Best youth station in Ireland?

radiotrickster

There’s a lot of threads here about Radio 1, Newstalk, Today FM, etc so but not a lot about youth stations other than 2FM (if that’s what they even are at this point).

What’s the best youth station in Ireland? iRadio, Spin, Beat? Any others I’m missing?

I like iRadio’s drive but Spin win for me overall because it always sounds cooler than the other youth stations

Declan A Walsh

Strictly speaking there are two Spin stations - SpinSW and Spin1038 (for Dublin and the original). I think Cork's Red FM is also a youth station, or it certainly started off as one. I don't know if you want to include the college station Flirt FM - Galway City's "Student, Community & Alternative Station".

end of the road

red was a youth station, it was what it was licensed to be anyway as far as i remember.

however these days apart from having young presenters on the schedule it's more an fm104 like station then a spin one, shall we say.

marno21

RedFM was licenced as a youth station but now it’s targeting an older audience. It’s playlist is quite similar to 96FM’s. As said in a Dublin context it’s more like FM104 than Spin. It’s mad in a way that a market the size of Cork doesn’t have a station targeting the 15-34 market. Cork alone has a population of similar size to most of the other regional markets.

Now that Bauer own 2 youth stations with shared programming it’ll be interesting to see if they try to pick up a third

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118946605#Comment_118946605

Not that I would be an expert on Cork's radio stations, but I think Beat can be picked up in east Cork - Youghal certainly. I wonder can it be picked up in Cork City. I know Beat serves the south-east, rather than the south. I suspect that Spin SW can be picked up in north Cork, given that it has a border with Co. Limerick. The real issue of course is how was Red FM able to apparently change the terms and conditions of its license.

Re iRadio, it started life as two connected regional stations: one for the north-west (and maybe west) and one for the north-east and surrounding midlands. They were merged to form one larger regional station.

In relation to the original poster's question, I wonder is it only anoraks and older listeners that are reading this thread so they are not going to get a response to their question! I can say that when a younger member of my family puts on the car radio in Dublin their first choice is always Spin103. If they don't like the song, they try FM104 next, followed by 98FM! It would never enter their head to try 2FM!

marno21

Cork is a very mountainous county so the neighbouring counties stations do penetrate the border but not too far. East Cork and elevated parts of the city can receive Beat on 102.2 and parts of north west Cork can receive Spin on 102.5 from Kerry. Remember that the Cork stations require 11 transmitters to cover the county. Spin’s higher power outlets on 102.5 and 102.7 are obliterated by C103 on 102.6 nearer the city.

I’m slap bang in the middle of this demographic and do listen to 2FM when flicking around. It’s a bit all over the place though as I’ve commented on other threads (e.g. most people who listen to 2FM for music would have no interest in Game On or Dave Fanning).

radiotrickster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118946680#Comment_118946680

I never even considered FM104. It’s not a station I would usually think to listen to. It appeals to a very specific type of Dublin listener and I don’t enjoy it a lot of the time. The music feels older too.

I always find Spin1038 are leaps and bounds ahead of Spin South West with their breakfast offerings. I followed both of them on TikTok at one point but the South west breakfast show posts videos of themselves dancing and the 1038 breakfast post actual (very funny) videos of their programmes so it’s interesting to see the different approaches when they’re basically the same station

GFrancy4stir

Isn't it a basic fact that the 'youth' listen to spotify and other apps (youtube mix channels) on their phone and/or bluetooth their phone to the car stereo? Simply look at the massive amount of views/listens on youtube for instance and it's obvious where the consumption takes place. People gravitate to freedom of choice, they listen to what they want, when they want with no interruptions.