THE Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) will consider advertising a local radio licence for the Limerick area, following yesterday's High Court decision.
The court ruled in favour of the IRTC which terminated the contract of Radio Limerick One Ltd, the only termination of a contract in the seven year history of local commercial radio in Ireland.
The view within the IRTC is that the licence of Radio Limerick One, the company operating Radio Limerick, has now in fact been terminated in accordance with the High Court decision.
However, a spokesman for Radio Limerick said the station would be appealing the decision. In the meantime, the IRTC is allowing Radio Limerick to continue broadcasting.
An IRTC statement said it was satisfied with the ruling. "The court ruled that the IRTC's decision to terminate Radio Limerick One Ltd's licence for serious and repeated breaches of its broadcasting contract had been properly reached by the Commission."
The chief executive of the IRTC, Mr Michael O'Keeffe, said the IRTC did not invite such conflicts. The breaches alleged by the IRTC included failure to maintain the 20 per cent requirement for news and current affairs, offering advertising as programming, and failure to admit an IRTC accountant to inspect the books.
In early March, Radio Limerick was granted an interim injunction and given leave to seek a judicial review of the IRTC's decision. After two hearings, in April and July, the court found in favour of the IRTC.
Ms Eileen Brophy, who was mentioned in the case, is a former journalist at Radio Limerick. She took an unfair dismissals case against the station, which the company settled.
Ms Brophy was appointed to the IRTC at about the same time as she was dismissed from the station, where she had presented a morning magazine programme. She was the equality officer of the National Union of Journalists.
Ms Brophy became a freelance journalist and continued to provide radio news reports for Independent Radio News (IRN), the national news service operated by Dublin's 98 FM.
On one occasion she reported from Limerick for IRN, whose service is taken by Radio Limerick. However, music was played over Ms Brophy's report. The IRTC considered this also to be a breach of the contract.
Radio Limerick alleged the IRTC acted in a biased manner in relation to the station, even though Ms Brophy took no part in decisions relating to the station at IRTC meetings. The allegation of bias against Ms Brophy was withdrawn by Radio Limerick, though it continued to allege that the IRTC acted in a biased manner.
Radio Limerick's contract would have come up for renewal next month, after seven years on air. However, the original contracts did not allow the IRTC simply to withdraw contracts after the contract period, but only to negotiate changes. New contracts, currently being negotiated with the 21 local stations include a clause allowing for contracts to be withdrawn after the seven year period.
At a time when radio is attracting an increasing share of the local market, Radio Limerick has not been performing well. Nationally, local radio has a share of 46 per cent, while Radio Limerick has 33 per cent. It has also gone against the general trend for local radio stations in the west, with Radio Kerry holding 53 per cent, Clare FM 46 per cent, and Highland Radio in Donegal 73 per cent.
Hovever, it is reaching a sizeable audience every day, with 69 per cent of Limerick people saying they listen to the station at some time every day.