Why cant Irish Radio Stations Just play music

Carson10 · 28-11-2014 7:28pm #1

I listen to quite a bit of radio on my hour drive to and from work each day.

Every day Iam in the car i wish i could just find a bloody station that would play music, song after song. It is the same crap on every station, traffic reports, news, water charges, Ian Bailey, Joan Burton on my way to work and the same news again on my way from work. Why cant we have a station like Capital FM or BBC Radio1 in London. Upbeat Positive Radio.

I live in the west so have to listen to:

2fm - dated Station - dated presenters. unfunny jokes/breakfast shows.

Newstalk. same crap repeated every 5 mines

Today FM - boring. Sick of listening to Mario Rosensock Roy Keane sketches. Is that not over 10 years ago??

Ocean FM Sligo - death notices and 80's music

RTE Radio 1 - need to live in South Dublin/Dalkey or be a Doctor.

What do ye think.?

neris · 28-11-2014 7:42pm

pretty much agree. way too much talk on the music stations. In dublin I find today fm talk to much and their news/sport goes on alot longer then everyone else and mario & ian are well past it, fm 104 have two immature clowns who do rubbish voice impressions and to many quizes, ray foley plays good music but talks to much and too many ads. Novas ok but worse of the lot has to be Spin. Their whole station seems to revolve around "celebrity" new and people no ones ever heard of actually doing anything to earn fame. RTE & Newstalk dont mind so much as they are talk stations if a little repetitive.

The Adversary · 28-11-2014 7:44pm

Buy a CD.

StreetLight · 28-11-2014 7:47pm

It's part of the reason why I got myself a car DAB radio for RTE Gold.

Carson10 · 28-11-2014 7:48pm

neris wrote: »

pretty much agree. way too much talk on the music stations. In dublin I find today fm talk to much and their news/sport goes on alot longer then everyone else and mario & ian are well past it, fm 104 have two immature clowns who do rubbish voice impressions and to many quizes, ray foley plays good music but talks to much and too many ads. Novas ok but worse of the lot has to be Spin. Their whole station seems to revolve around "celebrity" new and people no ones ever heard of actually doing anything to earn fame. RTE & Newstalk dont mind so much as they are talk stations if a little repetitive.

those presenters on breakfast shows on nearly every station now. 30 something year olds, fake laughing, being immature with bad jokes like they are teenagers on the back of the school bus. really irritating and dated.

Carson10 · 28-11-2014 7:49pm

The Adversary wrote: »

Buy a CD.

NOW 99 or whatever it is these days is just as bad.

Carson10 · 28-11-2014 7:50pm

StreetLight wrote: »

It's part of the reason why I got myself a car DAB radio for RTE Gold.

Hopefully some day, cars will have a built in wifi type technology and can listen to any station in the world.

GottaGetGatt · 28-11-2014 7:52pm

It all went downhill when Will Leahy was dropped from the drivetime 2fm show.Colm Hayes is an absolute boring plank compared to him.Ian Dempsey in the morning on today fm is very good,Cant stand the crowd on the 2fm breakfast show,your not funny.Shag off

MagicMarker · 28-11-2014 7:53pm

Why don't you... you know... turn off the radio? Does you radio have a aux input?

endacl · 28-11-2014 7:54pm

Easy solution. Many cars come with CD players fitted.

mickoc · 28-11-2014 8:06pm

Irish radio is absolute muck, get tune in radio and play it throught the car radio. you may need a good data plan. That's what I do .

soc160 · 28-11-2014 11:13pm

The main reason they don't just play music is because there's no differentiation between stations then, or between stations and your mp3 player, too easy to criticise the stations for not doing things, there are reasons they do things a certain way if there wasn't something between the songs there would be more people complaining about that.

Sam Kade · 28-11-2014 11:22pm

My local radio station play the same songs every morning for months what ever is popular at the time :mad: A few years ago they were playing that stupid song when you hit me hit me hard and followed it up with another stupid song I wasn't expecting that.

