London, March 13 2009: St Patrick's Day will see the launch of a daily shortwave radio broadcast from RTÉ to the Irish in Africa. This link with home is in response to many requests from Irish people scattered throughout the continent, and working in fields such as aid, peace-keeping, construction projects, and missionary work. According to the Irish government there are many thousands of Irish working in Africa.

Although RTÉ has long been available on satellite and via the internet, those in remote regions of Africa have asked for old fashioned short-wave transmissions which will reach portable radio sets in areas that do not even have electricity supplies let alone easy access to satellites and the web. The main coverage area will be West, Central and East Africa. From March 17, every evening they will be able to hear a one hour selection of RTÉ radio programmes from the day at 1930-2030 UTC/GMT on 6220 kilohertz. That will be 730pm at Ryan's Bar in Accra, Ghana and 1030pm at O'Willies Pub in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.

The transmission will be provided by WRN, the London headquartered international radio and TV transmission company that has been transmitting RTÉ around the world since 1994. WRN's Director of Development Jeff Cohen said "it is a privilege to continue our long association with RTÉ and broadcast this important link with home to Irish people who are doing such valuable work in Africa".

Said JP Coakley, RTÉ's Head of Operations, "RTÉ ceased its worldwide shortwave service in 2004 due to the growth of technologies such as the internet for serving the diaspora. However, Africa obviously presents particular challenges and in 2004 we also introduced a specific service based on delivery to small satellite radios called Worldspace. However, this service has effectively ceased for the moment so we are reintroducing a shortwave service to Africa - we want Irish people there to know that RTÉ values the connection with them as much as they do".

This and other RTÉ programmes will continue to be available on WRN satellite services around the world and to Africa five times daily (details at www.wrn.org).

For further information about WRN please contact: Sophie Wilson, Head of Sales and Business Development, WRN Tel: +44 20 7896 4022 Fax: + 44 20 7896 9007 Email: [email protected]

For further information about RTÉ Radio SW broadcasts please contact: Sarah Martin, RTÉ Radio Press Office Tel: +353 1 208 2312 Email: [email protected]

Note to Editors: The weekly RTÉ Radio programme schedule on SW 6220 kHz is as follows: Monday: Drivetime Tuesday: Today with Pat Kenny Wednesday: Derek Mooney Thursday: Morning Ireland Friday: Drivetime Saturday: Playback Sunday: Marian Finucane. Further information and detail on these programmes is available from www.rte.ie/radio

About WRN
WRN is a leading international television and radio transmission company offering a comprehensive portfolio of broadcast services including satellite uplink and capacity services, TV ingest and playout, Web / IPTV services, station start-up consultancy and channel management, EPG brokerage, studio facilities, DRM Digital Radio and FM / AM / SW airtime brokerage. Headquartered in London, WRN's clients include international and national public broadcasters, commercial and community stations, satellite bouquet operators and cable companies. For more information visit www.wrn.org

About RTÉ
RTÉ is Ireland's public service broadcasting organization. RTÉ operates two complementary television channels, RTÉ One and RTÉ Two and four radio stations, RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ 2fm, RTÉ lyric fm and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. RTÉ has an extensive web site www.rte.ie that offers live and on-demand programming. RTÉ has been producing and curating broadcast materials for eight decades.