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Simon Maher Phantom 105.2

The former boss of Phantom wants the station back - and he's taking on Communicorp

Simon Maher left the station now known as TXFM in 2011 after Communicorp came on board.

FORMER PHANTOM FM boss Simon Maher is to launch a fresh bid to take over the Dublin radio station next year, it’s been confirmed this afternoon.

Maher and most of the founders of Phantom left the rock and indie station after Communicorp came on board the old Phantom 105.2 in 2010, and the company was restructured.

The station was later moved to the HQ of the Denis O’Brien-owned radio empire, at Marconi House.

It was rebranded as TXFM last year. The Phantom brand was scrapped in the weeks before the relaunch, and more staff – some of whom had been with Phantom 105.2 since its inception – made redundant.

The BAI confirmed this afternoon that Maher and his Dublin Alternative Music Group had lodged an expression of interest in the licence for the Dublin City & County Alternative Rock service, which becomes available at the end of next year.

Gervaise Slowey, CEO and Director of the Communicorp Group, is heading up the only other bid for the licence – as the company bids to renew its TXFM licence.

Phantom 105.2 launched on Halloween in 2006 with a ten year licence. Previously, it had been run as a pirate operation based in a number of locations around Dublin, and also under temporary licences from the BAI (similar to the ones awarded to community stations and the likes of Christmas FM).

The BAI received only one expression of interest for the other licence becoming available – the one currently held by Newstalk. Communicorp, unsurprisingly, is bidding to be re-awarded the licence.

The next step in the process is for the BAI contract awarding committee to meet to determine the licensing process for both services. That meeting is set to take place on 15 December.

It’s likely oral hearings could be held, with the two bidders for the Dublin rock service making their cases to the authority, at some stage next year.

Read: Going to see with the pirates… memories of an early Phantom FM

Read: TXFM hits the airwaves: Here’s how Twitter reacted to the first day

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20 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute cosmological
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    May 13th 2014, 11:29 AM

    This I like.

    151
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    Mute David Burke
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    May 13th 2014, 1:08 PM

    It’s actually a daft ruling. This isn’t about google collecting your data.

    It’s a newspaper article which was printed about a house being sold because the man in Spain defrauded the government. He wanted the result removed when you search his name.

    It’s pure censorship and technically could mean libraries indexing their newspapers could be forced to stop.

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    Mute Francis Giuseppe Glynn
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    May 13th 2014, 11:36 AM

    They should also apply this to social media like Facebook & Twitter.

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    Mute P O' Neill
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    May 13th 2014, 11:32 AM

    A good step!

    53
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    Mute Bobby Moore
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    May 13th 2014, 11:45 AM

    I’m guessing Denis O’B will be looking to get any info from the Moriarty tribunal removed so.

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    Mute Cpm
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    May 13th 2014, 11:37 AM

    “The EU Court of Justice (ECJ) found that under certain conditions, a person can request certain information to be erased if “the data appear to be inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant.””

    Who decides if the data is inadequate or irrelevant though?

    ” irrelevant or no longer relevant.””

    huh?

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    Mute Dave Gorman
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    May 13th 2014, 11:54 AM

    “Ireland’s bailout and property crash”

    No Longer Relevant, signed E Kenny

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    Mute Jason Bourne
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    May 13th 2014, 11:59 AM

    If the search passes through google’s US sites, then the EU has no clout.
    Google will probably just remove the stuff from google.es

    Even this post will take up a little space on the US data center.

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    Mute Frank
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    May 13th 2014, 12:14 PM

    Indeed.

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    Mute Frank
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    May 13th 2014, 11:58 AM
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    Mute Bob Mc Dermott
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    May 13th 2014, 11:35 AM

    And you can take their word for it?

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    Mute Adam Murphy
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    May 13th 2014, 11:37 AM

    No, you can see for yourself by searching :)

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    Mute James Murphy
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    May 13th 2014, 11:44 AM

    This is only right too

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    Mute Brian Corcoran
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    May 13th 2014, 11:56 AM

    I don’t really understand this, *googles opinion”

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    Mute Wesley Eccles
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    May 13th 2014, 12:58 PM

    Good

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    Mute Paul Roche
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    May 13th 2014, 1:18 PM

    When PULSE has been used as a tool to “set up” innocent people (per Maurice McCabe) can we expect our new Minister for Justice to act on foot of this judgement?
    Permanent suspicion is dangerous, and isn’t really an effective use of leading systems. We need to take a lot more care of how our State keeps tabs on us.

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    Mute Paddy Hannigan
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    May 13th 2014, 5:32 PM

    Talk about your basic internet fail. Google, yahoo ect do not keep the internet in a box at company HQ. Besides because companies such as Amazon pay the likes of Google to give favourable positions to their links ,nobody really uses main stream search engines to find detailed info anymore.

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