Dublin, Cork, Limerick & Galway
Galway Bay FM has launched a new country and Irish music service on DAB. Pure Country will broadcast 24 hours per day on DAB+, online and smart speaker, and will be a dedicated, specialist, radio service for the country music genre in Ireland.
Pure Country has started testing on the Failte DAB Mux2 trial. Failte DAB's Mux2 will cover a broad area including all or parts of the North and South Midlands, the Southeast, Cork, Limerick, Clare, Galway and Mayo areas. The station broadcasts from Galway Bay FM's studio premises in Galway City.
Galway Bay FM CEO, Fionnuala Rabbitt, said, "We're very excited to be launching Pure Country on DAB+. There is an incredibly strong and enduring tradition of country music in Ireland, particularly outside Dublin. It's a huge phenomenon, with artists like Daniel O'Donnell, Nathan Carter, Michael English, Mike Denver, Derek Ryan, and Lisa McHugh, as well as a wide range of American country. We know this from our 30 years of supporting country music at Galway Bay FM and we're very excited about the future".
While the station will start on an automated basis, it is planned to develop specialist country music shows and live programming in the coming months. It is hoped that the service will extend to the Greater Dublin area in time, although its key focus will be outside Dublin.
Galway Bay FM is part of Bay Broadcasting, operators of Radio Nova, Classic Hits Radio and with involvement in Sunshine 106.8. The company has embraced the Failte DAB trials, establishing a dance music service - Energy Dance, a classic rock service - Nova Classic Rock, and Sunshine Soul. The move to launch Pure Country comes from Bay's ambitions and a desire to expand its portfolio and its interest in DAB+.
Bay Broadcasting CEO, Kevin Branigan, said, "We've been very interested in Failte DAB's trials and are involved with a blend of new niche services and carriage of existing FM services - similar to Bauer and Onic. It's exciting to me that a new, specialist, country music service can broadcast from Galway to such a wide area and that Galway Bay FM can be one of the early pioneers in DAB+ in Ireland. We look forward to developing Pure Country over the coming months".
In additional to DAB+, Pure Country can be found online at www.purecountry.ie
More information:
Kevin Branigan
t: 087 2679047