Dublin's Q102 is a

commercial radio Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship. It was the United States′ first model of radio (a ...

station in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, owned by

Wireless Group Wireless Group Limited is a radio and digital broadcasting network with headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland and with radio operations in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It currently operates five stations in Ireland and ...

which is in turn owned by

News UK News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp. It is the current publisher of ...

. It broadcasts on 102.2

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. The station is licensed to target the 35+ age group, and must provide hourly news, as well as current events programming. It broadcasts under a contract from the

Broadcasting Authority of Ireland The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) ( ga, Údarás Craolacháin na hÉireann) was established on 1 October 2009 effectively replacing the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) ( ga, Coimisiún Craolacháin na hÉireann). The BAI is ...

. Q102 broadcasts from Macken House in Dublin's Docklands. The station was launched as Lite 102.2. On purchasing the station, UTV rebranded it to Dublin's Q102 thanks to research of Dublin people aged over 35, who decided on bringing back the name of a former pirate radio station.

Relaunch

The station's relaunch was orchestrated by former Big Brother UK contestant

Ray Shah Ray Shah (born 31 January 1978) came to prominence in public life as a contestant on the Channel 4 reality programme Big Brother, in which he finished second. Since his exit from the Big Brother house, Shah entered a career in the entertainment ...

, who took over the station until it was relaunched. The take over involved a defacement of Lite 102.2's website and the constant playing of "

Mah Nà Mah Nà "Mah Nà Mah Nà" is a popular song by Italian composer Piero Umiliani. It originally appeared in the Italian film '' Sweden: Heaven and Hell'' (''Svezia, inferno e paradiso''). It was a minor radio hit in the United States and in Britain, but be ...

" during the transition period. The station's

Radio Data System Radio Data System (RDS) is a communications protocol standard for embedding small amounts of digital information in conventional FM radio broadcasts. RDS standardizes several types of information transmitted, including time, station identificati ...

PS name was changed to MUPPET during this time, before settling on Q102 afterwards. The first song played on the new Dublin's Q102 was "

Night Fever "Night Fever" is a song written and performed by the Bee Gees. It first appeared on the soundtrack to ''Saturday Night Fever'' on RSO Records. Producer Robert Stigwood wanted to call the film ''Saturday Night'', but singer Robin Gibb expressed ...

" by

The Bee Gees ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

followed by " What About Me" by

Shannon Noll Shannon Noll (born 16 September 1975) is an Australian singer-songwriter who first came to prominence as runner-up of the first season of ''Australian Idol'' in 2003, which led to him being signed to Sony BMG. He has released five top ten albu ...

Programming

The station broadcasts mainly

adult contemporary music Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

aimed at the 35+ age group. The station broadcasts news on the hour (half-hour at peak times) along with sports, traffic and weather updates.

Presenters

* Aidan Cooney (''Q102 Breakfast with Aidan & Venetia'') * Venetia Quick (''Q102 Breakfast with Aidan & Venetia'') * Andy Preston (''The Feel Good Workday'') * Liam Coburn (''The Feel Good Drive'') * Debbie Allen (''The LoveZone'' (Mon-Thurs) / ''The Feel Good 80's Party'' (Fri)) * Hazel Nolan (''Weekend Sports Breakfast'') * Paul Bradley (''Saturday Breakfast'' / ''Sunday Mid-Mornings'') * Johnny Bowe (''Saturday Mid-Mornings'' / ''Sunday Afternoon'') * Martin King (''Saturday Afternoon'') * Lisa Armstrong (''The Feel Good 80's Party'' (Sat) / ''The LoveZone'' (Sun)) * Miriam Maher (''An Blas Beag'') * Lynsey Dolan (''Overnights'' / ''Sunday Breakfast'')

Q102 News

Q102's News output, is branded on air as ''Q102 Live''. Intro of the updates reference the various ways of accessing Q102 (FM, Online, Mobile, Smartspeaker). The news focus is local to Dublin, with coverage of national public interest stories, and major international events. Main news bulletins are simulcast on sister station,

FM104 FM104 is an independent local radio station broadcast across Dublin, Ireland, on the frequency 104.4 MHz. It is operated by Capital Radio Productions Limited (unconnected with, and not to be confused with, Capital Radio plc), and is a subs ...

Q102 News Team

* Kevin O’Mahony (Head of News) * Hazel Nolan * Louise Phelan D'Cruz * Alison O’Reilly

Q102 sports reporter

* Peter Branigan

External links

* {{coord missing, County Dublin Adult contemporary radio stations in Ireland Mass media in Dublin (city) Radio stations in the Republic of Ireland Wireless Group Radio stations established in 2000