Spirit Radio Is On Its Way To Wexford

Tallaght Twin

Seen in the St. Michael's Parish Gorey Newsletter 09 July 2017

Quote:
"SPIRIT RADIO IS ON ITS WAY TO WEXFORD!

Spirit Radio offers an alternative to those who wish to engage with media that is value led, offers encouragement and is focussed on uplifting. Spirit Radio plays the best contemporary Christian music plus a selection of positive mainstream hits. Spirit Radio which is due to be launched in Wexford on the 1st of September 2017. The last and only matter to be resolved is the purchase of transmission equipment. This will cost €7000. Spirit would be delighted to talk to any person who may be able to assist them. No contribution is too small. If you can support Spirit Radio please contact Rob Clarke on 01 272 4760 or email him on rob.clarke@spiritradio.ie"

End Quote.

What frequency will they be using?
Is this the only new location they will be covering in September?

Losty Dublin

Tallaght Twin wrote: »

Seen in the St. Michael's Parish Gorey Newsletter 09 July 2017

Quote:
"SPIRIT RADIO IS ON ITS WAY TO WEXFORD!

Spirit would be delighted to talk to any person who may be able to assist them. No contribution is too small. [/I]

Take one of their rigs off of one of their other frequencies. It's hardly going to be noticed by their listener.

School Socks

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Take one of their rigs off of one of their other frequencies. It's hardly going to be noticed by their listener.

They claim to have 500k listeners:D

JDxtra

These lads are like Shaws. Almost Nationwide.

TallGlass

Literally unbelievable, awful awful waste of frequencies, should be MW or online. Do they even have to apply for a license?

TallGlass

TallGlass wrote: »

Literally unbelievable, awful awful waste of frequencies, should be MW or online. Do they even have to apply for a license?

...and they say there is no space on the FM band for new stations,4FM or Nova would be more useful on national FM than this!

Rock Solid

zorro2566 wrote: »

...and they say there is no space on the FM band for new stations,4FM or Nova would be more useful on national FM than this!

The Lord will Provide ! It's a plan to keep Pirates off the air by using up the Fm Band, They should move to 567Khz and increase the power.

coylemj

I get the impression that the OP is as enthusiastic about this announcement as if Marks & Spencer announced they were opening a megastore in Gorey.

My main gripe with Spirit is that their Bray/Greystones signal on 90.1 Mhz blocks out the BBC R2 signal from Divis (in NI) for listeners in the Dublin area.

end of the road

the waterford tx should be perfectly receivible in wexford. if not then why not give it a power increase instead of taking up another frequency in wexford which could go to something else.
it really should be on am anyway as am is perfectly suited to formats such as religious broadcasting.

PAKNET

zorro2566 wrote: »

...and they say there is no space on the FM band for new stations,4FM or Nova would be more useful on national FM than this!

They're basically operating at community station levels of power though, there's feck all strength on any of their transmissions. Go more than a few KM from any of their transmitter bases and the signal will be swamped with static.

I'm not sure you'll hear much complaining from 4FM or Nova on the matter either, given their close operational and management links to Spirit Radio, along with Sunshine 106.8 and East Coast FM.

TallGlass

Rock Solid wrote: »

The Lord will Provide ! It's a plan to keep Pirates off the air by using up the Fm Band, They should move to 567Khz and increase the power.

How does one acquire a Religious licence? They must be piss easy to get. Maybe we should chip in an start one, except we have to start using a minority group/religious station, then claim discrimination when we do not get the licence.

The BCI are leaving the doors wide open on this one I must say. :rolleyes:

dxhound2005

Why bother with a licence?

http://radiostarcountry.com/schedule/

http://www.radionorth.net/schedule.htm

Antenna

end of the road wrote: »

the waterford tx should be perfectly receivible in wexford. if not then why not give it a power increase instead of taking up another frequency in wexford

the 90.1 frequency could perhaps be reused again in Wexford? (approx 30 miles between them) . Bear in mind it is for Wexford town not Wexford county.
Wexford is going to be further away again from RTE use of 90.0 than Waterford city so that would not be an issue either.

