A review of Radio Ireland, the struggling national broadcaster which has announced plans to revamp its schedule, is to be carried out by the Independent Radio and Television Commission. The station announced the plans to revamp its schedule following publication of listener ship figures which showed that it had gained only one per cent of market share in its first three months.
A spokesman for the IRTC said that next month's review was a routine annual one which had been scheduled before yesterday's figures. The IRTC was "fully aware" of the difficulties of starting a broadcasting venture and the station had been coming to the IRTC with proposals to improve listenership, he said. "They are only three months on the air. We will see what emerges now in the autumn and take it from there."
The figures from the Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) survey show that Radio Ireland has made little impact on the market share of RTE and local radio stations.
Between June 1996 and last July, RTE Radio One had 32 per cent of listeners, RTE 2FM had 22 per cent and independent local radio stations controlled 45 per cent. Radio Ireland reached only one per cent in the three months since coming on air on St Patrick's Day.
"We'd be a lot happier if the figures were a lot stronger, but frankly it's not a surprise to us," Mr John McColgan, Radio Ireland's chairman, said last night. He emphasised that any broadcasting venture needed time to establish itself and said that he believed Radio Ireland could build its market share to 10 per cent by the end of its first year.
Radio Ireland investors had put a further £2.5 million into the station to cover running costs, Mr McColgan said. He added that the investors were still committed to the station, which was set up at a cost of about £3 million.
However, advertisers say that only prompt action, including a new format and possibly a new name, can overcome the problems facing the station.
Ms Georgina Caraher, media director of Young's Advertising, said that the listenership figures meant Radio Ireland had reached a "crisis point". She felt that the station had "one week" to come up with significant plans for the future.
Advertising agency directors said that the station was poorly focused, too expensive to advertise on and ignorant of its few strengths. "They're trying to be too many things to too many people," said Mr Paul Moran, managing director of Media Works.
Mr McColgan said that the station was carrying out its own research and would base a new marketing campaign and autumn schedule on the results. "There is still an enormous audience out there that haven't found us on the dial," he said. The station wanted to wait until the programming "settled down" before advertising too widely.
"What we have is a very talented set of broadcasters in-house," Mr McColgan said. However, he did not rule out further attempts to head-hunt other broadcasters.
Some advertisers believe that the station can only survive by switching to a music-based format, if permitted to do so by the IRTC. Its failure to attract large audiences is made all the more galling to advertisers by the fact that advertising space on RTE is over-booked at the moment. For this reason, advertisers are genuinely disappointed at the station's failure to offer real competition to the State broadcaster.