1,000 BROADCAST MINUTES

This was a risky one by all means. 1,000 minutes of broadcast time is the equivilent of 16.66' hours. I had also given myself the added challenge of setting a timeline of 12 weeks. Basically I was relying on any kind of radio or tv plays of my music and included any live interviews/performances too.

So how did I do????? Well I have to be honest and say that although I knew it was going to be tough, I had a really good feeling and yes I met the challenge. It's mid October now and whilst it doesn't count anymore, I have over 1,500 minutes of airplay accumulated. I had just over 1,000 at the end of the 12th week.

So how did I monitor it? Well the lovely people at Nielsen music were very helpful in getting me set up with them so that any plays of my music on regional or national radio are automatically registered. So each day I was able to go into my account and check if my songs had been played, where they had been played and I rounded each play off at 3 minutes although all of my songs actually last around 3'20 or 3'30. NIELSEN MUSIC

The long and short of it is that there are some seriously supportive radio stations in Ireland, who are only too happy to play unsigned acts and will do their upmost to get them heard. I have to say a very special thank in particular to the following stations. There were many stations involved but the following few had an enormous impact:
C103 www.c103.ie
LMFM www.lmfm.ie
SOUTH EAST RADIO www.southeastradio.ie
DUNDALK FM www.dundalkfm.com
NORTHERN SOUND/SHANNONSIDE www.northernsound.ie
GALWAY BAY FM http://www.galwaynews.ie/galwaybayfm

There is an ongoing argument about the lack of support on Irish radio for Irish acts. I don't want to go too heavily into it here, other than to say that I of course agree there are many stations who could be doing a lot more than they are. However, I also believe that you shouldn't focus on what's not being done, but rather what is being done and who is doing it. Get to know the radio stations, get to know the dj's and you will find that they usually want to help out. Sometimes, the powers that be don't give individial dj's a chance to play what they want so get to know those who can play what they want and take it from there!

Before I go, I just want to mention IASCA www.iasca.ie  who have a PLAY IRISH initiative that is really worth checking out if you are an Irish singer/songwriter or band.

Chat soon xx