Broadcast area | Greater Belfast on FM & Northern Ireland on DAB |
---|---|
Slogan | "Better Music" |
Format | Adult Contemporary/Top40 |
Audience share | 13.2% (7 June 2015, [1]) |
Power | 600W (96.7) |
Owner | Northern Media Group |
Website | www.citybeat.fm ] |
Q Radio, (formerly known as Citybeat and Belfast CityBeat) is a Northern Irish radio station. It broadcasts to Greater Belfast on 96.7 MHz FM and on DAB Digital Radio across all of Northern Ireland. From 5 April 2007, Citybeat became available on 102.5FM for North Belfast, Newtownabbey and Carrickfergus. On 2 November 2007, Citybeat launched a third FM transmitter also broadcasting on 102.5FM for Bangor. Citybeat reaches a weekly audience of 127,000 listeners in Belfast, around 22% of the adult population. and has won both Arqiva 'Station of the Year' and Sony Awards. The station was rebranded as Q Radio on-air at 6pm on Sunday 9 August 2015.
From 2007 to 2010, the radio station was the home of 'The Young Star Search', Northern Ireland's biggest ever talent search for young people. The contest was created and is hosted by Stuart Robinson.
Citybeat has won more Sony Radio Academy Awards than any other commercial radio station in Northern Ireland along with a number of other top awards. Recent awards include:
Under the ownership of Owen Oyston, CityBeat had a couple of short lived affiliate stations on AM, namely Goldbeat 828 (Formerly Townland Radio) in Cookstown, and Heartbeat 1521 (formerly Radio 1521) in Craigavon. Citybeat handed back the licences to the Radio Authority just two years after buying the stations due to lack of commercial viability. Heartbeat was on the air from 1996 to 1999 and Goldbeat broadcast between 1995 and 1999. The licence for Craigavon has to date never been re-advertised however Cookstown was re-advertised on FM in 2002 and was ironically granted back to Citybeat (by now under new ownership of CN group) in February 2003 Mid FM was launched as the local radio station for Mid-Ulster (from the same building and studio as Townland/Goldbeat broadcast). In 2006 Citybeat sold the station to Northern Media (owners of Ballymena 7fm); they rebranded the station to Six FM.