It describes itself on its promotional literature as "Radio for the mood you are in", and it seems a lot of people are in the mood for Lyric FM, the classical music and arts station that is only four months old this week. In the latest radio listenership figures it achieved an impressive 5 per cent audience reach for the first two months on air.
It compares well with the other recent start-up, Radio Ireland, which was reaching only 4 per cent after three months on air and famously had a mere 1 per cent share of the market. Lyric has 2 per cent after a shorter period and is growing.
Radio Ireland, as we all remember, hardly improved, was re-launched as Today FM and is now doing much better.
What is remarkable about Lyric is that it took so long to get on air and then was not given much chance by the industry. It was assumed it would occupy the niche held by FM3, the night-time-only classical station, attracting only a few classical music buffs.
Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) shows that Lyric is doing especially well in Dublin and has a surprising audience spread, with 40 per cent of its listenership between 15 and 35 years.
At night, when some of the most interesting music is played, Lyric is reaching 17 per cent of the Dublin radio audience.
The figures show some interesting changes in listenership patterns, especially on RTE Radio 1. They obviously reflect changes in programming and the way programmes have been stripped across the schedule.
For years Morning Ireland had the highest listenership of any programme in the State. That has now changed. The 9-11 a.m. slot is achieving a greater audience than Morning Ireland.
Marian Finucane has weathered the change from the afternoon to the morning and thrived. The first hour of Today with Pat Kenny, and Ms Finucane's new morning show, bridge the two hours with the highest listenership. Live Line, presented by Joe Duffy, has slipped, but it was always going to be hard to hold on to an audience Ms Finucane had built up over 13 years. The 911 a.m. slot has an audience of just under 500,000. Morning Ireland is attracting about 450,000.
However, while those in the radio centre in Montrose will be pleased with Lyric FM's performance, the decline in Radio 1 will be a major worry. Within the independent sector, the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) was jubilant that its sector had achieved a 51 per cent share, overtaking the combined RTE stations, at 49 per cent, for the first time.
The IRTC was seeking to suggest that Today FM's result was better than it actually is, presumably to suggest that the IRTC's strategy over the past few years was paying off.
In reality, Today FM's result did not change dramatically. Its market share was up one percentage point to 7 per cent. It appears, however, to be making gains within specific demographic groups, those which Today FM is seeking to attract.
Dublin is interesting in that it is where the power of marketing is most evident. Whatever figures you care to use, market share or audience reach, RTE's 2FM is being beaten into fourth place, after Radio 1, 98FM and FM 104. Today FM is trailing at 5 per cent. But the real winner is clearly 98FM. It is now the second most popular station after RTE Radio 1 and first among the music stations.
If the radio war in Dublin has been a cold one, it is about to hot up. The IRTC has begun the process of granting five new licences for stations in Dublin. Those will probably be on air in time to be included in the listenership figures that will be published next August.
Michael Foley is a lecturer in journalism at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and a media commentator