Carson10 · 29-11-2014 12:03am

endacl wrote: »

Easy solution. Many cars come with CD players fitted.

do people still buy cds?

phelixoflaherty · 29-11-2014 12:03pm

I have a Citroen DS with a turntable in the back seat

ghostdancer · 29-11-2014 3:22pm

listen to TXFM. no "chat" shows from Mon-Fri. loads of good music.

some light chat mixed with music on some weekend shows, but that's about it.

http://www.txfm.ie/player/

lertsnim · 29-11-2014 4:24pm

I do most of my in car listening using the Absolute Radio app for their Classic Rock channel.

onethreefive · 29-11-2014 5:05pm

I think the radio only needs to be music and news.. I don't really care for hearing about the presenters life :P

Bongalongherb · 29-11-2014 5:11pm

Radio Nova was a good one for continuous music, but now it's just ads and more ads. Watch out Nova, I might just go with internet radio cafe cody.

Can any-one else hear that music in the background ? sounds like fleetwood mac.

L1011 · 29-11-2014 6:05pm

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Radio Nova was a good one for continuous music, but now it's just ads and more ads. Watch out Nova, I might just go with internet radio cafe cody.

Actually having ads means they might stay in business...

Presented radio isn't cheap, terrestrial radio is even dearer - mainly because you actually have to pay for the music rights which a lot of online stations don't; as well as BAI levies and actual transmission costs. This is why stations have ads, and lots of them - each individual ad is quite cheap.

end of the road · 29-11-2014 6:16pm

soc160 wrote: »

The main reason they don't just play music is because there's no differentiation between stations then, or between stations and your mp3 player, too easy to criticise the stations for not doing things, there are reasons they do things a certain way if there wasn't something between the songs there would be more people complaining about that.

not in the UK they don't. seems the same few songs on a loop with this is and that was in between is enough for people. at least here they're is a good bit of speach content even if much of it is mundane rubbish. tunein is ones best bet for music only radio or if in dublin, the pirates

DT100 · 29-11-2014 9:13pm

Lads...Radio in Ireland is fooked.....end of!!!!!!

Stavro Mueller · 29-11-2014 9:18pm

That's why I use either the TuneIn app or Spotify in my car. Admittedly that's not going to be an option for everybody but that's what I do. I had to spend the best part of an hour on a physio's table the other morning and thought I'd lose my life having to listen to the 2fm breakfast show. Admittedly there's not a lot you can do when you're lying on your stomach with needles stuck into the back of your neck :pac:

soc160 · 30-11-2014 3:58am

end of the road wrote: »

not in the UK they don't. seems the same few songs on a loop with this is and that was in between is enough for people. at least here they're is a good bit of speach content even if much of it is mundane rubbish. tunein is ones best bet for music only radio or if in dublin, the pirates

Not really sure what you mean the UK is a large market, admittedly I can only speak for the dublin market as I live there but assuming you mean most stations play the same music and have minimal talk is ridiculous, there are so many stations in the UK, based in different in locations so ita impossible to generalise and the UK is under a different duristicion

Bongalongherb · 30-11-2014 7:02am

L1011 wrote: »

Actually having ads means they might stay in business...

Presented radio isn't cheap, terrestrial radio is even dearer - mainly because you actually have to pay for the music rights which a lot of online stations don't; as well as BAI levies and actual transmission costs. This is why stations have ads, and lots of them - each individual ad is quite cheap.

In all fairness, why do they call it a music-station if all they transmit is advertisements ? ie: more adverts - less music ?.

There is a problem with this... it's called greed. Radio Nova was good a few years ago and their motto was less talk more music, then they felt the sleeve of cash-notes regarding cost-price of ads and decided to forward more adverts between songs. this is what will kill a radio station in the end (more talk, less music).

With internet radio and such, these stations like Nova will decline and fall if they don't cop-on. Who wants to listen to the news every 30 minutes ? we already have many news-talk stations for the news. Advert after advert brainwashing you when all you want to listen to is a bit of nice music.

I fecked the TV in the skip years ago because of adverts, now I'll just use internet radio with no ads, happy days indeed.

worded · 30-11-2014 7:13am

What ever about ads I don't want to listen to news every hour, the same news over and over ....

