At the time of the removal of its license it was the most listened to local station in the Republic of Ireland, with a daily listenership figure of 64%.
[2] These claims were denied by the CEO of NWR and MWR, Paul Claffey, who said that it amounted to Dublin telling people in the north west what kind of station they should listen to.
[3] The decision was also unpopular with many of the residents of Counties Sligo and Leitrim, and a group to save the station was established and around 5,000 marched on the Dáil in Dublin demanding a reversal of the awarding of the license away from NWR.
[4] Many people in the south of County Donegal would have preferred to have received Highland Radio from Letterkenny instead of N.W.R., or Ocean FM, for that matter, from Sligo Town.
North West Radio stopped broadcasting on midnight, 30 September 2004, with "Amhrán na bhFiann" being the last track played.