Blast 106 is a volunteer radio station that transmits around the Belfast area and is a station that…read moreshould be brought to the attention of anyone who loves good music. I chanced upon the station in a traffic jam on the way home from the way from university.A great song caught my ear, and I was stunned to encounter another 5 in a row, and with none of the inane rubbish chat most other stations pollute your ears with! The station brings together the student and youth population of Belfast by providing relevant programming.The station is full of excellent music The entire station is run by a passionate group of volunteer presenters, producers, journalists and technicians, and this love of music shines through on every show. I wish this station the best of luck as it continues to grow and hopefully assert itself as one of Northern Irealands Most popular radio stations!

This quirky wee station is only very recently daring to break into the pop music market with an…read morearray of songs that aren't in the top 40. How very bold of you?! Who do you think you are that you can play music that isn't playing in the M Club on a Tuesday Night? It is a waft of fresh air into what is ultimately a pretty small minded market. Radio stations all follow each other and play as many X Factor winners as possible (which is tough going if you can find a Steve Brookstein album). Blast tries to be marginally more diverse and for that I say yes well done. You would never catch Radio one playing MGMT and Lionel Richie back to back would you? That's because most haven't ever heard of Lionel Richie. He's the one from those crisp ads. The one that didn't play football. I can't help that people love trashy pop music so it is inevitable that they have to litter the airwaves with the same repetitive rubbish that everyone else does. But at least they are trying their hand at being a bit different. Not quite groundbreaking, but certainly it is a start. Good on ye'

This for me is the kind of radio station that Citybeat should aspire to be.The target market of…read morethis station is again at the 30+ kind of market, but it provides a much better service to the people of Northern Ireland! The line-up of presenters includes Maurice Jay, Frank Mitchell, Carolyn Stewart, George Jones and Jerry Lang who play a wide range of music every day, catering to the needs of different listeneers on this station.There may be genres on the station like country that arent my cup of tea, but the station has a varied playlist which is to be applauded. The station also has quality talk elements, where current issues are debated well, with specialist night-time and weekend programming to cater again to more specific markets. The news content on the station is also of a high quality, and the station has excellent charity and local community events links which is another bonus!The station is only a year or two old, so I hope it grows from strength to strength and continues to improve!

In Northern Ireland, ITV is known as UTV and U105 would be the radio station brother of said…read moretelevision station. Still with me? Good. U105 is something similar as Downtown in that it is a pleasant, daytime, Magic FM-esque radio station. It is a nice, relaxing, (boring) station with all your favourites from the television plus a handful of voices you won't recognise. And that is all of the positives. The negatives unfortunately could get me done for slander. So instead of bring a lawsuit on, I'll say this. For people under the age of 35, this is a pretty terrible station. It needs to be livened up somehow. Stick a bunch of students on and get them to play Sex Pistols and drink vodka. Get the old presenters and on the hour, every hour, they have to drink a pint of tequila. Something to inject a bit of interest into this station. Perhaps it is not aimed at me. In fact it is definitely not aimed at me. And unless there is tequila or Sex Pistols involved, I don't think I am going to listen again.

There comes a time in everyone's life when Radio 1 just doesn't cut it in the mornings. It starts…read moregradually, with you thinking on some Monday mornings that Chris Moyles is just downright annoying. Before you know it, you don't even want to listen to music before work. You may not believe me now, but trust me, the time will come. It happened to me a few years back and I'm OK with that now and the up side is that my knowledge of local politics and current affairs has increased by around a million per cent since I switched from Radio 1 to Radio Ulster with my cornflakes. From 6 - 9 am Monday to Friday, I am educated, updated and informed by the wonderful Mark Carruthers, Connor Bradford and Karen Patterson. I wonder what time they have to get up at and do they wear their PJs in the studio? Anyway, Good Morning presents the local and world news in an interesting and easily digestible format. Business news is analysed and that means I no longer have to panic when someone asks what I think about the latest banking fiasco. Even though it's an early morning programme, politicians and other guests on the programme aren't given an easy ride to start the day; all 3 presenters do an excellent job in grilling guests when they have to. They also do an excellent job of giving traffic updates in real time so you can switch your route if necessary. I love listening to Good Morning Ulster in the car on the school run and drive to work. I learn something every morning and I love that. It means I can tick that box and tidy away my brain cells for the rest of the day.

