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Have You Heard Your Local Pub Advertised on the Radio?

 

A Dutch radio programme being recorded in the Stags Head, Dublin in 2019

With over seven thousand businesses across Ireland excluded financially from the lucrative radio advertising market in Ireland, in 2021 is it possible to attract their advertising revenue into the world of radio?

While many of us know that soft drinks, Nappies, Beauty products and holidays are regularly advertised on the various Irish radio stations, these are often agency campaigns for domestic or global businesses targeting Irish listeners nationally. ‘Great Irish Radio Ads’ postulated,

‘Of all the mediums available to marketers, radio is the most powerful tool to tell a great story. Storytelling works superbly through voice alone and it’s an impactful way to create a strong connection with the listener’.

 

This is a question that you may ask yourself when thinking about your recent radio listening,

‘when is the last time you heard and advertisement for your local public house?’

 

In 1996 I was the General Manager of the Portobello public house and after a major refurbishment, we purchased a radio campaign on 98FM. It was a major investment in announcing our re-opening but was unsustainable on a longer term basis due mainly to costs. The campaign was paid for from a promotional budget to target listeners who would enjoy our newly built nightclub along with a subsidy from one of our major suppliers. In order to promote the newly built Hotel attached to the pub, a national radio campaign to market our product proved too expensive and cheaper options in targeting possible guests was through regional and local newspapers. The initial radio campaign was extremely successful as a promotional code delivered on the radio was used as an entry payment to the new nightclub, delivered large crowds. Radio works.

 

In 2003, when I ran my own pub in the centre of Dublin city, I did some basic local market research on which station my potential customers listened to. This basic market research ranged from asking locals, to listening to what was being played on car radios in the area. As a result, I purchased a Sunshine 106 campaign. This was for two reasons. Firstly, it was in the top five most listened to stations in the catchment area of the pub and secondly it was the least expensive of those five. The campaign which had a radio ad aired over two weeks, that I was never overly happy with, also included a live OB from the pub. This proved extremely popular. The word of mouth reaction was excellent, the local newspaper was there to photograph the event and I believe that the post publicity from the actual campaign was of more value to my business than the radio advertisement itself. [1]

Pubs are the conduits by which companies like Guinness, Smirnoff and Heineken sell their products to the public. The publican acts as a middle-man and these major companies with extensive advertising budgets encourage the consumer to visit the pub to partake of their goods. It is generic advertising for the pub and not specific to any particular public house.[2] A public house radio advertising campaign for a pub in Dublin 4 is of little interest to someone living in Dublin 13. If that publican purchased advertising on a national or regional radio station, his pub would not resonate with a listener in Tralee. Even to advertise on a commercial Dublin station is probably not targeted enough to make much sense unless it is the launch of a nightclub or as part of an entertainment package. Community and neighbourhood radio would be the ideal route for that publican but in Ireland in 2021 there are limitations on the number of advertisements allowed on community radio[3] and none allowed on temporary licensed stations.[4]

 

A forerunner of legal local and community radio was pirate radio with many cities, towns and villages across Ireland had at least one pirate radio station entertaining and informing the local community. With advertising relatively cheap, many pubs used the pirate radio stations to reach their clientele whether it was their food offering, the upcoming entertainment, their new beer garden or an event being held there, radio was the perfect vehicle for publicans and their businesses. Since those days of the 1970’s and 1980’s the rules on advertising alcohol have changed and tightened including the blurb ‘Drink Responsibly’ added to the end of both radio and television advertising. The public house has been excluded from the airwaves During that period of illegal radio broadcasting numerous stations were located in public houses including in 1945 at the Beehive pub in Ardara, Donegal which was the location for Radio Nuala. Radio Milinda was famously located above the Diamond Pub in the Gloucester Diamond area of Dublin in 1972, while in the eighties during the golden era pf pirate radio several pubs were located in public houses. 

Centre Radio initially operated from Prosperous, County Kildare above Larry’s public house in the town going on air in September 1985. In 1983, Big Tree Radio became a short-lived station based above the Big Tree public house on North Main Street, Swords. Radio Glenfarne was operated by Paul Graham and Eamon Brookes from the County Leitrim village of Glenfarne for the local Festival beginning in 1980 based above a public house in the village and in the same county Radio North West began life above a pub in Drumshanbo. One of the so called Super Pirates Radio Leinster went on the air using a five-kilowatt transmitter on April 29^th 1981 broadcasting from a site behind Lamb Doyle’s public house in Sandyford. The community based station Radio Ringsend who broadcast for the duration of the local festival from 1982 until 1988, was located in various venues around the village including a room above Sally O’Brien’s public house on Thorncastle Street. Dublin’s Westside Radio was based above a pub on James’s Street in 1982 and Laser 89 in Waterford was also based above a pub. In the UK, a station Boogaloo Radio began broadcasting from the beer garden of the pub.

