Yesterday, another small piece of radio history was made when RTE closed down it’s final Medium Wave transmitter.

It was first put into service 75 years ago to give national radio coverage to the Eucharistic Conference which was hosted by Ireland in 1933.  Since then, if it didn’t put Athlone on the map, it certainly put it on radio dial with the towns name proudly displayed on many a tuning dial from the 40’s through to the 70’s.  Then in 1975 the 100kw monster was moved to  Tullamore where it broadcast until yesterday.

Despite all this reminiscing, this points to the future somewhat. Why? Well during the 80’s Medium Wave was still the dominant transmission medium. Now 25 years later it no longer exists. Where will FM be in 25 years time ???