Brendan O’Driscoll, Head of Production, 96 & 103FM, Cork, Ireland
By Jerry Vigil
The RAP Interview continues its journey across the Pond with our first visit to Ireland, a country where pirate radio once ruled not so long ago, and commercial radio is still evolving. Brendan Driscoll heads up the Production Department at 96 and 103 FM in the city of Cork, Ireland’s 2nd largest city. We get the scoop on everything from pirate radio in Ireland to mandatory 9-minute caps on hourly commercial loads to Ireland’s advertising watch-dog, the Advertising Standards Authority. Be sure and check out some of Brendan’s excellent work on this month’s RAP CD.
JV: Tell us how you got started in the business, and how you would up where you are.
Brendan: This is my 20th year working in radio in many of its various forms. I started at the age of 16 and got involved in local radio through school. That was two years before I finished secondary school — I believe high school is the American equivalent. I started doing some radio shows with some members of my class; it was a weekly program that used to go out. I explained to the people who ran the radio station that I was interested in maybe getting to know a little bit more about radio. I just started hanging around, sort of getting to know the game, and before long I started doing some stuff on air. I got a one-night a week show. From there I ended up moving into afternoons, and then just took it from there. I’ve always worked in radio. I’ve never done anything else.
JV: Was all of this in the same market?
Brendan: No. The market where I started was the one where I was born in and grew up in, which was Tipperary, which would be small compared to the market I’m in now. Also, this was at the end of pirate radio in Ireland, just before legal radio came in and licenses were issued. So I sort of laid my groundwork in pirate radio. It was a very exciting time for radio in this country because it was just totally moving into a different direction. A lot of people who are currently working in radio in Ireland got their grounding in pirate radio.
So I did a couple of years there with a legal radio station and then moved to Cork where I’ve been now for 14-15 years. I’ve worked in most aspects of the company here. I’ve done some on air stuff, and I’ve been involved in the programming, which I still am to a certain degree. But for the most part, it’s radio production that I’m doing now, mostly the imaging side of things. I do a small bit on the commercial side, but it’s mostly imaging.
JV: Tell us a little about your stations.
Brendan: We’re a network of three radio stations within Cork City and Cork County. We have the 96 FM service which covers the city, and then we have two satellite stations that cover north of the County and the other one covers west of the County. Over the years, they have become somewhat more independent. They were “opt out” operations at one stage, but now they’re pretty independent and they cater to their own regions. Their programming caters to a little bit older target audience as well. The city audience is more condensed with almost half the population of Cork in the city and the rest in the County. So between the three of us, we cover each area of the county and the city.
JV: Your time in pirate radio must have been an interesting experience. Elaborate a little bit on pirate radio, and how it was different from commercial radio there.
Brendan: Pirate radio, when I got involved in it, was actually quite professional. Resources weren’t huge but it was very much professional. Even though they were pirate radio stations, the government was quite happy to sort of leave them alone and let them do their thing because at that stage there was no legislation, no licenses, no hard and fast rules. There was basically no structure for independent local radio in this country. But then a stage came where they decided, okay, let’s get the whole thing sorted out. Let’s issue licenses, and let’s make them all legal, make them pay taxes and look after everyone properly. It was a great time to work in radio because you definitely got to learn a lot. I firmly believe you learn ten times more working in the environment than what you will in college or reading books or whatever. Both are important, but I think practical experience, at the end of the day, is hugely valuable for anyone who wants to get into the business.
JV: Are there any pirate stations left?
Brendan: Yeah. But to be honest, back in 1988 when the government set a date that all pirate radio stations had to close by, the bulk of them did shut down because they didn’t want to apply for a license to start broadcasting legally. But there’s always been a few about, and there still are. In the capital city of Ireland, which is Dublin, there’s quite an amount of pirates still operating. There are a few down this side of the country as well. Cork is the second biggest city in Ireland, and there are a number of them. Some of them are very small weekend type stations — you know, kids having some fun. But the super pirates of the ‘80s really don’t exist in this market anymore. To a large degree, pirate radio is a pretty small operation here now. It’s certainly not like it used to be in the ‘80s.
