Christmas on the airwaves officially kicks off this weekend when Christmas FM returns. The popular radio station, seen by many as the official soundtrack to the festive season, will be switching Christmas on in Ireland this Sunday, November 28.
Now celebrating its 14th year on air this year, it has raised over €2.7m for a range of charities.
This year, Christmas FM wants to “Give the Gift of Childhood” by raising over €250,000 for Barnardos, the Christmas FM charity partner for 2021. The funds will provide targeted and intensive support for over 5,000 children most in need – including nutritious food, support with education, and therapeutic services with their trained support teams – because childhood lasts a lifetime.
Christmas FM is this year being supported by premier FM sponsors An Post, Cadbury, and Coca-Cola. This year Christmas FM will be broadcasting from the offices of askpaul.ie who have kindly donated the studio space this year. The station is run each year by a core management team, assisted by more than 100 volunteers who devote hundreds of hours of their time.
According to Garvan Rigby, co-founder of Christmas FM: “We’re so excited to bring Christmas FM back on-air for our fourteenth year. To have reached this mark, it goes to show the incredible work done by our volunteers and we would like to thank each and every one of our listeners who have supported us and in turn, supported each of our chosen charities. We would like to thank the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland for granting us the license to broadcast and our premier FM sponsors for the year – Cadbury, Coca-Cola and An Post. We would also like to thank askpaul.ie who have donated the studio space this year. We’re excited to officially open the Christmas season in Ireland and begin our fundraising for our charity partner Barnardos, so we can reach our aim of providing targeted and intensive support for over 5,000 children most in need in Ireland.”
Suzanne Connolly, CEO of Barnardos, adds: “We are so thrilled that Christmas FM has chosen Barnardos as its charity partner for 2021. With the help of Christmas FM listeners, we hope to raise money to ensure we can provide nutritious meals to children in our centres, that we can continue to support them in their educational, physical, and emotional development and that our specially trained teams can offer targeted therapeutic support to those who need it most. I would encourage everyone to listen in as we come together to make this the most meaningful Christmas yet! Our gift of childhood partnership with Christmas FM, with your support, can make a difference.”
The main FM radio frequencies for Christmas FM are Bray 99.5, Cavan 99.4, Clare 105.2, Cork City, part county 106.7, Cork North, part county 87.7, Dublin City & County 105.2, Dundalk/Drogheda 104.2, Galway City, part County 87.9, Kildare North 88.1, Kilkenny City 104.3, Letterkenny 105.7, Limerick City 105.5, Longford 101.6, Sligo Town 95, South East 103.8, Tralee/Killarney 105, Waterford City 105.9, Wicklow Town 106.6FM. Christmas FM will also broadcast on Virgin Media Channel 900.
