RTÉ Radio

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The first voice broadcast of 2RN, the original radio callsign for Radio 1, took place on November 14, 1925 when Seamus Clandillon, the 2RN station director said, 'Seo Raidió 2RN, Baile Átha Cliath ag tástáil', Irish for 'This is Radio 2RN, Dublin calling'. Regular Irish radio-broadcasting began on January 1, 1926. Unfortunately, most Irish people could not receive 2RN's (1.5 kilowatt) signal. When faced with numerous complaints from Cork regarding the writers' inability to tune to the signal, Clandillon remarked in The Irish Radio Review, a magazine dedicated to the service, that they did not know how to operate their sets. 6CK was established in Cork in 1927; however 6CK was mostly a relay of 2RN.

Stations

FM/AM and digital

• RTÉ Radio 1 (music and speech based broadcasting)
• RTÉ 2fm (formerly Radio 2, the RTÉ rock and pop music station)
• RTÉ lyric fm (classical music plus jazz, world music and arts)
• RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta (the Irish language station targeted at the Gaeltacht, and the Irish language-speaking community of Ireland)
• RTÉ Radio 1 Extra LW, DAB , Satellite and the Internet

Digital only

• RTÉ 2XM (youth-orientated music station)
• RTÉ Chill (chillout/ambient music station)
• RTÉ Choice (comedy, documentaries, vintage and factual programming, as well as international music)
• RTÉ Digital Radio News (rolling-news station)
• RTÉ Gold (classic hits music station)
• RTÉ Junior (children's music station)
• RTÉ Playback (listen again service with content from Radio 1 and 2fm)
• RTÉ Pulse (dance music station)
• RTÉ Radio 1 Extra (sister service to RTÉ Radio 1)

History

A high power (initially 60 kW) station was established in Athlone, in 1932, to coincide with the staging of the Eucharistic Congress. 2RN, 6CK and Athlone became known as "Radio Athlone" or, in Irish, "Raidio Áth Luain" and were receivable across virtually the entire country. Radio Athlone became known as "Radio Éireann" in 1938.

Radio Éireann tried to satisfy all tastes on a single channel (with very limited programming hours). However, this resulted in a rather conservative programming policy. It was barely tolerated by most Irish listeners, and usually trounced (particularly on the east coast and along the Northern Ireland border) by the BBC and later Radio Luxembourg. This did not really change until Radio Éireann became free of direct government control in the 1960s.

Now, RTÉ has a nation-wide communications network with an increasing emphasis on regional news-gathering and input. Broadcasting on Radio 1 provides comprehensive coverage of news, current affairs, music, drama and variety features, agriculture, education, religion and sport, mostly in English but also some Irish. RTÉ 2fm is a popular music and chat channel which commenced broadcasting as RTÉ Radio 2 on May 31 1979, Brendan Balfe being the first voice to be heard on the station at midday, when he introduced the first presenter, Larry Gogan. RTÉ Lyric FM serves the interests of classical music and the arts, coming on air in May 1999, and replacing FM3 Classical Music, which had catered for the same target audience and time-shared with RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, an exclusively Irish language service, which first began broadcasting on Easter Sunday, April 2, 1972. Formerly RTÉ operated RTÉ Radio Cork (previously 'Cork 89FM' and 'RTÉ Cork Local Radio'), a local radio service in Cork, but this closed down in the early 2000s.

Future

A slightly adapted version of Radio 1 is broadcast as RTÉ Europe on Sky Digital and Hotbird; the main difference between this and the main FM feed is the inclusion of several programmes taken from RTÉ Radio na Gaeltachta.

DAB test broadcasts of RTÉ's four stations began on January 1, 2006, along the east coast of Ireland, also carrying the private Today FM and World Radio Network, to which RTÉ is a contributing broadcaster. DAB was launched to the public in late 2006, and now contains eight RTÉ digital-only stations – RTÉ 2XM, RTÉ Chill, RTÉ Choice, RTÉ Digital Radio News, RTÉ Gold, RTÉ Junior, RTÉ Pulse and RTÉ Radio 1 Extra – as well as the four terrestrial services. RTÉ's radio stations are also carried on digital cable and satellite platforms in Ireland, as well as on digital terrestrial television, and RTÉ Radio 1 has been carried on shortwave in DRM during specific events, including the All Ireland finals.

A survey carried out by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs showed that demand for an Irish language radio station aimed at a younger audience than RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta was high. This means that RTÉ might have plans to launch such a radio station.

See Also

RTÉ