JV: Were the pirate stations back in the ‘80s that much different than the commercial stations are today? I mean, when you listened to a pirate radio station, was it obvious it was a pirate station? Was there a lot of foul language or uncensored material? Or was it pretty much run like a professional radio station with professional announcers? Unless you knew it was a pirate station, would you be able to tell it was by listening to it?
Brendan: Yeah, you would. But to be fair, even back when there were a lot of pirates, they always had a certain level of decorum about them. They would still do things as best they could. To be honest, some of the pirates today are there possibly more from a music point of view more than anything. The services that currently pop up here and there are quite alternative and musically different to what we do and what other big licensed stations do in the market. So they’re really on a small scale nowadays. The bulk of them are not really after a commercial market. They’re not there to make money from advertising. I think it’s a hobby with a lot of people really now. Legal radio certainly has a dominate foothold in all markets in the country today, and I think pirates have pretty much had their day really.
JV: Who owns Cork FM, and who are the other major players in radio in Ireland?
Brendan: 96 and 103 FM are owned by UTV, which is Ulster Television. They’re also a television company, but they have a number of radio stations now in the Irish market. We’re one of basically six radio stations that they have in Ireland. There’s one in Dublin, one in Limerick, one in Belfast, and one in Louth/Meath as well, which is just of outside of Dublin. They also have a number of operations in the UK, and they’re continuing to grow the radio side of their business. Then you also have EMAP, which you may have heard of from the UK. They’ve got a number of radio stations here as well, not quite as many, but they have one of the national independent stations which is called Today FM. Then you’ve got a company called Communicorp who also has a number of stations. They’ve got stations in Dublin, and they’re also in the process of rolling out a regional news/talk radio station. All the rest of the stations are owned by independent companies or entrepreneurs or whatever.
JV: About how many radio stations are there in Ireland?
Brendan: At the moment, there’s like 28 independent radio stations. Then you have four national services which are RTE, so they’re state owned. Then dotted around the country you have another 26 specialty stations, which would be community radio on a smaller scale or “hospital” radio or whatever the case would be. So you’re looking at 28, 26, and four, and that’s the way it is at the moment.
JV: What are your responsibilities there at the station? You mentioned imaging.
Brendan: Basically, I look after the day-to-day operations of the production department. That involves station stuff as well as client stuff. I’ve got two full-time producers who work with me. We’ve got a full-time copywriter, and we’ve also got another part-time producer as well. Between us, we service about 12 direct salespeople between our three radio stations. We also have a sales house which is based in the capital, in Dublin, which deals with a lot of our agency business. So it’s a pretty busy corner to be honest about it. The station has been quite successful to date, and so there’s always something to do.
As far as me personally, aside from overseeing day-to-day operations of the department, I tend to concentrate as much as possible on the imaging end of things and a certain amount of clients who are coming direct to us. But it pretty much depends on the project and what needs to be done on any given day or week. And the “hands on” for me is a big thing. I love the whole idea of taking something that starts on a piece of paper and creating something that ends up on air. I think the day you stop enjoying that is maybe the day you need to look at moving elsewhere. So for me, it’s good to have both. It’s good to have a say in what’s done, but it’s good to get my hands dirty as well.
JV: I’m wondering how radio in Ireland might differ from radio in the U.S. with regards to commercials. For example, it’s pretty standard to have 12-14 minutes of commercials per hour on a radio station in the U.S., sometimes much more. What’s the spot load like on Irish commercial radio?
Brendan: Well, let me fill you in with a small bit of the background first. There’s currently a broadcasting bill in discussion at the moment that is going to go through Parliament at some stage. We’re not exactly sure when, but it’s underway at the moment. They’re looking for public opinion, and they’re talking to the radio station bosses. That bill will go through at some stage, and that will be the second phase of governing radio in this country, or overseeing it. We currently have various bodies in place, number one being the BCI, which is the Broadcast Commission of Ireland. They oversee basically all the operation of radio in this country at the moment, and they have certain guidelines in place.