 

Following the imposed and extended Covid 19 lockdown[5] restrictions, which has seen many pubs closed for more than a year, there will come a moment when publicans need to reconnect with their client base. Some major pub chains will have advertising budgets but as revenue has been starved from them for over twelve months, how those budgets are spent will be tightly controlled. For the smaller, single business publican, the needs are different and in neighbourhoods and small villages across Ireland in urban and rural settings, an avenue to advertise their business will be critical as they meet the challenge from other pubs in close proximity to theirs. For targeted advertising many publicans have turned to social media and have purchased ad campaigns from companies like Facebook and Twitter. They also rely on sharing and retweeting but as the country re-opens and in twelve to eighteen months as the tourism sectors begins to regain momentum, pubs will need to spread their net for business wider. The issue for social media platforms is that they have attracted negative publicity with the rise of so-called ‘fake news’. The bonus however is the targeting, as advertisers can minutely target the audience they are after. This requires a certain amount of tech skills which is attractive for younger publicans but can be somewhat of a minefield for more traditional publicans. Radio will be key to the success of the recovering economy and is still one of the most popular mediums for the Irish consumer with 85% of all adults listening to radio every day.

 

Radio is popular in the car during the commutes in the morning and evenings with this reflected in the increased radio advertising rates during those periods. The evening commute is often the period when listeners decide where they will be socialising later that evening or over the forth coming weekend. Radio is used by those exercising and by demographics including stay at home parents, the elderly and sports enthusiasts. The definition of the term ‘radio’ has changed and expanded in the past decade as technology advances. Radio station broadcasts or audio content deliverers are now available not just through the tradition analogue linear broadcasts on AM and FM but via station apps, online providers such as Tune-In, Radio Garden and radio.ie and through media players located on station websites. The use of devices to access online radio and the increasing use of smart speakers like Alexa is a growing market. According to marketing.ie[6],

‘The digital tools used are for the most part a mobile device (11.9 per cent), with the PC/laptop used by 2.6 per cent and smart speakers used by 1.9 per cent. Despite widespread media content, platforms and devices, Irish radio maintains strong audiences, with the report showing 3.2 million people now tuned in to radio each weekday – 81 per cent of over-15s.’

Radio.ie at http://radio.ie/streams/  streams over 160 Irish radio stations on its service with over half of them only available to listeners online such as Birdhill Radio or Scariff Bay Community Radio. According to the services founder Brian Greene for the twenty days up to February 20^th 2021, there had been over 50,000 listens to radio on his service alone. He also demonstrated how easy it is for online radio stations to add adverts to the streams.

(c) www.radio.ie

With my own personal passion for radio, one of my favourite stations is an American Old Time Radio operator called ‘The Crime and Detective Channel’ which broadcasts programmes from the golden era of US radio, from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. During the interval between programmes, a number of adverts are aired not directly by the US station but through Tune-In. This advertising is helpful to the operator to offset the costs of streaming. The adverts that I heard, as distinct to a listener from Cork City, were targeted due to the analytics used identifying my interests including numerous advertisements for Tesco, where I regularly shop and use their free Wi-Fi when I am in store, identifying me as a potential recipient of the advertisements. To me that was good value for money. This could also be used to target my socialising habits. If I live in a particular area, the local public house adverts could be targeted to my listening habits. These analytics could also identify any Pub or restaurant when I checked in online, commented on through social media or used a search engine to identify.

 

Pubs and publicans will need radio, should use radio in a targeted, efficient manner and ultimately will reap the rewards of using such a dynamic and diverse medium as radio. Ad agencies such as Audio One should be encouraged by bodies such as the LVA and VFI to present proposals to the licensed trade to both boost their survival upon reopening and to give publicans a chance to understand how digital radio works and what it can do for them. The pubs need affordable access to the media not just as an industry but as individuals serving very diverse communities across the country. One size will not fit all.

 From the RTE media sales department,

“ALCOHOL ADVERTISING AND RETAILERS

A retail advertisement containing alcohol will be subject to either Full Alcohol restrictions of Part-Alcohol restrictions.

Full alcohol restrictions are the same restrictions that apply to a branded alcohol advertisement. Part-Alcohol restrictions apply to the period of 6am to 10am on all Radio and Television channels, RTÉ programming and the “Big Big Movie”.

