The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland has signed a 10-year national licence with Newstalk 106, making it the State's first national commercial talk-radio station.
The Dublin-based station which has served the greater Dublin area since 2002 will begin broadcasting its mix of magazine-style programming and news and current affairs countrywide between 106 FM and 108 FM from Friday. It now hopes to rival RTÉ One in terms of news and current affairs coverage when it begins broadcasting to over 92 per cent of the population on Friday from 6.30am.
The station had originally planned to begin broadcasting nationally from October 2nd, but yesterday brought the official launch date forward to Friday.
Following yesterday's signing of the national licence, chairman of Newstalk Denis O'Brien, said the station had established itself as an "alternative talk-radio service" over the last four years and offered a new style of radio for listeners.
Last week, the station announced changes to its weekday and weekend schedule.
New additions including former TV3 news anchor Claire Byrne, Irish Times columnist Róisín Ingle and Senator David Norris will join current presenters such as George Hook, Orla Barry and Seán Moncrieff.
It is understood that efforts are being made to come to an arrangement with TV3 which would allow Claire Byrne, who is expected to work out a three- month notice with the television station, to begin working on The Breakfast Show by Friday.
Newstalk 106 expects to obtain a market share of 4 per cent of all Irish adults initially and to rise to 6 per cent by 2011. The station also hopes to increase its revenues from €6.7 million per annum to more than €12 million by 2011, by which time it should post profits of €720,000 annually