Q102

Logo of Q102

The Dublin radio station now known as Q102 (broadcasting on FM frequency 102.2) was launched in May 2000 as the ‘easy listening’ station Lite FM. The station was founded by a consortium of investors led by long-time radio executive Martin Block (who also served as the station’s first CEO).


Lite FM originally targeted an over-35 audience and regularly featured songs from artists in the vein of Celine Dion, Burt Bacharach, and the Eagles. At the time, station chair Padraic White explained the motivations behind this programming as follows:
“There is a whole segment of the population who have been forgotten about by radio. No station is yet specifically geared toward this high-spending group in the Dublin Market.”


Initial investment in the station was significant at £IR3m, and leaders set ambitious goals, including attracting 86,000 listeners in its first year and becoming profitable within 3 years. The station also invested heavily in the news side of operations by recruiting more than 30 journalists. However, despite high levels of investment, Lite FM received mixed reviews from critics, with one Irish Times columnist calling programming “wall-to-wall pre-programmed schlock.” By 2002, the station was reportedly only ‘breaking even’ though capturing 12% of the Dublin Market.


In 2002, Lite FM was sold to Belfast-based Ulster Television (UTV) for €15m. Beneficiaries of the sale included station CEO Martin Block and his brother, Howard Block, who together owned 22% of the company (Martin Block sold his shares for a reported €1.5m pre-tax). The venture capital fund CEA Radio Ireland Ltd. was the largest shareholder at the time (27%). Smaller shareholders included company chair Padraic White and real estate executive Gerry Murphy. 


In 2004, UTV invested €1m to rebrand the station as “Q102”, a nod to a 1980s Dublin pirate station of the same name. After the rebrand, Q102 programming shifted from easy listening to a pop hits format, though it retained its 35+ age bracket focus. The rebrand appeared to pay off, and the station gradually became profitable. In 2007, the station registered a modest pre-tax profit of €325,000.


UTV rebranded its radio business as the Wireless Group in early 2016. After selling its television assets (including its ITV franchise and UTV Ireland) to ITV plc, the company dropped the UTV Media name and adopted Wireless Group plc as its trading name from March 1, 2016 following completion of that sale at the end of February 2016. In 2016, the WG’s holdings were purchased for £UK220.3m by News UK & Ireland Ltd., which is ultimately owned by US-based News Corporation (News Corp). News Corp’s largest single shareholder is Lachlan Murdoch.. In 2025, News UK & Ireland Ltd. rebranded its Wireless Ireland Radio subsidiary as Onic.


In addition to Q102, Onic also operates six other Irish radio stations, including FM104, FM95, and LMFM. Onic also operates the commercial sales house, Urban Media, which works with Galway Bay FM and WLR. Onic stations reach 775,000 listeners weekly, representing 10.6% of the Irish radio market. Onic Audio Limited employs more than 200 staff in Ireland and recorded revenues of €23.375m in 2024, up from €22.4m in 2023.

Key Facts

Audience Share6.4% (County Dublin Market, JNLR 2025)
Ownership TypePrivate
Content TypeFree
Data Publicly Available
ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.
Operating CompanyCity Broadcasting Limited
Identifier: Companies Registration Office (CRO) Company Number: IE307754

Ownership

Ownership Structure

Q102 is operated by City Broadcasting Limited, which is owned by Onic Audio Limited (formerly known as Wireless Ireland (ROI) Limited but rebranded in 2025). Onic is owned by News UK & Ireland, which is ultimately owned by US-based News Corporation (News Corp), a global media conglomerate listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
News Corp operates a dual-class share structure, in which Class B shares carry voting rights and Class A shares do not. In total, Class B shares represent approximately 33% of all shares outstanding and Class A shares the remaining 67%, but because only Class B shares carry votes, voting control is disproportionate to economic ownership.
As of September 2025, LGC Holdco LLC — a vehicle controlled by Lachlan Murdoch, son of News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch — holds approximately 33% of all Class B shares, representing around 11% of total shares across both classes. However, given the fragmentation of all other shareholdings, this translates into an effective voting power of approximately 39% at shareholder meetings, making LGC Holdco the single largest and most influential shareholder in the company. Voting control rests solely with Lachlan Murdoch through his appointed managing director.
The remaining shares are held by a broad range of institutional investors. The largest are Vanguard Group (~9% of total shares), BlackRock (~7%), State Street (~6%), and Independent Franchise Partners (~5%), alongside other asset managers and retail investors. These institutional shareholders hold primarily Class A shares, meaning their economic stakes are not matched by equivalent voting power.

