Radio Maria Ireland

PacMan · 10-08-2018 01:10PM #1

Apologies if this has been posted already, but noticed yesterday (Thursday 9th Aug) that this station was listed on 209 on Saorview, with no audio.
Any reasons why this station is appearing on Saorview ?

L1011 · 10-08-2018 01:57PM

Papal stuff at the end of the month?

STB. · 10-08-2018 02:17PM

I'd guess so too. Special dispensation eh.

Thought all the Radio stuff on Saorview was RTE "products" though.

Do these guys even have an FM licence ?

Johnboy1951 · 10-08-2018 02:35PM

https://www.radiomaria.ie/

Never came across this before.

coylemj · 10-08-2018 03:36PM

Pretty sure Maria was on DAB at some stage but there's no indies at all there now.

STB. · 10-08-2018 03:38PM

I presume you are talking about Dusty's DAB Trial a few years back.

The Cush · 10-08-2018 10:30PM

Yes, carried on the DB Digital Broadcasting trial mux in Dublin and Cork from early 2016 to June 2017.

L1011 · 10-08-2018 11:34PM

STB. wrote: »

Thought all the Radio stuff on Saorview was RTE "products" though.

Do these guys even have an FM licence ?

It was - but there has never been a restriction for others. Think all you need is a digital content licence from the BAI which is not hard to obtain. And sufficient cash to pay for carriage.

Saorview has coverage similar to the national FM stations so it exceeds DAB hugely in actual coverage; for specialist content where the few people who give a damn actually seek it out it is a very useful distribution platform.

SimonMaher · 11-08-2018 10:29AM

Any stations on Saorview or the DAB trials need a section 71 licence from the BAI. Time consuming and needlessly expensive process but as L1011 says above they can be got! Maria have just been announced as one of the participants on the new Eirdab DAB trial in Cork City which starts this month. Joined by UCB who also have a section 71 and more to follow. There's money in religion

STB. · 13-08-2018 12:25AM

Yes I see it's showing up now on the second mux frequency for mount Leinster. The only radio service on this mux!

Whatever about the content licences the carriage costs on saorview must be astronomical. Spirit must be too subtle a station if there's a need for more of these services.

I always wondered was there any money in religious services as I'd regard it more niche than the tightest music driven format.

On the one hand its's got low running costs if its presenters are clergy and good meaning voluntary folk. On the other it's very niche.

There's a lot of money coming from "God" knows where to fund these type services which is just as well as I can't see the traditional advertisers queuing to get on board.

I'd remain skeptical about them being anything other than below cost neutral. It is without a doubt about getting messages across.

The likes of UCB continued to operate a raft of pirate transmitters long after 88.

Local churches had a rake of pirate mass services through the 90s and 00s, some of
the fm txs were so dirty that were being picked up by airplanes on their coastal approach to Dublin. Despite having god on their side they had to move to the CB band.

If there truly was any money in it the likes of Branigan would have a licence at this stage no doubt with Bill Mitchell type imaging.:)

L1011 · 13-08-2018 03:34PM

Spirit is evangelical protestant; Radio Maria are catholic. A listener to one is unlikely to listen to the other!

STB. · 13-08-2018 07:07PM

L1011 wrote: »

Spirit is evangelical protestant; Radio Maria are catholic. A listener to one is unlikely to listen to the other!

And there was me thinking that both were Christian radio services.

Both are super niche. More money goes in than comes out I'd imagine.

The Cush will know this - what's the minimum contract lease on saorview and what's the carriage cost I wonder in this circumstance.

The Cush · 14-08-2018 07:05AM

STB. wrote: »

The Cush will know this - what's the minimum contract lease on saorview and what's the carriage cost I wonder in this circumstance.

All Saorview contracts run to 31st March next year, RTÉ's spectrum licence expiry date, rolling 5 year contracts thereafter. Termination fees apply based on tariff, initially the first 3 years plus 12 months, after 3 years the termination fee is 12 months of tariff.

Annual multiplexing tariff is €388.47 per kbps, Radio Maria Ireland has a fixed bitrate of 96 kbps.

L1011 · 14-08-2018 04:56PM

Do they use statmuxing for the video carriers and if so how is that charged?

L1011 · 14-08-2018 06:40PM

Radio Maria has audio now.

STB. · 14-08-2018 07:06PM

L1011 wrote: »

Do they use statmuxing for the video carriers and if so how is that charged?

Yeah it's stat muxes.