Internet radio with no ads is the way to go

Mont crief, he has a good show - enjoy that

For music - > internet / tune in radio ap
Can someone post a link to it so people know what it loos like / does , I'm on a phone here

Sadler32 · 30-11-2014 7:19am

Its crazy. Their motto is more music less talk, and I managed 2 weeks ago to drive from dublin to wexford without hearing a single song. How does that work......

former legend · 30-11-2014 10:33am

Sadler32 wrote: »

Its crazy. Their motto is more music less talk, and I managed 2 weeks ago to drive from dublin to wexford without hearing a single song. How does that work......

"More music less talk" is Q102, not Nova.

Sadler32 · 30-11-2014 10:35am

In Dublin most of the radio stations say it....

Rubberchikken · 30-11-2014 10:43am

it's easy to saybuy a cd/has your car an aux?
but the question of why ireland has crap generic radio is a good one.

most of the small local stations are probably owned by consortiums. the national radio is what it is. 2 fm needs to be blown out of the water, but that will never happen.
lyric fm is the only decent thing rte gives us. knowledgeable presenters who don't seem to mind shutting up and playing music.

i thought 4fm would be okay. but that's not happening. it seems to be the graveyard for the old dead dj's of 2fm from way back. god help us.

sammy37 · 30-11-2014 11:31am

This drives me mad too the endless chat and ads on the radio. If i want news and chat i can tune into radio 1 and newstalk which cater for this but now all the radio stations are at it. 2fm should be a music station and nothing else. Why do they have Tubridy, Byrne and Hayes talking endless drivel i dont know. The same with Today fm with Darcy.
You cant turn on my local station radio kerry at the moment especially on the run up to xmas with adverts. It seems nearly half their output now is either adverts or inane quizzes. Thank god i have an internet radio. Now if only it would work in the car!

Captian Swashbuckle · 30-11-2014 11:53am

Three letters.

B.A.I.

Blame them.

cormie · 30-11-2014 11:59am

Raidio Na Life (106.4) or Lyric FM. Problem solved.

Barely There · 30-11-2014 12:24pm

I listen to BBC6 all the time at home.

The only thing I don't like about it, is that it shows up the bland, formulaic nature of so many Irish radio stations whenever I'm driving somewhere in the car.

former legend · 30-11-2014 12:29pm

It's commercial radio lads. They'd play Barney The Dinosaur on 24 hour loop if that's what people wanted and if it delivered more advertising cash.

People want chat between the songs, people want the hits on heavy rotation. I don't like it myself but that's just the way of it.

Stavro Mueller · 30-11-2014 12:31pm

sammy37 wrote: »

This drives me mad too the endless chat and ads on the radio. If i want news and chat i can tune into radio 1 and newstalk which cater for this but now all the radio stations are at it. 2fm should be a music station and nothing else. Why do they have Tubridy, Byrne and Hayes talking endless drivel i dont know. The same with Today fm with Darcy.

I wonder is it their way of cutting down on paying music royalties? I can't find the current prices online but I know it is pricey.
I'll remove my tin hat now :pac:

You cant turn on my local station radio Kerry at the moment especially on the run up to Xmas with adverts. It seems nearly half their output now is either adverts or inane quizzes. Thank god I have an internet radio. Now if only it would work in the car!

Maybe the radio stations really need the Christmas advertising revenue to stay afloat? I know for some of the stations money can be quite tight.

Perhaps Santa will get you a smartphone with a good data plan and an in-car fm broadcaster

sammy37 · 30-11-2014 12:38pm

former legend wrote: »

It's commercial radio lads. They'd play Barney The Dinosaur on 24 hour loop if that's what people wanted and if it delivered more advertising cash.

People want chat between the songs, people want the hits on heavy rotation. I don't like it myself but that's just the way of it.

But i dont think people want to listen to chat on every radio station.The lack of choice is the problem unless i want to listen to Spin sw playing the same songs on a loop all day long what irish music station is there to listen to?

