A report into gender disparity on Irish radio playlists was released today and shows dramatic differences in radio play between Irish Male and Irish Female artists.
The report was compiled by artist, writer and publicist Linda Coogan Byrne using data collected between June 2019 and June 2020.
The report compared 26 radio stations across Ireland including 98FM, 2FM, RTE Radio 1, Today FM, Clare FM, Tipp FM, WLRFM, KFM, LMFM, Red FM, Cork’s 96FM, Live95 FM, Highland Radio, East Coast FM, South East Radio, Beat 102-103, Spin 1038, FM104, iRadio, C103, Galway Bay FM, KCLR FM, Radio Kerry, Midwest Radio, Midlands Radio, Shannonnside FM and Spin South West. The report is based on Irish only artists whose music was submitted to Radiomonitor.
Of the 27 stations surveyed only 1 (RTE Radio 1) had a 50/50 gender balance in its music programming for the Top 20 acts playlisted. It also found that 1 station playlisted female artists 20 percent in the last year in their Top 20 while 2 stations playlisted female artists 15 per cent in the Top 20 and a further 3 playlisted female artists at 10 percent. The most common ratio of male to female was found in 16 stations at 5 percent while 4 stations did not feature female acts in the Top 20 at all.
The report also highlights the most commonly featured acts in 2019 including Dermot Kennedy, Gavin James, Niall Horan, Soulé and Aimee comparing the disparity in impacts on radio for each. The report showed that for the most commonly featured acts deemed to be receiving the same exposure the difference between a male artist and female could be as large as 38,652 radio plays compared to 8,099.
The report was compiled by Linda Coogan Byrne with visual graphics by Aine Tyrell.
To see the full report go to the link to play slideshow https://www.canva.com/design/DAD_kmfQraE/LacXD6V8n_UGaOkS3r1Giw/view
