Radio Free Ireland

I am getting a big kick out of Irish Radio. The style is totally different than at home. As much as American stations brag about how many songs or minutes of music per hour, you'd think the DJs here are instead getting paid by the word. The bulk of the hour is taken up with chatting between two or even three DJs about what's new at the movies, what happened on Desperate Housewives or Lost, or Ireland's chances in the Six Nations Rugby Tournament. Then we might mix in one or at most two songs. Then we'll check our text messages:

"Here's Ronan from Kildare, please wish my wife Emure happy birthday, she listens to you every morning. There you are Ronan. And here's Maria from Galway wondering when tickets go on sale for the Summer Oxygen concert. Available now, Maria, get a move on." Et cetera.

Let's check in with traffic, here's Pauline. Whatcha got, Pauline? "Well there is a truck jackknifed on the N-12, blocking all south bound traffic. Garda estimate it will be removed in three or four hours. Galway city nothing out of the ordinary today, but of course expect congestion near the Cathedral as novenas are continuing through tonight."

Lest you think this is just the morning show, no. This is all day, all the time. Supposing you listen for over an hour to hear more than four songs, you'll also notice there is no format like in the USA. A recent hour provided Ozzy Osbourne, Everly Brothers, an Irish Traditional song, Kanye West, and the Who.

Then we go to the phones for the morning quiz. This morning the topic is the body. The three questions are, what H-word pumps blood around the body, true or false: the sartorius is the longest muscle in the human body, and what is the proper name for the windpipe. Gerry from Tuam (pronounced TOOM) gets all three right (shocker!). His prize? A hamper. Although I have a sneaking suspicion that they're using the word in a different context then I am used to. That happens a lot around here, but that's a whole 'nother post.

Then there is FlirtFM (link). How to describe FlirtFM? It is so anti-corporate radio, even for here, that I would say: imagine a world where college radio was all too corporate and formulaic. FlirtFM would still be low-budget alternative. They'll come right out and say, "that song sucked. I'm not playing it anymore." Now, on the one hand it's refreshing. But the flip side is that it sometimes sounds like three kids in a studio playing around. The first time I heard it I honestly thought it was "bring your kids to work" day. One of them blew their nose audibly on the air. You can judge for yourself (listen here), but maybe not right now. They only broadcast 8am to 3pm and 6pm to 2am Monday to Thursday, and 8am to 2pm Friday (FYI Ireland is five hours ahead of the east coast). That's right, no weekends. They have things to do.