Advertisements are considered Full Alcohol unless the majority of the products being promoted are non-alcohol. For example, a retail advertisement which includes offers on three products can only be regarded as a part alcohol advertisement if two of the products are non-alcoholic. A four product promotion would require that three of the products are non-alcoholic in order to avoid additional time and station restrictions applicable to branded alcohol advertising.

It is important to note that in addition to the number of different products being promoted if there is excessive emphasis on the alcohol element or a disproportionate amount of alcohol featuring within the advertisements then full alcohol restrictions would apply.”

---

[1] Other Campaigns

[2] Unless the pub itself is featured as a location in the advertisement.

[3] BAI Rules applying to Community Radio 4.5: Advertising The time to be given to advertising in any clock hour shall not exceed a maximum of six minutes.

[4] BAI Rules applying to Institutional and Temporary Radio Broadcasters: 4.8 Advertising & Teleshopping Spots Broadcasters licensed further to Section 68 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 may not carry advertising, including teleshopping.

[5] Some pop up radio stations appeared during the Lockdown broadcasting from closed public houses including ‘Covid Radio Swinford’ which broadcast from the front lounge of the White House pub on Chapel Street, Swinford, Co. Mayo.

[6] https://marketing.ie/vast-number-of-irish-adults-tune-into-fm-radio/

Irish Radio During Covid19

 John Purcell, Chairman of the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland (IBI) said,

‘Ireland is a nation built on the airwaves and in times of crisis it is to radio that people turn to get the most up to date and reliable information, for entertainment as a reprieve from the stress of our current daily lives and to hear local stories from local voices’.

 Since its invention over a century ago, the medium of radio has dominated how the consumer has been both entertained and informed. The pandemic that has enveloped the world in 2020 has had a drastic and profound effect on radio both in Ireland and worldwide. So, on the off chance that you have spent most of your lockdown time watching TV, scrolling through your social media news feeds or binge watching box sets, this is a look at radio in Ireland during lockdown. Radio is an intimate and immediate media that requires plenty of fresh and live content. Unlike TV, radio broadcasters are less able to fall back on archive material to keep the airwaves filled. 

The negative effects on Irish radio are confirmed when put into context of the global radio situation. In April, the major US radio network NPR cut pay and benefits in a bid to “save jobs and support the future of NPR” after the coronavirus pandemic ballooned its projected losses to as much as $53 million over the next two years. Employees’ pay was reduced on a sliding scale of up to 9% through Sept. 30th and workers were also offered furloughs said NPR Chief Executive Officer John Lansing. 

 

One of the earliest consequences of both the lockdown the came into effect just after St. Patrick's Day, was the need to socially distance was that presenters and DJ’s began to work from home. Linking to the studios via the internet. Presenters including RTE’s Claire Byrne, who contracted the virus, were broadcasting from sheds, attics, hot presses and bedrooms. It was a through back to the heyday of the Irish pirate radio stations where these were often the location of the illegal studios. It affected all stations, national, commercial and even community stations like Flirt FM where the staff had to quickly adapt to working remotely. Ciara Kelly on Newstalk, a trained doctor was another broadcaster to both broadcast from home and to contract the virus, sharing her experience with her listeners. 

(c) @ciarakellydoc

 The consumption of radio was also to suffer the effects of Covid 19 as up to the virus’s arrival in Ireland, most listeners got their radio through their cars as they commuted to and from work or on school runs. As a result of the stringent Government announced lockdown in March, the car was parked up for many months. While many turned to exercise to relieve the boredom and to stay fit replacing the gym, their earphones were more likely tuned to their own musical playlists from apps like Spotify rather than a radio station. It was also to the detriment of radio stations that newer phones do not allow the use of the FM radio on their devices and so stations relied on listeners downloading individual apps or apps like ‘Ireland Radio Online’ or ‘Tune-In’.

 

Irish radio, just as it is globally, has suffered as the Advertising spend has contracted and put financial strain on radio stations. Radio has lost out as the result of major changes in what the listener consumes and spends their money on as they cocooned for weeks. As we spent more time in our homes, only leaving for exercise or shopping for essentials at the supermarket or the pharmacy, we spent more time online, both to entertain and to spend. The advertising Euro migrated from the radio and traditional media to online spend. According to the Irish Times Google and Facebook in 2019 ‘collected an estimated 40% of the total advertising spend in Ireland’ adding ‘The Irish advertising market, which for so long was the source of income for independent radio, has been lost to these two unregulated global giants’.

