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WHEN YOU TURN on the radio, do you keep an ear out for Irish music – or does it not matter?
Some believe that there simply aren’t enough Irish bands played on radio here. Others think that if Irish tracks are good enough, they will get played.
Then there are playlists.
And licence commitments.
And quotas.
We talked to some of the players in the radio game, and some musicians themselves, to find out if Irish radio stations do play enough homegrown music – and if not, what can be done about it?
What are the most-played songs on Irish radio?
According to the PPI, of the 50 most-played songs on Irish radio in 2013, six were by Irish bands. The six tracks were by two Irish bands: Kodaline and The Script.
This was the sixth most popular track in Ireland, and the top one by an Irish band:
And this was number 40, and the fourth most popular Irish track (the other two in between were also by Kodaline).
I think every person who has control over the music they play on the radio wants to break a new band and support them on way up… that’s the dream, that I could help someone who is really talented get out there.
Louise McSharry (formerly of this parish) presents the Louise McSharry show on RTÉ 2FM from Sunday to Thursday, 8-10pm.
Unlike some of the daytime shows, she doesn’t have a purely playlisted two hours, and chooses the music herself.
She listens to everything she gets sent, and considers everything equally, “whether you’re an Irish band or Ariana Grande”.
“I don’t really hear from that many Irish bands,” she pointed out. ”If I hear something online, I will seek the band out”.
She was one of the first people to play Kodaline on the radio, in a previous job, and would like to see more Irish bands sending in their music for consideration.
Naturally, she can’t play every track that’s sent in. “My show it has to be accessible,” she pointed out.
I can’t sound completely alien to the 2FM playlist. So I can’t play anything that’s hardcore or opera, no matter how good it is unfortunately. If it doesn’t fit in with the show, it doesn’t fit in with it.
Within that remit, she’s still able to cross different genres, and bands that recently featured include Faune and Tvvins.
One issue is playlisting, where the songs for shows are all chosen in advance. “I think a lot of people don’t know that about radio,” said McSharry.
Because of playlists, “you can send your CD to every radio person in the place, but probably 80% of people don’t have say”.
“We’re definitely encouraged to play Irish music where possible,” she said of 2FM.
At the same time, we have to consider our listeners first and foremost and what they want to hear. As much as I like to play Irish music, I can’t just play Irish music for the sake of it. It has to be something the listener is going to enjoy; something they want to hear.
For McSharry, “the best thing you can do ever is make someone say ‘oh, they’re really good’ and go off and find out more”.
She said there “some really good quality stuff coming out of Ireland at the moment”, but what about the idea of having a specific quota for Irish music?
“I think that there are positive factors and there are negative factors,” said McSharry. “I don’t actually know how well it works in terms of what songs get played.”
“You don’t want to wind up in a situation where it is tokenistic,” she cautioned. “People see right through that. Listeners want to hear good music.”
The show that only plays Irish music
If every artist relied on radio we’d be screwed. If your music is good enough, a big label is going to pick you up and you are going to be played on radio.
A number of shows around the country are dedicated to Irish music – generally they are on in the evening or at weekends, and can be on community, local, or college radio stations as well as commercial stations.
Totally Irish is a dedicated weekly Irish music show on 98FM, a commercial station in the capital. Its presenter, John Barker, said that on the station, 23% of its Irish music output is played between 7pm and 7am, with 30% across total broadcast day.
The station “regularly exceeds those percentages”, he said. Its most recent daytime playlist has five Irish acts on it: Hozier, Riptide Movement, Original Rudeboys, The Coronas and Kodaline.
“I think it depends on the station and the style of music – certain stations have a licence and have to play a certain style of music,” he said of choosing Irish music for 98FM.
“A lot of the music I play on the show wouldn’t get onto mainstream radio,” continued Barker.
“I don’t think the bands involved would always expect that. But for the likes of Daithí or Le Galaxie, it would be really important for them to get daytime airplay on commercial stations.”
He said that some artists can make a career without radio – such as BriBry, an Irish singer-songwriter whose videos receive upwards of 500k views on YouTube. He has been able to tour abroad based on this success.
Barker would play a huge amount of independent artists on his show, and says 98FM hasn’t placed any restrictions on what he can play.
“The overall thing is the Irish music scene is growing – it is getting bigger and bigger and more popular,” said Barker. “I think the Irish public and media have more confidence in it these days.”
“All people will think about is they will think about the number, whether there’s anything creative they can do with it,” said Maher of quotas. “Rather than the radio station sitting down and deciding ‘we have problems with sourcing Irish music’.”
