On The Beat

Listening on and off for several days to Beat 102-103's daytime programmes has been an educational experience. I've learned, among other things, that between eight in the morning and seven at night, people in this part of the world, and in the targeted age group, don't like to listen to album tracks, only hit singles.

Nor, apparently, have they much interest in anything other than the narrowest range of pop music. Coldplay and The Revs were just about as wild as it got. (On the plus side, The Revs 'Wired To The Moon' seemed to be on heavy rotation, like The Cranberries 'Linger').
I also learned that Beat's daytime audience has little space for the many Irish acts whose gigs are regularly stuffed with the finest of Ireland's young adults, nor indeed for those Irish acts who have had albums in the charts recently, such as The Frames (No.1), Damien Dempsey (No.5) or Damien Rice (a double platinum record).

But is what I learned right? Or might it be that the records that have been chosen underestimate the music tastes, and the intelligence, of the 15 to 34 audience in the south-east region generally. That is the 64 million dollar question.

STRONG AND CLEAR
My purpose here is not to be destructively critical – far from it. There are some really excellent things happening on Beat, especially in off-peak hours. To take just one example, it is well-known in music circles that Edel Dooley, a reporter with the Waterford Star, is a genuine enthusiast for Irish music, and it is clearly encouraging that she has a slot on both Saturday and Sunday nights, reflecting a commitment to local artists in off-peak hours that is commendable.

Her programme has already featured a healthy diet of Irish and south-east acts of the calibre of The Walls, The Revs, Salthouse, Real, Roesy, Laminate, Damien Rice, Northern Horizon, The Jimmy Cake, Woodstar, Pete Courtney and Mike Got Spiked, as well as interviews and local gig news. Clearly, her programme has the potential to make a valuable contribution to music from the region and beyond.
Nor is that all. The signal is strong and clear. The news, travel, sport and traffic updates are as good as it gets on Irish local radio. And the station's concentration on house market news is a smart move (pun unintended).

Where daytime music is concerned, in fairness, they don't always follow the obvious classic hits trail (REM's 'Shiny Happy People' and 'Sit Down' by James were rare flashbacks). In Lee Doyle and Orla Rapple, among others, they have confident and highly professional broadcasters. Adam Ledwith reads the news with confidence and authority. And the station does, as it is intended to do, offer an alternative to the older and somewhat mellower menu on offer via the existing local stations covering the Wexford, Waterford, Carlow and Kilkenny areas.

But all of those pluses, it seems to me, are let down by the unadventurous and presumably research-driven approach to the music that is played during daytime hours, and the sense that this is just the filling between the ads.
The artists I've heard before 7pm amount to a fairly familiar list, for anyone who knows what is currently happening in pop: Kelly Rowland, Shania Twain, Girls Aloud, Robbie Willams, Coldplay, U2, Amy Studt, Danii Minogue, The Thrills, Eminem, The Corrs, Pink, Appleton, Jennifer Lopez, Junior Senior, Samantha Mumba, and so on. Not all bad stuff, by any means, but all very predictable. And therein lies the problem.
How does this represent an alternative to what's already on offer on 2FM? Or is that not a consideration?

SUPERB STATIONS
Creativity, or the lack of it, is a concern all round. Beat's morning show is called The More Music Breakfast. If ever there was a case of spelling it out, this is it. There's a similar lack of originality evident in the repeated claims that Beat plays more music than anybody else (where have we heard that before?) and the inclusion of a phone-in programme in the early afternoon (ditto). Plus, their presenters almost invariably fill the space between records with gossip gleaned from the tabloid press (double ditto).

OK, it's is easy to criticise, and what's more, it may be unfair to single Beat out from the numerous other stations that also err on the bland side. But the hope was that this new youth station would actually bring something new to the table.
The fact is that Beat is only starting up and so there is much scope for change and improvement. Both Mean Fiddler owner Vince Power and U2 manager Paul McGuinness are among the shareholders in Beat. Each of them has a track record of genuine interest in great music and a willingness to nurture Irish talent. The question now is whether they can influence policy at the station sufficiently to shift it away from its essentially conservative beginning.

Meanwhile, back in Dublin, superb stations like Phantom and Jazz FM, driven by people with a real passion for music and who see radio as a broadcasting, rather than an advertising, medium, still haven't been able to get a license.
There has to be something wrong somewhere.