Country FM plans hoedowns and CD compilations

How much does it cost to promote a "truly niche" music station in Dublin? For Country FM, which hopes to usurp "Dublin's Country Mix" station Sunshine 106.8FM's place on the dial in the current Broadcasting Authority of Ireland contract licensing process, the answer is just €123,000.

At the BAI’s oral licence hearing on Monday, the regulator’s contract awards committee questioned whether the designated sum would be high enough to get the show on the old dirt road.

Country FM executive chairman Martin Block, a serial radio entrepreneur, agreed the amount was low, "one of the lowest that I have ever had to deal with" for launching a station and marketing it in its first year. "But even if we had €2 million, it wouldn't be appropriate," he added.

A niche station means niche marketing, and there would be “no point” in pouring cash into untargeted billboard and bus advertisement campaigns.

The country music gig listings pages of the Sunday World , which Country FM describes as "the focal point of country music information" in Ireland, is more what he has in mind.

As the target listenership “still buys CDs”, its camp suggested, physical compilation albums are also a key marketing tool – a revenue-spinner, even.

The proposed station, which also counts Gerry Murphy, Mike McClure (aka Mike Ryan), Brendan Magee and Keith Shanley among its backers, argues that the country music audience is underserved in the radio market, and that as a result it will not take many months or much marketing cash for the service to build up a loyal fanbase.

The station is targeting 36,200 listeners in the first year of the contract, rising to 47,400 in year three, and it expects the majority of these will be switchers from speech stations Radio 1 and Newstalk, rather than listeners inherited from "easy listening" station Sunshine.

The licence challenger is playing its credibility card, claiming its directors are “passionate about country music”.

Given it is also proposing to run monthly “country dances” to market the station and swell its events income, there may yet be an opportunity for the Country FM shareholders to get their boots on and prove that passion on the dance floor.