Fiktiv Ireland - Communicorp

Communicorp Media is a media holding company based in Ireland, owned by the Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien.

Communicorp Group Ltd was formed by Denis O'Brien in 1989. It launched its radio operations in Ireland that same year and entered the Czech Republic in 1992. It later added stations in Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland and Hungary. Based in Dublin, the company now owns radio stations including Ireland's Newstalk, Today FM, 98FM, SPIN 1038 and SPIN South West. O'Brien owns both of Ireland's independent (non-state-operated) national radio stations.

The group divested its assets in Latvia, Finland and the Czech Republic in 2012; Hungary in 2013. The Bulgarian stations were sold in 2018.

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100-102 Today FM, is a commercial FM radio station which is available nationally in Ireland. Broadcasting since 17 March 1997 (Saint Patrick's Day), it carries music and talk. The station was purchased by Denis O'Brien's Communicorp in 2007. Today FM broadcasts from studios in Marconi House, Digges Lane, Dublin 2.

On 26 March 2018, Today FM launched sister streaming stations that focus on music from the 1980s, 1990s, these being Today FM 80s and Today FM 90s. Both stations are available exclusively through TodayFM.com and app.

Today FM airs a mixture of popular music and news and current affairs programming. The station broadcasts 24-hours a day; however, from around 2am until 5am on weekdays, 2am until 7am on Saturdays, and 1am until 7am on Sundays, the station just broadcasts back-to-back music overnight with no presenters or programmes. This is done by many Irish radio stations, usually to save costs in employing overnight presenters and technicians.

The weekend schedule is regularly changed at particular times of year to accommodate extra sports programming, such as during the GAA hurling and football championships, when Championship Sunday airs. Similarly, Scrum Saturday is broadcast during the Six Nations Championship and other periods when the Irish national side is in action. Outside of the Premier League season, or on weekends without league games, the Saturday afternoon slot is hosted by Martin King.

Through hourly bulletins and a dedicated lunchtime news programme, Today FM provides a comprehensive and regular news service around the clock. The service comprises national and international news alongside regional and local news that is of national significance or that has universal resonance with our audience.

Working out of our Dublin newsroom, Today FM’s team of highly experienced journalists research and prepare stories from the capital and from across the country. Our established network of freelance reporters, often based in local radio stations and newspapers, ensures that we are able to provide near-universal coverage of Irish news stories. Whenever a major story breaks, a Today FM reporter will be on site very quickly and our reporting technology guarantees the highest audio quality for their reports.

The station broadcasts news bulletins on the hour around the clock (every half-hour during the weekday morning and afternoon shows and weekend morning show). The bulletins vary in duration from two to three minutes, depending on the time of the broadcast. An extended 15-minute bulletin is broadcast on weekdays at 1pm.

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Newstalk is an independent radio station in the Republic of Ireland. It is operated by News 106 Limited, a subsidiary of Denis O'Brien's Communicorp, and broadcasts under a sound broadcasting contract with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. The station is a "quasi-national" (covering most, but not all of the state) station as of 29 September 2006, previously having been an Independent Local Radio station with a franchise for Dublin.

The station first went on air (under its original name NewsTalk 106) on 9 April 2002, with David McWilliams the first presenter.

Newstalk is a predominately speech-based service comprising news, information, sport and talk-back programmes. Shows are broadcast live from 6am - 12am on weekdays, 7am - 12am on Saturdays and 7am - 11pm on Sundays. Outside these hours, repeats are broadcast.

At Newstalk our philosophy is to know our listeners and to serve them. All top-class media is about service. Ultimately our listeners want their lives to be enriched by listening to our station. This isn’t a grandiose aspiration. Rather it is an acknowledgement of the fact that our listeners live in a world where multiple voices and opinions compete for their attention. Our aim is to take these voices and opinions – and the vested interests that they represent – and distil the “babble” into cogent, crisp and defining discussion for Ireland.

Newstalk offers its listeners fresh insights on big global issues and trends in international politics and business. It brings a different take on entertainment and sports. It opens up debate in an objective but lively way. It enters a world of new ideas in a non-judgemental way. The music is a limited, but complementary part of the schedule.

Newstalk dedicates 25 hours per week to live coverage of sport including live commentaries and reports from various sporting fixtures, discussion, interviews and a strong input from its listeners. Newstalk intends to own the experience of going to matches, to be the home of debate and analysis and to bring a fresh approach to the issue of winning rights and delivering the live sports experience to the discriminating Irish sports fan.

Newstalk’s award winning newsroom is the engine room of the station. News is a crucial element of the overall service and it will continue to occupy a pivotal role. Consistently high standards will be demanded from our dedicated and experienced team of journalists.

Newstalk offers a first class “top of the hour” and “half hour” service for a national radio audience by drawing on our team’s own experience as broadcast journalists and by relying on the resources of respected international wire services such as Reuters and the Press Association. We also have access to a nationwide network of freelance journalists.

We have individual correspondents in the fields of politics, crime/courts, business and sports. They cover all major news events and inject news updates and analysis to all programmes across the Newstalk schedule.

Our existing programme schedule allows the flexibility to replace existing programmes with breaking news. Our aim is to serve the listener, to deliver every hour and day the sort of news, analysis and comment that informs, entertains and is relevant to the listener.

