Classic Hits FM

Ireland's Classic Hits Radio is an independent multi-region radio station based in Dublin, and broadcasting to Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Galway. It can also be picked up in parts of Clare, Wicklow, Kildare, Meath. Kerry, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Mayo.

The station was originally owned by a group of investors including Bay Broadcasting, Dermot Hanrahan’s Vienna Investments, the Irish Times, Thomas Crosbie Holdings and Mary Redmond. Initially launched in 2009 as “4FM” (because it targeted Ireland's four most populated cities)  the station initially struggled to establish a sizable audience. In 2011 Sean Ashmore was appointed as 4FM’s new CEO, the fourth in the station’s short history. Ashmore is credited with turning the station’s fortune around, rebranding it as “Classic Hits 4FM” and entirely overhauling its “rather dull and bland” daytime schedule. Despite this, in 2015, the Revenue Commissioners went to the High Court seeking that the station’s operating company, Choice Broadcasting Limited be wound up over unpaid taxes of €150,000.  An investment from Bay Broadcasting addressed the issue and Bay subsequently moved to buy out the other investors. The 2018 public Competition and Consumer Protection Commission relating to another Bay acquisition (of Radio Nova) saw Bay declare that it had established sole control of Choice no later that October 2017 with a 99% shareholding. 

The station is targeted at the 45+ demographic, predominantly playing music from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, with small amounts of classic country. The station also hosts a number of phone-in talk shows. The station eventually changed its name to Classic Hits 4FM in 2018, before simply becoming Classic Hits Radio in 2021. Unusually Choice Broadcasting Limited does not avail of the option to avoid declaring its annual revenues as a small company which the Companies Act permits. Thus, its most recent filled accounts (relating to 2024) point to €3.4m in revenues.

(Last updated in April 2026)