Fans mourn shut-down of radio station

Sales of high-powered aerials have soared in Sligo and Donegal following the shut down of North West Radio, it emerged today.

Former listeners of the popular local broadcaster are using the aerials to tune into its sister station, Mid West Radio.

Mid West Radio chief executive Paul Claffey said his presenters were getting calls from listeners in Sligo town, Manorhamilton in Leitrim and Killybegs in Donegal.

“Many of the electrical dealers there will tell you they’re inundated with people looking for outside aerials. You have people climbing up on roofs to put up an outside aerial, some of them successful, some of them not so successful,” he said.

North West Radio regularly achieved listernership levels of more than 70% but lost its licence for the north-west area to Ocean FM this year.

Mr Claffey said listeners had appreciated the music played by the station.

“Country music and traditional music is very much alive and well in rural Ireland and that’s part and parcel of our schedule. There’s a huge market for us in elderly people who like the company of the radio at night and we recognise that.”

He said it was a boost that former North West Radio listeners were still tuning in.

“Obviously 14 or 15 years of loyal listening isn’t going to be broken too easily.”

The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) awarded the licence to Ocean FM, which promised a dedicated, stand-alone service with more popular music and local news all week.

North West Radio embarked on a costly and ultimately unsuccessful legal battle to challenge the BCI’s decision.

“It’s a bewilderment to everyone out there how we lost the licence, we being the number one station. We had to explore every avenue because it was such a bizarre decision,” said Mr Claffey.

Ocean FM, which went on the air last October, said it did not believe many listeners in its franchise area were tuning in to Mid West Radio.

“The success of local radio is that it is local. Mid West Radio is not local,” said chief executive Tim Collins.

“If people are listening, I think they’re listening in small numbers.”

He said Ocean FM was a broad based station that provided a range of music to young as well as older listeners, and had put its signal into areas ignored by North West Radio.

“Our new outside broadcast vehicle arrived the other day. We’re really happy with how it’s going.”

The station caused controversy when its submission to the BCI described listeners in the north-west area as “old, lacking aspiration, conservative, retired, unemployed and coming from a lower social class”.

Mr Collins said this was “old news” and had not been mentioned by any listeners since the station went on air.