Downtown Radio is a

Hot Adult Contemporary 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 ...

music radio station based in

Newtownards Newtownards is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles (16 km) east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. It is in the Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Newtownard ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, that serves all of

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

using a network of AM, FM and DAB

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

s. As of December 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 305,000 listeners according to RAJAR.

History

The station, also known as DTR or simply Downtown, began broadcasting on 16 March 1976 - the same day as

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...

resigned. The station had a mini-scoop, breaking the news over an hour before

BBC Radio Ulster BBC Radio Ulster ( ga, BBC Raidió Uladh) is a Northern Irish radio station owned and operated by BBC Northern Ireland, a division of the BBC. It was established on New Year's Day 1975, replacing what had been an opt-out of BBC Radio 4. It is ...

. Downtown Radio has very much become part of the broadcasting landscape of the entire nine-county

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

. Many of its presenters, such as Trevor 'Big T' Campbell and

Candy Devine Candy Devine, Order of the British Empire, MBE (born ca. 1939) is the stage name of Faye Ann McLeod (born Faye Ann Guivarra), an Australian-born broadcaster, singer, and actress. She was a radio broadcaster and singer in Northern Ireland for o ...

, are household names - Campbell and Devine have been with Downtown since it began broadcasting. Initially, Downtown was only contracted to broadcast to the Greater Belfast area, on AM and (later ) FM. However, following the collapse of plans for a station in the

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

region (Northside Sound) in 1983, Downtown applied to the former

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to extend its coverage. Transmitters covering the North West, the Causeway Coast and

Fermanagh Historically, Fermanagh ( ga, Fir Manach), as opposed to the modern County Fermanagh, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, associated geographically with present-day County Fermanagh. ''Fir Manach'' originally referred to a distinct kin group of a ...

/South Tyrone were opened in 1986 and 1987, and the station briefly rebranded itself as 'DTRFM' to reflect its new audience reach. The station reverted to Downtown Radio again in 1990 following the introduction of its sister station,

Cool FM Cool FM is an Independent Local Radio station based in Newtownards, Northern Ireland. The station is owned and operated by Bauer and forms part of Bauer's Hits Radio Network. The station began broadcasting in 1990 when its parent station D ...

, although the latter only broadcast on the 97.4 frequency in the Greater Belfast area. Other transmitters remained with Downtown. New FM transmitters in South Down/

Armagh Armagh ( ; ga, Ard Mhacha, , "Macha's height") is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Pri ...

, and Mid and East Antrim opened in the 1990s to improve reception in those areas. The station has been very highly regarded in the past for its news output, and has been a regular stop-off point for radio journalists covering

The Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

in Northern Ireland over a 30 year period. It was the first radio station in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

to offer news bulletins, hourly on the hour. Changes in management made in 2007, as well as the success of the peace process, have led to Downtown reducing its news output somewhat. It is notable for being one of the few

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003, ...

stations to still cater for minority tastes such as gospel and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

. The country music programmes broadcast several times a week are among Downtown's highest listenership ratings. In December 2012, Downtown opened a small studio in

ahead of the city’s year of being

UK City of Culture UK City of Culture is a designation given to a city (or a local area from 2025) in the United Kingdom for a period of one calendar year, during which the successful bidder hosts cultural festivities through culture-led regeneration for the ye ...

, situated in the Food Quarter within Foyleside Shopping Centre. It remains open and in use, mainly at the weekend with presenter-led programming on Saturday afternoon and Sunday covering a range of events in the region.

Schedules

As of December 2021, the schedule for Downtown Radio is as follows: Mondays to Fridays Friday At 19.00 is Paul Orr and at 22.00 is Paul Kennedy * 6.00am - Downtown Breakfast with Gary Myles and Glen Pavis: * 10.00am - Caroline Fleck: * 1.00pm - Owen Larkin in the afternoon. * 4.00pm - Downtown Drive With Neal McClelland * 7.00pm - Evenings With Kirstie McMurray On Downtown Radio * 10.00pm - Late Lounge with David Gordon * 1.00am - All Night Downtown: Playing the best music through the night on Downtown Saturdays * 6.00am - Weekend Breakfast With Kirstie McMurray and David Coleman * 10.00am - Paul Orr * 1.00pm - Paul Francis * 4.00pm - Lisa McHugh * 7.00pm - Downtown Anthems With Neal * 10.00pm - Kevin McAlister * 1.00am - All Night Downtown: Playing the best music through the night on Downtown Sundays * 6.00am - Weekend Breakfast with Kirstie McMurray and David Coleman * 10.00am - Paul Orr * 1.00pm - Paul Francis * 4.00pm - NI Hit 40 With DJ Hix * 7.00pm - Sunday Evening with Hannah Kirkpatrick * 10.00pm - Kevin McAllister * 1.00am - All Night Downtown: Playing the best music through the night on Downtown

Frequencies

*1026 kHz: Antrim, Armagh, Ballyclare, Ballymena, Banbridge, Bangor, Belfast, Carrickfergus, Comber, Cookstown, Downpatrick, Dungannon, Lisburn, Lurgan, Maghera, Magherafelt, Newcastle, Newtownards, Portadown, Portaferry *96.4 MHz: Ballycastle, Ballymoney, Coleraine, Dungiven, Limavady, Portrush, Portstewart *96.6 MHz: Dungannon, Enniskillen, Omagh *97.1 MHz: Larne (East Antrim) *102.3 MHz: Antrim, Ballymena, Clough Mills, Magherafelt, Randalstown, Rasharkin, Templepatrick *102.4 MHz: Derry, Strabane *103.1 MHz: Armagh, Newry *103.4 MHz: Newcastle (Mourne) *103.4 MHz: (from Carnmoney Hill): Belfast, Newtownabbey, Holywood, Carrickfergus

Notable past presenters

Past presenters include

Eamonn Holmes Eamonn Holmes (; born 3 December 1959)Holmes receives honorary degree
BBC ...

and Frank Mitchell.

References

External links

* {{coord missing, County Down Bauer City network Bauer Radio Radio stations in Northern Ireland Mass media in County Down Newtownards Radio stations established in 1976 1976 establishments in Northern Ireland