To answer your question, we’re actually capped, by the BCI, on the amount of advertising that we can run each hour. This has actually been in place since the licenses were given out. We’re capped at nine minutes per hour. And I know that they actually expect radio stations to stick pretty rigidly to that. So, you don’t have the situation here whereby you’ve got 14, 15, 16 minutes of commercials running because they just won’t allow it. They’ll ask you for sample tapes and take two broadcast days from your month to examine. They’ll request that you send them the entire 24-hour broadcast day.
JV: What’s their reasoning for capping the commercial limits to nine?
Brendan: Well, I suppose it’s just a way of making sure the radio station is providing some sort of a quality output. I mean, we also have other conditions that we need to operate under, which goes for every radio station that has been awarded a license. For example, you must have 20% news and current affairs as part of your output. Also, you’re expected to have 20% of your music as Irish music content. So there are probably things that are quite alien to the U.S. market.
JV: Do they put some regulations on commercial content like “truth in advertising” rules or something like that?
Brendan: Absolutely. There’s another body called the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland. They will pretty much oversee and regulate the commercials as much as they can with regards to advertising content. There are certain areas that we can and cannot advertise. But it’s up to each individual radio station to ensure that what they’re putting out is as truthful as it can be. But you have to be careful. Anyone has the right to complain about any piece of audio that’s running on whatever radio station. And the Advertising Standards Authority will step in and give their decision after they deliberate over it and see what the story is. And there’s also a Broadcasting Complaints Commission as well, to which you can air your grievances if you so have them, and that’s for any aspect of radio, not just the advertising side of it.
JV: What are some of the complaints that these commissions might get on the advertising side?
Brendan: I supposed some people might find some spots somewhat untruthful. I suppose clients are constantly making claims, but unless they can back them up, then they don’t make them. Some people can find some ads maybe slightly offensive in certain ways. I suppose it just purely depends on your persuasion, but a lot of the time, it’s down to a personal preference really with some stuff. And then I suppose if you have opposing clients, you know, if one person’s making a claim and you know the other client believes they can’t substantiate it, then you’re open to that side of it as well. It’s a tightly run operation to be honest. The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland is an independent, self-regulatory body set up and financed by the advertising industry and committed in the public interest to promoting the highest standards of advertising and sales promotion. That’s basically what they do. They’re a watchdog.
JV: Do you feel like it’s working well?
Brendan: Absolutely. And up to now, they’re quite fair. I think everyone who advertises here is quite willing to have them regulate in the way that they do. And as I said, with the broadcasting bill currently in discussion, who knows what’s going to come out of that on the other side. We may have even more stringent guidelines to operate under. We’ll just have to wait and see.
JV: So if someone opens a restaurant in Ireland, can they say “we’ve got the best seafood in town”?
Brendan: Well, they would need to be able to substantiate it and sort of quantify it in order to have a message like that. I know that there’s so much you can do when you play with words, but if you’re going to come out and say that you’re the best, or you’ve got the best, then you need to have the paperwork and the accreditation to be able to back it up… in as much as you can. As I say, words are very clever things and you can use them in lots of different ways, but we certainly encourage people and clients to try to be as truthful as possible and to try and make claims that they can substantiate.
JV: Do these rules and guidelines restrict your ability to be creative in any way?
Brendan: I don’t think so, and you know, there’s a good amount of creative advertising out there. People are very good and very talented when it comes to writing and getting around stuff. I think at the end of the day, you can be as creative as you want to be. I think your imagination is the only thing that’s going to limit you.
JV: Tell us about your studios.
Brendan: We’re using Soundscape, and we’ve just recently upgraded to Soundscape 32, which is the main editor that we’re using here. And we’re kind of a little old school, as in we like our outboard stuff. We’re a big fan of TC Electronics, so we’re using Finalizers, we’ve got a FireworX in there, and we’ve got a Gold Channel for our mic processing. We have an old DDA desk which is a big cumbersome thing, but the sound of it is really nice. We’re quite happy with it. That’s about it really. We use a certain amount of plug-ins, some verbs and choruses and stuff, but I tend to like the outboard gear. For the playout gear, we use RCS Master Control, which is integrated into the whole thing here. It’s quite cool.
