schedule on Steve Conway's blog.

Declan A Walsh

Ciaran wrote: »

Some info on the schedule on Steve Conway's blog.

I just had a look at Steve Conway's blog. There are some nice photos there of the station launch at Whelans'. I see Amber is in the line-up - another former Phantom presenter. I think she was a background person for most her time with Phantom during its fully-licenced phase. I wonder will Ger Rowe be involved - another leading Phantom founder and former Chief Executive... and one serious anorak.

Having looked at the Job Spot thread, referred to a couple of posts back, it rings a bell with me. I must have seen this before - where's my memory gone?! Now that I an getting a better picture of an eclectic music station, I wonder will the temporary run have presenters associated with various specialist genres.

By the way, what is the background to the station name: 8Radio.com ?

SebBerkovich

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

By the way, what is the background to the station name: 8Radio.com ?

I think they went with 8Radio because PhantomFM was already taken.


Well it's gonna be great fun to hear some old phantom voices on the airwaves again, anyone know if Sinister Pete is gonna join this little crew, i get the impression there may have been some bad blood there.

Declan A Walsh

SebBerkovich wrote: »

I think they went with 8Radio because PhantomFM was already taken.


Well it's gonna be great fun to hear some old phantom voices on the airwaves again, anyone know if Sinister Pete is gonna join this little crew, i get the impression there may have been some bad blood there.

Very funny - the name thing! It looks like its much more than another Phantom though, judging by the music selection: more varied and eclectic. I would say it would be an albums station really. I actually think that Nova's Pat James would fit into its style.

But, please tell me more about the Sinister Pete angle!

SebBerkovich

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Very funny - the name thing! It looks like its much more than another Phantom though, judging by the music selection: more varied and eclectic. I would say it would be an albums station really. I actually think that Nova's Pat James would fit into its style.

But, please tell me more about the Sinister Pete angle!

all i know is that he lives in Northern Ireland now and some friends of mine in Belfast have bumped into him occasionally. They've generally told me that chatting to him about phantom it obvious that he's very unhappy with how things went after they got the licence.

Maybe he's grand about it, but there's a general impression that he was hard done by.

PaulieBoy

Their sample list of daytime artists is sad, Duran Duran? Their list of evening artists is even sadder! It will fall between all the other mediocre stations out there. Nothing to see, move along!!
Pity, we need a proper alternative radio station, not another pretend one.

KCAccidental

I'll be happy to have something like it on the Cork airwaves to be honest, the choice down here music wise is shocking at the moment. Hopefully on their next license they will open up the schedule to broadcasters from outside the capital too

end of the road

gavindowd wrote: »

They would mostly fail

so let them, when you start any business theirs a risk, some will swim others will sink, radio is no different apart from the fact theirs fewer radio stations then other businesses.

gavindowd wrote: »

its not worth the risk and hassle for the BAI....

to be honest the BAI should be only allowed to worry about licencing the stations, if they succeed great, if they fail its unfortunate but thats how it needs to be in my opinion.

KCAccidental

end of the road wrote: »

so let them, when you start any business theirs a risk, some will swim others will sink, radio is no different apart from the fact theirs fewer radio stations then other businesses.

to be honest the BAI should be only allowed to worry about licencing the stations, if they succeed great, if they fail its unfortunate but thats how it needs to be in my opinion.

I agree with you. BAI's method for licensing commercial stations only favours corporate broadcasters at the moment, which has lead us down the road to where we are now, bland playlists and bland shows right across the dial. I think there is a market for niche stations if they were allowed to operate on smaller budgets. As it is they are relegated to community licensing at the moment, which can affect the momentum of such ventures.

Anything for a bit of orginality!

Big Nasty

Delighted for Simon and some of the old Phantom crew!

I've been listening online a bit and like what I hear so far. Kind of a mix of Nova and Phantom from a couple of years back.

Jimmy Bottlehead

Quick bump as they're about to go live!!

Declan A Walsh

I gave it a listen late last night and I have been a listening bit this morning. Nice eclectic mix so far.

I have had a look at their weekend schedule. The names I recognize from Phantom are: Amber, Steve Conway, Pearl, Neil Murray and Simon Maher.

There was an English presenter first thing this morning - James Murphy, I think. Does anyone know his background - maybe someone Steve knows from his U.K. radio links? What about the other presenters on the schedule: Rachel Breslin, Brian Gunn, Sinead Ni Chonaill, Dan McDermott, Colm Marren and Anne Marie Walsh? Could the last name be someone who was briefly with Phantom during its first temporary licence run way back in 2003 - there was some Anne Marie then?

Declan A Walsh

A quick google check tells me that Q102 has had a presenter called Neil Murray. I am assuming that this is the same Neil with 8Radio (and Phantom a couple of years ago).

