PHANTOM FM TO RETURN TO THE DUBLIN AIRWAVES!

dublin | miscellaneous | press release

Wednesday October 01, 2003 14:48

by Paul Kinsella - Free the airwaves

paulkinsella53 at yahoo dot com

53 Lorcan Grove, Santry, Dublin 9, Eire

087 - 9748511

PHANTOM FM TO RETURN TO THE DUBLIN AIRWAVES!

Yep, good news at last. Phantom has got itself a temporary 30 day
licence from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and will be on air
Saturdays and Sundays from October 18th to January 18th. Frequency will be
97.3FM and of course live at www.phantomfm.com

More details to follow later in the week, and published below is our
press release :)

PHANTOM FM TO RETURN TO THE DUBLIN AIRWAVES.

DUBLIN - Phantom FM, the popular Dublin based modern rock radio station
is
to make a return to the FM waveband this October. The station has
secured a
Temporary Radio Licence from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland
(BCI)
allowing it to broadcast for 14 successive weekends over a three month
period. The return of Phantom FM will be welcomed by thousands of
musically
disenfranchised young Dubliners in a city where a licensed specialist
modern
rock service has so far been lacking.

Phantom FM will offer a "modern rock" programme schedule consisting of
Irish
and international indie/alternative rock artists with a heavy emphasis
on
emerging talent from the Dublin scene that are under represented on the
play
lists of existing commercial stations. Live interviews and in studio
sessions will be a regular feature of programming that will be
presented by
enthusiastic and informed presenters. A measure of the calibre of the
new
broadcasting talent nurtured by Phantom FM is the fact that key music
programmes on Today FM, 2FM and FM104 are all presented by ex-Phantom
DJs.
The station also plans to host number of live concerts in Dublin venues
that
will be broadcast live along with a series of music workshops for new
bands
and artists.

"We will be championing the local music scene and are proud to do so"
says
Simon Maher, Phantoms station manager, "There is a wealth of local
bands and
artists who are recording music, filling venues and have healthy CD
sales
yet are rarely heard on local or national radio. Radio airplay is
crucial
to nurturing this talent who are a valuable micro-economy in
themselves. We'
re grateful to the BCI for giving us this opportunity". Maher cites
the
thousands of survey forms received from online listeners who want to
hear
new Irish music on the air and broad support from the music industry.

Phantom FM will broadcast on 97.3 MHz FM across Dublin city every
weekend
commencing on October 18th right through until the final broadcast in
the
series on January 18th, 2004. Programming will run each weekend from
midnight Friday until midnight Sunday. Outside of these hours the
station
will continue to transmit via the web at www.phantomfm.com. The
station
will be funded by revenues generated by programme sponsorship.

Wireless Media Ltd., the promoters of Phantom FM have recently made a
submission of interest to the BCI to operate a similar radio service on
a
permanent basis in Dublin. The station twice applied in the past for a
Special Interest Radio licence, narrowly losing out to Country 106.8FM
in
2001. In its current submission to the BCI, Phantom FM has emphasised
the
need for a medium sized station that would provide a specialist modern
rock
music with a low cost base and that would be independently owned. The
promoters are undeterred by the many larger radio interests who have
become
suddenly interested in operating a Phantom FM style service.

ENDS.

For further information on this release please
contact:

Simon Maher: Tel (087) 271 2321 or email simonmaher@utvinternet.com
Gerard Roe: Tel (087) 630 7627 or email groe@eircom.net

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Comments (10 of 10)

Free advertising for Phantom

by Neimad

Wed Oct 01, 2003 16:07

"Great news" - if Phantom continues the way it has been going with vaccous DJs (Jenny take note) and increasing commercialism, it will be hard to tell the difference between it and the other shite on the airwaves. Indeed it has been functioning as a feeder of staff for the mainstream stations as you proudly boast. "Modern rock" me arse.