Simon Maher has a long history in radio, having worked in Phantom when it was a pirate, and right up to its latter years as a commercial station. He runs 8Radio these days, as well as lecturing.
In the late 1990s, Phantom FM played a lot of Irish bands. “They were purely on the basis of we were all going to the gigs anyway, and these were the bands you would see regularly. From our perspective, it just made sense,” said Maher.
They never worked in terms of percentages, and Maher doesn’t feel that having to play a certain percentage of Irish music is a good idea anyway.
“I don’t think that having a commitment based on quantity works at all,” said Maher.
In a “particularly bad week” in the late 2000s, Phantom FM played a song by Neon Neon in its ‘Irish’ selection, as it referenced Delorean cars, which were built in Belfast.
He believes it changes your way of thinking, so that playing Irish music becomes a “contractual obligation”.
At Phantom, they looked at all the new music – Irish or otherwise – on a weekly basis to build the playlist from. “We always worked on the basis that if something was good enough, it was good enough to be played as an international song,” he said.
When they moved to a commercial licence, they undertook a commitment to play a certain amount of Irish music. By default, you would hear more of the Irish music at night.
But while “75% of time it was easy”, the other 25% of time it could be a struggle. Then it became a situation where “rather than give acts a chance we’re putting a song on because we need to fill a quota”. “That wasn’t always right,” said Maher.
If they played Irish bands that weren’t up to scratch, it wasn’t doing the station or the band any favours.
As the station became more commercial, the music had to become more accessible, which must have had a knock-on effect for the type of Irish bands they could play.
Maher believes that if bands have a live presence, this can help radio listeners have a better connection if they hear them online.
At 8Radio, “we’ve made a decision at the very start that if an Irish song was good enough, it would get absolutely the same amount of airplay as big international tracks on the A list on a given week”, said Maher.
He said they have had no trouble with this, mainly because they are less constricted by musical style and can choose from more ‘leftfield’ options. Irish bands like Spies, Carriages and David Turpin have all been on the station.
When are we going to take pride in our own music by really supporting it, by playlisting it?
Could the secret to getting more Irish tunes on the radio be a targeted initiative?
IASCA is the Irish Association of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, set up in 2010. It is run by Sinead Troy, and among its work is the Play Irish project.
Part of Troy’s work with Play Irish is finding out “what the problem is” with getting Irish bands on radio.
France is the only country in Europe with a specific quota for national music. In Ireland, there are voluntary commitments under the Broadcasting Association of Ireland (BAI) licences.
Troy has met with the powers-that-be in various stations. “What I’ve discovered is what defines Irish music is different in every station,” she said.
In some stations, it can be if you have an Irish member in the band – One Direction can be construed as Irish – or if you record a single in an Irish studio.
Another issue is that if bands are not on Radio Monitor, airplay monitoring for the music industry, they won’t be logged.
Irish stations that have come on board for Play Irish so far include:
They have agreed to choose Irish artists, and promote them across platforms, while the band promotes the radio station, and IASCA promotes the station and the band.
Talking to DJs showed Troy that many of them want to do more than they are allowed to do. “Very rarely on daytime radio can people go outside of the playlist,” she said.
But for Troy, it is “all about the daytime airplay”:
It’s multiple plays that sell music and create the environment that creates jobs. Once an Irish band gets on the radio – everything starts to change.
“I feel radio don’t take a lot of risks and I don’t think they’re very proud of Irish music. I don’t think they own it,” said Troy. “And I don’t think Irish people get a lot of access to Irish music.”
Looking to the Canadian model for inspiration, IASCA has come up with one definition of what constitutes Irish music for radio stations.
The system allows for bands not originally based in Ireland to gain points in order to allow them to be considered ‘Irish music’, based on certain connections to the country, such as an Irish publisher.
“If stations take on the definition, it will automatically increase the Irish music they are playing,” said Troy. “They can no longer fall back on One Direction.”
She has found “a lot of negativity out there about Irish music – coming from station owners, or the board, but not the DJs”.
Her next project is a digital platform for releasing albums to radio stations, which could be used by independent bands.
The focus is on getting people to ‘buy Irish’ with music, just as they would with Irish food.
I know we’re going uphill but I also know we’re moving.
Troy has also worked at teaming up Irish music DJs with those making playlisting decisions.
“I’d love to just think radio stations would take this on as a bigger thing than Irish music – as an employment thing and a pride thing.”
Mark Geary is a longtime musician who described his experiences with getting radio air play:
That feeling that your local talent is no match for cool bands from the UK or further.
