Dan Healy may be departing Independent Radio Sales shortly for the joys of heading up RTÉ 2fm but, before his exit, the IRS chief executive has signed off on a deal to represent Phantom 105.2 on its advertising sales platform.

The agreement marks a return to the fold for Phantom, which is part-owned by Communicorp, after a period of 14 months in which it handled its own agency sales. The station "has made great strides in recent years and has really strengthened its programming", Healy says in the press release announcing the deal.

Phantom has made a number of cutbacks and changes to its schedule over the past 12 months, with presenters such as Michelle Doherty, Alison Curtis and Tara Gleeson leaving the station. (Doherty is now concentrating on her acting career, Curtis has returned to Today FM and Gleeson is hosting a Sunday morning show on temporary weekend FM licence holders 8Radio.)

Healy says the addition of Phantom “greatly strengthens and diversifies” the position of IRS in the Dublin market, where the local radio sales house already represents rock station Radio Nova and country station Sunshine 106.8. The former pirate will be included in IRS’s Ireland FM package of 20-plus stations.

'Niche following'
Phantom, which uses "we don't play disposable rubbish" as its musical mission statement, offers advertisers "access to a discerning and influential market that is hard to target through any other media", claims chief executive Ricky Geraghty.

“We spent most of last year enhancing the profile of Phantom and establishing our own market and I’m now pleased that we’ve agreed fair terms to rejoin IRS.”

The latest Joint National Listenership Research survey shows that Phantom has a 0.9 per cent share of the Dublin radio market – an audience that Geraghty describes as a “strong niche following”.