Lack Of Irish Acts On Irish Radio

Hank_Jones

I've recently been spending a lot of time close to the north and being listening to a lot of uk radio stations, namely Radio 1.
I noticed that they play up and coming british acts and british acts in general, while down south you would be doing well to hear any irish acts at all.
Surely there are up and coming irish acts that could be played on radio, personally I'd really like to hear new irish bands as oppossed to the junk that we currently get on most of our radio stations.
I would have thought that it is the job of the radio stations to find these acts and play them.
If not new irish acts, then at least any irish acts, it's not as if we haven't had a lot of great bands over the years.

Fuzzy Clam

Hank_Jones wrote: »

I would have thought that it is the job of the radio stations to find these acts and play them.
If not new irish acts, then at least any irish acts, it's not as if we haven't had a lot of great bands over the years.

While not disagreeing with your sentiments, it's not the job of the Irish stations to find and play these acts. I'm sure some local stations do support local acts but perhaps only on specialised shows.

Radio 2 used to do this to a degree many years ago, maybe with the shake up it will again:rolleyes:

mike65

I could have sworn there was some clause about 20% of output being Irish acts, of course that could just mean lots of oldies get played.

Larianne

The Open Mic on FM 104 on Sunday nights plays only Irish music and has up and coming bands on the show.

Show on from 10pm - 1am Sundays.

A_SN

I noticed that too, actually I don't really know of any Irish acts, but to be fair, Ireland is a nation of about 4 million, while the UK is like over 60, and the US over 300. So you can assume that for every Irish singer there's 15 British singers and 75 American singers. The cultural and linguistic proximity does little to avert the British takeover of cultural products.

Less people, less people left to sing/act/make movies/etc...

monkeyfudge

mike65 wrote: »

I could have sworn there was some clause about 20% of output being Irish acts, of course that could just mean lots of oldies get played.

Yep. There is a quota written into most licenses I believe.

Although I think you can get pretty imaginative when it comes to defining what counts as Irish artists.

brettmirl

monkeyfudge wrote: »

Yep. There is a quota written into most licenses I believe.

Although I think you can get pretty imaginative when it comes to defining what counts as Irish artists.

The BCI are getting strict on it again...but it just means that you hear more U2/TheCorrs/etc.

The idea was good to a point. It was supposed to help new Irish talent, etc. The reality is that most stations have a music policy of "we play hits, we don't make hits", therefore you get well established Irish artists on air.

squonk

Yes and the likes of SnowPatrol, U2 (new stuff) and the Corrs are better off off air IMHO. Plenty of very decent Irish acts doing the rounds that would wipe the floor with any of the above mentioned but you won't hear them.

Of interest thouh, how do these stations who 'play hits, don't make hits' think they're going to keep getting hits in 10 years time without doing some spadework. There's only so much U2/Van Morisson/Mundy that anyone can stand!

brettmirl

squonk wrote: »

Of interest thouh, how do these stations who 'play hits, don't make hits' think they're going to keep getting hits in 10 years time without doing some spadework. There's only so much U2/Van Morisson/Mundy that anyone can stand!

Don't worry, I'm sure Westlife will be recording some new material next year. That'll keep them going a while.

Slaygal

Phantom Fm in Dublin champion up and coming Irish bands in their general playlist plus they have an excellent show on a Tuesday Night from 10pm called ICON which is soley dedicated to playing new Irish music.

I can't think of too many examples but one I can remember is Duke Special Phantom were playing his album for about 6 or 7 months before I heard it anywhere else.

Bard

squonk wrote: »

There's only so much U2/Van Morisson/Mundy that anyone can stand!

Tell that to Tony Fenton!

And Slaygal - totally agree on Phantom - a great place to hear up and coming Irish bands!

MarkN

And with the majority of Irish material/bands being alternative/rock orientated, Phantom is the perfect place for them.

