RTÉ Lyric FM
RTÉ Lyric FM is an Irish radio program operated by the public broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann . RTÉ Lyric FM mainly plays classical music and jazz music . The station, founded in 1999, is based in Limerick and can be received in Ireland on VHF (96-99 MHz), as well as on the Sky Digital TV satellite in Ireland and Great Britain and on the Internet .
RTÉ Lyric FM emerged from FM3 Classical Music , which began broadcasting in the early 1980s. FM3 broadcast classical music on the frequencies of RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta at breakfast, lunchtime and in the evening. The station was hardly advertised, except through references to RTÉ Radio 1 , and had only a small number of listeners. It was probably best known for the occasional broadcast of stereo soundtracks from films broadcast on the TV channels RTÉ 1 and 2, before RTÉ installed the digital stereo system NICAM .
When Raidió na Gaeltachta extended its broadcasting period, FM3 switched to the period from 7.30 p.m. to 1 a.m. and finally stayed on the air until breakfast time, when RnaG resumed operations.
In 1999 RTÉ set up an additional VHF transmission network and it was decided to separate FM3 and Raidió na Gaeltachta and to include other forms of minority music in the program. The British broadcaster Classic FM was partly a model for this. The result was Lyric FM (later renamed: RTÉ Lyric FM), launched in May 1999. As part of the regionalization policy , it was moved from Dublin to Limerick. At the time RTÉ Lyric FM started broadcasting, digital studios on Cornmarket Row in Limerick were the most modern in the country.
In 2004, RTÉ Lyric FM won the PPI National Station of the Year award for the second time.