Music on the radio what are they thinking???

music_me

Hey everyone,
Im new to this place so I said to myself I had better make my first post a good 1, so here it is. (dont mind the spelling its late)

What the hell is the story with music on the radio these days? If its not the bleeden pussy cat dolls, its Kanye West and so on and so forth. We are living in ireland and yes it is a multi cultural place, granted but what about irish music on irish radio stations. Just thinking back now, when is the last time anyone heard the frames on the radio??? Phantom yes prob, but then there is the licence thing and I dont want to get into that.

U2 is about all you will get these days on from Irish artists, oh wait i forgot damien rice (some stations have taken a shine to him), we need to push for more irish songs on air, there is a huge amount of talent out there and to tell you the truth they are 100 times better then the likes of Aisley Simps.

Now to eat some of my own words, i was listening to the late night talk show on 98fm, and fair play to the lads in there every night they get in some live music in the studio. Fantastic work lads keep it up, maybe some day the other stations will cop on.

Now thats my rant over with, i look forward to hear some responses

watsgone

I see where you are coming from.

But I think you need to change your station, personally I find that today fm has a good mix of irish, rock , indie etc.

Happy listening

projectmayhem

i'm sick of radio. that's why i've turned to my new best e-friend... podcast. best thing ever. if you want it - chances are, it's there.

Kojak

music_me wrote:

Hey everyone,
Im new to this place so I said to myself I had better make my first post a good 1, so here it is. (dont mind the spelling its late)

Don't you mean early?

radioman

music_me I agree totally with your points. The problem is that most, nay all, radio stations are run mainly as businesses and for profit. They all do intensive market research and formulate their daytime playlists from this research. They want to keep everybody happy and the happy medium they've found is the pop - r'n'b - boyband - girlband drivel that dominates our airwaves. Unfortunately, it works, and your average 18-35's whom advertisers love are tuning in in their droves.

Fortunately there are some radio shows that are not as guilty as others in this regard. As regards national stations, I agree with watsgone in as much as Today FM do have some good live guests, especially on the Ray d'Arcy show, and seem to be more open to a wider spectrum of music. Our other national music station 2fm is, on the other hand and in my opinion, bland to the extreme.

Things seem to get better forunately in the evening/night time with presenters like Dave Fanning and Tom Dunne, and 2fm's amateur-like Jenny Huston who at least plays decent music.

projectmayhem... podcasts are okay but most people like radio just because it's there, you don't have to search for it, you just switch on. And there's the trouble with copyright which means you won't hear much music on a podcast either way.

JC 2K3

Here's the reason:

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/sony_music_-_first_class_cheaters.html

You tend to get some good music played on those indie rock shows(I wouldn't know the names or stations since I cba listening to the radio much), although you usually have to listen to about 30 mins of shíte popular indie(probably for the reason in the article above) and then one good song.

I'd prefer not to hear more of the Frames on the radio though.

mickd

just my thoughts on this

I think we are the best in the world when it comes to talk/factual radio the breath and depth of shows like Morning Ireland and The Last Word you would not find anywhere else.

However we are and always were pants when it comes to music radio. If its not boybands or golden oldies its that earnest singer/songwriter garbage that we keep churning out. They are two to a penny How Fanning who was judge on youreafarce can still be considered a guru is beyond me. Most of his live stuff is lifted from BBC Radio1 which is the finest music station in the world. The specialist shows cover every genre and the listen again web feature is class. All commerical free. Pet Sounds though is step in the right direction, RTE is too parochial. 2FM is still struggling to hang on to its listeners
For instance on BBC Radio1 in the mid morning we have Jo Whiley from 10-12:40
Here we have Gerry Ryan and Ray Darcy. Now if I were a true fan of music I know who I would be listening to.

Drag00n79

mickd wrote:

just my thoughts on this

I think we are the best in the world when it comes to talk/factual radio the breath and depth of shows like Morning Ireland and The Last Word you would not find anywhere else.

The Today show on BBC Radio 4 is easily the best of that in the mornings. I find Morning Ireland poor enough to be honest.

mickd

You may have a point there was just looking for something positive to say. Last Word is good nonetheless. Listening to Gilles Peterson now class!!!!!!!!!

grumpytrousers

mickd wrote:

just my thoughts on this

I think we are the best in the world when it comes to talk/factual radio the breath and depth of shows like Morning Ireland and The Last Word you would not find anywhere else.

