Christian station now broadcasting

County Wexford radio listeners now have a new option on the dial after Spirit Radio began broadcasting locally for the first time yesterday (Monday). The radio station with a Christian ethos was founded in 2011 and delivers talk, news and music to an audience primarily in the 20 to 40 years age bracket with 25 to 34 year olds among its most regular listeners based on Amarach Research figures which show the station has a listernship of 540,000 a week across the country.

Spirit Radio was switched on in Wexford at approximately 4 pm on Monday and can be reached on 94.5 FM. According to CEO, Rob Clarke, people can expect to hear ‘fresh contemporary radio with uplifting and family friendly chat’ along with mainstream and pop music mixed with ‘CCM or Christian contemporary music’ which is not heard on any other station.

The music-driven station which is run on a shoestring, features a morning magazine chat show from 10 am to 12 noon and a late night chat show geared towards younger listeners from 9 pm to 11 pm.

‘I think people detect an integrity and sincerity in us,’ said Rob. ‘People find something that’s speaking to them. They often tell us ‘I stumbled on your station, I’m not religious but I enjoy listening.’

Describing Spirit as ‘refreshingly different’, the CEO said that while the station doesn’t ignore bad news, it tries to find good news stories as well.

Spirit Radio is based in Bray, County Wicklow and broadcasts on FM in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Bray/Greystones, Kilkenny, Carlow, Naas/Newbridge, Tralee, Athlone and Sligo on FM and nationwide on medium wave. The signal is distributed via satellite and is being broadcast in Wexford from a shared mast on Forth Mountain on which engineering work was carried out last week.