Q Radio (formerly known as Citybeat and Belfast CityBeat) is a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

. It broadcasts to Greater Belfast on 96.7

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

FM and on

DAB Digital Radio Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services. Types In digital broadcasting syst ...

across all of Northern Ireland. From 5 April 2007, Citybeat became available on 102.5FM for North

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

Newtownabbey Newtownabbey ( ) is a large settlement in North Belfast in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is separated from the rest of the city by Cavehill and Fortwilliam golf course. It surrounds Carnmoney Hill, and was formed from the merging of severa ...

and

Carrickfergus Carrickfergus ( , meaning " Fergus' rock") is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It sits on the north shore of Belfast Lough, from Belfast. The town had a population of 27,998 at the 2011 Census. It is County Antrim's oldest ...

. On 2 November 2007, Citybeat launched a third FM transmitter also broadcasting on 102.5FM for Bangor. Citybeat reaches a weekly audience of 127,000 listeners in Belfast, around 22% of the adult population. It has won both Arqiva 'Station of the Year' and Sony Awards. The station was rebranded as Q Radio on-air at 6pm on Sunday 9 August 2015.

Young Star Search

From 2007 to 2010, the radio station was the home of the Young Star Search, Northern Ireland's biggest ever talent search for young people.

Awards and nominations

Citybeat has won more

Sony Radio Academy Awards The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

than any other commercial radio station in Northern Ireland along with a number of other top awards. Recent awards include: *

Stephen Nolan Stephen Raymond Nolan (born 20 August 1973) is a Northern Irish radio and television presenter for BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Radio 5 ''Live'', and is the highest earning broadcaster that the BBC employ in the Province. Early life Born in ...

Sony Gold 2002 *

Sony Gold x2 2003 *

Sony Gold x2 2004 + Sony Silver *NTL Station of the Year 2003 *

- Best presenter Irish Entertainment Awards 2003 *

Joe Ferguson Joseph Carlton Ferguson Jr. (born April 23, 1950) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. He played college football at Arkansas. Early year ...

- Best presenter Irish Entertainment Awards 2004 * Mark & Dave - Best Irish Breakfast Show Irish Entertainment Awards 2006 * Marc Mallett IPR Award - News Broadcaster of the Year 2007 * Keith Law PANI Award - for JONJOE SAT NAV spoof The One That Got Away / Production Award 2007 * Leroy Allen - City Beat - Lancashire - Preston *Irish radio station of the year - Irish Entertainment Awards 2007 *Bronse New York Festival - News Programme 'Belfast Tonight' 2007 *

Arqiva Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquart ...

UK Commercial Radio Station of the Year 2007 * Stuart Robinson P&M Awards Nomination 2007 * Stuart Robinson Arqiva UK Commercial Radio Awards Nomination 2008 * Stuart Robinson & Work Experience Boy - Best presenter Irish Entertainment Awards 2008 * Stuart Robinson Belfast Awards Nomination 2008 * Keith Law VOX Award Highly commended- Use of Humour 2008–09 * Keith Law VOX Award Highly Commended- Best newcomer 2008–09 * Keith Law Radio-Awards.net Best in category 2009 * Keith Law Radio-Awards.net Grand Prix Northern Ireland 2009 * Stuart Robinson Arqiva UK Commercial Radio Awards Nomination 2009 *Belfast Tonight - Silver Award 'Best News Programme' New York Festival 2009 * Keith Law, Stuart Robinson and Work Experience Boy - Silver Award 'Best Comedy Feature' New York Festival 2009 * Stuart Robinson - Gold Award 'Best Station Promotion' New York Festival 2009

Affiliates

Under the ownership of Owen Oyston, CityBeat had a couple of short lived affiliate stations on AM, namely

Goldbeat Goldbeat was an AM radio station broadcasting on 828 kHz in Cookstown, Northern Ireland. It was launched in 1995 as Townland Radio, but was purchased in 1997 by media tycoon Owen Oyston who had already bought and relaunched Belfast Community ...

828 (Formerly Townland Radio) in Cookstown, and Heartbeat 1521 (formerly

Radio 1521 Radio 1521 (later Heartbeat 1521) was a radio station based in County Armagh, Northern Ireland from 1996 to 1999. The station broadcast from Craigavon and covered much of mid-Ulster. The station launched in 1996 before being bought by Belfast s ...

) in Craigavon. Citybeat handed back the licences to the Radio Authority just two years after buying the stations due to lack of commercial viability. Heartbeat was on the air from 1996 to 1999 and

broadcast between 1995 and 1999. The licence for Craigavon has to date never been re-advertised however Cookstown was re-advertised on FM in 2002 and was granted back to Citybeat (by then under new ownership of CN group) in February 2003 Mid FM was launched as the local radio station for Mid-Ulster (from the same building and studio as Townland/Goldbeat broadcast). In 2006 Citybeat sold the station to Northern Media (owners of Ballymena 7fm); they rebranded the station to

Six FM 6 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 6 or six may also refer to: * AD 6, the sixth year of the AD era * 6 BC, the sixth year before the AD era * The month of June Science * Carbon, the element with atomic number 6 * 6 Hebe, an asteroid Peop ...

