How are you doing so far?

Well, I'm in the job since October. But it's good that you are talking to me now, because the JNLR (Joint National Listenership Research) ratings are just out.

And. . ?

It's been a good success story for us. We are outperforming 2FM and Today FM in both the 15-34 and the adult segments.

The adult segment? But aren't you a youth-oriented station?

We have a broad appeal.

Over the last nine months, we have been working on improving our sound on air, and working on having better promotions. In fact, we had three really big promotions within the last nine months, and they have helped us to improve our market share, from 8.6% to 12.3%.

What were the promotions?

We did a Fugitive, a Beat Box and a Diamond Heist.

Beat Box?

It was like Big Brother, except that it was on radio (with a webcam). We locked seven people in a room in a shopping centre in Kilkenny, and they even had to sing a song that they wrote for themselves with the help of a local band.

Any you actually got seven people to sign up for that?

I should have told you that the top prize was 10,000. It was won by a guy who had just completed his Leaving Cert I presume the Diamond Heist involved organising a group of local thugs to knock over a jewellery shop. . .

Actually, we organised a competition with a jeweller in Wexford where we buried 12,000 worth of diamonds, and we left clues about where to find them. Although the diamonds that we actually buried weren't real. . .

So how does a person like you go from being a broadcast journalist to becoming CEO of a top-performing radio station involved in these sorts of promotions?

I was working for Waterford Local Radio as a junior journalist before being asked to run Waterford's local TV station, which I did for two years. Then I was asked to be part of the panel that made the submission to the BCI to get the Beat licence. And when the station started, I became head of news, before becoming CEO.

And do you miss the news?

Well, we are no exception to the BCI rule, so we do have 25% news and current affairs.

And how do you reconcile that with your target market of young people?

We asked our listeners in the various counties what sets us apart in terms of news, and they told us that it was both our content and our style. We offer a mix of regional stories, and a lot of celebrity stories.

Our audience feels that it is well catered for, and we underpin it all with a music bed, which makes it up tempo. It is things like that which set us apart.