Media Matters: PPI Radio Awards confirm male bias of Irish radio
Women accounted for just 28% of the voices on current affairs radio in 2015, writes Colette Sexton
I have been into the office of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland a few times for various interviews and meetings. Every time, I have been struck by the PPI Radio Awards Hall of Fame on a wall in one of its corridors. Not struck because I was impressed by the winners (although of course they are a talented bunch), but struck because the wall was completely male dominated.
Unfortunately, that isn’t going to change any time soon. Last week, the PPI Radio Awards welcomed four new inductees to the Hall of Fame. They were all men – South East Radio’s Eamonn Buttle, Downtown Radio’s Trevor Campbell, Today FM’s Ian Dempsey and RTÉ 2fm’s Dave Fanning.
So now of the 26 people in the Hall of Fame, three are women. That means 85 per cent of the previous winners are men.
Now, of course I am not denying that these men have made a huge contribution toradio over the years. But I don’t see how anyone could argue that having only three women included is fair or even accurate. I did ask the PPI Radio Awards for an explanation, but I am still waiting for it.
Of course, some might argue that this is not the fault of the PPI committee. Over the years, men have dominated Irish radio waves so, naturally, there are more male careers to celebrate.
And this is not a past issue. There is still an undeniable bias towards men on Irish radio. Women accounted for just 28 per cent of the voices on current affairs radio in Ireland according to the 2015 study, Hearing Women’s Voices, from DCU and the National Women’s Council. The study, which examined RTÉ Radio One, Newstalk, and Today FM, found that women also tended to get shorter air time when on and the majority of guests and experts were male across all stations.
On RTÉ Radio 1 there was an even breakdown of male and female presenters during the week.Newstalk on the other hand has 100 per cent male lead presenters, while Today FM had one male and one female lead presenter on the two programmes monitored. The majority of guests (67 per cent to 73 per cent) and experts (79 per cent to 85 per cent) were male across all stations.
I am actually in disbelief that it is 2016 and radio stations still think that they can get away with schedules that are completely male dominated. People want to hear women’s voices -the popularity of podcasts likeThe Irish Times Women’s Podcast prove that. If Irish radio stations continue with their ridiculous, old-fashioned and nonsensical male bias then listeners will leave in their droves for alternatives. And in this digital age there are tons of alternatives. Someone should also tell the radio stations that these days, women have jobs too (shock!) so they have spending power that their advertisers want to tap into.
But in spite of the gender imbalance on Irish radio, I’m not letting the PPI Awards away with the excuse that there are simply more men to induct into the Hall of Fame. There are still an awful lot of women who could be on that wall – Rachel English, Miriam O’Callaghan, Mary Wilson, Sue Nunn, to name a few. Besides, the PPI Awards committee that determines who gets into the hall of fame is not even balanced – of the 14 people on the committee, just four are women. They can and should do better than that.
Hopefully the powers that be will think twice next year before adding another line-up of men to the wall but I’m not holding my breath.
Hall of Fame Inductees to date:
Micheál O'Muircheartaigh – RTÉ Radio 1
Jimmy Magee – RTÉ Radio1
Des Whelan – WLR FM
Marian Finucane – RTÉ Radio 1
Gay Byrne – RTÉ Radio1
Larry Gogan – 2FM
Mario Rosenstock – Today FM
Gerry Ryan – 2FM
Ronan O'Rahilly – Radio Caroline
Candy Devine – Downtown Radio
Seán Bán Breathnach – RTÉ Raidio Na Gaeltachta
Joe Duffy – RTÉ Radio 1
Bill Goulding – RTÉ
Liam O'Shea – Clare FM
Tony Fenton – Today FM
Paul Claffey – Midwest Radio
Áine Lawlor – RTÉ Radio 1
Walter Love – BBC Radio Ulster
Gerry Anderson – BBC Radio Ulster
Pat Balfe – Communicorp
Des Cahill – RTÉ Radio 1
Henry Owens – Red FM
Eamonn Buttle – South East Radio
Trevor Campbell – Downtown Radio
Ian Dempsey – Today FM
Dave Fanning – RTE
PPI Committee
Michael Byrne WLR FM
Liam Dwyer South East Radio
Garrett Harte Newstalk 106 -108
Dan Healy RTÉ 2FM
Dave Kelly FM104
Gearóid Mac Donncha RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta
Tom McGuire RTÉ Radio 1
Mary Menton Event Director
Sean Murtagh PPI Committee Chairperson
Jackie Neill BBC Radio Ulster
Lisa Ni Choisdealbha IBI
Colm O'Sullivan Today FM
John Rosborough Belfast FM
Sinead Wylde RTÉ lyric fm
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