As sometimes Radio 1 (particularly Chris Moyles) is banned in our house in the morning, Good…read moreMorning Ulster becomes the default station for breakfast eating and tea drinking. I do prefer Radio 1 because at least it is a light-hearted style of presenting which can help you wake up and face another horrible day. But when you put on Good Morning Ulster, everything becomes that bit more dreary and painful. It is a current affairs programme with a 'breakfast show' twinge, but what is severely lacking is any presenter who makes you think "I'm glad they are presenting this show" because what Chris Moyles does is he owns the show and stamps his personality on it. With Good Morning Ulster, the people sound as bored as the listeners, and if it continued much longer, both ends of the radio would fall asleep. Chris Moyles can be loud in the morning, but at least he's not boring.

The BBC in Northern Ireland has been home to some of the best loved television shows over the years…read morein our wee country, as well as having provided a launching pad for a few of the UK's biggest stars. One of the most popular TV programmes to have come from the BBC is 'Give My Head Peace', a highly comical show which brought humour to touchy subjects such as paramilitary groups, sectarian issues and religious differences. Running for ten years on BBC One, this greatly loved TV show allowed viewers to see the lighthearted side of things and realise just how far Northern Ireland had come in the previous ten years, and indeed the ten year period for which it was shown. 'Spotlight', which infamously shed light on the Iris Robinson ordeal is also a favourite show amongst viewers, as is the political show 'Hearts and Minds'. Two of the most well-known stars to have found their feet on BBC Northern are Christine Bleakley and Rachel Tucker. Christine started her presenting career with her own programme 'Sky High' in 2004, which followed her travelling over Northern Ireland in a helicopter. Today she is famed for being the other half of England's Frank Lampard, as well being one half of the presenting team on the 'One Show'. Rachel Tucker was also given the opportunity to elevate herself further in the spotlight, having come third in the BBC's 'I'd Do Anything' Nancy competition. Alongside Eamonn Holmes, Rachel presented a six week long programme on BBC One NI called 'The Friday Show', which also allowed her to perform each week. She has now launched a fully-fledged musical theatre career, having appeared in 'We Will Rock You', and currently starring in the West End version of 'Wicked' playing the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba. Both Christine Bleakley and Rachel Tucker used BBC NI as a stepping stone to greater careers and nationwide fame. Who knows what other stars may arise from BBC Northern Ireland, or indeed what great TV shows may emerge as well. I, for one, love watching the local TV shows on BBC NI for both these reasons, and so many others do too.

It's just past 10pm on a Thursday night, and I have felt a compulsion to write this review after…read moreflicking over to BBC2 and inadvertantly catching the first 40 seconds or so of some godawful programme called Our William. That was enough. It featured an elderly, well, I think he'd be categorised as a 'comedian', but not in my book. Like pretty much everything BBCNI produces (Derek's Dreams, anyone?), this is patronising unwatchable dross. What is even more insulting about how BBCNI regards its viewers is the scheduling they give to programmes. Many a weekend night I've decided to have a cosy night in, treated myself to a glass of good wine, and turned on BBC1 for something like Have I Got News For You to find something like NI Wags instead. Enough, enough, enough. Stop treating us like culchie idiots, put on something decent, and open a competition or campaign to get some new blood writing some new stuff. Any of my drinking buddies could come up with something vastly superior to this pap.

