Why does Midlands 103 not cover Longford?

its_steve116

Unlike the rest of the Midlands Region.

radioman279

You could also ask why Highland Radio doesn't cover the whole of Co Donegal. Basically some of the franchise areas in the 1989 plan never made a lot of sense but very unlikely anything will ever change now

Lewis_Benson

Longford has Shannonside Northern Sound.

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122521676#Comment_122521676

Some of the regional franchises loosely followed the broadcasting areas of the pirates of the 80's that preceded them; they in turn stuck to what the mountains and hills allowed them to. More of the stations in Donegal covered the northern areas of the county, with some capitalising on the Tyrone and Derry listeners and businesses for ad revenue.

In the lower part of the county, broadcast coverage was always easier from the Mayo/Sligo side. MWR has a very strong and loyal listener base in the area, a throwback to the NWR days.

its_steve116

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122521904#Comment_122521904

I listen to Q Radio and Cool FM sometimes on my digital radio, and have heard local ads for Cavan and Monaghan on the former, despite those counties not being in its broadcast area.

its_steve116

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122521681#Comment_122521681

But Laois, Offaly and Westmeath don't, I suppose. I have always thought Longford and Westmeath went together like Laois does with Offaly.

ford fiesta

MWR (Mayo) also very popular in north county Galway (as well as Sligo, Roscommon and South Donegal)

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122527682#Comment_122527682

Yeah, there is a bit of cross border sales on the stations in that region.

Jack Daw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122528500#Comment_122528500

When I was younger I always surprised to see Longford was in Leinster and not connacht, it always seemed to line up much more with Roscommon than Westmeath.

I always felt Offaly, Laois and Westmeath kind of go together because the county towns are all a similar distance from each other and essentially in a straight line in a South/North direction.Also Laois and Westmeath are Offalys 2 biggest GAA rivals.

cml387

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122537995#Comment_122537995

But if I may make an anoraky point here: Mullingar Hospital serves Longford and Wesmeath. And they used to have a joint library service.And the same Dail constituency.

Sorry, 😊quiet Sunday

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122542577#Comment_122542577

Anoraky points are always welcome!!

medoc

The traditional midlands grouping are Laois/Offaly and Longford/Westmeath. A lot of services are set up along those lines. Getting back to the Radio question. Laois and Offaly were probably too small for a station for them together. As were Westmeath and Longford. A four county service would be rather large and would be hard to cover from a local perspective. The original name for Midlands 103 was Radio 3 (still called that by lots of people)to refer the 3 counties. Maybe also as a nod to Radio West in a way aswell. In fact a lot of the early presenter and programming was a bit of a continuation of West.