Phoenix FM first appeared on Dublin’s airwaves as a pirate station in the second half of 1988. Founded by Fergus Lynch, it broadcast to the Blanchardstown area of the city on 98.2MHz.
Phoenix FM
Phoenix FM is the officially licensed community radio station for Dublin 15. They first went on air, with a licence, in January 2000 on 105.2MHz. Before that it had operated as a current affairs / magazine type pirate station for a few months at the end of 1988 on 98.2MHz. This proved such a success that they formed the Dublin 15 Community Broadcasting Cooperative Society shortly after being forced to close at the end of 1988. In 1999 they were awarded a community licence and so commenced legitimate broadcasting. In February 2004 they moved to 92.5MHz at the request of the BAI.
Phoenix FM is based in Blanchardstown and serves the local area, which includes Castleknock, Carpenterstown, Clonsilla, Mulhuddart and Corduff. It broadcasts a range of programmes which reflect the richness of diversity in terms of interests and activities in the community of Dublin 15. The output of the station, under the terms of their broadcasting licence, is predominantly talk-based, with 70% speech content and 30% music content.
The station is run by about 60 volunteers, mainly from the local area. Presently it broadcasts around the clock.
TECHNICAL DATA (from the station’s website:) First licensed logo Phoenix FM is licensed to broadcast with a maximum ERP of 25 Watts. According to their website, they use a CTE250 stereo transmitter to drive the aerial which is located on top the Services Centre at the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre. The RDS data is generated using a Broadcast Warehouse RDS-1. The audio signal is processed (compressed, enhanced & limited) prior to transmission using a Behringer UltraDyne Pro DSP9024 6 band Digital Signal Processor. All transmissions are logged to the audio track of a standard S-VHS video recorder and the tapes are retained for 90 days as required by law.
The output of the station is controlled from our On-Air studio. The desk in this studio is a Sonifex Soverign 14S modular desk fitted with 6 stereo, 2 telco and 6 mono/mic channels. The stereo channels are fed by 3 Sony MDS-JE330 MiniDisc players, 2 Tascam CD150 CD players and a Sony Cassette deck. There is one RODE Broadcaster presenter microphone located in this studio for self-op programs and 5 microphones (1 RODE Broadcaster for the presenter and 4 Sampson S11/S12s for guests) located in the associated Talk Studio. The 2 telco channels allow us to take contributions on-air by phone. This desk has extensive talk-back and monitoring facilities, including off-air monitoring from an FM tuner.
Origins in 1988
Original Phoenix
Above images courtesy of Phoenix FM
4 page flyer Page 1
Pages 2 & 3
page 4
Above images courtesy of Phoenix FM
Massive antenna with 2 folded dipoles in 1988
Poster announcing station
Evening Herald February 9th 1989Phoenix FM car sticker from the pirate days
drop into them at
Blanchardstown Centre,
Dublin 15,
D15 TY31
or drop them an email at
info@phoenixfm.ie
keep up to date at their facebook page at facebook.com/925phoenixfm
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