RTE Radio 1 will see its listenership come under attack in the new year when Dublin's new music-driven station for the over-35s begins broadcasting.
This was the message from the four applicant groups who presented arguments at hearings before the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC) yesterday. Teams from Sunshine FM, Lite FM, Gold FM and Easy FM made their cases to nine members of the IRTC board.
The board will have some choice among these four applicants in terms of music programming. Gold FM, a consortium that includes TV3 and Today FM directors, offers a strict "oldies" format based on pop from the 1960s and early 1970s; Sunshine FM, drawing heavily on County Media Ltd, owner of Cork's successful County Sound 96FM, promises a mix of easy listening with country-and-Irish; Lite FM, led by Block Media, offers an easy-listening format; Easy FM, with Crimeline presenter David Harvey set to be chief executive and programme controller, and Britain's Chrysalis Radio also involved, was vague about its music format, suggesting it would be "research-led".
All the applicants assured the board of their commitment to meeting the statutory 20 per cent news and current affairs requirement.
The music station may not be the only one targeting the Radio 1 audience. News Talk 106FM, a consortium of the State's 20 local commercial stations, made a presentation on Monday for the "broad-based speech-driven" service. It is the only applicant in this category.
In all four categories for which there have been hearings, written questions have been given to each applicant group, with replies due next week. Decisions are likely to be made on the award of contracts at an IRTC meeting on Monday, October 11th.