WLR FM

WLR FM, or more commonly WLR (Waterford Local Radio) is the local radio station covering Waterford City and County Ireland although its signal also extends into south Kilkenny and east Cork. According to JNLR/Ipsos B&A figures for January to December 2025, WLR recorded a 7am–7pm listening share of 36.5% in its franchise area, with 43.3% of respondents identifying as having listened to the station the previous day Since 2025, it has been owned by DMG Media Ireland who acquired the station from the Irish Times.
WLR emerged from the ashes of one of the longest-lasting pre-1988 Radio and Television Act pirate radio stations. Established by Rick Whelan and engineer Egidio Giani, the original WLR began broadcasting in 1978 and continued until just before the formal introduction of legal commercial radio broadcasting in 1988.

When the Independent Radio and Television Commission issued an invitation to apply for the Waterford local radio licence, there were three applicants including the South East Broadcasting Company, a consortium chaired by local businessman Gerry Sheridan. Supported by a dozen Waterford-based investors (including Edigio Giani) who cumulatively invested £IR300,000 in the enterprise, the consortium won the licence. It went on air in September 1989, the seventh local station to do so, with Des – brother of Rick – Whelan as MD, a position he retained until 2024.

“Targetting” a 15 to 55 year old audience and with a resolute focus on local news and current affairs, WLR immediately proved popular and by 1991 was already the most listened to station in its franchise area ahead of RTE and then national commercial station Century Radio. By the mid-1990s WLR FM accounted for a majority of Waterford listenership. By 1998 only Highland Radio in Donegal and Mid West Radio enjoyed higher local audience shares in their own franchise areas.

WLR’s owners South East Broadcasting Limited joined a number of consortia seeking new licences through the 1990s, including membership of Energy Radio Limited’s unsuccessful 1999 bid for the national commercial station. They were more successful with the Dublin speech licence in 1999 as part of the original group of promoters of Newstalk 106. It was also the lead partner (with a 30% shareholding) in Beat FM, the first regional (as opposed to local) radio station which went on air in July 2003 broadcasting across the south east of Ireland.

(The station even enjoyed a brief dalliance with television in 2004, when the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland licenced it to provide a Waterford regional television service. The short-lived experiment transmitted a weekly programme – “Waterford @ 8” – via the NTL cable service.)

By early 2006, some of the original shareholders, doubtless looking at prices realised by sales of other local stations, moved to offload their shares in both WLR and Beat FM and KPMG were appointed to issue a prospectus for sale. The stations attracted interest from a wide variety of potential suitors – UTV, Emap, the Alpha Newspapers Group, Radio Kerry, Fox Radio and Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH) – in a protracted sales process. Finally in April 2007 Thomas Crosbie Holdings formally acquired 75% of both WLR FM and BEAT FM with Des Whelan retaining a 25% share in WLR and his position as Managing Director. The sale also saw TCH and Des Whelan hold 68.7% direct ownership in Beat FM with the remaining 31.3% held by TCH/Whelan through WLR FM. The financial details of the sale were not immediately disclosed but WLR FM had retained profits of €1m by March 2005 and had recorded revenues of €2.8 by the end of March 2007. Subsequent figures suggested that the deal had seen TCH pay €7m each for WLR FM and Beat FM. To allay Competition Authority concerns, the parties to the sale committed to maintain separate advertising operations across WLR FM and Beat FM and Chinese Walls were to be erected preventing sharing of information on sale of advertising and pricing policy across the two broadcasters.

When Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH) entered examinership in 2013, WLR FM became an element of Landmark Media, the vehicle set up by members of the Crosbie Family to purchase most of TCH’s former assets. Both WLR FM and Beat FM were acquired via Landmark’s subsidiary Sappho Limited (while another Landmark subsidiary, Siteridge Limited, took on TCH’s previous take in the Cork station, Red FM). Landmark itself came up for sale in March 2018 when the Irish Times Designated Activity Company made a bid for the company and all its assets. Unusually the acquisition prompted a second stage – i.e. more in-depth - investigation from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission which nonetheless cleared the transaction in April 2018.
In consequence, the Irish Times found itself not just with a second national print title (and seven weekly regional papers) but also shares in three radio stations, making it a significant cross-media player for the first time. It was not immediately clear where the radio stations sat within the news parent’s broader corporate strategy and all three stations largely continued to operate as stand-alone entities on a day-to-day basis. In 2024, the Irish Times sold its stakes in Beat FM and Red FM to Bauer Media Audio Ireland. A year later in December 2025, WLR FM was sold to another print-based group, the Daily Mail Group Ireland, the latter’s first foray into Irish broadcasting.

Today WLR is 75% owned by DMG Media Ireland, the trading name of Associated Newspapers Ireland Limited, with the remaining 25% held by Des Whelan. DMG Media Ireland is a wholly owned subsidiary of DMG Media, the media operating arm of Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT). In October 2025 DMGT underwent a corporate restructuring in which Rothermere Continuation Holdings Limited (RCHL), a Jersey-domiciled company, replaced Rothermere Continuation Limited as the group's ultimate parent company. RCHL is controlled by Jonathan Harmsworth, the 4th Viscount Rothermere, who is also chairman of DMGT and the controlling shareholder of the group. DMGT was taken private in 2022 following the acquisition of all outstanding shares by Rothermere Continuation Limited, and is no longer listed on the London Stock Exchange. 

(Last updated in May 2026)