. From 2000 to 2004, Citybeat also broadcast RSL stations

Castle FM Castle FM is a currently inactive () short-term radio station based in Carrickfergus, County Antrim The radio station transmitted twice annually between 1998-2005 and after a six-year break returned in July 2011. Castle FM broadcasts a mixture ...

and

Bangor FM Bangor FM, is a local radio station based in Bangor, County Down and broadcasting to the greater Bangor area. The station broadcasts a varied mixture of music, news, interviews and community information to a catchment area of over 60,000 adults ...

in Bangor to support local festivals. In August 2000 Citybeat also provided

Fast FM Fast or FAST may refer to: * Fast (noun), high speed or velocity * Fast (noun, verb), to practice fasting, abstaining from food and/or water for a certain period of time Acronyms and coded Computing and software * ''Faceted Application of Subje ...

in Irvinestown as a trial broadcast for the pending commercial licence for

Omagh Omagh (; from ga, An Ómaigh , meaning 'the virgin plain') is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers Drumragh and Camowen meet to form the Strule. Northern Ireland's capital city Belfast is 68 m ...

and

Enniskillen Enniskillen ( , from ga, Inis Ceithleann , ' Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 13,823 a ...

. The licence was later awarded to

Q Network Radio Q Radio is a network of radio stations in Northern Ireland airing an adult contemporary format. The network is the fifth most listened to radio station in Northern Ireland, with a combined figure of over 241,000 listeners as of September 2022, ...

Q101.2 Q1 or Q-1 may refer to: * Quarter 1, as in the first quarter of a calendar year or fiscal year * first quartile in descriptive statistics * The first quarto, usually meaning the earliest published version, of one of William Shakespeare's works * Q1 ...

BCR (1990–1996)

Prior to its relaunch in 1996, Citybeat was known as BCR or

Belfast Community Radio Belfast Community Radio or BCR, was a radio station that broadcast to Belfast between 1990 and 1996. The station broadcast from the basement of Russell Court Complex on Belfast's Lisburn Road. It was replaced by Belfast CityBeat. History BCR ...

, a community focused station which failed to attract listener interest. BCR launched at 7.30am on 6 April 1990 and managed to stay on the air for six years. BCR presenters prior to the 1996 relaunch included Rick Nugent,

Maurice Jay Maurice Jay is a radio and television personality in Northern Ireland. He is currently the Programme Controller for U105, a Belfast-based radio station that is part of the Wireless Group. Jay played lead roles in over 100 UK-wide performance ...

, Mal Reynolds, Kenny Tosh Stuart Robinson, Phil Doyle, Paul Orr and

. At the time of its demise, BCR was pulling in little over 30,000 listeners. Stuart Robinson was the last presenter on BCR when it switched to Citybeat at midnight on 30 September 1996. Citybeat officially launched at 8am on 30 September with the new breakfast show presented by Dave Stephens and Caroline Bartley. The station broadcast from the basement of Russell Court Complex on Belfast's Lisburn Road. In 1997 (as Citybeat) the station moved to Stranmillis before moving in 2006 to Ormeau Road. Rick Nugent was the first presenter on BCR who launched the station with "Maira O'Connell" and "Feet of a Dancer". Nugent left when Citybeat started in 1996 but returned as Nolan's replacement in 2003 before leaving again in 2005.

General station information

*Q Radio's FM transmitters are based on the

Black Mountain transmitting station The Black Mountain transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated on land above Ordnance Datum (mean sea level) to the west of the city of Belfast, in Northern Ireland (). It includes a guyed steel lattice ma ...

for 96.7FM, Carnmoney Hill for 102.5FM in Newtownabbey and Bryansburn Road, Bangor Town Centre for 102.5FM in North Down. Programmes are broadcast from modern studios located on the

Ormeau Road Ormeau Road is a road in south Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. Ormeau Park is adjacent to it. It forms part of the A24. History The road, as currently laid out, dates from the first decades of the 19th century when a bridge was buil ...

close to Belfast city centre. *From October 2001, Q Radio has been available on the Northern Ireland Digital Multiplex - giving the station province wide coverage. The 6 digital transmitter sites are Black Mountain (Greater Belfast), Colinward (North Belfast/South East Antrim), Limavady (North Coast), Sheriffs Mountain (Londonderry / North West), Strabane (The West) and Brougher Mountain (Fermanagh and Tyrone). *Q Radio's newer transmitters both broadcast on 102.5FM and deliver the station to areas previously sheltered by the Cavehill, such as North Belfast, Newtownabbey, Glengormley and Carrickfergus. Another transmitter also on 102.5FM provides coverage for Bangor and North County Down. *Q Radio's main 96.7 MHz FM transmitter on Black Mountain has a power output of 600W with mixed polarisation.

Competition

Q Radio regularly attracts the largest market share of all commercial radio in the Belfast area. Its current audience is 144,000 listeners weekly in Belfast, however the station also attracts additional audience on FM outside Belfast, on DAB digital radio across Northern Ireland and online listening which is not included in this figure. (RAJAR fig. qrt03/09). The local BBC station is

BBC Radio Ulster BBC Radio Ulster ( ga, BBC Raidió Uladh) is a Northern Irish radio station owned and operated by BBC Northern Ireland, a division of the BBC. It was established on New Year's Day 1975, replacing what had been an opt-out of BBC Radio 4. It is ...

. In addition all national

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Young Star Search

Awards and nominations

Affiliates

BCR (1990–1996)

General station information

Competition

Notable past presenters

See also

References

External links