JV: Sounds like the best of both worlds there, all the outboard gear and Soundscape with some plugs.
Brendan: Yeah, I suppose being in the game as long as I have been, and having used equipment over the years, I just think that you get better quality in the long run from the outboard stuff, provided that you have a nice outboard setup with good quality gear. And then you add plug-ins to Soundscape and it’s definitely the way to go — Soundscape is well able to facilitate them. So, yeah, it’s true, you do have the best of both worlds. I think what you maybe can’t find in the plug-in, you will find in the outboard and vice versa. It’s a good combination.
JV: You must have two or three production rooms there.
Brendan: We’ve got two studios here in 96 FM, and then we’ve got one in each of the county facilities also. So we’ve actually got four studios total.
JV: Do you import any voices for the station?
Brendan: Yes, Sandy Thomas has been our image voice for probably about five or six years now, and he’s based in New York. He does the job very well for us, and we’ve built up quite a relationship with him. He’s a good guy. We’ve got an Irish girl that we use, and we tend to sort of mix them together. Her name is Flo McSweeney.
JV: What’s a typical day like for you?
Brendan: Well at the moment, it’s quite busy because we’ve got “The Fugitive” promotion running on the station. So, as well as the normal commercial load and promo load that we’d have, there’s all the material this big promotion requires. We’re recording stuff on a daily basis with hooks from winners and callers on the air. We’ve got “The Fugitive” leaving random phone calls that we’re putting out. And we’re constantly trying to update elements, refreshing stuff every couple of hours when we announce new clues and when we announce new cash amounts and such. So, it’s very busy at the moment. But still, we try to put one day aside per week where we only do radio imaging. That works a certain amount of the time, not always.
JV: Where do you feel your greatest talents lie?
Brendan: I think possibly I have a fairly good understanding of the different aspects of radio, from having spent as long as I have here, and having been lucky enough to work from an “on air” point of view, plus being involved from a programming point of view as well. A lot of the time, I hope that I can hear what I want to do, and hear how it will integrate on the air when it’s done. I think that sometimes you can hear production that can sound very good, but then the question is, does it integrate with the “on air” and does it work with the rest of the radio station? So, I think possibly because I’ve worked in the different aspects of the station, maybe I’ve got a slightly better ear for that.
JV: Your sources for creativity, where do you go, what do you do to try and get the creative juices flowing?
Brendan: Well, we have quite a good team here. Our copywriter is based in the building, as well. So, I have a lot of times when we need to knock heads together. Also, I listen to quite a bit of U.S. radio and UK radio as well. There’s a lot of great radio out there, and a lot of great production as well. People like Jeff Thomas, Dave Foxx at Z100, the Kiss stuff, it’s all very good stuff. And you’ve got some big networks in the UK as well that are worth keeping an ear on, like the Capital group. You’ve got Heart, you’ve got stations like Juice and Virgin and XFM in London. So I think there’s a lot of good radio out there to inspire you definitely.
JV: Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Brendan: Hopefully alive! Well, so far I’ve worked in radio, and I really can’t imagine doing anything else, and that’s being honest about it. So I think that I’ll probably still be involved in radio in some shape or form. I’d like to go a little bit more into music production sort of as a sideline, and I do an amount of DJ-ing as well. It’s something I’ve gotten into more and more. But music production is something that I’d definitely like to get my teeth into a little bit more. I’m not very musical when it comes to playing instruments, but I think with software nowadays, it’s amazing what you can do.
JV: We chat with a lot of folks outside the U.S. who talk about wanting to work in U.S. radio. What are some reasons why someone might want to come to Ireland to work in Irish radio?
Brendan: Well, I think that it’s still a very young business here right now, and it’s growing all the time. The BCI is rolling out more and more licenses, and there’s regional stations coming onboard. So there’s a lot of growth still to happen. I think that when you’re involved in radio at this time, in this country, you get to shape what it’s going to be like in maybe 10, 15 or 20 years time. So it’s quite an exciting time and there’s a lot of opportunity here. And it’s a nice place to live. We have lots of rain, in the winter and summer, and of course, there’s always the pint of Guinness, which is also a tasty option.