The station is now available in five cities with a full national service in the pipeline
SPIRIT RADIO, Ireland’s first Christian radio station, goes live on air today. The promoters needed the patience of Job to make it this far but at last their prayers have been answered.
The station was awarded a radio licence by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland in 2007. However, initial plans for Spirit Radio to broadcast nationwide were shelved once the economic downturn took hold.
From today, Spirit will be available in five cities: Dublin (89.9FM), Limerick (89.8FM), Waterford (90.1FM), Cork (90.9FM) and Galway (91.7FM). The station’s backers have promised the BAI that a full national AM service will be on air within 18 months.
According to Rob Clarke, Spirit’s chief executive: “Though we were awarded the licence more than three years ago, fundraising was more difficult than we anticipated. Now we have raised the €300,000 we needed for the FM transmission network and working capital requirements. We’ll be on air 24 hours a day seven days a week.”
Helping with the fundraising was one Irish-American lady who volunteered to help set up the studio while on holidays in Ireland and gave a donation of $10,000.
As a not-for-profit company with charitable status, Spirit will carry some advertising but will be largely dependent on listeners’ donations. Clarke says that while Spirit has been in to pitch some ad agencies, the agencies are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Spirit’s format is largely music driven, with a morning chat show presented by Ronan Johnston and a late-night chat show from 10pm targeting younger listeners. The presenter line-up includes former 4FM newsreader Bernie Jameson. UTV will be providing the news feed for bulletins.
“It’s a Q102 poppy kind of sound,” says Clarke. “Christian music is the fastest growing music genre in the world. It sounds just like all other contemporary pop music except the lyrics deal with issues of faith. It’s a huge market in the US but it’s not heard here. Until now, Ireland has been the only country in Europe without a national Christian radio station.”
Cork radio listeners have been able to tune into their own local Christian station Life 91.3FM for the last three years.
Spirit’s board of directors, chaired by engineer Tom Ascough, includes former Aer Lingus boss Dermot Mannion; leading solicitor Declan Moylan; Peter Coyne, former chairman of Dublin Docklands Authority; and Basil Good, owner of Isaacs Group.
Two board members with solid radio experience are Brian Daly, chief executive of Life FM in Cork, and Sean Ashmore, chief executive of Dublin country music station Sunshine Radio.
With 12 full-time staff and offices in Hume House, Ballsbridge, Spirit will need plenty of listeners’ donations to stay on air. Clarke says: “We have built up a database of people supporting us financially by occasional gifts or by standing order. Our hope would be to grow to a level where we have up to 2,000 listeners supporting us with donations of between €10 and €30 a month. That’s what we would be aiming for but we are long way short of that right now.”
***
How does a new optician compete against the marketing firepower of Specsavers?
That’s the conundrum facing German-born Sven Behrens, who opened Opticks on South Anne Street in Dublin late last year.
For the first year of trading, Behrens has budgeted a €100,000 spend on advertising and marketing, under the direction of ad agency Boys and Girls.
When the shop opened, Behrens ran a series of press ads for five weeks in national newspapers and Metro Herald. Behrens says he advertised in newspapers because his upmarket target audience responds well to press adverts.
“Those ads definitely brought customers through the door,” says Behrens. “From there we moved to developing our web presence with an online booking tool on our website. We use Facebook and Twitter to offer promotions. Last week we were giving away a two-minute eye profile and secured 15 new customers.”
Behrens is confident there is a gap in the market for his venture.
“We thoroughly researched the optical market before pressing ahead. In Ireland there is one optician for every 14,000 people while on the continent there is one optician looking after 8,000 people. So I believe there is room for more opticians in Ireland.”
Behrens makes use of the busy footfall on adjacent Grafton Street with street promotions. Last week he had actors dressed up as astronauts promoting Opticks’ Carl Zeiss eye solutions. The space connection is that Carl Zeiss optical instruments were on board Apollo 11 when it landed on the moon. In March, he will be promoting Opticks’ sunglasses and will focus on glasses for golfers in April.
siobhan@businessplus.ie
