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 ?
they’re making their way to Bethlehem for the big day tomorrow
You would imagine they take up a position on DAB+ I don't think FM have much of a future going forward, AM is definitely gone at this point.
Spirit Radio appear have gone off air, in Dublin.
88.0 seems to be getting out more now.
To the south-east of it I can now hear Spirit on 88.0 (all be it very weak) on the Ballincollig by-pass dual carriageway (on the western approach of Cork city)
There had been zero sign of it there for a long time….
Speaking of Kerry, Radio Kerry on 97.0 was off the air for most of yesterday, I could hear 2FM from Clermont Carn fade up at times on 97.0
In fairness to them, they are hardly rolling around in American cash when they couldn't afford to continue the few kw of power on MW 549 ? And even when the Monaghan transmitter site was on air, their "nationwide" Medium Wave presence was VERY Short of the 200kw station that was envisaged in their application back in the day.
Ah come on, saying they are a national station may be factually correct but they don't have anything near that kind of profile and subsequently will not attract that kind of advertising so will never be able to pay 'national radio' wages.
When I was told 'early 30s' I was actually surprised considering you have lads on the regional stations that have been there years working for 25k a year!
Some radio ceos are notoriously stingy that they refuse to invest in their people or their station as a whole. They are well happy to let the same guy do the same thing because they are cheap!
For a commercial station yes, but for a non-comm? Not bad imho
32k is a very poor rate for a 'national' station and a studio location in the greater Dublin area, even with how sparse radio salaries have got these days.
In their 13 years on air, not once have Spirit failed to hit their target every single time that they have run a begathon on air. Yes, apparently they go on air and muster up €20-€30 grand several times a year. In spite of having such a generous listenership they have trouble attracting advertisers. Mad that 🤔 Curiously enough, they have claimed to use the funds to buy new broadcasting equipment. In an industry where most stations rent or lease their equipment from specialist firms such as BTS, you would think that a cash strapped business would try and do things a little more economically. Again, mad that 🤔
And these are issues that are incidental to any of their alleged licence breaches.
Actually the presenters get paid a decent rate all things considered. One position was advertised a couple of years back and I think it was €32k. Certainly some volunteers but the key people are paid.
US fundamentalists. There was a charity called something along the lines of "towers for christ" that raised funds to pay for proselytising radio stations outside the US; and they'd get direct donations too.
I suspect they're getting their studio facilities FOC and likely don't pay m/any of the staff either; so its just transmission costs that need to be covered (those are definitely not donated by the operators)
So who is bankrolling this propaganda outlet anyway?
All of these religious stations should be banned from the air as none of them meet the requirements for fairness, balance, and transparency in their finanaces.
There were off in mid Kerry 88.0 FM, the signal was so weak it wasn't worth it, you have to be 1km radius of the transmission site.
Are they still on 93.4 FM in Sligo?
Carrickroe is STILL OFF ? Two years and counting? It's still listed on their website, I guess they are probably waiting for Lecky prices to fall further.
True but also in the UK there is a process in which a radio station can apply to drop AM and Ofcom can grant permission after a public consultation. Here all the independent radio stations are still licensed and underpinned by 1988 legislation was is realistically pretty outdated today.
I doubt Ofcom would have been so lenient here.
Spirit Radio are now off AM for over a year but only "temporary due to a technical issue " is what they've told CNAM 🙄
Wasn't there an alternative bidder for this licence?
Is there a process that allows the licence to be withdrawn and re advertised?
Didn't know that. I guess none of us have the insight into the reaons why. I would be guessing the financial cost.
Yes 549kHz is gone it seems, and I don't think all of the FM transmitters are working either, one example where I live is the 88.00 MHZ Castleisland and Tralee area. I feel that frequently is supposed to be blank anyway, there's nothing on it anywhere.
So, Spirit Radio is now completely gone from AM? At least I haven't noticed them on AM for more than a while? Will they get more FM transmitters in the future to cover the whole of the Republic of Ireland?
There are quiet a few but their audience would also include some from the main denominations.
Careful now!!
There are plenty of evangelicals in Ireland. They may be a minority but they do exist and have been here for many generations, centuries in fact (I'm RC, just to clear thing up).
I haven't listened to Spirit in a while, I got fed up with the constant skipping of the audio.
I do know that Premier Christian Radio in the UK (nationwide on DAB, also on AM in the Greater London Area) sell airtime to like-minded US-based stations who are of course well-familiar with AM but haven't the vaguest idea what DAB even is. So it may be possible that Spirit is doing something similar by having a presence on AM if only on paper. Not that I heard any US preachers on the station in recent times...
But that’s the thing, I can’t see there being many evangelicals in Ireland.
It's meets the needs of the audience of which you don't seem to be one.
I'd say it's still there but they're probably just hoping that nobody will notice that it's off. It shows how laughable this licence was; it was supposed to be primarily AM with FM fillers but now the AM is gone and they have a lot of FMs around the country. Waste of FM bandwidth if you ask me.
I wonder is the Carrigroe mast for Spirit AM Radio still standing? its been off for months now. I'm sure this service have also been discontinued.
Yes it is, and that's what I hope they go for, apart from that, why don't Spirit radio go on saorview?
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