UTV rebrand

Wasn't the predecessor of Newsline called Inside Ulster?

Yes it was.

One publication I read stated that the only reason the radio station was called BBC Radio Ulster was that BBC Radio Northern Ireland was too much of a mouthful.

It was previously called the "BBC Northern Ireland Home Service"... a bit of a mouthful... so it was shortened to Ulster to keep it simple. BBC 1 and 2 Northern Ireland didn't change their name to Ulster as UTV was known as Ulster at that time.

Ulster Television became UTV, BBC Inside Ulster became BBC Newline, and the Royal Ulster Constabulary was replaced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Only BBC Radio Ulster appears to have not received the memo!

Does the radio station's news etc editorially acknowledge Cavan/Donegal/Monaghan at all? If so, that would be an obvious explanation for sticking with the Ulster name.

I wouldn't be surprised if the BBC Radio Foyle opt-outs acknowledge Donegal, otherwise wouldn't it literally just cover Country Derry/Londonderry?

EDIT: There doesn't seem to be an issue with having "mouthfull" station names elsewhere. I'm looking at you, BBC Coventry & Warwickshire and BBC Three Counties Radio.

I wonder why they never went with BBC Radio NI.

Although to be fair those stations are easily ( and often) abbreviated to BBC CWR and 3CR. The latter nicking the idea from Bournemouth’s 2CR ( now assimilated into the Heart collective of course)

Belfast heritage ILR selected the neutral name ‘Downtown Radio’ when they lanched, and presumably Tony Hatch did nicely from the royalties from their initial jingle package !

The important thing to remember is that BBC Radio Ulster have people outside of the border listening due to overspill so the name is relevant to the audience.

They may well do, but of course the reason for choosing the name Foyle rather than Derry or Londonderry is obvious.

Yes, it gets a bit unwieldy otherwise...

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/corporate2/images/width/live/p0/17/gy/p017gykf.jpg/624

Forget "overspill" - BBC Radio Ulster is available on Virgin Media Ireland in the Republic, as well as on Freesat, Free-to-air satellite, they can tune it in on the "add channels" section on Sky Ireland. It has nearly become a national radio station for many. Irish Republic can also listen to it online.

Trying not to piss off either side of the political divide is hard for the BBC and ITV in Northern Ireland. Foyle was a perfect choice for the Derry/Londonderry station. Ulster was the only available name really for the BBC. Now that Radio Ulster is widely available on the Irish republic, the name means not much.

Yes but that wasn't always the case. We're talking about why it was called bbc radio ulster in the first place.