1 January – BBC Radio Ulster is launched, and becomes the first full-time radio station for Northern Ireland. It replaces what had been an opt-out of BBC Radio 4 (previously the BBC Northern Ireland Home Service) and launches as a result of the BBC's widely regarded under-reporting of the UWC Strike in May 1974.
Plans for a station, Northside Sound, in the Derry region collapse.
1984
No events.
1985
No events.
1986
1 October – Downtown Radio's broadcast area is expanded when it begins broadcasting to the north western area of Northern Ireland.
1987
Late in 1987, Downtown Radio begins broadcasting to the Enniskillen and Omagh areas of Northern Ireland and to coincide with its expanded broadcast area, the station rebrands itself as 'DTRFM' to reflect that it now broadcasts to wider areas of Northern Ireland.
19 August – BBC Radio 1 broadcasts its first split programming when it introduces weekly national new music shows for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Session in Northern Ireland is presented by Colin Murray and Donna Legge.[4]
After years of campaigning by locals for the re-advertising of a radio licence for Mid-Ulster, Ofcom awards an FM licence for the area to Belfast CityBeat and launches the station as Mid FM.
2003
1 February – Mid 106 FM begins broadcasting across mid Ulster.
2004
No events.
2005
14 November – U105 launches as a music and speech station covering Belfast-based radio station[citation needed]
26 July – The BBC announces a trial scheme under which BBC Radio Foyle would be available on DAB as a part-time sidecar station to Radio Ulster, using a similar format as the part-time longwave-programming optouts of BBC Radio 4 on the BBC National DAB multiplex. During this trial, the bitrate of Radio Ulster drops during Foyle's separate broadcast hours, with Foyle carried as a split audio stream in the remaining space; outside of split shows, the full bitrate would revert to Radio Ulster.[5]
2011
November – 6FM is rebranded to 6FM in 2006 and changed name again to Q106.7 FM.
December – Downtown Radio opens a small studio in Derry ahead of the city’s year of being UK City of Culture. It remains open and in use, mainly at the weekend with presenter-led programming on Saturday afternoon and Sunday covering a range of events in the region.
6 July – Fuse FM Ballymoney launches as a full time community station.,[8] becoming the first radio station in the UK to serve the Ulster Scots Community.
9 August – The Q Radio Network launches. The network covers seven licence areas[9] including Belfast which sees Citybeat subsumed into the new network.
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