Country FM still searching for the right mix

IT’S NOT just banks that have been the subject of potentially damaging speculation here recently.

Earlier this week, loss-making Dublin local radio station Country Mix FM was rumoured to be on the verge of pulling the plug on its service and handing back its licence to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI).

Chief executive Seán Ashmore concedes that trading is tough and four staff members are being made redundant, but said the station had no plans to go off air.

“We’ve had no discussions with the BCI about doing that at all,” he told me. “This year is proving more difficult for us and will probably be in line with two years ago. We’ve had to cut our cloth to suit our measure. But we’re probably no different in that respect to any other [media] organisation at the moment. We won’t break even in the current 12 months [ending in March 2009].”

Ashmore said shareholders “continue to be supportive” of the business. Country Mix, whose directors include jazz musician Paddy Cole, has struggled financially since hitting the airwaves in 2003. As a niche broadcaster, its market share is just 3 per cent. It has accumulated losses of about €3.4 million and annual turnover of just €1 million. It shares studios with East Coast radio in Bray, which Ashmore controls. “Co-location has worked well, reduced our costs and made us more efficient. In the right circumstances we could be modestly profitable,” he said.

A sale to a larger radio player seems the logical solution. Unfortunately, buyers are thin on the ground at present.