Midlands 103 (previously known as Midlands Radio 3) is an Irish local

independent radio Independent radio indicates a radio station that is run in a manner different from usual for the country it broadcasts in. In countries where there exist government-run radio stations that served as the primary or only the variety of licensed broa ...

station broadcasting to counties

Laois County Laois ( ; gle, Contae Laoise) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 ...

Offaly County Offaly (; ga, Contae Uíbh Fhailí) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is named after the Ancient Ireland ...

, and

Westmeath "Noble above nobility" , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Westmeath.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = , subdivis ...

. The station's offices and main broadcast studios are in

Tullamore Tullamore (; ) is the county town of County Offaly in Ireland. It is on the Grand Canal, in the middle of the county, and is the fourth most populous town in the midlands region with 14,607 inhabitants at the 2016 census. The town retained ...

, County Offaly. It also has studios in Athlone Towncentre Shopping Centre,

Athlone Athlone (; ) is a town on the border of County Roscommon and County Westmeath, Ireland. It is located on the River Shannon near the southern shore of Lough Ree. It is the second most populous town in the Midlands Region with a population of ...

and the Bridge Shopping Centre, Tullamore, and a studio and office in Harbour Place Shopping Centre,

Mullingar Mullingar ( ; ) is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. It is the third most populous town in the Midland Region, with a population of 20,928 in the 2016 census. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act 1543 proclaimed Westmea ...

, with programmes being broadcast regularly from all of these. Midlands 103 also has two outside broadcast units. As of the end of 2021, Midlands 103 had a weekly reach of 122,000 listeners with 73,000 tuning in daily, according to Joint National Listenership Research survey figures.

History

The station was established as "Radio 3" in 1990 having operated as an unlicenced broadcaster "Radio West" between 1982 and 1988.

Station output

The prime-time weekday schedule includes breakfast programming, a daily current affairs magazine show, music-driven programmes in the afternoon and "drive time" programming until 7pm. The weekend schedule is a mixture of music programmes and sports coverage, which sometimes includes full commentary of local and inter-county

Gaelic games Gaelic games ( ga, Cluichí Gaelacha) are a set of sports played worldwide, though they are particularly popular in Ireland, where they originated. They include Gaelic football, hurling, Gaelic handball and rounders. Football and hurling, th ...

. Ireland's longest running love songs show, "Twilight Time", is broadcast on Sunday nights.

News

The

newsroom A newsroom is the central place where journalists—reporters, editors, and producers, associate producers, news anchors, news designers, photojournalists, videojournalists, associate editor, residence editor, visual text editor, Desk Head, s ...

is staffed by two full-time newsreaders and a sports correspondent. Midlands 103 also uses its own reporters and freelancers to cover events across the broadcast area. A sports reporter and commentators provide sports updates. The station produces its own local news bulletins for the region during peak times, with evening and weekend network bulletins produced by Bauer Media Audio Ireland.

Sales and promotion

Midlands 103 has 4 full time sales people covering the station's FM broadcast area, a classified sales person and business development officer. The station is also a part of the group of independent stations affiliated with the IRS+ national media sales and marketing bureau, which provides national and international branded advertising. Midlands 103 runs two annual awards ceremonies: the "Hospitality Awards" (which gives awards to pubs/bars, hotels, restaurants and the tourism sector), and the "Customer Service Awards" (which focus on customer service in retail and other business in the area).

References

External links

*
Midlands 103 Awards website
{{coord missing, County Offaly Radio stations in the Republic of Ireland Mass media in County Offaly