First Marian Finucane gets moved to the weekend on RTE Radio, where her listenership has continued to soar. On Newstalk, Orla Barry and Brenda Power are ousted to make way for Tom Dunne. Today FM have no female presenters in their daytime Monday-Friday schedule (Anne Marie Kelly is done by 7am, Alison Curtis isn’t on until 10pm). And the new 4FM, which launches today has one, yes ONE female presenter, listed out of 21 programme hosts.
Incidentally, there was a comment on On The Record the other day from a chap called Ciaran saying he simply doesn’t like women on the radio. Lauren Murphy and Sweet Oblivion commented, asking him about his viewpoint.
So why aren’t there more women presenting shows during the day on radio?
Anthea McTeirnan
Croí na Duibhlinn
Aoife Barry
Aoife McLysaght
Arlene Hunt
Attracta McCarthy-McKenna
clairehennessy
Ann Cronin
Amanda Brown
Eleanor Fitzsimons
Edel Coffey
Anna Carey
Lauren Murphy
Jennie Ridyard
Jude Leavy
Hazel Katherine Larkin
Léan Ní Chuilleanáin
Leigh
Lisa McInerney
Laura Slattery
Maman Poulet
Megan McGurk
Clare Kleinedler
Molly
Rosita Boland
Catherine Crichton
Sinéad Gleeson
sarahefranklin
siobhandowling
Susan Daly
theantiroom
Nuala Ní Chonchúir
It’s such crap; there is evidence to suggest that people like listening to lower register voices, but women have those too. Just don’t put Minnie Mouse on the radio like.
I think that ciaran’s silly comment was a perfect example of this phenomenon in action (the comic I’ve just linked to is one of my favourite internet things ever. Although this one is almost as brilliant).
Thanks for picking up on myself and Lauren’s comments on the On the Record blog.
This is something that has bothered me for many years, since I first got involved in college radio about 7 years ago in UCC.
I worked with a huge amount of young women at Cork Campus Radio, and we produced and presented a huge range of shows alongside the guys. There was probably a 50/50 split between males and females there.
And from what I know about RTE, Today Fm et al, there are plenty of women working there too – and they’re nearly all behind the scenes; they’re producers, researchers, production assistants, etc. So why are there not more presenters?
I do not believe for one second that it’s not because women do not want to be presenters – hell, anyone I know who worked in Campus Radio and most media women I know are delighted to be given the chance to do some presenting. I don’t believe that all the women working on RTE radio or Today FM, etc, want to be presenters, of course, just that the percentage who do surface as presenters is no way indicative of the amount of women who would like to be on air.
I do believe that in Ireland there is a reluctance by some radio stations to put women’s voices on daytime radio shows – there’s a culture of male-centric radio here, where people are more ‘used to’ listening to male voices on radio. I feel as though that’s a reason for some, though not all, to keep women off the airwaves.
I realise that some people reading this will think that is the absolute in paranoia, but I firmly believe this reluctance is there.
Like I mentioned on On the Record, I myself was at a Hotpress conference where a radio station manager said that he believed people prefer listening to men, and that was his reason for having less female voices on his station. He wasn’t making any apologies for this – he firmly believed it was the truth.
And of course, if you believe people prefer to listen to women less than men, and you want more listeners, what do you do? Keep the female voices to a minimum, of course.
This is backed up by the comments of people like ‘ciaran’ who suggest that the ‘whole women on the airwaves thing’ is a ‘bugbear’ for them, and reduce DJs down to their gender. For some people, disliking one female DJ/presenter is enough to tar ALL women with the same brush.
The whole thing confuses and infuriates me – I’d love to think that I’m wrong, I really would. But the evidence is there that there is a dearth of women on the airwaves and yet a huge amount of women working behind the scenes who don’t make that leap to in front of the microphone. Is it because they won’t, or they can’t?
Whoops, typo: “I do not believe for one second that it’s not because women do not want to be presenters” should read
“I do not believe for one second that it’s because women do not want to be presenters”
Karen Coleman’s Wide Angle is an excellent show. But Claire Byrne says ‘issues’ funny, which is really a triffling, but nonetheless VERY annoying.
Tom Dunne is the Bunny Carr of morning radio. He went on about his coat for months, should he buy one, will he get good wear out it? What if he didn’t like it? He liked the one he had although it was ripped. I mean gaaaah.
I didn’t like Orla Barry show and found Brenda annoying enough to shout at the radio* But neither one of them made me switch off the way Tom has.
* I like shouting at radios though I have since discovered.
It’s a load of nonsense, guys.
There are a lot of older men running radio stations and they carry that preconception with them. I’d love to see any stats that prove it….
Nonsense.
Nikki Hayes in our place has been hugely succesful in terms of audience over the last 2 years and she’s our only female daytime presenter…
They badly need to bring back Brenda Power to the NewsTalk morning schedule. That poor man’s “Ryan Line” they replaced her with is dire! If I want to listen to Gerry Ryan, I’ll listen to Gerry Ryan, not some kind of wannabe show.
Mary Wilson is excellent as host for DriveTime, weekdays from 4:30 on Radio1, and shouldn’t be forgotten.
@Honoria, Too true.
@Penny, I love those cartoons. Spot on.
@Aoife, thanks for that really considered reply. Very depressing to hear that a radio CEO would think along such lines.
@Fatmammycat, it is a great show and it should be a flagship week day show, rather than just on at the weekend. Orla Barry is (I think) on Newstalk at the weekend now? I have very polar views to Power so couldn’t listen to that show, it annoyed me too much.
@Rick, I deliberately didn’t include Nikki as a daytime presenter as I was just referring to ‘talk’ radio shows, and what is the new policy was for both of your shows .
I’m sure Tom Dunne’s a nice man and didn’t don’t to attack him on a personal level, but the format of the show is a joke. I was surprised when I heard it first, I didn’t realise NewsTalk could produce such schlock!
Yeah I have to admit, I preferred 5-7 Live too.
Not only that, RTE’s brand new head of radio is as well
The Marian situation is an interesting one that I’ve been watching for some time. In fairness I think the soaring success of her weekend show owes a lot to giving weekend radio (a much neglected blackspot) a “weekday” radio show if you will. The long held assumption that people either turn off in droves at 5pm on Friday or automatically want to hear something different on Saturday and Sunday is another fast-disappearing misconception.
If you like Morning Ireland, Ryan T, Pat or Drivetime where do you turn at the weekend? Marian’s show is of such high quality that it’s pulling in those people by the bucketload (that’s a technical radio term…)
I say this as someone that catches some of her almost every weekend and enjoys what he hears very much.
Weekend radio is crying out for investment of time and talent like this, she’s living proof of that. If you build it, they will come…
Golly I like Alison Curtis.
Uh, that’s all.
Great to see this recorded on this blog – I noticed the 4fm page of male faces filling my screen and just thought it was so pathetic and weird.
1 female presenter out of the 21.
I will actually not listen to 4fm as a personal protest to the huge sexism at this station’s set up.
I won’t program it into my preset stations either.