That feeling that you’re not cool enough, not now enough. Of course when we all go abroad and tour, you’re amazed at the level of goodwill and a feeling your appreciated because you’re Irish.
He said that another angle on this is “the type of choices, musically you’re forced to make”.
“Why do most bands you hear on the radio sound the same, interchangeable heads and fingers? Well, because they’re faced with a decision – will this song be played on the radio, does it have ‘ hooky ‘ chorus? If it sounded a little more like… Maybe we have a chance.”
“I’ve seen labels and my own management sweat over what I’m going to give them, because radio still means so much,” he concluded.
Musician Niall Jackson said:
The whole question of Irish radio play for Irish acts outside of the watershed (that is, before 9pm) is a sham. A rigged game. A complete and utter one.
He said that “most of these stations are reaching their ‘Irish’ quota with complete and utter contempt for anything new, exciting or more importantly unpaid for”.
It has been said that even recording a song in Ireland qualifies it as Irish to meet quota standards, meaning bands like REM, Muse, Rihanna, Madonna get to fly the Irish flag when it comes to ‘Irish’ radio play.
He believes that “you don’t get play-listed unless you play the game”, which is “paying a PR company a lot of money to get your act on daytime radio”.
“If not you may just accept that, unless some freak song comes along like Hozier’s ‘Take Me to Church’ with an accompanying groundbreaking video, then you are going to be ignored. Even then, Hozier was a while in development,” said Jackson.
“All of the Irish bands you hear on daytime radio are lauded for their brilliance not because they are better than what is happening in Whelan’s or smaller venues on any given night of the week but because they are paying or being paid huge sums of money to get there,” he asserted.
“I believe if the bands you and I go to see week in- week out, were given half the chance of being play-listed, Irish people would willingly lap it up,” said Jackson. “It would in turn lead to gigs being better attended, albums being better sold and artists being better paid.”
He also pointed out that IMRO ensure that Irish bands are paid when their songs are played, which is a further benefit of radio play.
“Until such a day exists when radio station managers stop thinking about the bottom line and start thinking about breaking the mould this won’t change,” said Jackson.
Noel Gallagher said it best (and I hate Oasis) when he said that the Sex Pistols or The Clash would never get played on the radio today as there are now to many meetings and focus groups for them to be accepted, but back in the heyday of radio you didn’t ask your demographic what they wanted to hear, you showed them the way and in the process we got our John Peels and Dave Fannings. Somewhere along the line listeners became customers.
He singled out night time DJs for flying the flag for Irish acts, such as Dan Hegarty, Paul McLoone, John Kelly, Cathal Funge and until recently Donal Dineen.
Better still we have some amazing acts such as Villagers, We Cut Corners, James Vincent McMorrow who transcend being kept out of the limelight with sheer talent, but what of Girl Band, Girls Names, September Girls, Cian Nugent and the countless other acts, successfully touring around the world, blissfully ignored outside the witching hour of our vague bland alternative/playlisted radio.
With all this in mind, we asked some of the radio experts what advice they would give bands who want to get played on radio.
The main takeaway from this? You don’t need to print out a fancy press release or send a CD to get your music listened to by DJs.
Louise McSharry’s advice:
In the same way that a director might say to an actor – ‘you’re very good but you’re not right for the part’, sometimes you might have a great song and it might not be right for the show or station.
John Barker’s advice:
There are a lot ways to get your music out there – get on to music blogs, plug your songs on Twitter.
What’s your opinion on this topic? Tell us in the comments.
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What an annoyingly long article….
Although I did, I can’t see many making it all the way to the end.
I read first few lines, scrolled down saw how long it is and skipped to comments
A friend of mine is a big YouTube content provider and he was telling me that the uploader can see not just how many views their video got , but just how far into the video each person gets.
Apparently videos longer than 2 mins receive far fewer views than shorter videos. And even at that the majority don’t make it past 30 seconds. It would appear that trend is making its way to news too.
Tl dr
I listen to newstalk except when they’re talking about sport or music, both of which are utterly pointless pursuits.
Not enough numbers in da words 4 u? ADD? Pick a book up from time to time..
Sport and music are pointless are they? Please elaborate on this!
@Brianán Mc Bride
I did that too, but the bit about where the money is buried got my attention.
What is there to elaborate on? They are two areas of human pursuit that do not further our species or planet in any way shape or form. They are a pointless waste of resources.