Last time I checked HD was APX €2.1m per channel @ 6megs. SD costs. APX 1 million @ 2.6 megs.

The tariff costs are published and gives you a lot of tech info including network distribution chain setup. Found it interesting that the radio audio options goes right down to 66kbps mono. Uh.....

http://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.php?liste=2&live=15&lang=en

The Cush · 14-08-2018 11:38PM

L1011 wrote: »

Do they use statmuxing for the video carriers and if so how is that charged?

Statistical multiplexing for the video content, the quarterly tariff charged is based on the average bitrate used by the channel over the previous measured 3 month bitrate.

marno21 · 15-08-2018 02:46AM

STB. wrote: »

Yes I see it's showing up now on the second mux frequency for mount Leinster. The only radio service on this mux!

Whatever about the content licences the carriage costs on saorview must be astronomical. Spirit must be too subtle a station if there's a need for more of these services.

I always wondered was there any money in religious services as I'd regard it more niche than the tightest music driven format.

On the one hand its's got low running costs if its presenters are clergy and good meaning voluntary folk. On the other it's very niche.

There's a lot of money coming from "God" knows where to fund these type services which is just as well as I can't see the traditional advertisers queuing to get on board.

I'd remain skeptical about them being anything other than below cost neutral. It is without a doubt about getting messages across.

The likes of UCB continued to operate a raft of pirate transmitters long after 88.

Local churches had a rake of pirate mass services through the 90s and 00s, some of
the fm txs were so dirty that were being picked up by airplanes on their coastal approach to Dublin. Despite having god on their side they had to move to the CB band.

If there truly was any money in it the likes of Branigan would have a licence at this stage no doubt with Bill Mitchell type imaging.:)

I remember back in the day about 15 years ago UCB were receivable on 4 frequencies here: 102.9 from Nowen Hill, 105.0 Killarney, 106.5 Tralee and 106.9 Cork City

The Nowen Hill 102.9 one was belting out similar power to the cosited 96/103 frequencies at the time and was receivable in Cork City

Of course it was a different band back then with no youth stations, limited/no Red FM, no Newstalk and less licenced relays

PacMan · 15-08-2018 10:08AM

noticed last night, that test transmissions have started. Checked a few times and heard people saying the Rosary, later Irish people talking about "Good and Evil" and so on.
Still no logo, just audio.

kazoo106 · 17-08-2018 11:19AM

Do they not have a place in the Industrial estate behind the red cow ?

17-08-2018 12:09PM

Not being religous,I am just wondering what is the difference between Spirit and Maria,is one C.o.I.and the other RC!

L1011 · 17-08-2018 07:15PM

zorro2566 wrote: »

Not being religous,I am just wondering what is the difference between Spirit and Maria,is one C.o.I.and the other RC!

Spirit is evangelical in a broad sense - wouldn't be popular with COI or RC generally although there are exceptions. Other forms of Protestantism would be more at home there. It was a very odd choice to give a national licence to.

Radio Maria is hardline Roman Catholic.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48 · 20-08-2018 06:09PM

The Cush wrote: »

Yes, carried on the DB Digital Broadcasting trial mux in Dublin and Cork from early 2016 to June 2017.

Radio Maria is also broadcasting on eir dab's new MULTIPLEX twelve month trial in Cork City along with UCB Ireland on channel 11A.

Antenna · 23-08-2018 08:05PM

STB. wrote: »

The likes of UCB continued to operate a raft of pirate transmitters long after 88.

I don't think the United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) FM transmitters in Ireland had appeared as far back as the 1980s. It would have been around the mid-1990s this happened, I assume Dublin first and after time appearing elsewhere in the country.

From the web, in the late 1980s they had leased some airtime at night from Manx radio on the IOM which would have been receivable in Ireland on 1368 MW/AM.

It would have been after they appeared on Astra 19.2 that the unlicenced FM relays appeared in Ireland (mid-1990s).

a listing of some of them in 1997:
https://web.archive.org/web/19970207022143/http://www.ucb.co.uk:80/ireland.html

Hotblack Desiato · 01-09-2018 02:48AM

Just saw this now (when I was looking for a Virgin... seeing if my TV picked up the new channel names without a retune, it did)

If the BAI applied the usual balance and standards requirements to "religious broadcasters" as it does to others, they wouldn't exist. There's some serious special pleading on behalf of god going on here, spectrum is a public resource.

Radio Maria Ireland

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