Pigs might fly to hear ‘good’ Irish music on the radio at this rate

‘The Weather’ would cover a lot of the vast issue of climate change, and as for the price of pigs… it was covered in its literal sense on RTÉ. Nationwide last Saturday morning, but the first paragraph of Suzanne Campbell’s report contained a word that also demonstrated the broad scope of this topic – the word was ‘Brexit’.

She was speaking to host Damien O’Reilly about the decline of the pork industry: “Brexit has meant that cross-border trade, which was very important trade, to get animals killed and processed in the north… has become very, very difficult…and a lot of plants in the north don’t take hogs at all in the 26 counties.

Which connects us directly to another Campbell, spinmeister Alastair, a regular guest on The Pat Kenny Show discussing the farcical nature of Boris Johnson, the man who, above all else, brought us Brexit – and got us talking about the price of pigs when really we should be talking about melting Antarctica or, if you prefer, “weather”.

Not much has changed in the general conversation about Irish music on the radio either – or so it seems at first glance.

There was a time, in the late 1970s, when many in our local music industry were calling for more Irish music on RTÉ. Today, figures as prominent as Dave Fanning suggest that the BAI should encourage radio stations to play more records by Irish artists.

Ah, but there’s a slight difference – that 1970s crowd wanted more Irish music, but what they meant by ‘Irish’ music would more accurately be described as ‘bad Irish music’. They feared that our exposure to good music on top pops could distract us from the bad things they usually produced. Indeed, they would also have been fiercely opposed to anything Dave Fanning himself was doing at that time, given that there was no place in his world for people like them.

And before we go any further, let’s drop the fallacious argument that it’s just a matter of opinion as to whether a radio station plays good or bad music – in truth, we know very well that “good” things are played by people for whom music is an essential part of their life, and that “bad” music tends to be played by people for whom it doesn’t matter, who really don’t care what kind of noise they make as long as they manage to babble between recordings.

Music radio in general in this country is actually in good shape. But slowly, almost imperceptibly, like the melting of Antarctica itself, good new Irish music is starting to disappear from some stations.

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And that’s part of the reason why Dave Fanning tackles these questions.

Paul McLoone’s Today FM show hasn’t had a reason that could be confidently called good lately. Totally Irish presented by John Barker, an important show on 98FM for reasons obvious from the name, has just gone – again with no sense that it could be replaced by anything better.

I must add that it was Totally Irish in a good way, not in the way the big bosses of Country’n’Irish had in mind when they realized their act was doomed.

There are also disturbing rumors that another Irish radio DJ from the ‘alternative’ genre is in jeopardy.

Personally, I wouldn’t be in favor of an official Irish music quota, as I think any broadcaster of good music will automatically want to promote promising Irish variety wherever it is found. With the good ones, you are bound to set out on the path of righteousness anyway.

If you’re prone to losing such people, you’re indicating a desire to stray down the path of wrongfulness, for reasons broadly similar to those that saw Spotify choose Joe Rogan over Neil Young – you don’t care music as such – you have another business mission that is more accounting than art. And no BAI quota will stop you.

The best we can hope for is that you are ashamed of yourself.