AN AWARD-WINNING DJ has fulfilled a lifetime ambition by launching the UK's first permanent 24/7 Irish and country music radio station.
Heartland Radio is the brainchild of Manchester-based Andy Murphy, a multiple award-winning DJ and events host who has been in the business since leaving school almost 40 years ago. With the help of Gavin O'Connor, a utilities expert from the Opus Group, the station has now gone live.
The station, which has begun broadcasting 24 hours a day on Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) radio, plays a broad range of Irish music, from traditional classics to modern favourites by today's up-and-coming artists, along with a playlist of the best country music from the Emerald Isle and the USA.
In the coming weeks and months, there are also plans for live sessions and interviews with touring stars and emerging artists, along with interactive chat with listeners. Heartland Radio can be heard on DAB, via your smart speaker or online at www.heartlandradio.co.uk.
The launch is the culmination of decades of experience creating craic and memories for the Irish community in the North West of England and beyond since the late 1980s.
Andy – whose parents hail from Louth and Wexford, and whose wife is from Derry – became a familiar face, DJing and MCing at countless weddings, family parties and functions, as well as holding residencies at some of the city's best-known Irish pubs and clubs, before expanding his business into events hosting and wedding planning.
Andy Murphy at the controlsThis led to him hosting everything from Manchester's annual St Patrick's Day Parade and the Craic by the Creek festival to performing at BBC Sports Personality of the Year and private events for the city's Premier League football clubs.
His list of wedding clients has included household names from the worlds of sport and television, and he was named North West Wedding DJ of the Year for five years in a row from 2013 to 2017.
But while he has built a hugely successful career in the live arena, it is radio that has long held his fascination. After early stints on a community station in Manchester, and then a short-lived station set up during the Manchester Irish Festival, Andy knew his decades of experience meant he knew the music inside out and understood what people wanted to hear, while also building contacts with some of the biggest names in the Irish music industry.
"I'm from an Irish family and so I've long found it frustrating, and a bit weird, that there was no dedicated station for Irish music in the UK," he said.
"There are some great DJs doing weekly shows on regional and small commercial radio stations, but given the size of the Irish community in the UK, especially in the North West, I've long felt that we deserved to be better served.
"We're still in the early stages but we've got big plans. We'll soon be announcing some exciting DJs and hosts and we want to cover all ages and tastes, from trad sessions to today's favourites and the stars of tomorrow.
"I want Heartland Radio to become the station of choice for Irish people and their descendants across the UK, whether that's my mother, my friends or my own kids.
"I know from playing the parade and events like Craic in the Creek that the audience and demand for Irish music is there.
"Country music has also suddenly become very fashionable among young people, but it has always been particularly special to Irish people, and so we'll be playing some of the best sounds from the States as well as our home-grown heroes."
Heartland radio www.heartlandradio.co.uk
See More: Andy Murphy, Irish Radio, Manchester, Music