School Socks

Why do spirit refuse to take part in the jnlr ?

SimonMaher

School Socks wrote: »

Why do spirit refuse to take part in the jnlr ?

In fairness to them, there's no value for money in being involved in JNLR for a station like Spirit. They're going to get a certain type of commercial customer and not another and in the end, JNLR won't make much difference to that spend.

Simon

hullaballoo

SimonMaher wrote: »

In fairness to them, there's no value for money in being involved in JNLR for a station like Spirit. They're going to get a certain type of commercial customer and not another and in the end, JNLR won't make much difference to that spend.

Simon

Spirit are funded by contributions from those who are interested in its content, rather than ads as well, if I'm not grossly misinformed. So, they have little or no need to show advertisers statistics on their listenership.

Losty Dublin

SimonMaher wrote: »

In fairness to them, there's no value for money in being involved in JNLR for a station like Spirit. They're going to get a certain type of commercial customer and not another and in the end, JNLR won't make much difference to that spend.

Simon

They actually pulled out of the JNLR a few days before the first book to include them was released. A few internal sources within the station alleged that it was due to indicators suggesting their getting a verified 0% figure; management decided that they bail out rather than take the bad book.

Hullabaloo wrote:

Spirit are funded by contributions from those who are interested in its content, rather than ads as well, if I'm not grossly misinformed. So, they have little or no need to show advertisers statistics on their listenership.

The station are obliged to provide detailed professionally verified broadcast figures. They failed to do for a long time and currently only quote from a rather minimal dipstick survey, which is the baseless source of their claimed 510,000 listeners. I doubt if this is what the BAI require of them as regards verified listenership figures.

hullaballoo

Losty Dublin wrote: »

The station are obliged to provide detailed professionally verified broadcast figures. They failed to do for a long time and currently only quote from a rather minimal dipstick survey, which is the baseless source of their claimed 510,000 listeners. I doubt if this is what the BAI require of them as regards verified listenership figures.

That sounds very anti-competitive if it's a licence stipulation.

Where does that obligation come from? Surely, it doesn't matter for the likes of Spirit how many listeners they have if they are effectively self-funding?

Losty Dublin

hullaballoo wrote: »

That sounds very anti-competitive if it's a licence stipulation.

Where does that obligation come from? Surely, it doesn't matter for the likes of Spirit how many listeners they have if they are effectively self-funding?

All stations are obliged to provide such figures. The JNLR is the choice of almost all stations; Spirit are the only ones who don't use them so there's nothing anti-competitive about it at all.

Former Former

TallGlass wrote: »

How does one acquire a Religious licence? They must be piss easy to get. Maybe we should chip in an start one, except we have to start using a minority group/religious station, then claim discrimination when we do not get the licence.

Spirit have had a "quasi-national" licence for years.

hullaballoo

Losty Dublin wrote: »

All stations are obliged to provide such figures. The JNLR is the choice of almost all stations; Spirit are the only ones who don't use them so there's nothing anti-competitive about it at all.

Just because all licensed stations have to do it doesn't mean it's not anti-competitive. (My apologies for the double negative, it was unavoidable. I tried that sentence a few times.)

It seems like a barrier to entry to me but I suppose if it's not enforced, then it might in fact not be anti-competitive. Provided that the lack of enforcement is universally applied.

eiresandra

hullaballoo wrote: »

Just because all licensed stations have to do it doesn't mean it's not anti-competitive. (My apologies for the double negative, it was unavoidable. I tried that sentence a few times.)

It seems like a barrier to entry to me but I suppose if it's not enforced, then it might in fact not be anti-competitive. Provided that the lack of enforcement is universally applied.

Playing Devil's Advocate here, but should there not be some universal measure of performance in the industry? For advertisers/listeners/stations/authorities/anoraks etc?

