Pride Vibes is back! Counting down to Dublin Pride.

The award-winning radio station Pride Vibes returned for its third consecutive year on the 1st of June 2024. Dedicated to celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, the station has been broadcasting a diverse range of content, highlighting Irish queer life, celebrating community triumphs, and sparking conversations around significant issues. 

Pride Vibes is a bespoke pop-up station broadcasting across FM and digital platforms, aiming to inform, entertain, and educate while recognising that Pride is also a protest. Its mission aligns with the goals of the Gender, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (GEDI) strategy currently being developed by Learning Waves and IBI. This project has seen Learning Waves engage with its members to determine their needs and their understanding of GEDI as it applies to the workplace. Sector wide surveys among leaders and employees have helped Learning Waves shape its approach to supporting organisations across the Independent Radio Sector in their GEDI journey. The approach has to date included a series of introductory training programmes, the development and delivery of an Equality and Diversity Lead training programme, research among leaders and employees, and drafting of a sector wide GEDI strategy.  

Learning Waves is also working closely with The Irish Centre for Diversity to deliver training to its members, promoting inclusivity and diversity in the workplace. This training includes Creating a Culture of Dignity and Respect at Work with Ellisha Soanes, and Inclusive Leadership and Inclusive Recruitment with Fiona Triller. These programmes have been delivered throughout the year with additional programmes being added based on members' needs. 

Pride Vibes was launched in 2022 and won the Audio for Change award at the Irish Audio Awards 2024. The project is spearheaded by the team from Urban Media, Wireless Ireland, and Core, with commercial partners An Post and the Dalata Hotel Group. Strategic partnerships with charities Belong To, GCN, and Dublin Pride further bolster its mission. 

The concept, developed by Urban Media, benefits from Core's guidance in shaping the product's tone and vision, forging partnerships, and attracting like-minded clients. Managed by leading presenter Sean Munsanje, the station is supported by Wireless Ireland's programming, digital, production, and engineering teams. 

Pride Vibes features an array of radio presenters. These include Thomas Crosse and Sean Munsanje from Dublin's FM 104, and Max Kane, a graduate of the Learning Waves Radio Presenter Course 2021 and current newsreader and producer at East Coast FM. 

We caught up with Brian McCarthy, Group Commercial and Operations Director at Wireless Ireland, to hear all about how this year's broadcasting is going so far. He said “Pride Vibes has been going great - we've been on air digitally since mid-May and broadcasting on FM around the country since June 1st on a 30-day temporary FM license. A couple of things that are different are that we have new partners in An Post and Maldron Hotels who have come on board to help us fund the initiative. We're also out and about more this year and we've also recruited lots of new Irish talent, through an outreach programme which can be heard across the schedule.” 

Reflecting on the highlights so far, Brian said “Last week we broadcast from Outhouse in Dublin to promote An Post's Send Love message and the team got out on the streets to encourage people to share their Pride Messages. We also had station manager, Sean Munsanje, and Sinead Keane from our charity partner BelongTo on Ireland AM to discuss the station and how important it is for the community. It's also been wonderful to hear the insightful and educational documentaries on air, along with the great shows from the new talent we've recruited who fit in so well alongside our established presenters.” 

Speaking on the upcoming content this week for Pride Vibes, Brian said “This is a busy week for Pride Vibes in the run up to Dublin Pride as we'll do Outside Broadcasts on Wednesday from Core as they host their Pride Event and on Thursday from The Maldron in Smithfield as they prepare for Pride Weekend in Dublin. We'll also be covering all the Pride marches and events across the country as the season really hots up. Giveaways continue with tickets and stays up for grabs for gigs like Troye Sivan and Aurora.”  

This year marks 50 years of Dublin Pride. Dublin Pride 2024 takes place on Saturday the 29th af June. The Dublin Pride Parade takes place at 12.00pm beginning at O'Connell Street and ending at Merrion Square. For more information on Dublin Pride Events click here. 

Tune in to Pridevibes on FM or on pridevibes.ie until Sunday the 30th of July. Pridevibes will then run through July online at pridevibes.ie. 

Pridevibes frequencies:  

Dublin 105.2FM, Cork 106.7FM and 88.7FM, Limerick 105.5FM, Galway 87.9FM, North East 104.2FM, South East 103.8FM and Saggart 88.1FM as well as nationwide on pridevibes.ie. You can also check out PrideVibesRadio on Instagram or Tik Tok. 

For more information on upcoming Learning Waves courses click here.