Newstalk provides a fresh mix of National, Regional, Local and World news every half-hour, seven days a week. The weather forecast is included in every bulletin. Our bulletins on the hour are 5 minutes in length. On the half-hour, they are 3 minutes long. Sports headlines are broadcast immediately after the top of the hour news with a full sports bulletin after news headlines on the half hour.

AA Roadwatch broadcasts traffic updates before the news at the top and bottom of each hour. There are also further traffic updates at quarter-past and quarter-to at breakfast and drive-time.

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Dublin's 98FM is a local radio station in Dublin, Ireland, operated by Radio Two Thousand Limited, a subsidiary of Denis O'Brien's Communicorp, under a sound broadcasting contract from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. The station broadcasts on the 98.1 MHz FM frequency. Dublin's 98FM's broadcast antenna is located on Three Rock Mountain, County Dublin at 5 kW, and can be heard in Dublin and neighbouring counties. 98FM also has a relay in north County Dublin, broadcasting on 97.4 MHz. Since 2018 the station has been marketed as "The Sound of the City".

The station broadcasts mainly pop music from the 90s, 00s and today, aimed at 25- to 44-year-olds. Its flagship programmes are The Big Breakfast with Steven Cooper and Luke O'Faolain, Dublin Talks with Adrian Kennedy and Jeremy Dixon and The Big Ride Home with Dara Quilty. The station broadcasts hourly news bulletins from the Dublin News Centre between 6 am and 11 pm (half-hourly during breakfast and drivetime shows) along with sports, weather and traffic reports.

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TXFM is a Dublin based radio station, founded in 1996 as a pirate radio station. TXFM broadcasts under a contract awarded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

Until 2003, Phantom operated as a pirate station, staying on air the majority of the time, apart from outages caused by frequency collisions with newly licensed stations, fear of raids by Comreg, and once, the theft of their transmission equipment from Three Rock Mountain. After two successful temporary licenses, Phantom applied for an alternative rock license offered by the BCI for Dublin in July 2004. They finally won a licence for an alternative rock station for Dublin in November 2004, beating the Zed FM consortium, XFM and two other applicants. On 16 March 2014 Phantom 105.2 was relaunched and renamed as TXFM.

TXFM plays mostly alternative rock with an emphasis on local artists, as well as alternative dance and hip-hop from local and international acts. Apart from general programming TXFM also runs many specialist shows dedicated to a specific genre of rock or to premiering new Irish and international acts.

The station broadcasts news bulletins every hour from 7:30am to 7:30pm on weekdays and from 9:30am to 7:30pm on weekends along with sport news and weather. The bulletins vary in duration from three to four minutes, depending on the time of the broadcast. Extended 15-minute bulletins are broadcast at 1:30pm and 7:30pm on weekdays and at 1:30pm on Saturdays. Traffic reports are broadcast every half-hour between 7am and 7pm on weekdays.

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SPIN 1038 is a local radio station in Dublin, Ireland. It is owned by Denis O'Brien's Communicorp group and broadcasts under a sound broadcasting contract with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Despite their name, they do not broadcast on the medium wave band (1038 not being a valid medium wave frequency), but on 103.8 FM. SPIN 1038 is mostly heard in Dublin but can also be heard in such towns as Naas, Celbridge, Leixlip, Maynooth, Drogheda and Bray due to their close proximity to Dublin.

The station (which originally applied for its contract as "Spin FM") was one of three new ILR stations which were awarded franchises in October 1999. It was intended to provide an alternative for listeners younger than those catered for by the original two Dublin ILR stations, FM104 and Dublin's 98FM. The station however was subject to delays due to legal action from an unsuccessful opposing consortium, however, it finally began broadcasting as SPIN 1038 at 10:38am on 19 April 2002.

SPIN 1038 broadcasts mainly pop music aimed at 15- to 34-year-olds. The station broadcasts various programming throughout the day, including Breakfast Xpress with Graham & Nathan, The Zoo Crew with Jaz & Laura, SPIN Hits with Steve K and Spin Xtra.

News bulletins entitled The Story are aired at quarter-to-the-hour between 6:45am and 6:45pm on weekdays and between 7:45am and 5:45pm on weekends (with additional bulletins at quarter-past-the hour during the weekday morning show) and includes major news items, both Irish and international, sports, entertainment, travel and weather, in a concise and clear package. The bulletins vary in duration from four to six minutes, depending on the time of the broadcast.

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SPIN South West is radio station broadcasting from Raheen in Limerick city to the South West of Ireland. It launched on 23 July 2007, and holds an Independent Regional Radio contract from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to broadcast to County Kerry, County Limerick, County Clare, County Tipperary and south-west County Laois.

The station caters to a mainly young provincial audience with a potential listenership of 150,000. It is aimed at 15- to 34-year-olds and plays mainly pop music during most of the day and a mix of dance and techno music during the night. Specialist weekend shows cover house, techno, hip-hop and drum'n'bass respectively.

News bulletins entitled The Story are aired at quarter-to-the-hour between 6:45am and 6:45pm on weekdays, between 7:45am and 5:45pm on Saturdays and between 10:45am and 5:45pm on Sundays (with additional bulletins at quarter-past-the hour during the weekday morning show) and includes major news items, both Irish and international, sports, entertainment, travel and weather, in a concise and clear package. The bulletins vary in duration from four to six minutes, depending on the time of the broadcast.