Potential advertising attracts bidders for five new commercial radio licences

The Independent Radio and Television Commission's decision to issue licences for five new radio stations for Dublin has resulted in a high level of interest in two of the categories - the dance music station and the easy listening station. Only one consortium has made known their intention to apply for a licence to operate the comparatively more expensive talk radio station.

The closing date for submissions is Monday and while it is expected that no actual applications will be received until hours before the noon deadline, several groups have made known their intention to apply. Aside from the 15-34 age category, popularly known as the Dance licence, and the 35 plus so-called easy listening category, the other categories include a talk radio station, a special interest non-commercial FM radio station and an AM station.

For applicants the attraction of the new licences lies with the potential advertising revenue. Industry sources estimate that somewhere between £16£20 million worth of radio advertising is targeted at Dublin listeners. In addition, the bouyant economy has meant a growth of around 10 per cent in radio advertising revenue, with some advertisers even finding it difficult to secure air time. 98 FM has been sold out for the past two months - a lucrative situation it might normally hope to experience only during the Christmas period.

Aside from having the most interested parties, the 15-34 licence has attracted the most high profile applicants. While the youth market would seem to have the most instant appeal, the reality of running a youth oriented radio station is fraught with pitfalls. As media analyst Mr Paul Moran of Mediaworks says: "This age group is very fickle and to stay fresh a dance station will have to reinvent its schedule every few months."

It is estimated that the start up and running of a new FM music station, whether dance or easy listening, will be in the region of £1.5 million, with a talk radio station requiring an investment of £2 million.

The more stable 35 plus market is seen as the most lucrative in the long run and the most public contender for the licence is Lite FM. The 35 plus age group is thought by advertisers to have little choice when it comes to their radio options. If they do not like the talk on Radio One or the frequently youth oriented music on other stations, and are not drawn to Lyric FM, then their best option is to switch off.

Mr Martin Block describes Lite FM as a station which will play "the music of Sixties through to the Nineties", and mentions Celine Dion, Burt Bacarach and Elvis Costello as likely names on the play list.

It is thought that all the submissions to the IRTC in this category will follow the same easy listening formula and while it is unlikely to set anyone's pulse racing it will have a definite appeal to a broad range of listeners and to an equally broad range of advertisers.

"This category has the potential to be the most lucrative," says Mr Moran, "from an advertisers point of view these listeners have the most money to spend and invest than any other age group and they are interested in a very broad range of products." In terms of scheduling, he suggests that this group are also the most stable. The only other licence category that appears to have aroused any major interest is talk radio which, from a broadcaster's point of view, is expensive and difficult to get right. Applying for the talk licence is Newstalk 106, a consortium of all 21 independent network news stations from around the country.

Their bid is headed up by ex-Radio Kilkenny man Mr John Purcell and 98 FM's Mr Ken Hutton, who says that their station will be very much a local Dublin service with a mixture of rolling news coverage every 20 minutes, extensive sports coverage, as well as traffic news and arts coverage. "Our target audience is the 35 plus Radio One listener," says MrHutton. "They're people who want to listen to talk radio but who at present have no choice."

Compared with other markets Dublin would seem to be poorly served when it comes to the number of radio stations it has to offer. Auckland in New Zealand has 25 radio stations for its population of 1.5 million. Dublin, with around the same potential audience, has six.

Given the bouyant economy and the flood of advertising revenue available, it would seem that the IRTC will be doling out licences to print money. But the hopeful new applicants delivering their submissions on Monday would do well to remember the lessons learned by the failure of Century Radio and the difficult start ups experienced by FM 104 and Today FM.