However we are and always were pants when it comes to music radio. If its not boybands or golden oldies its that earnest singer/songwriter garbage that we keep churning out. They are two to a penny How Fanning who was judge on youreafarce can still be considered a guru is beyond me. Most of his live stuff is lifted from BBC Radio1 which is the finest music station in the world. The specialist shows cover every genre and the listen again web feature is class. All commerical free. Pet Sounds though is step in the right direction, RTE is too parochial. 2FM is still struggling to hang on to its listeners
For instance on BBC Radio1 in the mid morning we have Jo Whiley from 10-12:40
Here we have Gerry Ryan and Ray Darcy. Now if I were a true fan of music I know who I would be listening to.

Ach - comparing BBC to RTE again - it's not fair. The RTE budget is dwarfed by that of the Beeb. And Chris Moyles lunchbox. Probably...

FWIW, Today FM is a darn site better than it's UK equivalent Virgin, where it seems to be THE LAW that 'thou shalt play U2, Coldplay and Travis every hour'.

As for Radio 1 being brilliant, you may well be right - but leaving aside the monetary matter for a second (and to be honest, it's a bit like trying to ignore an elephant in your drawing room ) the demographics etc of the Irish market differ significantly to that of the UK. There's a lot more, um, cultures in the UK, so Radio 1 is always going so seem a lot more cosmopolitan than RTE 'cos, well, the UK just is.

On the other hand - rightly or wrongly - the market research carried out by stations here shows that of a morning, more people more of the time who are willing to spend money (and thus what the advertisers want) would rather hear talk based radio with a few tunes thrown in the mix. This is nothing new - it's what Gaybo served up even before the days of 2FM...it's almost burned into the national psyche.

Obviously my crude market driven analysis effectively disenfranchises an awful lot of people; I'm not condoning it for a second but tbh you can whinge all you like. Until you demonstrate that the kind of people who want to listen to a Jo Whiley style show in the morning are also willing to spend loads on Tea, Nappies and small cars, then I envisage you and a lot of similarly hacked off people listening to a lot more of the Beeb over t'internet.

Oh - and as for The Today Programme...dead right - it wees all over Morning Ireland; in fact most of what Radio 4 does is just pure brilliant. Have you ever listened to 'I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue'...:D

legspin

There is one point about RTE vs Todayfm in regards to their news programmes particularly 5/7 live vs the Last Word as they are in direct competition.

On any one topic RTE must make the effort to have a commentator from both sidesat the same time, Todayfm doesn't have to.
I'm not saying that Todayfm doesn't try to, but as a private enterprise they are under no obligation to. They only have to have an opposite point of view within 3 days of the original broadcast, and unless you are a dedicated listener you probably won't hear the counter argument.
RTE, as the national broadcaster must, if at all possible, have a refutation on the show in question, and if not they must try to have one as close as possible to the original broadcast, generally the following day.

For this reason I listen to 5/7 live, just coz it is a little more balanced


Also on the Beeb and the ads.

They have never had to run ads, so of course they are able to run a full music show at that hour of the day. The only show in this part of the world that I know doesn't have ads is Donal Dineen's Small Hours on Todayfm, and even then at times of high ad spending like christmas he is expected/forced to. Do you think any DJ, whether on a music based show or otherwise, would play ads if he/she/it could get away with it. I mean, does anyone like listening to Harvey Norman and his fellow polluters of the airwaves

mickd

grumpytrousers wrote:

Ach - comparing BBC to RTE again - it's not fair. The RTE budget is dwarfed by that of the Beeb. And Chris Moyles lunchbox. Probably...
.:D

I agree with your agruments in this post yes one cannot compare Beeb with RTE, Apples and oranges. Yes the Beeb is more diverse whereas RTE suffers from the "big fish in a small pond mentality". Thankfully I have digital satellite so can listen anytime. I am extolling the virtues of Radio1 because rather than complain about radio in this country people should just switch over either by web or digital satellite. No excuse

mike65

Oh - and as for The Today Programme...dead right - it wees all over Morning Ireland; in fact most of what Radio 4 does is just pure brilliant. Have you ever listened to 'I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue'...:D

It would help RTE if they just got up a bit earlier...a 7AM start in this day and age is a joke as for thier Christmas/weekend scheduling words fail me.

"I'm Sorry.." is brilliant at its best, pity Trivia Test Match went west though...:(

Mike.

LegacyUser

i just listen to news talk.

i prefered david mcwilliams morning show to dunphys, far too much sport with dunphy.

i wouldn't look to the radio to listen to music, it's mostly pure $hite chart stuff.

if i want to listen to music, i've got my mp3 player.

i'd say, music wise, 2fm would be the best, i agree with cormacs.

radioman

I wouldn't look to the radio to listen to music, it's mostly pure $hite chart stuff

how do you discover new music?

when it comes to irish bands, it seems 2fm are much more open than todayfm

That can be true, I think 2fm do more because they have an obligation as state broadcaster. However I think Tom Dunne on Today FM gives Irish bands a fair chance