Mayor of Athlone Town Council, Alan Shaw, still has hopes that the RTÉ transmitter at Moydrum could become a museum.
At last week’s town council meeting it was agreed that a feasibility study would be carried out on the transmitter station to see if could be turned into a museum.
As it stands, RTÉ, who own the property, have no plans to turn the station into a museum; however following a meeting with the chariman of RTÉ, Tom Savage the national broadcaster said they would facilitate a feasibility study to determine if the facility is suitable and how such a museum might operate.
Mayor Shaw said, “The fact that there are no other sites in Western Europe with three generations of broadcasting equipment still in situ in a purpose built transmitting station makes Moydrum a ready-made radio museum.”
He added: “This is a unique site and in time, this site, if preserved will become the only one of its type in Europe. Modern satellite communications mean that transmitting stations like Moydrum will never again be constructed.”
He feels that as Athlone was the site for the first high-powered transmitter in the Republic, the site deserved to be preserved as part of our national and technological heritage.
