Christmas FM

galtee boy

Anyone know where Christmas FM's 87.7fm transmitter is based ? I drove from north east Co.Cork to south west Co.Cork yesterday and it powered in all the ways. Their website only gives 106.7 for Cork City. In previous years, once you went about 10 miles beyond the city, the signal faded away. 87.7 on their website is given for Galway, but same frequency seems to be covering much of Co. Cork as well.

dxhound2005

The website also gives 87.7 as Cork - North County. This very tentative, a listing from way back for a possible planned transmitter in Inishowen. I see a company called Inishowen Fine Foods in Buttevant on Google?

http://www.nigelw.f2s.com/fm.pdf

galtee boy

dxhound2005 wrote: »

The website also gives 87.7 as Cork - North County. This very tentative, a listing from way back for a possible planned transmitter in Inishowen. I see a company called Inishowen Fine Foods in Buttevant on Google?

http://www.nigelw.f2s.com/fm.pdf

Thanks, their website has been updated, that North Co.Cork frequency of 87.7 wasnt there earlier. Strange that I could pick it up in West Cork though, if it's only meant for North Cork.

Declan A Walsh

In terms of FM coverage, it's the nearest a temporary licensed station has ever been to nationwide coverage in Ireland.

marno21

It’s North Cork, either Bweeng (cosited with 4FM’s 97.4) or Corran Mtn (cosited with RedFM 105.7) are the 2 likeliest. It’s a very clear frequency - it works all the way to Thurles on the M8 and down into west Cork too.

Antenna

Xmas FM for 2022 testing on 87.7 from North Co. Cork now

(update: city etc transmitter 106.7 later came on overnight)

lertsnim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119921022#Comment_119921022

I can hear the 87.7 one in parts of Dungarvan Co. Waterford which surprises me.

87.7 works from Fermoy well into the city.

Happy days

Declan A Walsh

Over the years, I have contributed to threads (including this one) about Christmas FM on this forum. There is one big one on the Christmas forum:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2055758416/the-official-christmas-fm-thread/p94

Dipole Keith

Listened to the first hour, Great to have the station back, On my travels today I noticed some syncing issues on the outskirts of Dublin with the transmitter overlap (88.1,99.4, 104.2 & 105.2), sounds like the songs are skipping or you’ll hear the presenter say the same thing a split second later, 99.4 out Cavan/Monaghan direction has RDS information as ‘Nova Nova Nova Nova’

JDxtra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119931008#Comment_119931008

This was the same when Freedom FM initially started test broadcasts - 88.1 and 105.2 were out of sync. It was corrected quickly though.

Paul.kavanagh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119931881#Comment_119931881

It is a massive undertaking to roll out such a big network in such a short period of time. Very little time aloud for Testing and Syncing prior to launch. Well-done to all involved looking after the Transmission network.

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932251#Comment_119932251

Agreed. They are the real Power of radio.

TheValeyard

Something wrong with the FM today?

dxhound2005

On 99.4, 104.2 and 105.2 I noticed just a carrier around 3 pm, and completely off air at 4.53 pm. Those transmitter are Cavan, Louth and Dublin.

Antenna

It was back on FM a few minutes past 5PM (shortly after last post).

an issue arose with the linking to the FM transmitters presumably.

the transmitters obviously automatically timeout/shutdown the transmission after a prolonged period of silent audio (which is what you'd want to happen when the FM run comes to an end).

ford fiesta

with increasing use of spotify for christmas playlists, smart speakers and devices with more choice etc, is Christmas "FM" as popular as it used to be ?

waywill1966

I prefer Downtown Radio in December for Christmas music!

callaway92

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121486098#Comment_121486098

Probably no. It would've died a few years ago if that was the case.

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121486098#Comment_121486098

Some changes with some of the longstanding presenters too:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121486490/#Comment_121486490

SodiumCooled

We have Christmas fm going on alexa every morning/evening since late November and and in the car since it went live on fm, I think its still very popular. Nice to have the presenters chatting and hearing the texts etc rather than just listening to songs one after the other.

radiotrickster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121487403#Comment_121487403

I listened the other day for an hour or two and it felt like I didn’t hear many songs. There were a lot of ads, inserts (I can’t remember what they were about, maybe the history of Christmas or best Christmas films?), promos and then it felt like the presenters scripts were long too

ford fiesta

there is no mention of Mike Moloney this year on the schedule, on their website.

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121489273#Comment_121489273

It's just the same 100 or so Hallmark movie approved tracks, which are all US tat bar a token UK/Irish track every 30 minutes along with their generally painful contest numbers, interspersed with the factoid promos and ads/blags. Fine for dip in dip out radio for the short commutes here and there; any long and you probably just can't cope with it. It is what it is though, and to be fair it is popular and they do make a pile of charity cash once their running costs are paid.

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121491604#Comment_121491604

Mike did turn up online about a week before the FM launch so he may still be presenting on FM - probably over the weekend.

California Dreamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121495129#Comment_121495129

From what I have heard previously, the sponsors will pay for all the expenses, transmission, royalties, directors fees etc and the money from the texts goes to charity. I am open to correction on that though.