It's not the job of 104/98/Red FM/Limerick etc to break these type of artists. Some of them will do their bit but the 30% quota applying to the likes of 4FM and Q102 is just downright ridiculous - these stations don't play new music (or very little of it) so they're clearly going to have to go heavy on the U2s of this world etc

Declan A Walsh

Slaygal wrote: »

Phantom Fm in Dublin champion up and coming Irish bands in their general playlist plus they have an excellent show on a Tuesday Night from 10pm called ICON which is soley dedicated to playing new Irish music.

I can't think of too many examples but one I can remember is Duke Special Phantom were playing his album for about 6 or 7 months before I heard it anywhere else.

I totally concur. As far as I know, Phantom has by far the largest quota of Irish music of any music-oriented radio station on this island. Would love to be proved wrong on that one. Incidentally, ICON is on Wednesdays, not Tuesdays. The confusion is probably to do with the fact that it used to be on Tuesdays at 8pm.

4FM does have a "Guaranteed Irish programme" on Tuesday nights at 9pm presented by Dave Heffernan. That means it does not clash with Phantom's ICON on a Wednesday! This program on 4FM is more adventurous in its selection of Irish music than you would get during the day. Dave plays both old and new stuff.

patrickc

the 20% of the irish content can be Irish speaking also, a dj told me from beat one day. thats why they do the top 40 oifiguil (SP) na heireann etc on the stations, and i105 have your one on in the evenings speaking the broken Irish.

it all counts towards it

brettmirl

Think you might be confusing the 20% news/current affairs quota with the 30% Irish music quota?

Zigmund

monkeyfudge wrote: »

Yep. There is a quota written into most licenses I believe.

Although I think you can get pretty imaginative when it comes to defining what counts as Irish artists.

If an song is recorded in Ireland (E.g Editors and REM recording albums in Grouse Lodge) it can count towards the Irish music quota too.

MarkN

Zigmund wrote: »

If an song is recorded in Ireland (E.g Editors and REM recording albums in Grouse Lodge) it can count towards the Irish music quota too.

The Beat thing a poster referenced is a confusion of a few things - you need 20% news and current affairs, you also need a minimum of a 2 hour show broadcast in Irish - the chart in Irish fulfils this criteria, it's nothing to do with the 20% N&CA.

The Irish output is 30% not 20% and does not include Irish speaking.

The legislation set out by the BCI about what constitutes as Irish does include songs recorded in Ireland and IMO it's a good part of it - the original idea was to help promote the Irish music industry and if REM record a song in Grouse Lodge they're promoting jobs in the Irish music industry by using recording studios in this country so I don't see the problem with stations playing songs in this way as Irish.

brettmirl

The Irish language thing is different. Basically the BCI are enforcing here what stations promised in their license applications...

So if you promised a 2 hour Irish show or bi-lingual programme, they are making you do it now.

Same goes for music policy. If you promised certain percentages from different eras, they are making sure the playlists reflect that commitment.

giftgrub

The irish language thing is full of wriggle room

If you discover the guy who cleaned the jacks in the studio is from Pocán you can stick it on your playlist!

brettmirl

There is of course the story that did the rounds a few years back...one station had Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" down on their playlist as Irish under the BCI Guidelines.

Their reasoning was that the Titanic was built in Belfast and sailed from Cobh...therefore the song could be classed as being Irish.

thejuggler

I've heard that the definition of what constitutes irish music is very much open to interpretation by radio programmers/music schedulers. One story I was told about ten years ago was that because there were uillean pipes on Celine Dions song 'My Heart will go on' (from the Titanic soundtrack) it was considered irish and was included in the 30% irish music quota whenever it was played. Now perhaps the musicians on it were irish but it just goes to show that the rules are very blurred on this.

Having said that if the entire 30% had to be by completely Irish artists we would be sick of hearing U2, Thin Lizzy, The Cranberries etc. And Van Morison would probably be considered British so would not be permitted.

Edit: @brettmirl - Just saw your post after submitting mine almost simultaneously great minds think alike obviously

mike65

Zigmund wrote: »

If an song is recorded in Ireland (E.g Editors and REM recording albums in Grouse Lodge) it can count towards the Irish music quota too.

This probably explains Def Leppard on Friday Night 80s.