Who are Phantom FM? and what are their policies?

by jeejeeheeheeiiiiyy

Wed Oct 01, 2003 16:55

Good!

by Killian

Wed Oct 01, 2003 19:51

Good stuff, we could do with an decent reliable indie station in the city. Good luck.

Whats the status with the full licence application?

expect plenty of bell x1, mansun etc

by Conor - ucd SA (selling airways)

Wed Oct 01, 2003 20:39

conor at ziplip dot com

horray.
the last poster was right, phantom is no more pirate that keith richards.
C

Good points

Wed Oct 01, 2003 22:22

It's certainly true that Phantom FM have taken an extremely conservative approach to coming back on air following the BCI's raid earlier this year - Whereas most of the other pirates such as the dance ones like KISS FM and others playing for example 70's;80's; and 90's music (SUN 101.2 FM; JAM FM; and another unidentified station on 88.1FM) have come back on air Phantom stayed silent - The reason? Probably as they admit themselves they still want a licence to broadcast legally - But I believe that anybody who wants to; should be allowed to set up their own radio station; so long as they don't cause any interference - This should apply to TV as well.

No, no, no

by Daithi

Thu Oct 02, 2003 10:04

That's nonsense, Paul, and you well know it. If anyone is allowed to set up their own station, the commercial groups will quickly dominate the airwaves even quicker than before. What you're basically proposing is full deregulation, rather than proper reform of the licence system.

It's also a recipe for engineering chaos...although there is certainly room for a few more stations on FM in Dublin (AM is a different matter - good potential there), it's not a great and undiscovered land...there are natural limits to how much you can squeeze in before everyone's signal quality suffers.

This decision, in particular, is extremely shortsighted. It removes yet another frequency from general use in Dublin. 97.3 has been used by numerous colleges and community groups for one-week licences in the past - with the ever-commercialised Phantom occupying the weekend slot, that's not going to be possible. The temporary stations have been driven up and down the band, after the loss of 106.8 and 103.8 over the past few years. The Commission should be allocating more stations for community/institutional use...not reinforcing the commercial domination of the Dublin airwaves. And I don't give two hoots if the music is more 'credible'. Ultimately it's the same story, but with guitars.

But it's OK, cause 'pirate' sounds, like, radical, and cool, right?

link to last article on Ireland and her pirate airwaves.

by a pirate

Thu Oct 02, 2003 13:44

There is an indymedia ireland radio list.
= join it.
To use radio as a communicative/subversive/activist tool you don't need to be the owner/licensed user. you just need to find "space".
---- and keep it. And those nasty fascists who are trying of late to silence pirate stations throughout Europe can stop it right now!

and if anyone is within reception distance the third in the series of broadcasts "E.S.P.=elektro-sagrada-profana" will happen @ about 00h00 - 03h00 tonight/tomorrow morning. 91.4 FM BarCeloNa.

With a wide cross selection of vibrationary rates, clues for the wise and fumbling with the microphone. (We promise not to play Eddy Grant's electric avenue this week).

Daithi

Thu Oct 02, 2003 14:53

Daithi; With more and more people using automatic scanning, and/or digital radios you can fit an awful of stations onto the FM band. This digital tuners are very precise - For example on my Sony walkman radio you can tune it to every 0.05 MHz. You are right though about the AM band not being utilised - This has always been a bone of contention with me; there should be more people broadcasting on AM because you can transmit much further distances than FM. Finally I'll just repeat what I said in my original posting just in cause there was any confusion "But I believe that anybody who wants to; should be allowed to set up their own radio station; so long as they don't cause any interference - This should apply to TV as well."

what comprimises will

by ersfgdafg

Thu Oct 02, 2003 18:09

phantom have to make to get back on air?

Hurray for Phantom!

by Deirdre Clancy - Pitstop Ploughshares/Fairview anti-war group

Thu Oct 02, 2003 20:32

dee_clancy at yahoo dot co dot uk

Can't wait to hear Pearl's show on a Sunday again! Yay!

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PHANTOM FM TO RETURN TO THE DUBLIN AIRWAVES!

Comments (10 of 10)