Cienciano · 30-11-2014 12:43pm

2 years ago i got a car stereo with a USB port and a 64gb micro drive. Whole thing cost less than €100 and haven't listened to the radio since

mountsky · 30-11-2014 12:49pm

Talk to Jooooooe,all the talk one wants&more,joke!

Hidalgo · 30-11-2014 1:04pm

The one station that could go someway to solving the problem of this thread is 2FM.
Its not as if the station is going anywhere in its current status.
Remodel 2FM as an almost entire music station.
3 news and sport bulletins per day or something. People are less and less reliant on the radio for news nowadays so why does every station need news every hour.
A new 2FM could play music all the time with just ad breaks and djs introducing the music, not telling listeners about their weekend, asking listeners to text in what they're favourite humming noise is etc.

Have the different shows playing different genres. One presenter focus on chart, next on dance, next on classic rock etc etc.

Hidalgo · 30-11-2014 1:07pm

Rubberchikken wrote: »

it's easy to saybuy a cd/has your car an aux?
but the question of why ireland has crap generic radio is a good one.

most of the small local stations are probably owned by consortiums. the national radio is what it is. 2 fm needs to be blown out of the water, but that will never happen.
lyric fm is the only decent thing rte gives us. knowledgeable presenters who don't seem to mind shutting up and playing music.

i thought 4fm would be okay. but that's not happening. it seems to be the graveyard for the old dead dj's of 2fm from way back. god help us.

In defence of 4fm at least they dont repeat the same stuff all day.
They have a no repeat 7am-7pm policy which at least results in some variety

Kensington · 30-11-2014 1:18pm

The reason for all the talk is the 20% news and current affairs remit of all FM licenses. So you end up with news every 30 mins and inane natter, basically any speech content at all that can be classed under the 20% rule (questionable as how relevant much of the output may be).

Cienciano · 30-11-2014 2:42pm

Kensington wrote: »

The reason for all the talk is the 20% news and current affairs remit of all FM licenses. So you end up with news every 30 mins and inane natter, basically any speech content at all that can be classed under the 20% rule (questionable as how relevant much of the output may be).

Any idea the reason behind this? Can we have an frequency that plays 24hour news so we can scrap the news every hour? It's painful if you work somewhere with the radio on having 2 lines from each story repeated every hour.
Why the hell do we need 20% talk? It's the reason I've given up on radio

end of the road · 30-11-2014 4:43pm

soc160 wrote: »

Not really sure what you mean the UK is a large market, admittedly I can only speak for the dublin market as I live there but assuming you mean most stations play the same music and have minimal talk is ridiculous, there are so many stations in the UK, based in different in locations so ita impossible to generalise and the UK is under a different duristicion

come off it. apart from the BBC, and maybe the odd community station and the pirates over there, the rest have little to offer. i know, as i've listened to a a hell of a lot of them. my original post was to counter the suggestion of having something like capital fm over here, the capital fm of old maybe but not the one that is a shadow of its former self.

L1011 · 30-11-2014 4:52pm

Bongalongherb wrote: »

There is a problem with this... it's called greed. Radio Nova was good a few years ago and their motto was less talk more music, then they felt the sleeve of cash-notes regarding cost-price of ads and decided to forward more adverts between songs. this is what will kill a radio station in the end (more talk, less music).

No, its called existing. Greed doesn't come in to it - Radio Nova is still loss-making. It was significantly more loss making when it carried less ads.

Most recent-ish (less than 10 years) entrants to the market are losing money, either operationally or due to debt servicing costs.

Bongalongherb · 30-11-2014 6:03pm

L1011 wrote: »

No, its called existing. Greed doesn't come in to it - Radio Nova is still loss-making. It was significantly more loss making when it carried less ads.

Most recent-ish (less than 10 years) entrants to the market are losing money, either operationally or due to debt servicing costs.

It's not the listeners problem. It is greed in regards to saturating the air-wave with adverts to accumulate more profits. Same old sh!t.

What sort of person wants to flow on a frequency with abundant adverts ? folk will go elsewhere, it's as simple as that. Internet radio is the way to go for sure. When a radio-station turns into a talk-station then it's time to turn the dial.

