First air date 2 April 1972 | Format Mixed network | |
 | ||
Broadcast area Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
Worldwide (mainly the United Kingdom on satellite) Frequency 92–94 (Ireland) and 102.7 MHz (much of Northern Ireland)
FM
Digital terrestrial television
DAB Audience share 0.7% (150,000 listeners per week) (2008, ) Owner Raidió Teilifís Éireann | ||
RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta ([ˈɾˠadʲiːoː n̪ˠə ˈɡeːɫ̪t̪ˠəxt̪ˠə] ("Radio of the Gaeltacht"), abbreviated RnaG, is the Irish-language radio service of the public-service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. The station is available on FM in Ireland and via satellite and on the Internet. It celebrated 40 years on air on 2 April 2012. The station's main-headquarters are in Casla, County Galway with major studios also in Gweedore, County Donegal and Dingle, County Kerry. RTÉ also provide a Gaeilge television service through TG4.
Contents
History
The station is the only national Irish-language radio station broadcasting across Ireland. It began broadcasting on 2 April 1972, and was the second legal radio station in the Republic of Ireland. Initially RnaG broadcast for only a handful of hours a day and was only available in or near the three largest Gaeltacht districts, but following the putting in place of a fourth RTÉ national radio transmitter network (used for RTÉ lyric fm), the station expanded to 24 hours from 1 October 2001. Listenership figures are hard to come by as the station does not make payments to be included covered in the JNLR listenership survey. It is claimed that as it doesn't carry advertising (the only Irish radio station not to do so) paying to be included in a survey organised mainly for the benefit of the Irish advertising industry would be a pointless waste of scarce funds. It is generally believed that listenership is high amongst fluent Irish speakers but its appeal among those learning the language is not as high as TG4 because (despite being available nationally) it is widely perceived as being oriented (as its name suggests) towards Gaeltacht residents. The station was initially established in response to the pirate radio station Saor Raidió Chonamara which ceased broadcasting once RnaG came on air.
Recent developments
For many years it was the only Irish-language broadcaster in the country; in recent years it has been joined by a television service, Telefís na Gaeilge (TG4), and by regional community radio stations- Raidió na Life in Dublin, Raidió Fáilte in Belfast and Raidió Rí-Rá.
Budget
References
The following figures were issued by RTÉ as part of their Annual report 2012
Income
Total Costs
Profit and Loss
Breakdown of Irish Productions
The table below outlines RTÉ 2fm's total in-house and commissioned programming by genre in 2008 and 2012:
Funding
The station received a total budget of €11.3 million for 2015.
Location
RnaG is based in Casla, Co. Galway. It also has studios at: Gaoth Dobhair (Gweedore), Co. Donegal; Baile na nGall in Ard na Caithne, Co. Kerry; Castlebar, Co. Mayo; with a smaller studio in An Rinn, County Waterford and the RTÉ Radio Centre in Dublin. The station is operated by RTÉ, but has a separate advisory council, Comhairle Raidió na Gaeltachta, which is appointed by the RTÉ Authority. RTÉ also appoints the Ceannaire, or Controller, of RnaG, who has day-to-day responsibility for the service.
Audience share
According to the 2011 JNLR survey, RnaG has a weekly listenership of 100,000 which equates to a 3% market share.
This is similar to Welsh language BBC Radio Cymru which has 116,000 listeners and a 2.4% share.
Raidió na Gaeltachta
News:
Chat:
Sport:
Anocht FM
In 2005, the decision was taken to create a youth strand of programming after 8pm each evening until the early hours of the morning.
Some of the popular programmes are:
Irish language policy
In March 2005, RTÉ announced that RnaG would allow songs with English lyrics to be played between 21:00 and 01:00, as part of a new popular music strand. In April 2005, it was announced that the name of this strand would be Anocht FM (Tonight FM). On weeknights the strand includes a new programme, Géill Slí (Give Way), as well as the existing long-running An Taobh Tuathail slot. Anocht FM will also be broadcast at weekends with different programmes. The new service was launched on 2 May 2005. The first track with English-language lyrics played was Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes, chosen by public vote.