Does the nature of the job mean DJs have to be liars?

NIMAN

I was just listening to a DJ the other day chatting about Kodaline and saying how 'great' they were.

Got me thinking about how every Irish band is described in this way by every Irish DJ, but surely a lot of them are just pandering and lying. I'm sure there are plenty of DJs who think plenty of the Irish acts are dung, but feel that they have to toe the line.

I would love to hear a DJ say some day "here's the new single from

---

, don't think much of them myself, not my cuppa tea, but here you go anyway".


Can anyone recall ever hearing a DJ say that they thought a band/artist was no good?

neris

id say the record companies would have solicitors on to the djs if they gave any negative feedback on their bands/groups threatening them for libel/slander or whatever crap they can make up that their talentless band have been done out of millions in future earnings. Agree that they have to have music and bands they think are muck.

JonathanAnon

When I hear Mooney saying everyday that he's passing over to "the number one drive time show in the country", you know he's lying.

chilloutrelax

JonathanAnon wrote: »

When I hear Mooney saying everyday that he's passing over to "the number one drive time show in the country", you know he's lying.

That is actually quite accurate. It has by far the highest listenership!

One regualar lie is the impressions DJs give regarding playing peoples requests.

LeakyGee

NIMAN wrote: »

I was just listening to a DJ the other day chatting about Kodaline and saying how 'great' they were.

Got me thinking about how every Irish band is described in this way by every Irish DJ, but surely a lot of them are just pandering and lying. I'm sure there are plenty of DJs who think plenty of the Irish acts are dung, but feel that they have to toe the line.

I would love to hear a DJ say some day "here's the new single from

---

, don't think much of them myself, not my cuppa tea, but here you go anyway".


Can anyone recall ever hearing a DJ say that they thought a band/artist was no good?

In radio, you can't slag off the music you're playing. It looks really bad that a DJ on your station is not in support of the playlist " here's the new tune from Usher, i actually hate it myself, but anyway"

The listener is like ' Why are you playing something you hate?'

Theres load of room for subtle honesty like ' I prefer the last singe' or ' I'm not too sure about the new Dubstep sound of Mumford & Sons'

If you have nothing good say about a track it's best to say nothing at all.

Also, saying 'what a great track' is just one of the radio clichés that people
spilt out, they may not actually mean it.

Fran1985

neris wrote: »

id say the record companies would have solicitors on to the djs if they gave any negative feedback on their bands/groups threatening them for libel/slander or whatever crap they can make up that their talentless band have been done out of millions in future earnings. Agree that they have to have music and bands they think are muck.

You can't get sued for saying you dont like something. If you said you dont like it cos they're peados, then expect a call. Its more of an issue with your boss firing you for essentially saying the product you present is crap.

NIMAN

Of course a DJ could say he doesn't like a band's music, that would be fairly normal. He could hardly be sued for it, otherwise there would be no reviews of anything, be it films, books, music, plays, art etc etc.

But I think too many of the DJs would panic cos they might have to interview the band some time. Or cross paths with them.

coylemj

NIMAN wrote: »

Can anyone recall ever hearing a DJ say that they thought a band/artist was no good?

No, because if a DJ is forced to play particular artistes that he/she doesn't like because of the station playlist policy, they just say nothing before or after the track is played, then they heap praise on the artistes that they do like, the listeners will quickly get the message.

More than one way to skin a cat - absence of any comment is often more lethal than faint praise.

wnolan1992

I reckon, particularly when it comes to Irish bands, it's easier to just spout "Aren't they great!" or "Our very own X there doing us proud again!" than to say something negative and then potentially scupper a big interview down the line.

Take, for example, The Script. If a DJ had said in their early days "Jeeaysus these lads are fairly awful, don't like their stuff at all at all!", then they'd have been kicking themselves when The Script worked with Will.I.Am. because an interview with them about that would have been a listener draw.

