Near FM have started podcasting and are offering a best of the week’s programming podcast. The radio station is a local station for Dublin’s North East. It’s also interesting to note that a representative for Near FM announced this on Boards.ie, Ireland’s most popular Internet forum.

It’s funny and sad in some ways because a regional radio station seems to be the most forward thinking media organisation in Ireland at the moment. With the media market in Ireland fragmenting, techniques like RSS have been shown to create loyal subscribers to websites so you’d think that the bigger players like RTE would be pushing the social media agenda forward and expanding their current online offering to also include podcasts, etc. Instead what we’ll probably see is smaller entities making inroads and increasing their loyal listenership before everyone else boards ship (so hurry up Today FM, NewsTalk 106 and the boys.)

That said, Ireland.com and RTE both have RSS feeds, but they seem hesitant to committing to techniques like blogging or podcasting.


6 Responses to “Near FM become the first Irish media organisation to start podcasting”  

  1. 1 Gavin Byrne

    Thanks for the write up.

    I’ll be hoping to develop the NEAR fm 101.6 podcast even further soon. It’s actually our 10th anniversary this August and to celebrate we’ll be holding a Training FeilĂ© for all our volunteers. During the Training FeilĂ© I’ll be delivering a workshop in Podcasting so hopefully more people who create programmes on the station will start to put thier content up on the podcast.

    It’s also worth mentioning that not only are we a local regional radio station, but we are also owned and run by the local community and it’s a completely not-for-profit organisation.

    Gavin.

  2. 2 Sean Hyland

    Hi,
    Just to let you know that liveIreland was the first Irish Radio Media organisation to start podcasting from Ireland. Our dates and stats on iTunes are proof of this.

    Thanks and Regards,

    Sean Hyland,
    liveIreland.

  3. 3 Piaras

    You offer the most popular Irish podcast, but you’re not listed in the Media Contacts Directory as far as I’m aware. So the honour still falls with Near FM. By media organisation I’m talking along the lines of the Irish Times, Today FM, etc.

    Even still why more Irish companies aren’t promoting themselves on liveIreland given the large Amercian following is beyond me.

  4. 4 Ed Byrne

    It’s a fact that small companies always move the fastest … which is why it amazes me that more companies don’t take this on board and create structures that take advantage of this.

    Like the Virgin model - no team is allowed grow beyond 50 (except the airline, but ignore that) and are given separate office buildings. So when a company grows beyond 50, the team splits, and two smaller, more innovative teams are created, and so the company grows. Fast.

  5. 5 Margaret Gillan

    Congratulations to Near FM and its good to see the write-ups. But I think its important to call them what they are. Near FM is a community radio station. And while there may be crossovers between community and local stations there is also a big and fundamental difference between the two.

    There is a lot of confusion generally about the difference between ‘local’ and ‘community’ so it is important to acknowledge the difference - otherwise we are furthering this confusion.

    Community stations are not-for-profit (also a condition of their licences) its priority is to be a critical support to its community’s development.

    In complete contrast a local station is commercial, driven by a profit motive, no matter what service it offers or how useful it happens to be. If it stops making what it considers to be enough profit it will close.

    A community station is owned by the community, this means that the way it functions - the training it runs, the programmes it makes - should be of a very different nature and led by different values than a commercial operation.

    These conditions of community broadcasting are worth fighting to keep.
    Media is as important as land now, alongside copyright and intellectual property issues, we have to try to hold a share of this important tool - in common and by right. Community broadcasting has worked to get that enshrined in legislation. That fight carries on - we are facing another round of legislation in Ireland to bring in Digital Terrestrial Television and we want to lobby for a good bit of space on that system. The EU Television Without Frontiers Directive is totally concerned with the de-regulation of media and alternative or community media do not figure in their scenarios at all. For more links on this issue go to:

    http://www.cmn.ie/cmnsitenew/directory/news.htm

    I sincerely hope Near FM stays a community station - it has been doing an excellent job for its first 10 years. Interestingly, the podcast sends Near FM far and wide - also allowing it to better serve communities of interest as well as its geographical community, so it is developing in more ways than one.

    Keep up the good work!

    Margaret Gillan
    CMN

  6. 6 Alan Fitzpatrick

    Iam interested in resurrecting a radio station on the southside
    with the possibility of uniting both sides of this divided city,
    Not running in opposition against your station. Im sure their is a multitude of variations in programming that would hold a capitive
    audience, in a tennis rally style interviews across the liffey divide,
    also talent competitions and arts exchange etc.

    Alan Fitzpatrick

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