Anna Livia has been going for 16 years and has now changed to ‘Dublin City FM’ but that is only the beginning. It is aiming to raise its profile and increase funds through advertising and sponsorship.

Dublin City FM is hoping to take on five full-time staff and thus generate more ideas for innovative radio programmes. There are at present 170 volunteers working there.

Dublin City FM’s chairman, Mick Hanley, is an Eircom technician who says, “We’d like the chance to do more with it, there are a lot of stories in Dublin that aren’t covered by the national radio and we would like to start telling them.”

Dublin City FM holds a ‘special interest’ licence which means the station is somewhere between community radio and regular commercial radio stations. Generous funding comes from Dublin County Council and Dublin Docklands Development Authority which has meant more station equipment. The station raises about €50,000 a year commercially, covering about a fifth of its costs.

The name is changing to Dublin City FM because of the close association with Dublin City Council over the past two years. Changing the name from Anna Livia also makes the station more understandable for immigrants. Dublin’s ethnic communities broadcast their own programmes. There are Polish, Russian, Pakistani, Chinese and now Korean. The most successful programme is a constant live update on traffic with music and current affairs. The station also serves as good experience for young people interested in radio.

The aim at Dublin City FM is to entertain and inform as broad a range of people as possible. However, there are more specific groups of listeners who have been largely ignored by other commercial radio stations, to which they can provide a service which is unobtainable elsewhere.

These groups would include community groups, ethnic groups, schoolchildren, historians, hobbyists, music enthusiasts, women’s groups, Dublin sport enthusiasts and older listeners.

The station says, “Dublin City 103.2 FM provides Dublin listeners with a unique radio station that reflects the lives and aspirations of the city’s inhabitants with a broad range of programmes that will inform, challenge and entertain them. Dublin City 103.2 FM’s commitment in providing open-access radio in conjunction with training to the general public is unique by providing Dublin listeners with effective control of their own radio station.”

Listening to the station myself I find it fulfils their promise of a special-interest radio station, with plenty for everyone. At night, I tuned in and listened to a late-night jazz session by an older Dublin DJ. Variety there certainly is as I tuned in the next day and listened to a programme on cosmetic surgery.

There was also a student section dealing with film reviews. All in all, there is plenty to please everyone, both young and old.

For more information see www.dublincityfm.ie