Making radio waves

Local radio has dramatically altered the media landscape across the country in the last twenty years. And Cork man Albert Fitzgerald has been at the heart of the growth and development of this area's licensed independent commercial radio station, Midlands 103. Having grown up as one of seven siblings in Mitchelstown in Cork, radio was never on Albert's frequency. Indeed, it was in the hospitality trade that he spent his early working years. His first job saw him upgraded from trainee hotel barman to trainee hotel bar manager to trainee hotel manager within two weeks! After such a flying start, it was inevitable he would immerse himself in the hotel trade and he spent some years working in local hotels in the Munster area. However, after a number of years working around the clock running a small hotel he found himself running on empty and questioning his lifestyle. "I was just basically exhausted and one day I just said to myself I'm not going to do this to myself anymore," he explained. Luckily, he fell immediately into another industry - as a sales representatives for an outdoor media company in Cork. "It was my first experience in terms of going into advertising sales and I just seemed to have a knack for it," he said. The world of advertising had ensnared him - and he quickly found his specialist niche in radio advertising sales when a position with Cork pirate radio station ERI became vacant in 1988. Within six months, he had risen to the post of sales manager - and when the Government issued broadcasting licences to the independent radio sector, ERI initially became Radio South, before later been taken over and emerging as the current Cork 96FM. However, after finding it difficult to settle in the station, he moved out of the industry and worked, for four years, as a sales rep for a distribution company. But the incessant desire to return to radio advertising remained, and having been approached by the then Midlands Radio 3, he joined as Head of Sales in August 1995. "The agreement with my girlfriend at the time was that I would just stay for 12 months just to get my profile back in radio and maybe move on to Dublin or Cork," he admitted. But again fate intervened and having been entranced by the charms of the midlands, Albert moved to the region in 1997, where he continues to reside with his wife Siobhan and two children, Andrew and Stephen. In 2003, Albert was given the opportunity to take over the lead role in the company, following its takeover by UK-based company Tindle Radio. Having inherited a station that in his view was not fulfilling its potential, he set about a programme of investment in training and facilities, including a €2m spend on improving infrastructure and equipment during the years 2007 and 2008. Midlands 103 is now located at a modern studio and administrative headquarters at the Axis Business Park, on the outskirts of Tullamore. Having worked for most of his career in the medium, it's not surprising that Albert is a passionate advocate of the power and influence of radio. But it's difficult to think his enthusiasm for the medium is anything other than the genuine beliefs of a devotee. "I think it's an extraordinary medium. It connects with people on a level that no other medium can do. I think it's so flexible, so invasive." And as an indication of how much we Irish enjoy our radio, he offers the statistic that the country has the highest radio listenership in Europe. As a director of Tindle Radio Ltd, he has an involvement in eleven different radio stations across the UK but believes that the "local" element of local radio is best practised by Irish radio stations. His involvement in local radio management has resulted in a number of different initiatives which might otherwise not have found their way onto his CV. These include his role as a founding director of Learning Waves - a network which provides FETAC-accredited training for the independent commercial radio sector in Ireland. The training is tailored to meet the needs of the sector. As a sales manager, Albert had been aware of the lack of high-quality training for sales people in local radio, and helped to identify the solution of the radio sector pooling its resources in a training network for the benefit of its employees. Albert has also attained a diploma in radio station management as part of a Broadcasting Commission of Ireland initiative. Although Midlands 103 is now a successful local radio station, with 130,000 listeners tuning in each week, Albert is nonetheless concerned at the current economic environment facing all businesses. "At the moment, the environment out there is absolutely horrific," he explains. "It's all down to cash flow and to people being afraid to spend money, although there was never as much money in savings before." He attributes the lack of confidence to the collapse of the pillars of the business world. "Everything that people in business believed in has crumbled," he said. "I think we are at the bottom but we are going to stay at the bottom for longer than people think. Businesses have to adapt and those that are doing the same thing as they were two years ago won't be around for too long." Albert though isn't content to simply co-ordinate; he enjoys nothing more than getting behind the microphone and can be heard broadcasting his weekly Life and Times people profile show. In recent times he has also taken over as presenter on the Midland Business Show on Tuesday evneings. And he earned a coveted PPI broadcasting award some years back for a series "This Is My Music". Midlands 103 is licensed to broadcast in Westmeath, Laois and Offaly. And although headquartered in Tullamore, the company has its own studio in Athlone and a special opt-out broadcasting frequency. "We have a separate frequency in Athlone that allows us to do a lot of things that other radio stations can't do," Albert said. As an example he cites the recent Radio TriAthlone, operated by Midlands 103, which allowed the company to offer added value to the sponsors of TriAthlone. Albert is excited about Athlone's potential - and he sees it as a key driver of the future growth of the midlands. And with a strong interest in boats, Albert can often be found on Lough Ree, which he describes as "an amazing and under-utilised asset".