Radio airplay and Irish music

Sir, – Jim Carroll's great work in highlighting the appalling lack of airplay given to Irish-produced music has rendered a great service to local musicians ("Radio silence: Stations which play the least Irish music revealed", December 27th).

Envisage for one moment a situation whereby all the leading Irish supermarkets refused to stock locally produced products. Unthinkable? Yes. Yet this is exactly what is happening to some great and outstanding music being produced by local musicians.

Young Irish talent is being starved of the oxygen – the airplay – it needs to flourish and survive, due to the inability of the entire Irish radio sector to grant it a fair hearing. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, by its failure to regulate the commercial stations, has single-handedly destroyed the home-produced music market. – Yours, etc,

PAT EGAN,

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Managing Director,

Pat Egan Management ,

Merchants Court,

Dublin 8.