 

The financial viability of this new radio landscape for stations came under the microscope. As early as March, Communicorp, headed by entrepreneur Denis O’Brien and operating a range of stations including Newstalk and Spin announced that all staff would be suffer enforced pay cuts of up to 25%. The rationale was that a pay cut would eliminate the need for redundancies. The media giant attempted to paint a better picture of how their product was being received by its listeners. According to ADworld.ie,

‘New research carried out by Media Central for Communicorp Media shows that Irish people are listening to more radio during the Covid-19 outbreak and that engagement levels with radio have increased significantly. The research received over 6,000 responses over a 48hr period on the March 24th and 25th and focused on Communicorp’s stations including Today FM, Newstalk. Dublin’s 98FM, Spin1038 and Spin South West. According to the research, Communicorp Media stations have seen a significant growth in listenership with reach growing by 34% while people are listening for 45% longer. In addition, the research shows that app downloads for Communicorp apps have increased by 47% while there has been a 54% increase in the number of listeners accessing their stations via a smart speaker.’

The contraction of the market and despite enforcing pay cuts on their staff, according to the Times newspaper in August 2020,

‘Denis O’Brien’s Radio Two Thousand has increased its shareholding in Newstalk after buying shares from the Loyola pub and restaurant group. In February of this year, Radio Two Thousand Limited, a subsidiary of O’Brien’s Communicorp, bought an 18.89% stake in News 106, which operates the Newstalk station. The transaction was revealed in the minutes of a Broadcasting Authority of Ireland meeting, obtained by The Sunday Times. The shares were previously owned by Hyper Trust, the company behind the Leopardstown Inn in Stillorgan, Dublin. The pub was acquired from examinership in 2015 by the Loyola pub group, which is owned by businessmen Stephen Cooney, Brian O’Malley and Eoin O’Malley, a former Leinster rugby player.’

 

Community radio stations provided updates and news for many rural communities and they provided religious services for a congregation who saw their churches closed. The Lions Club created their own new show, which was broadcast on Ros FM, a community station in Roscommon. Local Lions Club member Kathleen Shanagher said,

"We created our own new daily show 'The Rossie Way' on the community station RosFM and every day we feature everything except the news of the virus. We have comedy, sport, religion, gardening, cookery, local history and a daily quiz too - just no Covid-19. We even gave out 100 new radios (donated by Tesco), presenting them to people who did not have their own portable set and now 5,000 listeners listen every day."

 There were many pop-up ‘radio’ stations using various platforms to ‘broadcast’ including on Facebook live. One of those stations was the aptly named ‘Covid Radio Swinford’. Located in the then closed White House pub on Chapel Street, the station run by the pub owners son had a huge following both at home and abroad, connecting Mayo people across the world with music and requests, although the broadcasts occasionally fell foul of copyright rules. With over one hundred broadcasts, Covid Radio Swinford made its final broadcast from the front window of the pub on June 28th just before the pub was due to reopen. Quarantine FM began on Monday March 22^nd and was launched by Anna-Rose Charleston and Kate McKeown and proved popular. In Galway Benen Tierney launched Lockdown Live Radio online from him home, with presenters working remotely to entertain. As restrictions were lifted the station was renamed ‘Freedom Gold’.

In Northern Ireland, the Protestant/Loyalist traditions celebrate July 12th as the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne and is usually marked by bonfires, fireworks and parades throughout Northern Ireland but with Covid restrictions the Orange Order needed a different way of reaching their community. Radio Boyne described as a ‘pop up station’ was launched July 10th at 11am by Deputy Grand Master Harold Henning followed at 2.30 pm by the 'Twelfth Request Show.' The station remained on air for four days broadcasting including on The Twelfth of July, on various digital platforms and their own app. It proved popular and successful especially with listeners in Belfast.

Other stations opened in a blaze of publicity and quickly disappeared like Gold Radio which launched in early May in the midst of the pandemic. Gold Radio’s line-up included founder Mike Moloney (RTÉ 2FM, RTÉ Gold & Radio Nova), Chris Barry (FM104 & 98FM), Electric Eddie (RTÉ 2FM & Q102), Liam Quigley (98FM, Q102, RTÉ 2FM & Radio Nova), Mick Mulcahy (Cork’s 96FM & Red FM), Pat James (Radio Nova), Bob Conway (RTÉ 2FM, KFM & East Coast FM) and Dave Lyons (98FM, Classic Hits 4FM & DJ at Copper Face Jacks). Station Manager, Mike Moloney, explains why now is a good time to launch a radio station,

