Radio Kerry

About

Radio Kerry is one of Ireland's most durable and locally dominant stations. It first went on air at midday on July 14th 1990 from a ground floor studio on Main Street, Tralee; first voice heard was Chief Executive Dan Collins (formerly of RTÉ) who introduced the station’s on- and off-air team.

It was “established by a group of business and community interests” that were determined to “give a voice to the people of the Kingdom.” Recently, in March 2025, they signed a new 10-year sound-broadcasting contract to 2035, providing a local news, sports, speech, music, and community-information service on 96.2-97.6MHz across County Kerry.

Institutionally, Radio Kerry remains an independent local operator rather than part of the large national radio groups, which can only strengthen the local output, as evidenced in its ongoing schedules, where current affairs, speech, sport, Irish-language shows, specialist music, business, and agricultural programming all still sit inside one county-focused service.

In April 1995, Radio Kerry moved into a custom-built building in Tralee town centre featuring digital broadcasting and production facilities, an editing suite, and even a television studio.

In 2007, an upgrade saw a new outside-broadcast unit introduced, equipped with digital broadcasting and IP satellite technology. In 2005, addiional studio space was opened in Killarney, home to a lot of the station's output.

Most significant was the acquisition of Shannonside/Northern Sound in August 2005 which saw them became the first of the original local radio stations to go on to this level of expansion.

Radio Kerry’s current official show list includes Kerry’s Full Breakfast, Kerry Today, Talkabout, The Afternoon Show, Sounds Country, Terrace Talk, Weekend Sport, Agritime, In Business, Seven Days, Horizons, Timeless & Irish, Irish Favourites, That’s Jazz, Stand Out, Caint Chiarraí, Tóg Sos, and several other specialist or feature-led programmes.

The flagship programme is Kerry Today with Jerry O’Sullivan, marketed as “Kerry’s number 1 current affairs programme.” The show airs weekday mornings and acts as the core local current-affairs forum. The official programme page emphasises politics, economy, community events, sports, and topical interviews.

As you'd imagine sport is a hugely popular aspect of the station's output, with Terrace Talk, in particular, becoming part of the station’s identity. In 2014 the station recorded a gold award for “Terrace Talk” as Sports Programme of the Year, while Radio Kerry history also notes McNamee awards and recurrent recognition for sports output. The programme has been associated over time with Weeshie Fogarty, Tim Moynihan, Eamonn Hickson, and, currently, Donal Barry.

Since 2005 Radio Kerry has received 98 national radio-award nominations and won 44 awards; including Local Station of the Year wins in 2005, 2007, 2010, 2014, and 2016. Even when not winning, Radio Kerry have remained highly competitive: it took bronze for Local Station of the Year in 2022, silver in 2025, and multiple nomination and category placements in intervening years. In 2019, Paul Byrne, then identified as Chief Executive of Radio Kerry, was inducted into the IMRO Radio Awards Hall of Fame, and Fiona Stack had earlier received an Outstanding Achievement Award.

Logos

Radio Kerry have used relatively few logos throughout their history, a sign of confidence in their branding. The logo on the left was the one used at launch; this was followed by the one in the middle which lasted until 2006 when it was replaced by the current one, seen here on the right.