Whether JNLR is the right one or whether stations themselves should pay for all of it are separate questions, but there has to be something surely to justify the licence and help with the decision to re-award it?

TallGlass

hullaballoo wrote: »

Spirit are funded by contributions from those who are interested in its content.

That sounds extremely shady!

SimonMaher

eiresandra wrote: »

Playing Devil's Advocate here, but should there not be some universal measure of performance in the industry? For advertisers/listeners/stations/authorities/anoraks etc?

Whether JNLR is the right one or whether stations themselves should pay for all of it are separate questions, but there has to be something surely to justify the licence and help with the decision to re-award it?

The universal measure concept is not a bad one. The current JNLR study and its associated costs just don't make sense for certain stations though and if the BAI go ahead with licencing other business models to the current ones, then there are other stations for whom JNLR won't make sense or have a particular value either.

For any niche services, the JNLR universe is never going to show them in a positive light in comparison to mainstream services so why would they pay for that particular kicking?

Simon

Losty Dublin

SimonMaher wrote: »

The universal measure concept is not a bad one. The current JNLR study and its associated costs just don't make sense for certain stations though and if the BAI go ahead with licencing other business models to the current ones, then there are other stations for whom JNLR won't make sense or have a particular value either.

For any niche services, the JNLR universe is never going to show them in a positive light in comparison to mainstream services so why would they pay for that particular kicking?

Simon

Of course, if Spirit are getting 500,000+ listeners then they wouldn't need worry about getting a kicking in the Book

Dick Tation

Because it is too expensive for them. They do attract some small advertisers, but generally they are supported by by their listeners who readily donate and meet the operation costs when they are asked to do so. Spirit might not be your cup of tea, but contrary to what you might think, they do actually have a sizeable listenership.

Infoanon

Dick Tation wrote: »

Because it is too expensive for them. They do attract some small advertisers, but generally they are supported by by their listeners who readily donate and meet the operation costs when they are asked to do so. Spirit might not be your cup of tea, but contrary to what you might think, they do actually have a sizeable listenership.

The problem is no one can or is willing to independently quantify the 'sizeable' listenership

SimonMaher

Infoanon wrote: »

The problem is no one can or is willing to independently quantify the 'sizeable' listenership

The point being made is whether for a station like Spirit or any future niche stations - does the spend on JNLR actually translates into revenue? If it's not going to bring at least a multiple of what it costs to participate in JNLR then why make that spend?

Simon

Former Former

Infoanon wrote: »

The problem is no one can or is willing to independently quantify the 'sizeable' listenership

But why is that a problem? Ratings exist only to sell advertising spots, if that doesn't apply then why bother?

Losty Dublin

Dick Tation wrote: »

Spirit might not be your cup of tea, but contrary to what you might think, they do actually have a sizeable listenership.

If only there was some sort of reliable unbiased market research for them to prove this sizeable listenership....

JDxtra

It's handy enough to grab the stats for their online stream. They have 13 concurrent listeners right now. They did have a peak of 43 since their server was started, but any time I check the stats they are generally on the low side.

I think a low number of people are paying a relatively high amount of money each to keep this station afloat. I wonder if they are given the real feedback on how the station is performing.

Radio_Fan_738

They play mostly obscure American Christian music mixed with a little westlife and Ed Sheeran, it's not exactly a format that would have much of a fan base in Ireland is it ? If they were a traditional Catholic talk station with plenty of mass, I'd imagine they'd get a lot of over70s supporting them.

TallGlass

JDxtra wrote: »

I wonder if they are given the real feedback on how the station is performing.

Even the Lord above and Jesus Christ himself can see this station isn't performing at all. Why you would give money to it is anyone's guess. I'm guessing the BCI are just doing it to occupy FM space. As I have said in previous posts, this is bad for the FM medium, it uses space not only for pirates but for decent licenced ventures. While the BCI might think this is a great idea, it's pushing listeners away from the medium.

