Their AM 549 transmitter has been off air for months, considering that they are officially meant to be an AM station with FM relays, shouldn't the non existence of AM be a serious breach of their BAI contract ?
Good point. But the lord moves in mysterious ways and seems to hold sway with the god-fearing commission, weren't they quick to banjax the upper CB band to accommodate church broadcasts without any consultation?
Spirit weren't meant to have a large scale FM transmission network. Initially they got one on the proviso that they use it until they get onto AM. https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/spirit-radio-secures-christian-licence-26265883.html FM was meant to add coverage, but in effect it's been the de facto network from day one.
They were supposed to have used 100KW from sites in Athlone, Waterford and Donegal as well but as of now only a maximum of 25kw from Carrickroe ever made it on air, weeks after their launch. I say made it on air with a pinch of salt given it's penchant for really long holiday and career breaks.
Given the cost of running an AM and their hand to mouth existence I can't say Spirt are in a rush to return it to air. However it was a integral part of the broadcast licence and they are clearly taking the piss here in not even bothering....
The BAI very lacks, I’ve stopped listening to Spirit radio there’s to much begging for money on it, I find myself tuning into Radio Maria & UCB Ireland.
Spirit Radio launched in 2011. We are now broadcasting on FM in all the main cities and most of the major towns across Ireland.
Our 549 Medium Wave signal reaches Northern Ireland and parts of England and Scotland.
FM seems to be the main platform for Republic of Ireland while MW serves another jurisdiction. Is this a correct interpretation?
If it is you'd expect that the OFCOM licence holders in Northern Ireland wouldn't be happiest, would you?
In theory, Would it be possible for Spirit to share the LW 252 mast with RTE by diplexing from it on a MW frequently ?
In all honesty does anyone care that Spirit are not on AM apart from a few anoraks on here. I wouldn’t even say the station got a phone call to say it’s off.
You should take on this one man crusade to have their license revoked.
They might just do that, but that will be after they close their user account and start up with yet another one.😗
I was trying to figure out who was out latest member who has ONLY discovered the radio forum on boards and joined up with so much knowledge and opinion........
Kinda lame to attack the OP for asking a question, remember there was a competitive process for this licence with winner and loser(s). As usual, broadcast applicants say anything needed to secure a licence and do whatever the hell they want afterwards. Shame on the IRTC/BAI/BCI/Whatever for allowing yet another fiasco.
0% enforcement, 0% public consultation, 100% gullibility, 100% regulatory capture.
There was but one station who had a licence entirely revoked for breaches of their licence; Ger Madden's Radio Limerick back in and around 1999. IFIRR he had an AM rig on at one stage and wanted to broadcast legally with it, not that a licence ever stopped him from not doing anything 🤓
There have been been other cases whereby stations or their franchise areas morphed from their initial incarnations; this is a topic that perhaps warrants a thread of its own.
Suffice to say, there doesn't seem to be the same level of enforcement here that you'd see in the UK with OFCOM. Again, it may well be a topic worthy of it's own thread.
Spirit radio 549am is back on air.it has been off air since October
I'm just curious about how many people would have listened normally to Spirit on AM prior to the problems with the transmitter. Or to put in another way.....how many listeners noticed it was out of action? Apart from those involved with the station of course!
Are Downtown etc really going to be bothered about Spirit Radio availability on AM in northern Ireland?
The listenership would be a very small fraction of the listenership of RTE radio stations and Today FM across the border in Northern Ireland?
Any news about the current status of Spirit's AM transmission (549kHz) which has been off-air for over a month??
In theory, the AM is their primary transmission, with the city/large town FM transmitters referred to as 'supplemental' transmitters, however in practice the other way round.
It's possible that nobody cares. Fewer and fewer are listening to AM, also AM transmissions are costly, so I am guessing Spirit radio has a financial problem as well.
Spirit's AM transmitter has always been on and off air, but this time they seem to be off air for a very long time, - possibly for good?
Surely that is an issue then as per the thread title. Imagine (I know it would not happen but...) that a station was licensed for both FM and AM and that it's FM transmitters were non-functioning. I reckon there might be an issue made of that, or maybe I am wrong there!
I am no expert on this, but I'd suggest the station isn't licensed for both FM and AM but rather for a certain geography in first instance.
Whether it's a breach of licensing laws if they are only making use of FM and not AM or not covering a certain area on AM is also beyond my understanding. I am only guessing that since AM covers a large portion of Northern Ireland, it's out of the jurisdiction of the Republic of Ireland? - at least what coverage area is concerned? The transmitter is in the republic, though.
From the BAI contract announcement on June 25th 2012:
"The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (“BAI”) has signed a sound broadcasting contract with Spirit Radio Limited (trading as Spirit Radio) for the provision of a quasi-national Christian and religious radio service on the AM band with low-power FM transmitter stations."
Details here:
https://www.bai.ie/en/bai-signs-contract-with-spirit-radio/
Their jingles don't mention AM, just 'On FM and Online'.
There was an ESB powercut in Carrickroe on 13/06 at lunchtime - the AM TX was on before the power cut. It did not come back on when the power was restored at 16:55.
Perhaps a fault - perhaps no one noticed
Is the above date (13th June) correct? It had been off the air for several days before that (early in June) - reported in https://mediumwave.info/news/ and elsewhere.
Unless it briefly had come back on but had went off again on the above date ?
BTW
Newspaper report from July 2006 where this planned new service being advertised by the then BCI for applicants for a primarily quasi-national AM service with "supplemental" low-power FM transmitters:
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/churches-moving-to-launch-new-radio-station-26376612.html
As of today 04/09/22 the AM 549TX is off, I usually get a faint enough signal here in Kerry but now totally gone. Wouldn't it be better if they set themselves up on Saorview DTT radio channels, just like Radio Maria and UCB Ireland. Long wave and Medium wave are long gone. Spirit recommends that we use the online service.
549 Back on and signal seems as before
Technically, they are no longer "in serious breach of their licence" so.
I've not listened to UCB in years. Thought it was long gone
Wrong thread
UCB is available on the Virgin Media digital tv platform, believe it or not - channel 918. I'm surprised that Spirit Radio is not available on that platform. All the other nationwide stations are.
Anyway: I wonder how many people would listen to Spirit Radio on AM?
It is expensive to run a powerful AM TX these days. Is their output power published/known?
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