This is an issue for sure for Irish music. There ar so many good irish bands and labels out there. Labels such as Out on a Limb, Richter Collective (RIP) and Popical Island, to name a few have, huge rosters of fantastic bands. These Bands deserve to be played based on talent, but execs are busy watching profits. Little do they realize they have homogenized their station. Spin, 104, 98, daytime playlists may as well be identical.
But what’s more of an issue is a generation of people who have the concentration span of a kid. Marissa McGill and Co, Do you really think this issue can be summed up in a few paragraphs? Maybe you would prefer 144 characters only? It’s called a feature article. It’s not a bite-sized news pieces. How about you contribute to the discussion rather than commenting on its length. The future is bleak.
@ Brianan, Same here.
I’d rarely listen to the radio except Morning Ireland for news. I love BBC 6 Music as they’ve proper DJs who actually care about music. I’d like to hear more new Irish bands like Little Green Cars on Irish radio rather than the endless plays of Rihanna and One Direction that you get on most radio stations
Very true. I cannot turn on Irish radio for music. I listen for news and chat too. If by chance, they play a song ona chat show, I usually immediately reach for the dial.
No they don’t !! And further more i think they play a lot of girlie music. When I was a teen music was tough. It would come out the speakers and kick seven shades of sh!te out if you and you were greatfull for the beating.
That’s the hipster sound I’m afraid- wishy washy lyrics with twitchy melodies… Cathal Coughlan would have them all for breakfast.
Best comment ever Glen!!! And true.
There is a massive lack of djs in this country that know anything about music let alone irish music . To many of them feel we need to know all about them .
We’re a new Irish band and we’d LOVE to get AirPlay in our own country. Irish radios do not play our music unfortunately, along with hundreds of other up and coming Irish bands. We’ve recorded an album that we feel would rival the talent anywhere else in the world, but yet we can’t get our sound heard on our own doorstep. As a result we’re forced to target other countries like the states, where thankfully we’re getting a great response. Radio in Ireland only want to know about those who’ve made it outside Ireland first, then they’ll jump on the bandwagon. As one other commenter said, an hour of new Irish music during prime time slots would be a step in the right direction. BM
The real problem is lack of pirate stations. The commercial stations have for years, hounded them out of existence.
Best of luck to ya
I’ve seen ye love and yere great!! It’s a real pity the mainstream radio audience can’t hear you!
Live even :P
I would vouch for the Beau Motives. A great sounding band who get little support. It’s disgraceful that that are forced to go outside the country to find that support
Daytime IRISH radio or any English language music radio doesn’t need to “take risks” …it just has to program GREAT pop SONGS that engage the specific tastes of the program’s listener demographics! A great song delivers all that is necessary to get the listener from one advert to the next so the program can pay the bills…including the Irish artist’s performance right pennies & cents to their PRO. Let both sides keep to the implicit contract between the songwriter and the radio programmer…I’ll give you music that hooks your audience and you give me multiple rotations every time I succeed in delivering…no matter where I come from…but if, like the local farmer, my local produce is just as good and as competitive with the global competition…then buy Irish…otherwise consume the best available at your budget so you can survive and thrive too.
I think more radio stations should dedicate at least a primetime hour a week to just Irish artists and not just big names like U2 or the Script but up and coming bands like Children of the Sun, we could be a little better at supporting our own IMO
Nice article :)
Completely agree Doey ….. Aren’t U2 Dutch now ?? Any who !
That’s Children of the Son, beg your pardon :D
Just Googled Children of the Son as never heard of them. Like the song on their website. Are they brothers or do they love the curling tongs? The lead Singer reminds me of Meatloaf. Someone needs to teach him to mime in time with the tune!
Aye 3 bros, the lead singer is amazing.
Don’t u mean Children of the Son ?
Radio music = chart music = children and girls music = terrible music
There is a thriving underground scene at the moment yet Radio stations refuse to back these artists. They prefer to wait until ins popular in England first
We need more pirate stations. There should be thriving pirate radio stations in every county. They should never accept money for advertising, never bleed out over someone elses frequency, always be responsible, and play music only.
However, we live in a country where pirate radio stations get shut down on the complaints of the commercial stations. Those very same commercial stations are staffed by people that learned their trade on pirate radio.
Irish radio is a farce, a conglomerate of self interest.
