East Radio

East Coast FM holds the local radio licence for Wicklow, where it has operated in one guise or another since 1979. The station schedule features a mix of news, current affairs, magazine and music content. As of 2025, it has an audience share of 21.5% in its franchise area and is majority-owned by Heart Media.

East Coast emerged from the 1991 merger of two Wicklow stations: Horizon FM and East Coast Easy 103, the original local radio licence allocation plan drawn up by the Independent Radio and Television Commission having allowed for two Wicklow stations: one in the north of the county and the other in the south. When the successful applicants were announced in April 1989, the north Wicklow licence went to Wicklow Community Broadcasting Co-Operative Society Ltd, a group associated with the National Association of Community Broadcasters and backed by Adrian Kennedy, John Murphy, Moira Byrne and Brendan Mooney. The south Wicklow licence went to Wicklow Media Services Ltd a company promoted by former Law Society president Laurence Cullen, chartered accountant Edward Lalor, Brendan Newsome (Managing Director of Wire Ropes Limited) and local businessman Patrick Clark. The north Wicklow station was branded “Horizon FM” whilst the south Wicklow counterpart adopted the name “East Coast Easy 103”.

Horizon’s own origins stretched back to August 1979 when Bray Local Broadcasting (BLB) went on air. In a period when the state retained a monopoly on broadcasting, BLB was strictly speaking a “pirate” broadcaster but it adopted something of a community broadcasting ethos. This partially survived the transition to becoming a legal commercial broadcaster: Horizon was structured as a co-op with no individual shareholder allowed to invest more than £IR6,000 in the acquisition of the £IR1 shares. In consequence, although some local businesses and statutory organisations had taken out more substantial shareholdings, there were a large (100 plus) number of individual investors often with very small holdings.

Horizon went on air in October 1989. Under the first station manager, Adrian Kennedy, it’s schedule was subject to frequent change, reflecting a desire to encompass as many outlooks as possible. This presented something of a challenge for audiences but by July 1990 Horizon had won an audience share of 14% with a “listened yesterday figure” of 21%, despite de facto competition from Dublin pop music stations 98FM and Capital Radio. However, the station was also dogged by financial difficulties and in May 1991, the board called an EGM to propose a major restructuring of the day designed to facilitate commercial investment into the station. The changes, which were approved by 95% of the co-op members, saw control of Horizon move to a new entity – Pacific Enterprises. Though initially a wholly owned subsidiary of the co-op, the EGM approved proposal to allows up to 75% of Pacific to be sold to outside investors, subject to a cap of 25% on any individual shareholding to ensure no single person/group could attain majority control of the station. Though some co-op members expressed concern that the community-orientation of the station’s schedule would inevitably be undermined by the move, the board emphasized that local (rather than community) content was a major selling point even in a commercial environment.

The second Wicklow station, East Coast Easy (sometimes referred to as “Ezy 103”) did not commence broadcasting until March 1991. The IRTC had assumed from the outset that both stations would share some transmission resources but the hilly terrain of south Wicklow presented particular issues for East Coast. When the station did go on air, it relied on a variety of transmitters spread across Wicklow Head, Avoca, Arklow and Baltinglass and was forced to transmit on different frequencies across its franchise area.

It was almost immediately apparent that Wicklow could not sustain two more or less directly competing stations. In August 1991, Horizon’s new Chief Executive, former RTE present, Dave Heffernan confirmed that the station had commenced merger talks with East Coast. That this came at a point when Horizon was still inviting inquiries from commercial investors was not insignificant: a merged operation promised a much chance of achieving financial viability. For its part the IRTC immediately made it clear that it strongly favoured a merger and by September 1991, the two stations agreed to establish a new, combined structure, in which both groups would hold 20% of the shares, with the remainder available for new investors. The IRTC granted formal approval for the merger in November 1991 and from a single Wicklow service commenced the same month. Former RTE producer Brian Reynolds was brought in as Programme Controller. Reynolds restructured the schedule in a manner that somewhat mirrored RTE Radio 1’s: a morning news and current affairs show, followed by a lighter 9am slot helmed by Adrian Kennedy with Sean Ashmore (later to become co-majority shareholder) presenting the drivetime slot from 5pm.

New shareholders were also gradually added: Donegal hotelier and publican Jim McGettigan took a major stake in 1992 and by 1994 was the single largest shareholder with a 25% ahead of Tyrone-based businessman Gerry Carron (who’s given address in the filing was “care of” the La Touche Hotel in Greystones) on 16.75% and East Coast Chief Executive Dave Heffernan on 12.4%. (The annual filing for East Coast in 1994 also refers to a “La Touche nominee” - at the same address as Gerry Carron – holding a further 350 shares so it is possible that Carron/La Touche held up to 22.5% of the company.)

By the late 1990s, Denis O’Brien had an interest in the company. The 1998 annual return assigned 22.5% of the company to La Touche Investments Ltd. The 1998 return gave Gerry Carron as a “care of” address for La Touche but by the 2004 return, when La Touche’s shareholding had reached 27%, its address is directly associated with Communicorp.
In 2006, the majority shareholders in East Coast appointed Merrion Corporate Finance to test the waters for a sale. However, Communicorp expressed no interest in either buying the station outright or selling its own stake. This appears to have discouraged other investors from coming on board and the station was taken off the market.

However, in the wake of Communicorp’s major 2007 acquisition of EMAP’s Irish radio assets, O’Brien moved to divest his minority holding. This prompted an exodus of smaller shareholders reducing the total from 30 to 10. The buyer was Sean Ashmore, then Chief Executive of Dublin’s Country 106.8 (later Sunshine 106.8) who already held 25% of East Coast’s shares. Contemporary newspaper reports suggested that this left Ashmore with a 75% shareholding in the company but it may have been as much as 80% given the manner in Ashmore held shares though his Heart Media vehicle (co-owned by Ciara O’Connor), Fessenden Radio Investments Limited (as Communicorp’s La Touche Investments Limited subsidiary was renamed) and in his own name. By the late 2010s, further consolidation saw Fessenden Limited (by then a wholly-owned subsidiary of Heart Media) hold 85% of shares, with Jim McGettigan retaining a 12.5% share.

Most recent (2025) filings for the East Coast Radio Limited (relating to the 2024 financial year) record ownership as spread across “ordinary” and “ordinary B” shares. There are 130,872 of the former and 168,128 of the latter. The significance of the two share types is not obvious but it does not appear to impact on relative shareholdings as both share types are allocated in identical proportions amongst the four institutions/individuals – Fessenden Limited, Jim McGettigan, Blaise Treacy and John Murphy – who hold them. The net effect of this is to leave Sean Ashmore and Ciara O’Connor as joint beneficial owners through Heart Media’s ownership of Fessenden Limited.