23.02.2004: IU's Edel Dooley trashes RTE and TodayFM,:JNLR/TNS mrbi

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Beat 102-103, Ireland’s first regional radio station, has re-affirmed it’s position as the country’s fastest growing radio station according to independent listening figures for weekends, published today.

The JNLR/TNS mrbi study for July to December 2003 shows that more young adults in the 15-34 age group in the South East listen to Beat 102-103 at weekends than to any other station.

On Saturdays, 31% (40,000) young people tune in to the station while 23% (30,000) and 19% (25,000) listen to RTE 2FM and Today FM respectively.

On Sundays, 22% (28,000) 15-34 year olds across Counties Wexford; Waterford; Carlow; Kilkenny and South Tipperary listen to Beat while 21% (27,000) and 13% (17,000) listen to RTE 2FM and Today FM respectively.

Chief Executive of Beat 102-103 Kieran McGeary said “This is a great set of figures and combined with the weekday ones which we received earlier this month, they show that Beat 102-103 is growing at a very fast rate. This is a terrific result for the committed team here. It’s difficult to single individual programmes out but our Best of BeatTalk programme on Saturday mornings and our niche IrishBeat programme [presented by IrishUnsigned's Edel Dooley] on Saturday and Sunday evenings have performed extremely well.”

The station which launched on July 1st last year, is joint market leader in the South East with 2FM among 15-34 for weekday listening. And 18% (59,000) of all adults across the region listen to the station each day.

Kieran McGeary, who is also the stations’ Programme Controller added “at this time every radio station will be singing about their results and it can be confusing. Don’t be misled: Beat 102-103 has 59,000 listeners everyday – that equates to 18% of all adults across all five counties that make up the south east. It is the south east station with the biggest audience and after just six months on air is overtaking the nationals in quite a number of time segments.”

Beat 102-103’s shareholders include Paul McGuinness; Vince Power from the Mean Fiddler Group and WLR FM.

The station broadcasts from a state of the art studio complex in Waterford City.

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