I think this applies to both mainstream and more underground stuff. As a dance music fan I have to say that irish stations don’t give upcoming Djs/producers a fair shot. Where as
The likes of
Radio 1 in the uk give all emerging talent regardless of genre a fair chance with specialist shows and airtime
Check out @antaobhtuathail le Cian Ó Ciabhàn on rté rnag. He has built a huge underground/house/electro music platform of international and irish artists. The percentage of Irish music should be much higher and the requirments of ‘irish music’ should be amended. Did you know that 1D classifies as Irish cos of Niall Horan? It’s mainstream pop and not independant, new-age or pure. It’s a false created culture hindering encouragement of growth and taking up airtime or real homegrown talent, of course it has a great market. Check out the French radio laws, I think they’re much more favourable and supportive of home talent!
Great piece, hope the Journal doesn’t shy away from posting more articles of similar detail because of the comments of the uninterested few.
Journal can’t win in that argument. If the article is short people will ask if it was copied from Buzzfeed.
There is a massive lack of irish djs that know little about music let alone irish music on the airwaves . To many of them more interested in telling us all about themselves and there opinions.
Irish radio and tv is a joke when it comes to Irish bands getting air time.
Even then the ones who do are either pop acts where someone somewhere has got paid to play list the songs or bands who have English airplay already.
The Dj’s named in the article deserve special mention as they with a few others really so care about Irish music.
Rte in all it’s formats is a disgrace when it comes to Irish music.
Ffs it’s not what u know its who u know always was always will be!! If your not in the click forget about it. Btw article too long zzzzz after two paragraphs!! Who wrote it?
Jeysus thats a thesis of an article but anyway 2fm pkay only shite since ya man from 98fm took over and they got shut of good djs replacing them with loud empty vessels
Yep- 6Music all the way…it’s the only real music station out there. There is banter, but it is always about music, and there is no bullst playlists – they play music from any time period or genre. You’ll always find new music or artists you haven’t heard of- and that is the sign of a great radio station.
Irish radio is terrible muck..
I think they do anyway, Kodaline and Hozier are two who jump to mind who are being played a lot these days
Jaysus isn’t Hozier awful. Every song is the exact same.
Seriously? Hozier is one of the best songwriters to come out of this country in a very long time,
Deadly serious
Newstalk is great. Pat Kenny’s on it now.
Spin is garbage. Was heralded as an alternative station when it launched. Unlistenable.
I thin PK is OK. But, we as a people are not represented on radio.
Yawn. .. Who cares?
The common response to that is: obviously you do because you’ve commented.
I started up my blog back in 2012 because I’m obsessed with music and films and wanted to recommend both to mates,then after a year or so started to get emails from Irish bands,some based here and some in the UK and I’ve heard some amazing stuff. Nothing better than reviewing debut E.P.’s and singles and then seeing them get good write-ups a bit later in Hot Press and even the English press. There’s way more talent out there than there was during the Frames & Mary Janes days and the start of Phantom,just not getting enough airplay unfortunately.
For example, these lads who were holed up in London for a bit and are now on the move via Dundalk, Bold Things, I would say Miss Barry might like them ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ6udpOFSX8
Thanks Remy!
There are some excellent DJ’s who know their stuff and play good songs, including from Irish artists, like Paul McCloone on Today FM and Cian Ó Ciobháin on RnaG.
Sad indictment of what radio is today. It has to pander to the tastes of its audience rather than opening the audiences eyes.
No wonder I get my introductions to new music from the web and am lucky to get to a decent gig every so often where the bands play their own material. Payola has killed radio.
Your first two sentences pretty much narrowed down Irish media as as whole, regardless of topic, or music.
I do have a band playing at my wedding that will play at least 90% original music. The 3 lads in question are now fast approaching 70, but are ‘proper musicians’. First hour acoustic. Second hour, electric.
Take it from me, they are sound blokes, and great musicians. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkbgrAdMPf8
And, I expect to see you there Paul.
Lost the will to live after that long article! Love Louise Mcsharry though.
Video killed the radio star children.
Thankfully no they don’t. Recently I received a copy of album by singer called Lisa O’Neil. and in truth it was embarrassing. If this what passes for talent in Ireland we’re iin a sad decline.
It’s impossible for an O’Neill to be embarrassing, take that back.
The joy of music is that enjoying it is a personal thing – I adored Lisa O’Neill’s album myself…
I agree. She can’t sing at all.
I agree that radio in Ireland is rubbish with regard to music. I listen to bbc radio for the last 20 years & new music including irish bands get a lot of exposure on it. Our very own Annie Mac DJs on it friday night & the djs are incredible. So if you want new music bbcr1 is probably the best out there.
I reckon, if you really want to hear your more Irish bands during the day, go out and purchase their music, and put it on your iPod or whatever device you use to listen to it with.
Radio music these days is completely for the birds and grossly repetitive.