The Irish News is the paper which apparently represents the nationalist community in NI. Personally…read moreI think this paper is quite fair and offers honest articles which cover a large portion of both communities. My old history lecturer Brian Feeney has a column in this paper and it really is a very witty one. This papers fairness I think does tend to make it a little on the dull side. It's hard to be entertaining when your not pointing an accusing finger or 'exposing' someone as the Sunday World loves to do every week. The sports section is probably the most bias part of the paper. There is way to much coverage of GAA. I don't have a problem with this on any political grounds. I have a problem with this because I find GAA to be the most boring sport on the planet.

I don't put a lot of stock in newspapers these days. I think it's just to hard for them to keep up…read morewith news, since online and broadcast news can react so much faster, but the Irish News is one paper I do have faith in. Yes, it's a nationalist paper (really, there's very little in Northern Ireland that isn't split along nationalist/unionist lines, but hopefully that's changing), but it provides quality news reporting, that is influenced by nationalist ideas, but not blinded by them. It's a tabloid by definition, but doesn't share any characteristics with the British red tops. You won't find any up-skirt pap shots of Lindsey Lohan here! Rather, you'll get interesting commentary from writers like Newton Emerson. It is mildly annoying that the website is subscription only, but given that that seems to be the way newspaper companies are headed, it might be something we have to get used to...

Well if this isn't proof that Yelp works then I don't know what is. Upon reading these reviews of a…read moreradio station that I've not actually ever heard of, I figured I'd tune in for a while and see if it really is worth my time and my ears. Turns out it is. HOORAY! Though it does have that twinge of local radio which means it is not always as smoothly run as some programmes on the BBC or larger corporations, Feile FM does still boast something that makes the larger stations sit in the shade, and that is genuine charisma. Declan was right, it is a great station to get away from the same old rubbish that you get on every other station. It is a fine wee station that although it is not going to set the world on fire, it is doing a fine job of pulling in the punters and arguably for me is the best radion station in Belfast. The music is diverse throughout the day, but as you would expect with the "finishing work" time, the music is easy listening, enough to get you home without too much hassle or without infuriating you too much. The presenters often slip in to the "radio dj" mode whereby they sometimes come across as Tony Blackburn, but as far as local community radio goes, this is certainly one of the better ones. Well done son

Féile Fm is west Belfast's community radio. It's a great local station offering a rich variety of…read moreshows and topics. For example, shows titles include : Movie reviews, Traditional Music, Artery, What the Papers Say, Musical Theatre, African Beats, Street Jams. This gives a brief overview of the wide range of genres they cover. They also broadcast interviews, music, craic, community information and provide a voice to the local community. The station was first broadcast in 1996 with a restricted licence, then in October 2005 the station was offered a full-time Community Radio Licence. Over the years it has turned out to be 'one of the most successful community development participation projects in the North of Ireland.' This is due to the stations relationships with various organisations, groups in the community, government departments and the education sector. The stations website has the full details of the stations history, it notes how Féile FM provides Open College Network (OCN) accredited training in radio and production skills and recording space for local artists, poets, storytellers and community-based projects. There are a whole range of reasons why I think this station is so good, one being as it's a channel of broadcasting that isn't the corporate meanie the BBC. Not that I've anything against them, but the quality of BBC programme making in N.I. is pretty low (No offence). Also I love the community feel here, they offer places for volunteers interested in radio production (a chance I avail of on Tuesday's 'Artery' with Royce Harper) and offer work placement for students interested in the media. There should definitely be more stations like this one, it's a great avenue for local talent to broadcast their work or discuss their ideas.

