This was followed by Neil Prendeville's first show, the first song played was "A New Flame" by Simply Red – a chart hit at the time.

Local dignitaries, were invited by the station to an event that night in Cork's Imperial Hotel which was attended by several hundred people.

Mediocre listenership figures for Radio South, lead to a relaunch in July 1990 and a name change to 'Hits and Memories 96FM'.

By this stage the original special interest programmes of Radio South were gone (except the 'Oldies and Irish' show on Sundays which, thanks to public support, survived the upheaval).

[citation needed] In 1991, a 'merge-over' took place between 96FM and the Mallow-based County Sound 103FM coming under a common ownership and combined JNLR figures.

[citation needed] The late 1990s led to the complete discarding of the 'Hits and Memories' moniker, and some programming changes, with night-time programmes to appeal to younger listeners (not heard in Cork since the Radio South days) being introduced.

These include a new Sunday morning show featuring veteran broadcaster Ryan Tubridy, produced by Virgin Radio in London.