So did anyone listen to 8Radio.com? I thought it was interesting - a kind of a mish-mash of Phantom, a bit of Radio Nova, a bit of 4FM and some people's record collections: namely Pearl, Steve Conway and Simon Maher! To some extent, it reminds me of Simon's '90s station Coast FM. It is also a facility for some people to build up a bit of radio experience.

Anyway, it is nice to hear a eclectic mixed-music station on a temporary licence again. They dwindled a bit in the last two or three years.

Lovely Bloke

Colm Marren has been presenting a Sunday evening radio show on NEAR 90 FM for the past while - indie-rock, 80s hair music, kind of stuff that you'd not normally hear but would say "aw yeah, I remember that" - interspersed with stuff like movie reviews, TV reviews.

He's a pretty decent skin.

Bard

Dan McDermott is a friend of mine. He used to work with Spin (not as a presenter but on their sales team AFAIK) and has worked as a producer (with plenty of on-air speaking time) on both Real Radio's Greg Merriman show and iRadio's "iLife" talk show. He was also a producer and presenter with OpenFM and he covered for me for a week as a producer in 4FM. Great guy... and a proper good music fan.

Fuzzy Clam

I don't if any one else has tried to listen on the Tunein app but it wasn't working well for me last weekend. 60 secs buffering, 10 secs of audio, 60 secs buffering..........blah, blah, blah, etc.

Maybe Simon could check this out as FM reception here is poor and I'd like to listen to it a bit more.

SimonMaher

Hi FuzzyClam,

Had some capacity problems with the streaming servers last weekend (which isn't a bad complaint I reckon!) but should be plenty more capacity now. The Apps are MP3 so run at a higher bit rate but if you search out the 48K AAC+ version on TuneIn it should go a bit easier on your data and hopefully be a bit more stable.

For everyone else <Blatant Plug>, 8Radio.com is online all week and at weekends in Dublin (94.3), Cork (106.7) and Limerick (105.5) </Blatant Plug>.

Any 8Radio related questions, feel free to stick them up here and I will do my best to answer them.

Cheers,
Simon

Fuzzy Clam

SimonMaher wrote: »

Hi FuzzyClam,

48K AAC+ version on TuneIn it should go a bit easier on your data and hopefully be a bit more stable.[/B]



Cheers,
Simon

Thanks Simon
That's what i was trying to listen to. Same issue last night and today. Audio was buffering approx every 12-15 secs for about 15 or 20 secs at a time.

No probs listening to TodayFM/Nova or Zenith on TunIn so I don't think the problem is on my end.

byte

FWIW, I use Winamp with this stream link:
http://8radiohq.serverroom.us:7532/

It's the 128k MP3 and it is fine. Maybe try it to see if it works, see then if it's an issue with TuneIn.

I think it was last weekend I had issues with the servers not working, but a tweet to 8radio and it was sorted not long after.

The AAC stream links are listed on the bottom of this page: http://8radio.com/listen/

Max Headroom

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

Thanks Simon
That's what i was trying to listen to. Same issue last night and today. Audio was buffering approx every 12-15 secs for about 15 or 20 secs at a time.

No probs listening to TodayFM/Nova or Zenith on TunIn so I don't think the problem is on my end.

Theres yer problem right there....your device is corrupted..............:D

Fuzzy Clam

Max Headroom wrote: »

Theres yer problem right there....your device is corrupted..............:D

Now now

Fuzzy Clam

byte wrote: »

FWIW, I use Winamp with this stream link:
http://8radiohq.serverroom.us:7532/

It's the 128k MP3 and it is fine. Maybe try it to see if it works, see then if it's an issue with TuneIn.

I think it was last weekend I had issues with the servers not working, but a tweet to 8radio and it was sorted not long after.

The AAC stream links are listed on the bottom of this page: http://8radio.com/listen/

I don't wft is going on here. I tried the other streams on the Android but no luck.
Maybe I'm just not meant to be able to listen to Coast FM 8radio.

SimonMaher

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

I don't wft is going on here. I tried the other streams on the Android but no luck.
Maybe I'm just not meant to be able to listen to Coast FM 8radio.

Sorry about that Fuzzy! Streaming seemed much happier with life this weekend which is good. Will keep an ear on it and the server capacity between now and Friday.

Simon

Fuzzy Clam

SimonMaher wrote: »

Sorry about that Fuzzy! Streaming seemed much happier with life this weekend which is good. Will keep an ear on it and the server capacity between now and Friday.

Simon

Hi Simon. When I tried TuneIn again on Sunday night, it was playing the 128K MP3 stream with no problems. Seemed to be just the AAC 48K which was problematic.

JuanJose

Have been listening online from 8radio.com for the first time this week & stream is working perfectly.

Enjoying the mix on offer. Long may it continue!

Antenna

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

What about the other presenters on the schedule: Rachel Breslin, Brian Gunn......

That's the same Brian Gunn (Saturday afternoons 2PM-5PM) that was on RedFM and before that 96FM in Cork.