In Finland there is 75 commercial radio stations and 13 stations of the Finland's national public service broadcasting company (YLE). The position of radio as a source of information varies. Elder and working age people listen to news from the radio especially on daytime when younger people listen mostly to music. The most popular station in year 2000 was Radio Suomi, YLE's station, 44% of all listeners listened to it. The most popular commercial radiostation was Radio Nova with it's 11% share of all listeners. In the following there are few examples of Finnish radiostations.
FINLAND'S NATIONAL PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING COMPANY RADIO STATIONS
Yle is a national 24-hour channel. It plays classical music and art, culture, drama, education
science programs. Once a week there comes weekly news review in Latin (Nuntii Latini). Yle
is the most respected radiostation, because of its reliablity. Yle is mostly listened by
adults.
YLE operates thirteen national radio channels
and services complemented by 25 regional radio programmes.
Yle finnish radio channels (Radio Ylen Ykkönen, Radiomafia,
Radio Suomi) reaches 60% of the Finnish population every day. Yle has also channels
in Swedish (Radio Extrem, Radio Vega) and Sámi (Sámi Radio) languages and digital radio
channels (Radio Aino, YLE Classic, Radio Peili). YLE's share of daily radio listening was
60%.
MAINSTREAM ENTERTAINMENT RADIO STATIONS
Radio Nova is a nationwide commercial radio, which was established in 1997. It's target group are working age -people and it's programme concentrates on music and news. Radio Nova is itself a broadcasting company. Nova was the most popular commercial radiostation in Finland in 2000, it gathered 11% of all the listeners.
Kiss FM is owned by the SBS-radios. There lives 3.2 million Finnish on it's reseiving area. Kiss FM's target group are 15-35-year-old city inhabitants who listen to mainstream music. It was established in 1995 and is today almost nationwide.
NRJ Finland is a part of NRJ.S.A, the biggest private radiogroup in Europe. NRJ operates under format "European Hit Radio" in nine European countries. In Finland, there lives 900.000 people on NRJ's receiving area. NRJ Finland started on air in 1995. It's target group are 15-35-year-old city inhabitants.
Radiomafia is a part of the Finnish broadcasting company (YLE). It is a nationwide station aimed for young and young adults. 74% of the broadcasting time of Radiomafia is for music, of which about one quarter is Finnish music. In addition it plays special programmes on music and comedy programmes. As a non-commercial radiostation Mafia can also play less-known artists' music and it gathers Finland's official Top 40 -album list. Radiomafia was established in 1990.
REGIONAL RADIO STATIONS IN OULU-REGION
Mega is the oldest and most popular regional radiostation on the area of Oulu and surrounding municipalities. The population of the area is about 210000. It is mainly targetted for the working age -people. Mega (like all regional radiostations) concentrates on local news and events in addition to music. Mega is owned by the SBS-radios, the biggest commercial broadcasting company in Finland. Mega was established in 1988.
The other regional radiostation of Oulu area has the same receiving area as Mega. Radio Q was established in 1999. It's target group is adult population.
OTHER RADIO STATIONS
Radio Dei is the first christian local radiostation. The half of the program is music, the second half is other programs. The station is for whole family, but still mainly aimed for 25-55 year olds. Radio Dei's receiving area covers Finland's biggest cities.
Classic FM is commercial radiostation and it is broadcasting classical music. Except music there comes also news and short- and specialprograms. In it's receiving area there are 2 300 000 inhabitants. Weekly it has about 200 000 listeners. The station is aimed for good-payed, over 30 year old city inhabitants.
Sport FM is a commercial sport radio. In its receiving area there are 3 200 000 sport fans. It's broadcasting of course sport news, but also current affairs and themeprograms.