Louis Walsh Attacks Minister Over Lack Of Irish Music On Irish Radio

Speaking at a Music Show panel on Saturday, the veteran manager of multi-platinum pop acts like Boyzone and Westlife said he had to “grovel” to Irish stations to get his artists’ records played.

“They think they’re doing you a favour by playing an Irish record,” Walsh said, adding that he believed the airplay issue to be the single biggest problem facing the Irish music industry at the moment.

Walsh told Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan, who was also participating in the Communications and Music debate, that a strict quota system should be introduced to ensure Irish acts get airtime.

“In France and Canada it works and they have a thriving music industry. So it works and it’s your job to sort it out,” Walsh told the Minister.

“I turn on the radio – and we’ve got about 10 radio stations (in Dublin) – and they all play the same top 40 records. They’re not playing any new songs by any new bands. The only time I see a new band here is on The Late Late Show. We’ve got so many new bands, and I don’t mean pop bands. I mean all bands. But we might as well be in America or the UK. Honestly, it’s very frustrating. (As a result) there are people out there and no-one’s going to sign them. The oxygen of the business is radio,” said Walsh.

Communications Minister Eamon Ryan claimed it was difficult to legislate for quotas of Irish acts as this could be perceived as discriminatory under EU law. This, however, is not the case, as a cultural exemption was agreed between the then IRTC (now the BAI) and the EU.

The argument was, in any event, ridiculed by Walsh, and by a number of furious speakers from the floor who expressed their frustration at not getting their records played.

A number of artists in the room called for a strict quota, like that in France, to be implemented.

The Minister argued that a “culture” in the Irish radio industry, rather than a lack of Government regulation, was to blame for the preponderance of American and British music on the airwaves.

“In the late-70s there was a huge thriving independent music culture and it was the pirates [radio stations]. It was totally unregulated and it was playing young Irish bands one after another. So why is it that there’s a culture in our radio stations that isn’t recognising that people want local content? There’s a cultural issue there in those institutions that you have to address,” said the Minister.