Random fact – did you know Christmas FM is big in Japan?! True story.
When our listeners get in touch, this sounds so corny, but it makes our hearts sing.
Each day the texts flow in from around Ireland and more and more we are hearing from our wonderful listeners abroad.
It feels amazing how in these times of instant digital gratification – where you can flick on Spotify for endless Christmas tunes or yell at Alexa to deliver the festive songs – more people than ever are tuning in.
But we should not be surprised as the human touch is the secret sauce that will never go out of fashion.
Radio is one of the oldest mediums and what it offers is connection – to speak directly with people in real time.
We all need to feel we are part of something, and radio is like a trusty companion we can have droning away in the background – the chats and the music give us a boost.
Christmas FM has been on the go since 2008 and from the start we got strong interest from outside Ireland from our online radio.
How to get in touch
Our charity text line is for those in Ireland but on our website we also have a contact button so those abroad to send us an email.
In the early years there was always nearly an Irish connection but these days we are thrilled that randomers abound.
We have many hundreds of listeners in Japan for instance, we are not sure how this happened but we like it!
Messages are streaming in from unusual places this year such as Nuuk in Greenland, and quite a large number of streams in Newfoundland, Canada.
In Ukraine we are getting quite popular which we are so happy about.
Spreading cheer when it is needed is our mission after all.
We even had a listener in Dnipro in Eastern Ukrain near the front lines.
We have a growing number of listeners in Armenia, a few in Kyrgyzstan, in Mauritius, Zambia, Malawi. In Lebannon and Israel we are building steam.
There are a couple of listeners in Kyrgyzstan- a small town in far northeastern Norway, close to the Finnish and Russian borders. We have listeners in Antartica, Christmas Island and Lapland – maybe relatives of Santa, who knows.
A Happy Listener in SA
What gave us the idea to write about our lovely listeners abroad was a message from Sinéad Harrington who lives with her three girls (Iseult, Aarya and Portia) and husband Noel, near Durban in South Africa.
The family moved to SA last year for Noel’s work – he is an assistant coach for the Sharks rugby team -. and Sinéad tells us Christmas FM helps keeps them in touch with home
“Christmas FM goes on first thing in the morning until last thing at night. The girls love to sing and dance to the music and it certainly helps with the festive cheer!
The music reminds us of such happy memories celebrating Christmas in Sneem Co Kerry and also makes us feel closer to home too. The station is very much part of a tradition for us now”, she emailed us.
Ah thanks so much guys, this warms our hearts and please, everyone, keep sending us your messages.
We can’t get enough of them.
