Ireland’s first Christian radio station, Spirit Radio, was launched today. 
The new station will broadcast today in Dublin on 89.9FM, Cork (90.9), Limerick (89.9), Galway (91.7) and Waterford (90.1). It will launch across Ireland on AM by July 2012.
The new station, which is funded by the listeners, will play contemporary Christian music alongside a mix of mainstream, positive chart music. It will also discuss topics with a Christian interpretation on them.
However, according to Ronan Johnston, one of the new station’s presenters, it is “not a religious issues station”.
Mr Johnston said Spirit Radio “is a station that assumes a certain Christian bedrock and operates from that grid”.
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.
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.”
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 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.
“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,” Clarke told the Irish Times.
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.