Spirit FM is a joke, sorry but it is and I mean no disrespect to anyone involved with it.

I'd say the Dublin Pirate circa 2007 'Spirit FM' had more listeners than this licenced service.

end of the road

TallGlass wrote: »

I'd say the Dublin Pirate circa 2007 'Spirit FM' had more listeners than this licenced service.

lol! . i remember that station.. they were on around 2006. 94.1 if i remember rightly. one would have to turn up their radio to hear it the volume was so low.
a far cry from stations like nova-dance fun fm and others but it gave enjoyment to those behind it i'm sure, so no harm. that's what it's all about.

LordSutch

Three or four years later and I'm still annoyed with Spirit Radio for taking over both BBC Radio 2 frequencies here in South Dublin :mad:

So after three decades approx of listening to BBC Radio 2 in glorious FM stereo in the car (God bless Wogan), I now get Spirit Radio instead, which no doubt will get me into heaven quicker ... but I still really miss BBC Radio 2 in the car here on the East coast.

Dunno how you're placed with frequencies down there in Wexford.

Radio_Fan_738

Wasn't the original idea that Spirit would be mainly a high power medium wave station ?

Comhrá

Radio_Fan_738 wrote: »

Wasn't the original idea that Spirit would be mainly a high power medium wave station ?

Sounds like a bit of a pun there.

Losty Dublin

Radio_Fan_738 wrote: »

Wasn't the original idea that Spirit would be mainly a high power medium wave station ?

It was initially to be on MW only. After a lot of feet dragging as regards getting it on air, it was granted access to the FM spectrum on some sort of temporary basis, mainly conditional on it being a stop gap until they got the MW on.

They've been on MW for quite a long time now and yet more FM's are popping up across the country.

Dick Tation

Sadly they will never be successful because they are wishy washy. All they play is crap American "christian" music mixed with cheesy pop music that they claim has a positive message. If you are going to be a Christian radio station, then be up front and truthful about it. Don't try and evangelise by subterfuge. It just wont work.

PAKNET

TallGlass wrote: »

Even the Lord above and Jesus Christ himself can see this station isn't performing at all. Why you would give money to it is anyone's guess. I'm guessing the BCI are just doing it to occupy FM space. As I have said in previous posts, this is bad for the FM medium, it uses space not only for pirates but for decent licenced ventures. While the BCI might think this is a great idea, it's pushing listeners away from the medium.

Spirit FM is a joke, sorry but it is and I mean no disrespect to anyone involved with it.

I'd say the Dublin Pirate circa 2007 'Spirit FM' had more listeners than this licenced service.

Quantifiable listeners or not, like it or loath it, it would appear someone is nonetheless funding them and quite happy to continue to do so given all and any information (or lack thereof) surrounding listener numbers, market share, impact, etc.

Their listener pledge drives every few months seem to deliver a very positive result for them - so clearly there is someone listening as well.

The whole thing is run on a shoestring, mainly volunteer led basis which probably helps enormously with keeping costs down:
- Low power medium wave and FM transmitters.
- Shared studio and production facilities.
- A lot of station staff appear to be volunteers or job sharing.
- News is outsourced.
- Music is primarily Christian rock, probably little to no royalties due on it.

To compare as an example, TXFM was bankrolled by all accounts for the entirety of its 2.5 year existence, as was most of the preceding Phantom era as well - the problem there was that those bankrolling it were no longer willing to do so and in the absence of the ability to fund itself commercially, it ran out of money and wound down.

So long as people are happy to continue funding Spirit, it won't be going anywhere (in fact, it'll be going to even more places according to their website - Sligo, Letterkenny, Killarney, Clonmel, Drogheda, Navan and Wexford).

Dick Tation

Losty you seem to be quite hung up on this. Why do they need to verify the number of people listening if 1. They are not seeking advertising. and 2 This invisible listnership seems to like what it hears enough to fund it. They run their telethons and ask for money, and they always reach their financial goal. If you don't like them, and I cannot say that I am big fan either, then just let them be, they aren't doing anything to harm you. I think if you do your own research and canvas the churches and places of christian worship, manyt young people there do actually listen to Spirit.