There're a few out there who sometimes say stuff like "Not really sure about this right now..." or "Tricky second single, but it's not bad!". Ray Foley (and probably a few others) is sometimes very sarcastic about a song, coming back on after it and saying "You know, I just love that song. It's sooo great and not at all dull and bland.", but these are definitely the exception.

Lovely Bloke

I heard McLoone say he wasn't enamoured with the new single from The Manic Street Preachers one night recently enough, but he was playing it anyway, and actually looked for listener reaction.

He was right, it is shíte.

Losty Dublin

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

I heard McLoone say he wasn't enamoured with the new single from The Manic Street Preachers one night recently enough, but he was playing it anyway, and actually looked for listener reaction.

He was right, it is shíte.

John Creedon sometimes mentions that he doesn't like some songs which he plays on his show.

Leegan

Chris Moyles on BBC used to do it all the time, I found it quite entertaining. I don't see why an Irish DJ couldn't do the same.

Conway635

Interesting that I should stumble across this thread, as only last night I was thinking about this very topic as I was going though the 2nd edit on my next book, and a chapter which (partly) talks about the blurred lines of truth when broadcasting.

Here's an excerpt.

C635

Lying on the radio . . . can be as good-natured as making the audience feel that you are enthusiastic and happy, while not wishing to burden them with the fact that you’re coming down with the flu, your wife has just told you she is leaving you, your stalker has been sending you parcels again, or you really, really object to the contents of one of the adverts you have just played.



All of the examples in the previous sentence have applied to me at different times, during different radio shows, and I don’t feel that I was wrong to subsume these to the greater good of giving the listeners what they expect to hear, a happy, engaged, interested radio presenter, who is in love with the job that he or she is doing.


One example I can give of lying for the greater good occurred back in my days on board Radio Caroline, when we were out at sea in the winter of 88/89. One day, not long before Christmas, we were doing an on-air charity fast in order to raise funds for those caught up in a recent disaster. We thought that having the entire crew of the ship go through a fast together, with updates on air every hour as to how we were coping, would be both entertaining listening, and also a good fund-raising device.


When the day of the fast came, there was, however, a problem. Due to winter weather delaying supply runs, and some foul-ups landside, we actually had virtually no food left on board at the time of the fast. That wouldn’t stop us fasting of course, but it did mean that what we were giving up was actually not as much as it might seem to the listener.


On air we talked about last-minute snacks before midnight, when the fast was due to start, but we didn’t explain that these snacks consisted of bread and jam, which was about all we had left. Likewise we talked about missing our main meal of the day, not commenting that due to our supply situation, this would have consisted of boiled rice and one sausage each. It was a lie of omission, but, we believed, a good lie.


There is a band that everyone who is Irish is supposed to like, to worship even. I can take them or leave them, they have no emotional impact on me at all. But I will still talk enthusiastically about their forthcoming release, or the big concert due in town, because to do otherwise would be to rain on my listeners parade.


Sometimes I have to do things which are anathema to me personally – play a track which I feel espouses killing and terrorism but which is popular with the listeners and is on the station playlist, or an advert aimed at persuading people that the only good social evening is one which takes place in a pub, when my own view is the exact opposite. But these ads are not illegal or immoral whatever I might think of them personally, and they have to be played, particularly if they are one of the few commercials still coming in in an ailing market.



While I am privileged to be allowed to broadcast on someone’s radio station, I need to respect their guidelines and content, even if they are different from those that I would have myself.


I’ve often imagined what my own fantasy radio station might sound like, and the things that I would, or would not allow on it in terms of programming and sponsorship. In my own world I would have a station very different from many of those that exist on air today, but I am realistic enough to know that “Radio Steve” would almost certainly not make money, and could not survive in any kind of normal economic reality. So I make my choices to broadcast on those stations which are both most in accord with the music and ethos I feel should prevail, and carry the least amount of things which I would disagree with.


(from "Running Away From The Circus" - due out next year)