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Timeline of radio in Northern Ireland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a timeline of the development of radio in Northern Ireland.

1970s

[edit]
  • 1975
    • 1 January – BBC Radio Ulster is launched, and becomes the first full-time radio station for Northern Ireland. It replaces what had been an opt-out of BBC Radio 4 (previously the BBC Northern Ireland Home Service) and launches as a result of the BBC's widely regarded under-reporting of the UWC Strike in May 1974.
  • 1977
    • No events.
  • 1978
    • No events.

1980s

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  • 1980
    • No events.
  • 1981
    • No events.
  • 1982
    • No events.
  • 1983
    • Plans for a station, Northside Sound, in the Derry region collapse.
  • 1984
    • No events.
  • 1985
    • No events.
  • 1987
    • Late in 1987, Downtown Radio begins broadcasting to the Enniskillen and Omagh areas of Northern Ireland and to coincide with its expanded broadcast area, the station rebrands itself as 'DTRFM' to reflect that it now broadcasts to wider areas of Northern Ireland.
  • 1989
    • No events.

1990s

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  • 1991
    • No events.
  • 1993
    • No events.
  • 1994
    • Classic Trax BCR relaunches as 96.7 BCR.
  • 1997
    • Townland Radio is relaunched as Goldbeat.
  • 1999
    • 22 May – Goldbeat and Heartbeat 1521 close down and both AM licences are handed back to the then UK regulator The Radio Authority
    • 19 August – BBC Radio 1 broadcasts its first split programming when it introduces weekly national new music shows for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Session in Northern Ireland is presented by Colin Murray and Donna Legge.[4]

2000s

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  • 2001
    • No events.
  • 2002
    • 19 March – Q101.2 begins broadcasting to Omagh and Enniskillen.
    • After years of campaigning by locals for the re-advertising of a radio licence for Mid-Ulster, Ofcom awards an FM licence for the area to Belfast CityBeat and launches the station as Mid FM.
  • 2003
    • 1 February – Mid 106 FM begins broadcasting across mid Ulster.
  • 2004
    • No events.
  • 2008
    • No events.

2010s

[edit]
  • 2010
    • 26 July – The BBC announces a trial scheme under which BBC Radio Foyle would be available on DAB as a part-time sidecar station to Radio Ulster, using a similar format as the part-time longwave-programming optouts of BBC Radio 4 on the BBC National DAB multiplex. During this trial, the bitrate of Radio Ulster drops during Foyle's separate broadcast hours, with Foyle carried as a split audio stream in the remaining space; outside of split shows, the full bitrate would revert to Radio Ulster.[5]
  • 2011
    • November – 6FM is rebranded to 6FM in 2006 and changed name again to Q106.7 FM.
  • 2012
    • 28 June – Community station Lisburn's 98FM launches.[6]
    • December – Downtown Radio opens a small studio in Derry ahead of the city’s year of being UK City of Culture. It remains open and in use, mainly at the weekend with presenter-led programming on Saturday afternoon and Sunday covering a range of events in the region.
  • 2014
    • No events.
  • 2015
    • 6 July – Fuse FM Ballymoney launches as a full time community station.[8], becoming the first radio station in the UK to serve the Ulster Scots Community.
    • 9 August – The Q Radio Network launches. The network covers seven licence areas[9] including Belfast which sees Citybeat subsumed into the new network.
  • 2016
    • No events.
  • 2017
    • No events.
  • 2018
    • No events.
  • 2019
    • No events.

2020s

[edit]
  • 2020
    • No events.
  • 2022
    • No events.

See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Andy Walmsley (@Radiojottings)". twitter.com. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  2. ^ "BBC Radio 1 England – 25 November 1988 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
  3. ^ O'Rouke, Colm (2001). "From Downtown to out of town". Transdiffusion Broadcasting System. Archived from the original on 2008-12-08. Retrieved 2008-11-13.
  4. ^ "Biographies – Colin Murray – Presenter, Radio 1 and 5 Live". BBC Press Office. April 2010. Archived from the original on 16 January 2011. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
  5. ^ Carey. "DAB Ensembles Worldwide – Latest News & Updates". www.wohnort.org.
  6. ^ "Lisburn 98FM's Official Launch". Archived from the original on 2012-07-08.
  7. ^ "Minister welcomes digital radio boost". Belfast Telegraph. Independent News and Media. 26 July 2013. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
  8. ^ "Community Radio Stations". Ofcom. Retrieved 2015-08-27.
  9. ^ "How to Listen – Q Radio". Archived from the original on 2017-09-24.
  10. ^ Bauer to turn off AM services in Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland Radio Today, 12 November 2023