Rory Gsllagher ! More Rory please
I’m working on a song at the moment. Due for release next month. I’m gonna call it August. Oh my!
Foy Vance does not get his music on mainstream stations but is used Greys Anatomy and Denny ad. I know a Dublin band,The Rattling Kind.music used on Love/Hate. Still cant get played in mainstream. Its a sad day when TV is recognising music more than radio.
Wow that’s some read. You lost me halfway through.
Have fallen out of love with radio over the last few years. It’s the same songs by the same people & it’s boring. I listen to BBC Radio 1 & until Irish radio gets as good as that, I’ll stay put.
I know it’s a Dublin station, but nobody’s mentioned NOVA who seem to do an awful lot to promote local talent…. and by ‘talent’, I mean REAL homegrown talent?
Haven’t lived in ireland for a while but last year definitely not enough local or irish emerging artists. It is unbelievable the young and old talent out there that’s not well known in ireland. Travel anywhere and one of the first things that’s associated with ireland is the high standard of music and a musical culture..
It should be a condition of broadcast license, that radio stations promote Irish culture, most radio stations are way too commercial, even the ones that are financed by license payers, most of them are totally crap, the longest I listen is about 10 mins.
Commercial radio is junk where music is concerned either way. There have been some individual presenters that have tried to push Irish bands, and I welcome that, but the problem often lies with the crap quality demos the bands send in. Often the recordings themselves are technically crap and unfit for radio play.
I gave up on Irish radio years ago when listening to music. It is so bland. Like many others I listen to BBC 6 Music. It is refreshing and available anywhere with an app like tunein.
i’ve had a few bands give out to me over the years for not plying their stuff…. when i said “you haven’t sent me anything” they go all quiet. Bands/p.r. companies need to do their research better and find out what shows are most likely to play their material. A friend and I did the p.r, for the first Boa Morte l.p. 10-12 years ago and if we thought 4 shows on a station might play them then we sent a c.d. to each d.j. individually, whereas if you c.d. is sent to the generic station address chances are it won’t get into the right hands. Simple things too like marking ut on an l.p. which track is the ‘single’ help enormously as if a dj gets sent 60 lps in one week (as we sometimes did on a small community station) they simply don’\t have time to listen to every individual track, it’s impossible…. god only knows how may albums Dunne, Peel or Fanning would get sent at their peak.
apologies for the typos above, damn keyboard is playing up :(
On the money there, the amount of PR companies that send cds out to shows that have been off the air for years is pretty shocking, plus, I pick up a lot of cds in 2nd shops, lots of promo copies do the rounds, and oft times the name of the DJ is still on them
Great article Aoife, thanks for writing it.
There is actually a quote in place, but there’s too many loopholes. For example, one direction could be considered Irish because of Niall Horan, any band that recorded here is considered to be ‘irish’ music, and even if a song has an irish engineer or producer it’s considered Irish!
Oh, and thanks for the article Aoife. Twas a good read!
No, they don’t play enough Irish music.
Best advice for ‘creative’ music folk is not to bother trying to play the music business game and ignore puppets in radio and TV stations, advertising companies decide what’s what there. Write ground breaking material and have it recorded as best you can afford. Then focus on making the right connections online.
Many Irish acts complain that there’s a lack of interest from radio here, the real questions is, is your music similar to and on a par with what’s popular this week/month. If not the advertisers don’t want to know. Hence why the majority of stations play bologna. If all you want is fame and attention, in contrast to being original and talented, start a boy/girl band for example and try the x factor etc. Otherwise become a puppet master, turn the tables around and ignore the tools who systematically call the shots when it comes to music and air play. Music is a pawn in the game of mainstream radio even though without it none would last.
Too much Irish stuff on TV and Radio. They should play what world class – riverdance was world class but most of rest is inferior.
So you’ll be taking Irish out of your profile name then.
The problem with Irish radio these days is that they pretend they care about their LISTNERS when Infact they only care bout there pockets .
Look @ this utv own fm 104 q102 English company , very little Irish music played by both these stations 104 do select Irish new & up coming bands there songs air played once every few hrs but kodaline , hozier who yes are Irish are repeated so much on 104 it just makes me turn of . So how does that work they play kodaline every hour this mth they play Ryan Sheridan for select Irish track he’s not new & upcoming he’s established .
I don’t think 104 puts enough effort in Irish bands bosses are from uk it’s uk owned why would they care ? I know q102 are operating on same basis as 104 .
98 & spin & today fm tx fm spin cork all owned by unicorp group that’s just sheer greed.
