RADIO CAROUSEL (DUNDALK):
The Success Story of Local Radio
Radio Carousel is located in the Penthouse of the Dundalk Shopping
Centre occupying 2,500 square feet. It has three studios, an extensive
Record Library and various offices for the administrative staff.
Radio Carousel provides employment for 21 people. From its inception
Radio Carousel was committed to a Schedule of Programmes evenly
blended, News, Information, Features, and Music. Local involvement
has been the key to the success of Radio Carousel. Within weeks
of going on the air on May 19th 1978, Carousel had built up an audience
of which many stations on the air for several years would have been
proud. The Carousel catchment area stretches from Balbriggan to
Banbridge, from Monaghan to Navan, and it has succeeded in welding
these areas together with programming provided by a team of professional
presenters who know and feel for the area in which they work.
RADIO
CAROUSEL NETWORK:
A further expansion
The RADIO CAROUSEL NETWORK is a new concept in local radio and a further
expansion of Ireland's No.1 Local Radio Station. Each of the four Stations
operate on a completely independent and self-supporting basis, ensuring
truly local broadcasting and providing a far reaching radio network for
the most popular programmes of the day. Each of the four Stations broadcast
a minimum of 4 hours of local broadcasting with a local content, local
news, local presenters and special advertising rates for local advertisers.
All of the Stations join for the 9.00 a.m., 1.00 p.m. and 6.00 p.m. News
bulletins. The Radio Carousel network effectively covers 29% of the country.
RADIO
CAROUSEL (DUNDALK):
Area covered:
LOUTH, MONAGHAN, DOWN AND ARMAGH
Audience Rating: 178,000 (Certified) Beaming out a strong signal within
a 40 mile radius of Dundalk, its audience rating was certified (by Lansdowne
of Irish Marketing Surveys) at 178,000 and the Station has grown enormously
since the Survey. Its achievement in local radio has been well documented
during the last four and a half years and it is now firmly established
as Ireland's No.1 local Radio Station. Telephone: (042) 31164/31165
- Dundalk.
RADIO
CAROUSEL (NAVAN):
Area
covered: All of Co. Meath, East Westmeath to Mullingar. Located in the
Mall of the splendid new Navan Shopping Centre, it brings a new dimension
to Irish Radio in so far as the broadcasting studio is open to the critical
eye of the general public. Located in an impressive new glass studio in
the Mall, shoppers can see the "on the air" presenters as they do their
shopping. The reception office for Radio Carousel (Navan) is also located
in a glass building adjacent to the studio.
RADIO CAROUSEL
210M MEDIUM WAVE
ADDRESS: SHOPPING CENTRE,
NAVAN, CO. MEATH, IRELAND
TELEPHONE: (046) 28762
RADIO
CAROUSEL (NORTHERN IRELAND):
Area
covered: North to Belfast, West to Armagh City, Portadown, and Craigavon.
The newest of Radio Carousel's satellite Stations which effectively covers
3/4 of Northern Ireland with a strong signal on the 212 medium wave. For
four and a half years we have been aware of the vast listenership that
Radio Carousel has in Northern Ireland. This frequency was designed specifically
to give our many Northern Ireland listeners their own local programmes,
as well as improving the quality of our signal, especially from 6.00 p.m.
onwards.
RADIO
CAROUSEL (DROGHEDA):
Area
covered: South Louth, North Dublin. This was the first of Radio Carousel's
satellite Stations and proved very effective in getting the Radio Carousel
signal into the outskirts of Dublin. The fully equipped studio is located
beside the picturesque Boyne Valley Hotel, ensuring a quality signal for
Carousel's many listeners south of the Boyne. Telephone: (041)31396 Drogheda.
ABOUT
RADIO CAROUSEL:
Radio Carousel
provides a very wide range of programming including educational, religious,
informational, chudrens and other minority programmes which give a truly
balanced listening programmes for everyone. The programming is spontaneous
and flexible, so that urgent information can be transmitted without
delay, and of course they are uniquely local so that they can broadcast
information which is totally relevant to their own area. Radio
Carousel has acquired the reputation as "the place to turn" - individuals,
local authorities, police and emergency services know that Radio Carousel
can respond at a personal level to the problems of individual listeners,
and at community level to local cries. Help or information is just a
'phone call away. Radio Carousel's local identity is an important element
in attracting such a substantial and diverse audience.
ADVERTISING
CONTROL:
Radio
Carousel take great care in the examination of advertisements from any
source before they are broadcast to ensure they do not mislead harm or
offend. Our advertising department are skilled in Radio production, and
have managed to come up with some of the best commercials heard on radio
in these Islands. It is the Policy of Radio Carousel to limit advertising
to 9 minutes per hour.
OB
UNIT:
The
Radio Carousel Outside Broadcast unit frees the Station from the confines
of the studio, and allows it to take the programmes to the audience hence
more and more people are able to share in local events and activities,
by being present. The Radio Carousel mobile studio has been a focal point
at functions as diverse as the Shelagh Field Day of sports and activities,
tossing the sheaf, tossing the wellie, and egg and spoon race, to the
final of the Art Competition where prize-winners ranging in age from 6
- 14 years were presented with their prizes. The Radio Carousel outside
broadcast unit also gives the public the opportunity of meeting the presenters
and finding what the face behind the voice is like, while picking up t-shirts
and car stickers, and seeing in a small way how a radio programme works,
as well as giving the people an opportunity of being a disc jockey themselves.
