8Radio

its_steve116

Good to have it back.

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119124191#Comment_119124191

It missed at least one temporary license run because of that pandemic. Fair play to Simon Maher for keeping the 8Radio.com show on the road since 2013. Plenty of online stations, especially those with presenters, have come and gone in between. Over the years, there have been quite a few voices going back to Phantom/TXFM: Simon himself, Steve Conway, Pearl, Amber, Derek Byrne, Paul Lynskey, Paul Donegan, Jack Hyland, Neil Murray, Brian Daly. There are others too that have become regulars with 8Radio like Anne Marie Walsh, Dan McDermott, Gugai, John Loftus and Rachel Masterson. RTE reporter Jackie Fox was involved for a while too.

Declan A Walsh

I just noticed that Rachel Breslin, who was a regular presenter on 8Radio in its first couple of years, is a freelance journalist for RTE and presenter on RTE Radio One. I knew her from its temporary licences those first few years.

Declan A Walsh

Listening to some 8Radio this afternoon reminded me that there is another ex-Phantom on the current schedule - Phil Udell. He has quite a distinctive voice with his English accent. He used to present a magazine-type show on Phantom, and has cropped up on a few of 8Radio's temporary license runs.

As I listen now to the closing show for this weekend's license run, presented by the "benign dictator" (Simon Maher!), I have to say that, whenever I tuned in, it was another professional job, not to mention enthusiastic, by all concerned this weekend.

Declan A Walsh

I was travelling through Co, Limerick this morning and I happened to pick up 8Radio.com on 105.5 FM, The RDS Info displayed “ The Magic of Christmas”! Obviously a carry over from Christmas FM!

Declan A Walsh

Driving through Tipperary and Offaly, I could pick up 8Radio.com on 87.7 in parts - the frequency for Galway. That's a good spread.

onmia

The Galway site has fantastic coverage.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119190311#Comment_119190311

You Radio has not picked up a strong enough rds signal to update the cashed rds information on you radio associated with the 105.5 Frequency.

SimonMaher

8Radio is back on FM from midnight tonight and for the next 5 weekends. This is a Dublin run on 94.3FM (RiRa are on 105.2 at present). We'll be back on multi-city FM to celebrate our 10th birthday in September but for now it's oldschool 94.3 for us! Available as always 24/7 on the app, TuneIn and all that business.

Simon

8Radio.com

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120472211#Comment_120472211

The frequency 94.3FM was assigned to 8Radio.com for temporary licences runs for its first few years. It has gone full circle again after a few years on 105.2! Of course, 105.2 was the frequency between 2006-2016 of the now departed Phantom FM/TXFM. I mention that because Simon Maher was the original founder of Phantom, starting off as a pirate.

I noticed last night, when online, that there were test transmissions for this run after 8pm, instead of the usual A to Z of Great Tracks, presented by Steve Conway. I had tuned in for the latter, but it was good to find out about the imminent temporary run! Presumably his show will be on this Saturday at 10am. There is always On Demand anyway.

miketv

Was that you Declan who requested monster by the automatic? (I assume so, as it was Declan Walsh!), great tune.

Really enjoyed it this evening, listening and having a beer outside in the sunshine here in West Cork.

Stupid question for Simon, I'm listening on the official 8 radio app on the phone. I assume you can see how many people are logged in live on the app?

Thanks and keep up the good work.

Mike

EmileD

It's great news to hear that they're back despite facing the ridiculous challenges of getting a license. Those old dinosaurs in the FM radio industry really need to get with the times and stop their "protectionism" antics

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120478552#Comment_120478552

It may have been me! Paul Lynskey was presenting then! It is possible of course that more than one Declan Walsh could be listening!

Speaking of which....

I heard the last 15 minutes of Emma Dixon's show. She was explaining how she was given a chance last year by Simon (Maher), Dan (McDermott) and Ruth (O'Connor?). It is great to see talent been encouraged and cultivated. 8Radio.com is particularly good on that count. The presenter after her was Aisling Stanley, another presenter that I had not heard before. She is Canadian. That reminded me of the earlier days of Simon's old station Phantom, particularly during its pirate phase. There were quite a few Canadian voices to be heard then!

Incidentally, Dan McDermott is covering Dark Side of the Moon tonight at 8pm for his Essential Album show. This is on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. That might be worth a listen. It's a show I have not heard in a while.

SimonMaher

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120478552#Comment_120478552

Thanks Mike and thanks to all for the nice comments. Very nice to be back on FM (94.3FM in Dublin Friday to Sunday) although it is getting a bit ridiculous to be relying on Temporary licences after 10 years. That's for another thread :)

To answer your question Mike, yes we get good numerical data on how many people are tuned in, where people are listening (by country), what device they use and all that. Big change for us in recent years has been a relative drop off in PC listening but that has been more than compensated for by the growth in Smart Speaker listening. We run a 320K MP3 stream for Smart Speaker users who have enabled our Skill and that has proved particularly popular as people's speakers have gone from Dot to fancy Sonos and Soundbar devices.

Thanks again for tuning in!

Simon

8Radio.com

Glaceon

I'm serious about this, would it be possible to build a case against the BAI in the European Commission for protectionism in the radio sector?

Declan A Walsh

8Radio.com started another temporary license run today. It is on FM all this weekend. Next weekend it kicks off 10 days in a row on FM, which is a first for 8Radio. This is to mark the 10th anniversary of this station.

I heard Dan McDermott this morning. He was followed by Anne-Marie Walsh and then by Jennie Ridyard. As it happens, all three have been involved with Christmas FM in recent years. It looks like Jennie is married to the same John Connolly who presents a brilliantly eclectic program on RTE Gold called ABC to XTC.

Declan A Walsh

I am currently listening to Jennie Ridyard. She is another unsung hero of the station, playing a great selection of tunes from the past and the present.

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121084100#Comment_121084100

Posted on the bandscan thread too but I was able to hear a pretty decent signal from the 8radio Galway tx on 87.9 while in Stillorgan! Nice choice of tunes too

Antenna

8Radio got a mention last Thursday on Joe Duffy's Liveline on RTE Radio 1 as Simon from 8Radio was on regarding The Beatles' Final Song - 'Now & Then'  .

(I hadn't heard it when broadcast, but by chance heard a snatch of it on Playback on RTE R1 yesterday Saturday)

Its about 30 minutes into :

The Beatles' Final Song - 'Now & Then' | Liveline - RTÉ Radio 1 (rte.ie)

BTW I read 8Radio had to move studio location recently so hope all is OK with the new location.

its_steve116

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328297#Comment_121328297

🙂🙂🙂🙂

paddylonglegs

Coffee on, stove on, looking out at the frost while the chilled tunes are on 8 radio of a Sunday morning. The little things that help me through winter…

Fabio

Found this station recently and am loving it! Listen on a smart speaker or phone, am assuming it's not on FM in the Cork area?

Glaceon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121762021#Comment_121762021

It's not on FM anywhere except for a few weekends every year.

paddylonglegs

Great to hear more radio djs on it (at the weekends anyway), and good to hear some music based conversation. I miss that from the phantom/txfm days.