Sunshine 106.8
Sunshine 106.8 is an easy listening radio station, based in Dublin, Ireland. It is licensed by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), as a commercial FM broadcaster. The station broadcasts on 106.8 MHz from Three Rock Mountain to County Dublin. It previously took part on the DAB trial broadcasts in Dublin and Cork (2012 to 2017).
 | |
| Broadcast area | Dublin |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 106.8 MHz, Online, Virgin Media Channel 933 |
| Programming | |
| Format | Soft AC/Easy Listening |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Star Broadcasting Limited |
| History | |
First air date | October 2001 |
| Links | |
| Website | www.sunshineradio.ie/ |
The station is also available on 106.6 MHz in the Balbriggan area of County Dublin (since March 2018) and is included on the emergency rebroadcast system operated within the Dublin Port Tunnel.
Sunshine also operates a digital spin-off service called Sunshine Soul which was launched in July 2018 and is available online and on the Irish Radio Player App.
History
The radio station has studios and offices at Castleforbes House in Dublin 1. The studios at Castleforbes House went live in December 2015. It previously had studios on North Wall Quay in Dublin 1. The station launched in October 2001 from studios in Stillorgan, and was originally identified on-air as 'Dublin's Country 106.8FM' and later (from 2005) as 'Country Mix 106.8'. The station was completely re-branded as Sunshine 106.8 in October 2010.
Sunshine 106.8 broadcasts 24 hours a day and features an easy listening format, including genres such as soul, Country Crossover, Easy Listening and Irish music. The station primarily markets itself to a 35+ audience.
The station has won a number of awards including Bronze & Silver World Medals (2010 & 2011) for station format in the New York Festivals radio programming Awards - the first Irish station to receive an award for format in the awards.
The station signed a ten-year contract with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) on 12 September 2014 to continue broadcasting until 2024. From 2014, the station adopted the slogan 'Dublin's New Place to Relax', modifying this (in 2017) to 'Dublin's Easy Place to Relax'.
The station's shareholders are Bay Broadcasting Ltd, Broadcast Investments Ltd and other minor shareholders.
Listenership
The station recorded increases in listenership (weekly reach) in every Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) survey published in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017 and again in the reports published in February and August 2019. The JNLR published on 24 October 2019 recorded 84,000 daily listeners. The station recorded an 7% daily reach of 'all adults' in the JNLR on 24 October 2019 (for the period Oct 2018 to Sep 2019).
Sunshine 106.8 recorded a 7.3% market share in the report published in December 2021 (7a-7p All Adults). Also as of 2021, the station had a weekly reach of 13% or 146,000 listeners and an 7.7% market share for 35+yr olds and 8.7% for 45+yr olds (7am-7pm) (IPSOS MRBI JNLR Oct 2020 - Oct 2021).