Queen's Radio is a very vibrant and rich station, and I feel that it needs to have a lot more…read moreattention that it currently gets! The station broadcasts on 1134MW in the Belfast area, but your most reliable bet is to listen via the internet! The station is ran by QUB students, and as such operates mainly in term time from September until June, however in summer there are many special broadcasts! The station is ran by people who genuinely care about music and want to try their hand at broadcasting, and the results are refreshingly professional!(That rolls off the tongue...unfortunately thi is written so the impact is lessened!) There is a huge breadth of programming, including a news debating show,a sports talk show where the topical sporting issues of the day are bantered about with the minimal of tired clichés, a show about computer games and of course oodles of music! Personal favourites of mine are the regular Audi Beef sessions where DJs have track battles over certain subjects , and also Wavelength, a show fronted by a charismatic friend of mine called Jamie who fills our lugs with the crème de la crème of alternative music every week! So if you need something to distract you from your homework or give you something interesting to listen to whilst at work or home Queen's Radio can provide something for all tastes, not just students!

And so they should have one. The students have one in Hollyoaks, and Zak had one in Saved by the…read moreBell (points for whoever can remember its name). So should Queen's have their own radio station that can play the music they want and have shows presented by the students. Problem number one. The majority of it is rubbish. I don't want to generalise. And I try not to be so general. But I do tune in regularly and I do know a few people who have worked at the station. But the majority of it is rubbish. They seem to strive to make it a 'cool' music station which plays hip music for some funky cats. Problem number two. 'Cool' music stations aren't particularly interesting. Or for that matter are they particularly good. Yes so I don't mind listening to the Libertines or the Strokes every so often. But when I do some work, the last thing I want is more of the Libertines or the Strokes. Whenever I go to the library, I want to listen to a variety of music and talk. Not the same cool music that I've heard all day. Radio One, for all those that hate it, is still more popular and interesting. So is Radio Two, Cool FM, 2FM... they all have a variety that appeals to a spectrum. Not all students play guitar to Pete Doherty songs. Damn it I want a Girls Aloud hour and I want it now! Queen's Radio has all of the basic ingredients for a good radio station, but it needs a bit of a better direction to go in and it could be as good as KKTY BAYSIDE... (Two points if you got it right)

For me, ATL does a great job of promoting music in and around Northern Ireland. The BBC…read moreintroducing programme with Rory O Connell is good, but saying it is stuck at midnight on a Thursday the ability of it to make in impact on the local community is sevelely limited. Risy is a charismatic and enthusiastic host, and dispite his sometimes questionable taste and un faltering quest to be at the front of every trend, it is clear he has a genuine passion for local bands and this comes through in his show. There is always regular sessions with local bands aswell as extended interviews with local bands( and occasionally visiting stars) which add depth to the programme in addition to the music. The website linked to the show is also an excellent source of new gig and album launch information for local bands and the Belfast area, if only they would sort out the flash on the site because it has made numerous computers I have ran the site on stop working right!

This is pretty much the best radio station you are going to get in Belfast. ATL as its better known…read moreis kind of the MTV for Northern Ireland but without as much commercial rubbish. ATL promotes local bands as well as playing some of the best music currently floating around the airwaves. Presented by the ever-enthusiastic Rigsy, ATL is the one and only stop for Northern Irish music. As well as the radio show, ATL also has a terrific website packed with news and interviews, as well as doing the occasional bit on the telebox, most recently Snow Patrol's record breaking gig in Bangor. It's on 8-10 at night and definately makes a change from the rubbish you hear on Cool FM

I visited BBC Blackstaff Studios last week as part of The Belfast Film Festival and I was impressed…read moreby the facilities on offer. From the outside the building looks like any other characterless public sector building in the City but once you're inside the building the grandeur becomes apparent. There's something exciting about getting to go in to television studios, even if you are just going to watch a movie. As you'd expect the building has quite high levels of security with guards and turnstiles on the door so if you don't have the correct credentials you simply won't get in. The movie itself was played in one of the main production studios, which seated around 300 people - it is in these studios that the likes of 'The Nolan Show' and other BBC NI productions are filmed. I think the public should have more access to this building as it is extremely interesting seeing how TV shows are created as someone at the Film Festival said, 'we did pay for it after all'!