Voting RightsVoting rights at News Corp are governed by a dual-class share structure, in which Class B shares carry full voting rights and are predominantly controlled by the Murdoch family, while Class A shares carry no voting rights. As of September 2025, Murdoch-affiliated entities hold approximately 72 million Class B shares, representing around 39% of all Class B shares outstanding, giving the family effective control over the company.
Individual Owner
Group / Individual Owner
  • Free Float

    "The remaining shares in News Corp are publicly traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market, where they are held by a large and diverse range of institutional investors, asset managers, mutual funds, and retail investors. Collectively, these publicly traded shares represent approximately 61-89% of total shares outstanding, though the vast majority are Class A shares carrying no voting rights. The largest institutional shareholders among this publicly traded float are Vanguard Group (~9% of total shares) and BlackRock (~7%), which together hold approximately 16% of News Corp's total share capital. These are followed by State Street Corporation (~6%) and Independent Franchise Partners (~5%). A notable feature of this institutional ownership landscape is what is sometimes described as circular or interlocking ownership. Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street — the three largest index-fund managers in the world — are not only major shareholders in News Corp but are also significant shareholders in each other. Vanguard is the largest shareholder in State Street, holding approximately 13% of that company, and also holds around 9% of BlackRock. BlackRock in turn holds shares in State Street. This means that the same pool of underlying investors — the millions of pension funds, retirement savers and institutional clients whose money these firms manage — has indirect exposure to News Corp through multiple channels simultaneously. It is important to note, however, that Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street hold these shares in a fiduciary capacity on behalf of their underlying clients, not as owners in their own right. Their economic interest in News Corp is therefore indirect, and their voting behaviour at shareholder meetings is governed by their own stewardship policies rather than by any single controlling interest. Because they hold almost exclusively Class A shares, their combined ~22% economic stake in News Corp carries no voting rights, limiting their ability to influence corporate decisions despite the scale of their financial exposure."
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Operating Company

Facts

Founding Year2000

Q102 launched in May 2000 as Lite FM, an easy listening station targeting Dublin's over-35 audience. Following its acquisition by Ulster Television, the station was rebranded as Q102 in 2004, adopting a pop hits format while retaining its 35+ demographic focus.

Founder
  • Martin Block

    Martin Block is the founder of Lite FM - the Dublin easy listening station that later became Q102. Born in Ipswitch, England to an Irish mother and English father, Block moved to Dublin with his family in the 1960s. Block's first introduction to radio was working in pirate radio stations in the early 1980s, including Sunshine, Radio Nova, and a separate Dublin pirate station also called Q102 (unrelated to the later rebranding of Lite FM). After learning the ins and outs of the radio business, Block briefly ran his own marketing company before, in 1999, leading a consortium of investors (including his brother, Howard Block) to found Capitol Broadcasting Limited and the easy-listening station Lite FM. Block served Lite FM's CEO for several years. However, the station struggled to gain listeners and turn a profit. Block and the original shareholders sold to Belfast-Based UTV in 2002. Block later explained that he did not want to sell Lite FM, but that the EUR 15 million offer from UTV was one shareholders could not refuse. As Block told an Irish Times reporter, "I'm passionate about radio, but I'm a businessman as well."

    Block remained as CEO of Lite FM for a short time after the acquisition. He later founded 4FM, which presented easy listening programming for audiences aged 45 and over. However, he was removed from his post by the board just seven months after the station launched and later won an unfair dismissal case. 4FM is now known as Classic Hits Radio (owned by Choice Broadcasting Limited).

CEO
  • Vivienne Nagle

    Vivienne Nagle has served as managing director of Onic radio stations FM104 and Q102 since 2023. She previously worked as a director for retail brands including Brown Thomas and Lifestyle Sports.

Editor-In-Chief
  • Kevin O'Mahoney

    Kevin O’Mahoney has served as Head of News and Sport for Dublin radio stations FM104 and Q102 since 2022, having previously served as a journalist for those stations. He graduated with a degree in journalism from the Technological University of Dublin (TUD) in 2016.

ContactCastleforbes House
Castleforbes Road
Dublin 1
news@classichits.ie
+353 (0) 087 188 0008
www.classichits.ie
RevenueMissing Data
Operating ProfitMissing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)Missing Data
Market ShareMissing Data
Headlines
Meta Data

Historical Information about Q102 was obtained from a variety of news sources, including the Irish Times and the Irish Independent.

Ownership and financial information was gathered from annual filings with Core https://core.cro.ie/.

Information about founder Martin Block and MD Vivienne Nagle was obtained from profiles in news articles. Information about editor Kevin O’Mahoney was gathered from his LinkedIn profile.

Accurate estimation of national market share was not possible because reporting on income levels in Ireland is typically done at the group level rather than the individual title level. Additionally, overall revenue details for the market as a whole are not available.

Audience share is based on the report published by Joint National Listenership Research/IPSOS B&A in February 2026. It covers the period from January to December 2025. The latest results show 3.47 million listeners (15+) tune into radio every weekday – that is daily radio listening at 78.1% of all adults. Listening levels in the past week stand at 89.7% of the population. A total of 16,750 people were interviewed during the survey period by Ipsos B&A, on behalf of JNLR - Joint National Listenership Research - that is commissioned by all national, regional and local radio stations, AAI, IAPI and Coimisiún na Meán.

Sources
Documents (PDF)
  • Financial Statement City Broadcasting Limited (2025)
    Link File
  • 2025 Proxy Statement: Notice of annual meeting of stockholders
    Link File
  • Joint National Listenership Survey (2025)
    Link File