A campaign is being waged by a collective of licensed stations in the North with the aim of forcing Energy 106 off the air by mid-April, Miles J – who is a spokesman for the unlicensed station – claims.
“This includes the disruption of other businesses owned by some investors in Energy,” Miles told Radiowaves News. “In true paramilitary style, intimidation of group managers, record company executives, and Estate Agents’ sales staff has been used to seriously disrupt Energy’s source of revenue. Also as a result of this pressure, Atomic Kitten were recently forced to pull out of two massive Energy gigs, promoted by station owner Lawrence John.”
JICRAR has allegedly been asked to provide detailed figures on three unlicensed stations – Magic 105, Energy 106 and Kiss 106 – as the collective “others” term is insufficient. The surveys have shown that while the three unlicensed station brands are getting good recalls in the surveys, advertising revenues for the licensed sector is falling.
Energy 106.6, is a dance music station serving Greater Belfast, and Mid Ulster. Magic 105 is an automated oldies station and operates an interactive radio service via their website. Kiss 106 is a Dance/MOR station serving parts of Ulster on 106.0MHz and Leinster on 101.2MHz.