Quarantine FM releases statement on gender representation

Following this week's shocking report on gender disparity in Irish radio, compiled by Linda Coogan Byrne, Quarantine FM have issued a statement about gender representation on the station.

Founded at the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown by RTÉ Pulse DJ Anna-Rose Charleton and actor/singer Kate McKeown, Quarantine FM is an online radio station, streaming worldwide, Monday to Friday.

"To our knowledge we are the only solely female-owned radio station in the country," their statement begins. "But gender is not our focus, talent is."

Noting that they "were very upset to see the struggle Irish women in music face regarding radio play", as outlined in the recent report, Quarantine FM used a similar approach to look at their own all-Irish music show, Garden Gigs, which aims to showcase and support both new and established musicians on these shores.

"What we discovered is that our Garden Gigs presenters are doing us very proud in terms of gender representation," they continue. "We’re not perfect and have more work to do to but we have started as we mean to continue with a 49:51 female:male ratio of Irish music being played on GG. Again we never set out to specifically represent women, we only set out to represent talent. Full credit for choosing to platform Ireland’s amazing female musicians on an equal level to Irelands amazing male musicians goes to our presenters.

"We are so excited to grow and learn and improve on what we are extremely proud to already be doing! Slide into our DMs galdem, we are in your corner even if some the big wigs aren’t."