By Sarah Mac Donald - 28 January, 2016
The team at Spirit Radio. ©MarkFennellPhotography
Spirit Radio is celebrating its fifth birthday with the satisfying news that it is now reaching 540,000 adults each week and the station is most popular with young adults in the 25-34 age group.
The new figures for Ireland’s Christian radio station are published in a listenership survey carried out by Amarách Research.
Speaking about the milestone, CEO of Spirit Radio, Rob Clarke, said it was clear there was a hunger for positive uplifting radio.
“Since we started Spirit Radio five years ago it has continued to grow from strength to strength; people have really warmed to our mix of compelling speech content and uplifting contemporary music with a positive message. These figures are a strong indication of the hunger for Christian radio in Ireland,” he said.
Rob Clarke related how, “Over the past five years we have received thousands of emails, texts and calls about the difference the station is making in people’s lives. We hear all the time from people who stumble across Spirit Radio and then keep listening.”
“We have had messages on more than one occasion from people who has been struggling with thoughts of suicide and then heard something a song or a speech feature that helped them step back from the brink.”
“We are really encouraged that so many of our listeners are young adults. I think they appreciate the space and opportunity the station provides to think about life’s big questions.”
Wendy Grace, presenter of Spirit Radio’s flagship talk programme ‘The Morning Show’ said that the station was providing a diverse mix of secular and Christian speech content.
“We are able to provide wide variety of news, current affairs and lifestyle issues that appeal to a broad cross-section of listeners.”
In Wendy Grace’s opinion, what makes Spirit Radio – a multi-denominational cross-border Christian radio station – different is it is listener supported.
“We are not under the same commercial pressures as other stations, so that means we can sometimes cover stories that might be overlooked, like stories of Christian persecution or focusing on mental health issues.”
She added, “Our ethos is about bringing hope and encouragement to listeners and our increasing figures shows that there is a real need for this type of radio in Ireland today.”
The 2014 poll was carried out on 1,009 adults and showed a 6% market share equating to 206,000 weekly listeners.
The results are from Amarách Research who conducted an online poll of 1,000 adults. The full research can be found here.
Spirit Radio is a multi-city radio station available in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford, Limerick, Kildare, Dundalk, Wicklow and Kilkenny on FM and Nationwide on MW.