“When RTÉ announced that it was going to shut its entire digital service, including RTÉ Gold, I couldn’t believe it! Turns out I wasn’t the only one and out of that came the idea for Gold Radio. As the technology was easily available to everyone, we decided it was timely to launch Ireland’s first fully manned, digital-only, radio station. It’s going to be a fun station, playing music everyone knows, staffed by DJs who the listeners will remember, and all of them got involved to play the music they love and have a good time. That attitude led to the station’s motto: ‘Gold Radio, Playing the Good Stuff’. The original idea was that all staff would be paid from the beginning, but Covid-19 put an end to that. The plan stalled for a while and then it was decided to go ahead anyway, with minimum funding, and at least get Gold Radio broadcasting. There was so much goodwill for the project that we found a load of presenters who were quite willing, at least for the moment, to go on air and work for nothing.
Unlike most other stations these days, where presenters have to toe a company line and dare not adjust the computer playlist in front of them, our crew can happily change any track they don’t like that may appear on their playlist and say what they like, once it doesn’t get us sued! It’s that old-fashioned thing that we all grew up on – Personality Radio.

 

With the lockdown forcing Catholic Churches to close their doors and services including funerals held either behind closed doors or with limited numbers. Churches broadcast their services for their parishioners. In the urban area including the major cities, due to the lack of frequencies, Churches used webcams or Facebook Live to reach their audience while others used the WPAS licensed system but an increasing number of rural parishes began using illegal FM transmitters to broadcast mass every day including funeral Masses and even in some parishes broadcasting bingo and quiz nights. Online digital station Radio Maria based at the Red Cow Roundabout in Dublin saw its audience grew significantly as the faithful listened to services especially daily Mass through the Virgin TV digital platform. The station was also available on DAB and various live radio apps.

Read more here http://ibhof.blogspot.com/2020/07/revealed-worlds-largest-pirate-radio.html

 

In July 2020, the Fine Gael caretaker Government led by Leo Varadkar was replaced with a Coalition Government formed by Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party. Following the formation responsibility for broadcasting transferred from the former Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment to the newly created Department of Media Tourism Arts Culture sports and Gaeltacht. A new Government Bill was proposed that would see the replacing of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with a Media Commission. The Government and the BAI tried to assist the struggling radio sector by announcing a The Government and the BAI tried to assist the struggling radio sector by announcing a €2.5million package to be spread amongst the stations to offset the loss of advertising revenue and the costs associated with remote broadcasting. The previous March, prior to the formation of the Coalition Government, the Minister for Communications announced the waiving of the broadcasting levy paid to the BAI. He said,

‘I recognize the importance of local radio stations to their communities as a trusted source of information on the COVID-19 Pandemic. They play a crucial role, especially in broadcasting community-specific information across the country. In common with other businesses, the local radio sector has experienced financial strain as a result of a drop off in advertising revenue. To ensure that local radio stations can continue to play a role in serving local communities, I have requested the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to waive the broadcasting levy for the first six months of the year. This action will save local radio stations almost €1m.’

 The timing of Government Press Conferences and Health department updates were timed to suit TV rather than radio. Local radio did however play an important part when localised lockdowns were brought in to curb the spread of the disease.

 

Pirate radio was not immune from activities during the crisis. On July 17th Wild Country who were broadcasting near the border were raided. https://www.facebook.com/106487707585931/videos/1197629210587522/

According to a post Wild County FM put up on their facebook page after a raid by ComReg and the Gardai,

‘Today at approx 11:30am, Officers from ComReg accompanied by Gardai conducted a raid on the Wild Country FM transmission site, which was located at Edentubber, Co. Louth. Equipment valued at €16000 (£14500) was seized and the station was taken off the air at 11:40. While we fully acknowledge that our station was operating without a license, it has filled a valuable void which has been left for local radio, particularly in the South Armagh and Down areas since the departure of Q radio from their Newry Studio. We had been broadcasting the public health advisories on Covid-19 twice an hour for both North and South and if the reaction to our station over the lockdown is anything to go by, we feel we have made this difficult period easier for our listeners by providing Irish and American country music around the clock. Alas this came to an end today, why it took 6 members of ComReg, together with Gardai to do this we will never understand when a simple phone call to us from the authorities would have sufficed. (The CCTV video from our site is like something out of Narcos - sledgehammers etc).’

 

Finally, Hollywood movie star Matt Damon found himself stranded in the south Dublin suburb of Dalkey with some of his family. Locals photographed the superstar which went viral and then two presenters on Spin 1038 began a tongue in cheek campaign to get Damon on air. In May 2020 to both the surprise and delight of presenters Nathan O’Reilly and Graham O’Toole, he rang in from Dalkey and the call made headlines around the world.