Country music station to broadcast for 30 days

Former radio presenters Brendan Magee and Mike Ryan were part of a consortium who last year contested a radio licence in Dublin with the aim of bringing Ireland's first full time country radio station to Dublin. Unfortunately the bid was unsuccessful but undeterred Brendan and Mike have been granted a temporary radio licence by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to broadcast to Dublin and the southeast for 30 days from February 10th to March 12th. Country FM will play both American and Irish country artists and they feel it is a service which is badly needed in Ireland where country music is so popular and has a growing audience amongst younger people.

Country FM will be available on 94.3FM in Dublin and 103.8FM in the southeast.

Mike previously worked as a presenter with Midlands 103, Dublin's Country and Ocean FM. Brendan, a former presenter with Midwest and Northwest Radio and Ocean FM is well known as a singer on the social dancing circuit in Ireland and first met Mike when the two of them worked for Ocean FM when it first started broadcasting in 2004. Brendan took a break from radio and music in 2005 and pursued a career with Aer Arann (now Stobart Air) as a pilot and was based at Galway airport for 6 years. After two and a half years Brendan was promoted to captain and enjoyed his time flying between Ireland and the UK. He decided to hang up his wings when Aer Arann withdrew their services from Galway and a move away from his young family just didn't suit.

'I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a pilot. It was my childhood dream to one day become an airline pilot but family comes first and I'm thankful that I had the chance to follow my dream,' he said. 'My second love is country music and both myself and Mike are single minded in achieving the goal of setting up Ireland's first country music radio station'.

Brendan also recently recorded an album with David Arkins in Athboy and was delighted that Charlie Arkins, David's father, played fiddle on the album. As a pure coincidence Mike is also a qualified pilot and holds a private pilot's licence.

To coincide with the temporary radio service, Brendan who lives in Sligo and Mike, from Dublin, are launching a brand new Irish country music TV show on 'Bonanza Bonanza' which is available on Sky channel 266 and Freesat 157. 'Ireland's Country' will be joining established country shows like 'Hot Country' and 'Ireland West Music TV' which have already established a sizeable number of viewers on this channel.

Rather than filming in a studio, Brendan and Mike will be introducing Irish country music videos from locations all around Ireland. Each week 'Ireland's Country' will come from a different county. The first show, which will be broadcast on Tuesday February 3rd at 8pm and repeated on Thursday also at 8pm, was filmed in county Sligo. The second show was filmed in county Donegal, week three comes from county Fermanagh and the fourth show will be filmed in county Leitrim. They will be visiting Longford in the not too distant future.

Brendan says: 'As well as all the top Irish based artists like Nathan Carter, Derek Ryan, Mike Denver, Jimmy Buckley, Lisa McHugh and Jim Devine we will also be featuring longer established artists and up and coming Irish country singers as well. Our aim is to broadcast only good quality videos and ensure the viewer an enjoyable hour of the best in Irish country music. We know that there are a lot of viewers in the UK and we think that by filming on location around Ireland we can show off the Irish landscape as well'.

'Ireland's Country' comes to screens on Sky channel 266 and Freesat 157 on Tuesday February 3rd at 8pm with the repeat show on Thursday also at 8pm.