Newstalk 106 must work hard to avoid losing its loyal Dublin audience once it goes national, chief executive Elaine Geraghty has said.
The talk radio station will be in a unique position when it makes the move to national coverage.
Programming and format changes are to be made to ensure that output is relevant to the new audiences, but such adjustments could come at the cost of existing Newstalk listeners, who had chosen the station for its local focus.
Local radio is enjoying one of its best periods as listeners begin to show a preference for it over national services.
Newstalk are in an interesting situation when it comes to their quasi-national success, as Mrs. Geragthy said herself, there have been mountains of goodwill from Newstalk listeners about the successful licence application but at the same time many have wondered what effect the move will have on the stations output.
Judging by the application details it is true that very little will change, although the introduction of a small amount of musical output will be one of the most intruiging of all. Of course Newstalk would be foolish to abandon their fanbase and from what I can see they have no intention of doing so, with that in mind there are bound to be those that listened purely because of its Dublin-tilt and these listeners will be the ones to watch in the next year.