NEWS:
Radio
Carousel has a very efficient professional news-reporting team and all
aspects of local news is covered. Radio Carousel has its own regular contributors
from every town in the area. In addition Radio Carousel's political correspondent,
Dermot Kelly, an experienced journalist with the Irish Times, has been
an unbiased and highly skilled political pundit who has covered every
aspect of the political scene with particular emphasis on the recent General
Election. The Radio Carousel "News at 1" is an exhaustive 12 minute round-up
of all the national, international and local news presented by Mike Ahern
and Dave Scott. It invariably features on the phone reports and interviews
with the people who are making the news. "Programmes for everyone" is
every Programme director's aim, and the research findings have shown just
how well Radio Carousel have succeeded in this. It appeals to a much more
representative cross-section of the population that it is possible to
do on a National network. It is very popular among men and women and its
weekly audience includes almost equal numbers of both. Rather than recruiting
the majority of its listeners from one narrow age gap, Radio Carousel
draws its audience from all age groups as the accompanying chart will
illustrate. The major audience comes from the 25-54 age group.
CAROUSEL'S
WORK FOR CHARITY:
Radio Carousel's
Managing Director, Hugh Hardy recently raised £1,170 for charity,
bringing the total which the former Showband Manager has raised for
charity, over the £100,000 mark! Since the start of Radio Carousel
four years ago he has been regularly involved in raising substantial
sums of money for charities - as contrasting as the Kampuchean Refugee
Fund, Oxfam, and on the home front, meals-on-wheels, Simon, Red Cross
and Re-hab to name but a few. It started with a three-mile sponsored
jog for Re-hab to which his listeners sponsored him to the tune of £2,000.
A sponsored walk for a local school raised a further £3,000, and
listeners to Hardy's daily programme "Country Call" were responsible
for raising £32,000 cash in just five days for a local nurse on
her way to help Kampuchean refugees. Last year he was elected Dundalk's
first Lord Mayor in a fund-raising event that raised a staggering £55,000
for the Ultra-sound machine for the Louth County Hospital. Nine months
ago his Christmas Lord Mayor's Appeal fund raised £3,000 for the
poor and needy while other similar chartiable promotions over the past
few years have raised in excess of £3,000, and this latest sponsored
slim has now shot his fund raising achievements to over the £100,000
mark, an incredible achievement!
THE
DAILY SCHEDULE (DUNDALK):
7
a.m. - 9 a.m.
The
Breakfast Show with Shane Mullen.
Weather and traffic reports, time checks and lively chat.
9
a.m. News
9a.m.-
12noon
Mike Ahern Show - a Current Affairs programme with guests, political,
religious, and/cultural discussions on various topics.
12
noon - 1 p.m.
Country Call with Hugh Hardy - fast moving Country programme with phone-in,
comments and valuable Quiz, e.g. 2 week holiday in Florida; 2 weeks in
Nashville etc.
1
p.m.
Main News
1.10-3.00
Lunchtime Express: Music, Features, Requests and Quiz.
3p.m.-4p.m.
The Hugh Hardy Show.
4
p.m. - 6 p.m.
The Tony Farrelly Show.
6
p.m.
News
6.10
Carousel tonight - a daily diary of the events happening 'tonight'.
6.25
Sports Report with Shay Breslin - a daily 35 minute sports programme with
results, analyses, discussion guests and previews.
7
p.m. - 8 p.m.
Country Call with Hugh Hardy - another 60 minute jam-packed programme
of Country Music.
8p.m.-
10p.m.
The Bob Lee Show - Pop music for younger listeners.
9
p.m. - 1 a.m.
Late Night Radio - A three hour programme of Easy Listening Music catering
to all tastes.
Other
Programmes include - On Saturday morning the popular "Children's Corner"
with Penny Palmer; Sunday evening, traditional music, classical jazz,
and of course the ever-popular Hospital Requests on Sunday morning during
which we have a religious talk.
AUDIENCE
SURVEY:
The
Survey carried out by Lansdowne, of Irish Market Research Limited was
carried out in a 35 mile radius of Dundalk and over a 7 day period. This
Survey showed that Radio Carousel had 69.8% listenership in the Dundalk
area, or 7 out of every 10 people. This figure compares with 11% for RTE
2. The Survey also showed that Radio Carousel, far from being exclusively
a Pop Station, has a very balanced listenership, and when broken down
into an age bracket shows as follows:
15
- 24 32%
25 - 34 31%
35 - 49 36%
The Survey showed that the most popular programme on Radio Carousel is
Hugh Hardy's 12.00- 1.00 Show, which in fact is 36% ahead of the second
placed programme.
The
final figures showed that Radio Carousel had an audience rating of 178,233.
The breakdown of Radio Carousel's total weekly audience:
06-13
- 14%
14-19 - 24%
20-34 - 26%
35-60 - 28%
65+ - 8%
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