One of the things that I get asked during interviews is who inspires me and who are my hero’s. It’s a question a always struggle to answer, there’s honest answer – but I might aswell make up random names as very few people have heard of them.
Well Peter Diamandis is one of my hero’s. If you want to be truly inspired, study his work.
So Christmas is here and for me this means one thing. Christmas FM is back on air!! Since being a teenager I was in love with the world of Radio and although I no longer and involved full time in the industry, every Christmas for the last three years I fall back in love with it.
This year we are broadcasting in 5 regions in Ireland a huge increase as our first year was just in Dublin and the second in only Cork and Dublin. This year we broadcast on the following frequencies:
Dublin – 89.9 | Limerick -105.5 | Cork -106.7 | Galway -89.5 | South East -103.8
We also had the No1 downloaded I-phone App on itunes in Ireland within 2 days of launching it.
Christmas FM is a social enterprise. A business set up to run a temporary radio station for 1 month a year, with all the proceeds going to charity and run by volunteers. There are three simple aims:
1. Make as much money as possible for our chosen charity each year and help raise awareness for the work they do – This year our Charity Partner is Barnardos. 2. Spread a bit of Christmas joy to everyone who wants to tune in. 3. Have a lot of fun with all the volunteers who help make the station happen.
Last year Christmas FM won awards for “PR Excellence for a Non Profit” from the PRCA.
For me it’s a great way to leverage charitable donations, so we raise money for the stations operation costs via the Christmas FM online store and put money forward to cover the operation costs. Then the station itself builds a huge listenership who text message in to have requests and everytime they text €1 goes to the charity directly. Also by raising awareness for the charity (Barnardos’s) good work, our listeners give generously to their cause and we have street teams to raise cash in all the major cities.
People love the radio station, feel under no obligation to give to the charity if they don’t want to. And yet we often get people who find the station from all corners of the world, listen online and then want to give back to a cause that brought them a small piece of Christmas happiness.
Business seems to have turned on itself in the last year, big companies now face problems and small businesses are either sinking or swimming. For those that are swimming, this time of uncertainty and cost cutting opens the door to clients that wouldn’t have considered them before.
Alan Keane Launched www.GuidedRelaxationMeditation.com an online download for stress reducing meditation and relaxation MP3 and CDs. A mixture between expensive therapy and Yoga, all done in the comfort or your own home – with ease and tranquility.
Realex did a 5 year deal to process payments for Virgin Atlantic. Awesome Irish company and Colm Lyon (CEO) is a great man to make it all happen.
Boards.ie are showing massive growth – I have to admit i find myself checking it more often there as the conversation gets more interesting.
Mike Hogan on Dublins 98 has become a sleuth detective and reporting new that really matters – are clown shoes really dangerous? I’d rather hear that then another nut job saying property will rally soon!
The guys in Entertainment Direct seem to be going from strength to strength – and growing fast with referrals and just doing a great job all the time.
www.TheBikiniShop.ie is going from Strength to Strength with some big news in the pipeline. Not far off meeting our goal of becoming Irelands biggest niche bikini store by the end of the year.
Ebookers gave us an amazing deal on Flights to LA! 50 quid plus taxes (337 in total) – Nice. Anyone who wants to meet up August 19 in LA drop me a mail.