The problem with all stations on Dublin & others play same stuff day in day out more variety more selection is needed . I know the person in charge of 104 playlists must have easiest job as he selects same music every day , Edd Sheridan must pay 104 to play his songs, likewise Sam smith every 2-3 hrs repeated , kodaline every hrs . Irish radio needs dedicated educated ppl to run stations not just ordinary Djs . I know I pick a lot on 104 , I don’t say much bout 98 fm , they have heads up there u know where who rely on tv presenters to get ratings but failing misserably, spin 103.8 are worst . 2 fm prob focous more on Irish talent than any 1
The music played on the main Irish radio stations is so samey. I’d rather see a mix of genres played, rather than focus on emerging talents, or perhaps both. Hip hop, soul, blue grass, ragga etc, there is soooo much more music out there, but we never hear it – only on some stations in the late evenings. Thank god for TuneIn app.
Great read Aoife. Thanks for remembering that community and college stations are plugging away the whole time, and lots of new Irish music is being played on these stations. As someone that has a show, I’d love to be sent more (suitable!) music. A lot of what I do get sent at the moment is not appropriate to shows on the station, but rather a blanket e-mail. We also get Youtube links, with nowhere to download tracks, and no info on the artists. I love having bands in for sessions when they’re in town. Pretty sure that goes for all of the community stations in Ireland (you can find details on them all at craol.ie, if any artists/producers want to send music on).
I wouldn’t listen to much music radio these days, as the music I really like isn’t on it. You get a lot of who you would expect to be played on a lot of the alternative shows, but after a while, I’d like to hear something different. There is more to alternative radio music than Arcade Fire and Vampire Weekend etc.
So, I just stick to to spotify and youtube.
There are a lot of good Irish bands out there not getting a fair crack of the whip when it comes to radio play in Ireland. At the same time, there is a lot of rubbish out there that shouldn’t be let near the radio, but since the demise of record labels, the quality control process has gone out the window a bit.
I find local radio fairly supportive of new music, but in Ireland, you need to be getting played on national radio or forget about it. It’s a small enough country/market as it is.
The problem is you often find the shows that will support new unsigned or new Irish music are on late at night, or early in the morning on weekends, when nobody is listening!
I used to present two Irish language radio shows. One on community radio and the other on a well known station in Dublin and the south of Ireland. The community radio show was on a Saturday morning, and I could play anything I wanted to, which was great, as long as I kept speaking Irish.
The other show I had, on the more well known station was on a Sunday morning, and the show was all about playing new Irish music. By default, most of these new bands were not mainstream, or were unsigned etc, so I thought it was a good platform to be able to play stuff I knew wouldn’t get on other shows.
The only problem was it was on a Sunday morning. Realistically how many people were going to be listening to a radio show on a Sunday morning?
As far as I am concerned, the station was ticking a few boxes. Supporting the Irish language? Tick. Supporting new Irish music? Tick. However sticking both on a Sunday morning at 9:30 am wasn’t doing the Irish language or new Irish music any favours.
Now, I’m not saying I should have had a prime time drive time radio slot, as the station was, after all, a commercial station and had to make money. But sticking a new music show on a Sunday morning slot was never going to promote new Irish music.
I think people are missing out on the idea of having the “machine” behind you to promote your music.
You can have as many youtube channels, bandcamp, apps, etc behind you as you like, but there comes a time when you need someone or something to give you a push to get you on national radio, or further afield.
Obviously, if you’re music is sh*t to start with, it doesn’t matter how fancy your photos are, or how many online channels you have. You will still be sh*t. There are a few culprits floating around the Irish music scene who have built a reputation on things that have nothing to do with music, and you can see the failure for someone or something to catch on to them and get them to the next level.
A record label or PR company can provide the weight to get you on national radio, or tv, or better still, line up good support slots in Ireland or abroad. But I think you need to be going to them with a top class album, and all the boxes ticked. They’re going to want to see how they can make money off you.
I would also say a lot of radio stations aren’t seeking out new Irish music. They take what is given to them. They nearly need to have to be told what is good, and what they should play.
Aside from the general lack of faith that those in the Irish radio industry have for Irish music, there is another problem that is becoming increasingly worse as time goes on:-
Too few people with way too much power. The balance of power is seriously skewed, with programme controllers and station managers pretty much not accountable for their action regarding new Irish recordings.
And the problem is getting increasingly worse. Here is a personal example to illustrate a disturbing trend that I’m sure most musicians who have had the resilience to stick with the music business for a period of 15 years or more will identify with:-
We sent a demo single/ep around to radio stations in 1996.