Lapin · 30-11-2014 6:13pm

Carson10 wrote: »

RTE Radio 1 - need to live in South Dublin/Dalkey or be a Doctor.

What do ye think.?

I think this is the silliest thing I've ever read.

flazio · 30-11-2014 7:44pm

People seem to have forgotten that the OP is in the North West of Ireland and not Dublin.

soc160 · 30-11-2014 7:50pm

Bongalongherb wrote: »

In all fairness, why do they call it a music-station if all they transmit is advertisements ? ie: more adverts - less music ?.

There is a problem with this... it's called greed. Radio Nova was good a few years ago and their motto was less talk more music, then they felt the sleeve of cash-notes regarding cost-price of ads and decided to forward more adverts between songs. this is what will kill a radio station in the end (more talk, less music).

With internet radio and such, these stations like Nova will decline and fall if they don't cop-on. Who wants to listen to the news every 30 minutes ? we already have many news-talk stations for the news. Advert after advert brainwashing you when all you want to listen to is a bit of nice music.

I fecked the TV in the skip years ago because of adverts, now I'll just use internet radio with no ads, happy days indeed.

Cienciano wrote: »

Any idea the reason behind this? Can we have an frequency that plays 24hour news so we can scrap the news every hour? It's painful if you work somewhere with the radio on having 2 lines from each story repeated every hour.
Why the hell do we need 20% talk? It's the reason I've given up on radio

Not as many people would be as pro-active as you to throw away their TV or Radio bong, most listeners to radio are passive, the people who write here are usually passionate about it and don't reflect the general listener. We only have two News stations though, they need news every hour to fill BAI requirments apparently, although they have changed those requirements for some stations in the last few years so it does but the whole point of them in doubt. These requirements are per station so you can't just have a station to make up the quota for every other one.

Bongalongherb wrote: »

It's not the listeners problem. It is greed in regards to saturating the air-wave with adverts to accumulate more profits. Same old sh!t.

What sort of person wants to flow on a frequency with abundant adverts ? folk will go elsewhere, it's as simple as that. Internet radio is the way to go for sure. When a radio-station turns into a talk-station then it's time to turn the dial.

I wouldn't say greed, it is necessary to advertise, you might consume media from somewhere else but you are paying somewhere along the way, how else are they supposed to make money, its a free to air service they offer. Internet Radio will be subject to more and more advertising in time, many stations are run from bigger companies only a matter of time before they monetize them.

I'm not sure of the requirements, obviosuly there is no downward cap on adverts but I think stations have a cap on how many minutes they give to advertising each hour, may even be a BAI requirement regarding the amount of the time given to advertising per hour.

Most music stations in Dublin will play between 10-15 songs an hour outside of breakfast shows, Spin probably more given their remit. So that's roughly 45 minutes for music. So factor in advertising and news and its a healthy percentage I think.

end of the road · 30-11-2014 8:38pm

soc160 wrote: »

Internet Radio will be subject to more and more advertising in time,

not advertisements as we know them. banners on the website, or some text as part of the metadata along with the song title. donations from listeners also or even some sponsorship where possible.

soc160 wrote: »

many stations are run from bigger companies only a matter of time before they monetize them.

many terrestrial radio, stations yes. internet radio, not really, mostly hobby stations. the few big internet only companies have ways of getting advertising without having lots and lots of adds, as they know that people will turn off. they might have an add for another part of their product, but thats about it. anything else is to do with the website, or some text as part of the stream

L1011 · 30-11-2014 9:10pm

Bongalongherb wrote: »

It's not the listeners problem. It is greed in regards to saturating the air-wave with adverts to accumulate more profits. Same old sh!t.

What sort of person wants to flow on a frequency with abundant adverts ? folk will go elsewhere, it's as simple as that. Internet radio is the way to go for sure. When a radio-station turns into a talk-station then it's time to turn the dial.

It'll be the listeners problem when they don't have stations to listen to.

If Nova cut the number of ads, they go out of business. There are no two ways about that. They don't have profits to "accumulate" - how you don't understand that astounds me.

Why cant Irish Radio Stations Just play music

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