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MUSIC LOVERS ACROSS the country will be treated to a new radio station from next weekend.
And this one has pedigree.
A long-time mission of one of the founders of Phantom FM, 8Radio.com aims to offer a more eclectic mix of tunes to listeners than traditional stations currently provide.
The thought will probably excite many fans of the former pirate station as it was in its hey-day. A young pup operating from a shed in Sandyford, Phantom launched the careers of many of today’s mainstream radio personalities, as well as bringing new music to the masses.
As the station grew up, the wobbly teenage years brought about the official licence it craved but also some problems. Eventually, founder Simon Maher departed the now part Communicorp-owned Phantom FM in 2011. Until then he had worked as the station’s deputy programme director and afternoon DJ.
He had a decision to make. “I wasn’t sure whether to do something else in radio or to move on,” he told TheJournal.ie.
“But I had always wanted to create a station that plays music that people like listening to. It should not be revolutionary for a bunch of people who love music to play what people want to hear.”
The Dublin man, who now moonlights as a teacher by day, asked his students what they now listen to and, almost more importantly, how do they listen to it?
The answer was overwhelmingly “not traditional radio”.
“They said they would listen to online radio or hit shuffle on an iPod. It showed me that people can cope with a bigger selection of music than we give them credit for.”
Maher has been working on the venture for the past nine months and the fruits of his labour will be heard at Whelan’s in Dublin on launch night this Wednesday.
“What should we expect?” Other than domestic wine from a box and sausages on sticks, there will be three bands, a mix of DJs and a chance to meet the people behind 8Radio.
“This isn’t a product of research,” he explains. “It is the product of people who like music and like radio.”
Maher said the team plans to play around with the format for a least a year and “see how it goes”.
“Phantom went in having to raise €1.5 million a year to survive, this is a lot less risky,” he adds.
The station will air on FM in Dublin (94.3), Cork (106.7) and Limerick (105.5) under a temporary licence for 15 weekends beginning 30 March. It will also continue to be available online for about six hours every day from Easter Sunday.
Listeners should expect to hear a mix of Passion Pit, Daft Punk, The XX, David Bowie and KD Lang during the daytime, while night time listening will bring the sounds of Joni Mitchell, Mick Flannery, INXS, Leonard Cohen and more.
A recruitment campaign for volunteer presenters, tech personnel and researchers began earlier this year and there are now 22 people training ahead of the launch.
Love to hear something new happening in radio. Its become so sterilized since the pirate days.
Great news!!!
I love Phantom – another station where I’ll never hear Bruno Mars, Girls Aloud and One Direction has got to be a good thing :)
I love Phantom, I listen to no other radio stations, but there’s far too much talk on it in recent years. And that morning show with Joe and Keith is absolute poison. Pair of w*nkers.
Completely disagree – HDKP!!!!
Couldn’t agree more! Can’t listen to Phantom anymore in the morning.
Good news, I’ll be tuning in!
Phuq – spot on. Have stopped listening to phantom because of that show. Reminds me of ray foley.
I loved Nova when it started up a couple of years ago but they’ve become a victim of their own success now with ads on all the time. I know advertising is needed but that taxi ad makes me hit the search button every time.
If your heading to Clonsilla or a Southside villa
Taxi taxi taxi! In fairness it’s a brilliant ad, annoying, cheesy, jingle. It’s a masterpiece of radio advertising.
Ps Go phantom yeeeeeeeeah!
I like Nova but I have a few peoblems with it:
1. The head-melting bastard with the annoying faux-American accent providing voiceovers on most of their advertising; makes me grind my teeth with fury.. (travelinsurance dat I E)
2. Pat Courtney..
3. Someone always wants to be playing Phil Collins. IMO, little Philip is the most boring, utterly charmless artist I’ve ever come across. Also, I have yet to meet someone who likes Phil Collins..
4. Same as 3 but regarding Simple Minds..
Phantom OK; high hopes for 8..
Delighted, love phantom but joe and Keith have ruined it. It used to be about music and when the presenters knew about the music they’re playing you felt at home. They haven’t a breeze and the awkward silences which they try to make comical fall flat once to many. I for one welcome our new station 8fm overlords.
Absolutely agree, Joe and Keith are a pair of knob jockeys. The music is great but the cringe factor of those two g0bsh1tes has made it completely unlistenable for me. How they are allowed to spout their rubbish on the airwaves is beyond me.
Other than that Phantom is great, the music is very good, no boyband and girlband rubbish so this new venture should be sound.
Don’t forget eamong and Orla. They’d easily give Joe and Keith a run for their money in the Most annoying pair of halfwits awards.
Always listen to phantom but have to agree with previous comments, the breakfast show is septic,
The Healy ray segment is at this stage quite embarrassing so I suggest joe and Keith put their heads down and ” keep peddling ” back to their children to whom they keep moaning about at every opportunity…roll on 8radio
Simon maher was a great dj, used to love his show on phantom and pure morning was brilliant. After communicorp took over keith took the production job from simon maher (maher got shafted) and they started another show that was absolute tripe, now also cancelled! Pure morning ended and keith gave himself the morning job and got his old mate back in. So if the morning show is ever to be good again the boss is gona have to sack himself…. Don’t see that happening! As far as i can see corporate stupidity from owners and a bad program manager are ruining a brilliant station! Can’t wait to see what maher does with a free reign. Could be great!
Ah!… Keith is a boss at Phantom? That explains a lot. I couldn’t understand why, even though anybody I’ve heard express an opinion about Joe and Keith think they are complete idiots, they’ve been allowed to stay on air. It’s great to hear that there may be some radio to listen to that won’t make me cringe. Good luck Mr Maher and goodbye Joe and Keith!
Best of luck to Simon and the gang! Working hard pays off :-) all of BCFE are behind you and looking forward to hearing it! :-)
Good man Simon, without doubt was one of the best presenters on phantom. Looking forward to the launch.
2 down votes? Joe & Keith must be reading!
Best of luck to all involved in 8Radio, looking forward to something fresh, tired of all the same muck we have at the minute.
The music on Phantom is class, listen in work every day but only from 11am onwards, nothing personal but that Joe and Keith show is an embarrassment to Phantom and dragging the station down. It’s music the listeners want to hear not 2 muppets banging on about meaningless not funny tripe.
Another (well meaning) radio station that will be hijacked by hipsters and other “cool kids” whose musical scope is limited to MGMT and Arcade Fire. I want to hear proper alternative acts on the radio like The Cult, Alien Sex Fiend and Fields of the Nephilim. Seriously, another radio station who thinks Pink Floyd are cool can f**k off.
I despise comfortably numb it’s 7 mins of boring tripe
10pm, Thursday night.
We have far too many radio stations all trying to get money from the same advertising pot. There’s only so much to go around. Some of the local radio stations have poor quality programmes and way too many ads. Best of luck, I hope it works out.
Listening to Phantom, Spectrucm since forever. Good luck. Can’t wait to hear what “Phantom2″ sounds like
Why not just add the albums that get the highest scores on metacritic.com to your spotify playlist, then just play that playlist on random?
From the “listeners should expect to hear…” List of artists/bands, I fail to see how this is any different to Phantom.
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