JDxtra

How come they can just add additional transmitter sites as and when the get enough cash to do so? Does their commercial FM licence from the BAI permit this?

end of the road

the only issue i have with them is the amount of fm band they are been given when they were supposed to be an am station. it's frequencies that could be given to community radio or other services.
however if they are going to be given some fm space then where possible these relays should be focused on 1 or 2 frequencies with sincronisation of the output to the transmitters so the delays won't cause any issue when traveling between transmitters. spirit would be the ideal candidate for experimentation with such if the tech exists to allow it.

Infoanon

Dick Tation wrote: »

Losty you seem to be quite hung up on this. Why do they need to verify the number of people listening if 1. They are not seeking advertising. and 2 This invisible listnership seems to like what it hears enough to fund it. They run their telethons and ask for money, and they always reach their financial goal. If you don't like them, and I cannot say that I am big fan either, then just let them be, they aren't doing anything to harm you. I think if you do your own research and canvas the churches and places of christian worship, manyt young people there do actually listen to Spirit.

A station that was suppose to be high power on AM (100-200kw) and gained a broadcast a licence on that basis has some how managed to appease the powers that be with approx 5 kw (of a possible 25kw) on AM and multiple FMs - that was not the parameters of the original licence and how can it be claimed there is a lack of bandwidth for other services when frequencies are spirited up for a religious broadcaster.

As for listenership -do a jnlr and see just how many listeners Spirit has......

Radio_Fan_738

In fairness to spirit though, they certainly aren't the only radio station who the bai gave the green light to change their original proposals.

Infoanon

Radio_Fan_738 wrote: »

In fairness to spirit though, they certainly aren't the only radio station who the bai gave the green light to change their original proposals.

An AM station only becoming a national FM station is not the same as a station altering formats.

wnolan1992

Dick Tation wrote: »

Losty you seem to be quite hung up on this. Why do they need to verify the number of people listening if 1. They are not seeking advertising. and 2 This invisible listnership seems to like what it hears enough to fund it. They run their telethons and ask for money, and they always reach their financial goal. If you don't like them, and I cannot say that I am big fan either, then just let them be, they aren't doing anything to harm you. I think if you do your own research and canvas the churches and places of christian worship, manyt young people there do actually listen to Spirit.

I wouldn't have a problem with them not verifying their figures if they didn't release such nonsense figures as 500,000. Just keep schtum about them if you can't verify them.

I like Spirit. I think it's nice to have diverse formats on the dial.

I wish we did more with AM in this country.

Fuzzy Clam

Infoanon wrote: »

An AM station only becoming a national FM station is not the same as a station altering formats.

From their application they proposed a 100 KW AM transmitter on 612 Khz from a new site in Athlone, several miles from the RTE site. This site was purchased for 110 K.
Expansion of the MW coverage was to be a further 2 MW sites. One in Donegal or Monaghan on 549 covering the NW and one in the Southwest on 675 (the frequency relocated from Dungarvan). Both 25 KW.
FM fillers were proposed for Cork, Tralee and Killarney.

I believe they downgraded their intended power from Athlone to 50 KW.

Quite a difference from what we have now!

The Monaghan site has two 25 KW transmitters but I think they only run around 10 KW daytime, dropping to 5 KW at night.

There is a video on Youtube of the transmitters running at 30 KW. This may have been made during it's pirate days.

JDxtra

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

There is a video on Youtube of the transmitters running at 30 KW. This may have been made during it's pirate days.

Is this it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWRGJ_i0iLs

Fuzzy Clam

JDxtra wrote: »

Is this it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWRGJ_i0iLs

That's the one. Actually may be Spirit radio in it's early days.

Redlake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tfJ8DG6DDs is another video of 549 mast in Co. Monaghan