~It was playlisted on the local station and made #8 on their weekly airplay chart.
~It got play on several other local stations, and at least one play on 2fm.
~You could discuss the single with the relevant “head of station sound”.
~They gave feedback on whether it was being played or not, and the reasons why.
We sent higher quality recordings of better songs around to the stations in the years 2005, 2009, and 2010.
~I did not hear the songs played anywhere aside from a token play on a chatshow during an interview.
~The relevant radio people often refused to take the call.
~Emails sent out were largely ignored. (extremely bad manners)
As local radio stations have shaken off the inferiority complexes of their pirate days, and have grown in confidence, with that has come an arrogance, and a sense of invincibility… the effect of this is that many radio people see themselves as “celebrities” and are more concerned with living the fantasy of themselves as such, bolstered by the empty vessel of twitter where they obsessively follow one another and encourage the (largely bemused and disinterested) listeners to do so too.
Part of the protocol of that ‘twitter-culture’ is that celebrities will not normally ‘lower themselves’ to reply to any comment posted by a ‘lesser celebrity’ or a member of the public… Irish DJs have taken that practise to heart -which is laughable when these people get fewer than 20 messages per day, compared to the thousands that received by real celebrities.
That has to be the most intelligent ,and accurate post I have seen in a long time, about the whole radio play situation Eoin, and you are so right.Many local radio DJs are now (according to themselves) celebrities! I am a songwriter,and while my songs are played a lot (mainly because I have had so many recorded,by many artists) actually being paid royalties for them is my biggest problem.If they have to give a play list to IMRO, then my name must not appear much on them; even though my songs are played. Well if my royalty statements are anything to go by, that is.
My band Valentino is Dead are constantly trying to get some airplay. We are an original Irish band that are influenced & inspired by our homeland. We try to deliver songs that have meaning, reflecting on our lives, experiences and politics of growing up & living in Ireland.
We gig as much as we can to try to get our music heard to as many people as possible but without any radio stations willing to take a chance & play our music its extremely tough. We recently played at a festival in Longford & I was amazed at how incredible some of the other unsigned bands playing there were, but as there not on the radio I’d never heard of them.
I think Phantom FM used to do a lot for unsigned Irish bands, that was the first time I heard of Ham Sandwich but since then no other station has filled that gap. If you fancy checking out our music & sharing here’s some links
Sinead Troy – “She has found “a lot of negativity out there about Irish music – coming from station owners, or the board, but not the DJs”.
First comment under The Journal’s Facebook post of the article is from Today FM DJ Tim Kelly – “Way too much because most of it is crap format destroying noise”
That’s what you’re up against folks. Heaven forfend that anything might disrupt ‘The Format’.
Jesus wept.
BBC Radio 2.
Great station.. My band went over and performed live on the Dermot O’Leary show back in march. We can’t get played on Irish radio at all though.
t this point, Aoife, Perhaps a quota on artciles on your articles calling for a quota should be considered, no?
This article isn’t calling for a quota on anything, so I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Niall.
I don’t think Niall has anything to say really, as is evident from that comment.
@Aoife – Good article. More like this please.
Would be great to read some articles on the struggles of writers, musicians, painters trying to “make it” or earn a full time living off their craft. Or the sacrifices they faced early. Normal things like paying the bills, feeding the kids etc. How they juggled getting time off work to tour etc.
They sure play plenty of Westlife and the likes .Ewwwwww.
Unfortunately if it’s not in a radio management latest survey it’s doomed…
Irish artists should be given top priority on Irish radio stations, and this should include UNSIGNED Irish artists such as Liz Seaver, Sue Callaghan and Sinead McNally.
I’d like to see a mix of old and new Irish music on our stations. Some really good Irish bands came through the 70′s & 80′s but didn’t get enough airtime play and thus didn’t “make it”. Someone mentioned there is a watershed of 9 pm to play new Irish music ? Is this true and if so, why ?.
How about this?
Nation gets behind local sports star.
His success urges others to take up sport and get fit.
This in turn results in increased supply of healthy foods.
Advancements in yield techniques by farmers.
This results in less hospital admissions freeing up more cash for R&D.
It also increase people’s competitive edge and how they cope with it. This in turn gives them confidence to start a new business and the people of the small town obtain unprecedented economic benefits.
If course, all the above may or may not happen. Something else might happen. Who knows? All I know is something will happen.
That was in response to someone who didn’t think sport or music had any worth. Not sure where their comment went!
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