Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

The latest JNLR figures have been released and they indicate a couple of growing trends. The big winners again are regional and commercial stations, whereas RTE, the national broadcaster, continues to lose listeners. In terms of the Irish context, the figures show that 85% of adults listen to radio daily, a statistic which underlines the importance of radio in our culture.

In fairness to RTE though, media experts have noted that given their previous monopoly of the airwaves, the national broadcaster has only one way to go, and that’s down. The real worry though is how far the mighty will fall.

Regional stations’ success continues to grow in leaps and bounds, something that PR consultancies will need to bear in mind. While some companies may prefer to be featured on national stations, the figures show that local people are tuning into the likes of Limerick Live 95 or Ocean FM. It’s not enough to be familiar with the big shows like Morning Ireland and The Last Word. If we are to offer a good service to our clients, we’re going to have to tune into the regional stations also. Thankfully Internet offers those of us in the Big Smoke a means to tune into some of those stations which the radio in the office won’t pick up.

On the commercial radio front, Today FM and NewsTalk 106 are also going from strength to strength. Presenters like Ray Darcy, Ian Dempsey and Tom Dunne are really wiping the floor with 2FM’s opposition.

Emmet Oliver in the Irish Times notes that NewsTalk 106 is in pole position for a national license, but wonders whether the likes of George Hook and Eamonn Dunphy will still be able to pull in the listeners. In my opinion, due to both pundits’ personalities and their media exposure in their sports pundit positions on RTE television, Hook and Dunphy will have no problem in repeating their success on a national scale. Obviously NewsTalk’s programming will need to be tweaked slightly as I think that shows with a heavy Dublin emphasis like Sean Moncrieff’s will get slightly lost in translation.

Technorati Tags: JNLR, NewsTalk 106, RTE, Today FM