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Is Phantom FM US style Radio in Disguise ?
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Posted by: Rev Jules10/4/2007
Phantom FM claims that they are out to provide, "a rock music format that thousands of Dublin radio listeners have asked for. Isolated by existing stations, our listeners have demanded choice and to hear new music". Sound Waves wonders whether this is US style radio in disguise.

Phantom FMFor the last few months, I have eschewed my eclectic dial twiddling to concentrate on listening to the output of Phantom FM on the basis that, I am in the market for new music, by which I mean music that sounds new and has not just been released lately. On my MP3 player at present sits, to give a few examples, music by Emma Kirkby, Regina Spektor, Alison Krauss, John Tavener, Miles Davis, AC/DC, Modest Mouse, Clive Barnes, Nursat Fateh Ali Kahn, Jan Garbarek, Joan Osbourne, John Spillane, Brad Mehldau, Prince, Ray LaMontagne, Solomon Burke, Metallica and Laura Veirs. A pretty wide range of music I would think, much of it recent, and all of it individualistic. My taste has always moved between genres; in the same year that I bought albums by Steve Earle and The Police, I also bought records by Ted Hawkins, Tom Waits and Tommy Makem & The Clancy Brothers. Much of the above is not often heard, if at all, on Irish commercial radio stations.

So, you would think that I would be the ideal target audience for Phantom FM. Well, think again because I have found the choice of music I have listened to on Phantom FM to be monochromatic and, well, rather samey. A bit like eating nothing else but chicken curry for two months. Far from offering choice and new music, the station is offering up a diet of shows where the playlists are interchangeable. Ok, its only been on air a few months I know but its still hard to talk about single show having a unique personality and I certainly could not imagine the station ever offering a home to individualistic broadcasters such as John Kelly, Andy Kershaw or the great BP 'The Beep' Fallon.

However, the format of Phantom is very familiar and after a while I twigged why. Phantom FM is essentially a single genre US style radio station in disguise. Far from offering a wider choice of new music, if thats what you want to call Artic Monkeys, it is actually offering a narrower choice. I always felt that 'indie kids' had a very narrow and not very exciting taste in music. Now, I have the proof. Think I'll stick to roaming the dial for another while. 

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Re: Is Phantom FM US style Radio in Disguise ?   By eoghan on 10/2/2007
Jules, have you tried out any internet radio stations? First time i did (back in 2002 or 2003) I discovered within a few days a rake of new acts (Japancakes, Modest Mouse, Daniel Johnston, the Shins...) that, five years, on I still find myself listening to.
Re: Is Phantom FM US style Radio in Disguise ?   By aidan on 10/3/2007
Jules, Phantom plays what it plays in daytime/peak hours because that's what the majority of its listeners want to hear: uncomplicated indie comfort-food (not trying to diss Phantom here). At other times they have some specialist shows (what do I miss from Ireland? Pearl on Sunday mornings! I've no interweb chez moi to listen to her...). No radio station can please everyone - I'm sure Simon from Phantom (no stranger to these parts) will tell you something similar...
Re: Is Phantom FM US style Radio in Disguise ?   By Unicron on 10/9/2007
The best stuff is reserved fo non daytime stuff. If I'm drving home from a gig late I'll usually hear something interesting after mid-night and Jim Carroll on Saturdays and Pearl on Sunday's play consistantly good stuff.
Re: Is Phantom FM US style Radio in Disguise ?   By Binokular on 10/9/2007
Phantom isn't perfect but at least it doesn't wreck my head. For me radio is just preferable to an alarm clock beep, the radio doesn't go on much after that I don't have listen to some DJ yak on for ages. Radio hasn't been the main place to discover new music for me for years, though I did discover Feist on Phantiom. Before you complain about Phantom, try listening to radio outside Dublin for a few weeks, it will drive you slowly insane.
Re: Is Phantom FM US style Radio in Disguise ?   By Rev Jules on 10/9/2007
First off, it is always good to see more diversity in radio, what I am trying to raise attention about is that on the example of phantom, radio stations are moving away from schedules that appeal to a wide section of the population, or cater for a variety of tastes, broadcasting in the classic sense and are instead are begining to narrowcast, appeal to smaller demographics, this has been the case in the US for some time and has created a ghettoisation of musical tastes there where hiphop stations play only hiphop and country stations play only country and acts like Cowboy Troy find that they cannot get play on either.
Re: Is Phantom FM US style Radio in Disguise ?   By Binokular on 10/10/2007
I see what you're getting at Jules, but by focusing on one genre, Phantom actually helped bring a bit of diversity to Irish radio. Today FM/2FM/Insert any other regional local radio station here all delivered pretty much the same mix of talk heavy radio with relatively little music. Also the segregation started before Phantom came on the scene with Newstalk and that Country station. I would like to see Phantom play a wider variety of music, but for every Steve Earle record you'd want to hear (snooze, dadrock), I'd want to hear some slice of Bpitch Control 12" Techno, and that'd probably drive everyone nuts.
Re: Is Phantom FM US style Radio in Disguise ?   By Broadcast Babe on 10/12/2007
Rev Jules - Going on the list of stuff you have above and the list of stuff which Jim Carroll plays on his show or Pearl plays on her show (according to their playlists at any rate), I think you'd better start staying in on Saturday nights or getting up early on Sunday mornings! The best shows on Phantom by a country (what else?) mile
Re: Is Phantom FM US style Radio in Disguise ?   By Rev Jules on 10/12/2007
Thanks Broadcast Babe, yes I must admit I have not heard, to be fair, to either Jim or Pearl's shows due to social commitments :-) But I will give them a spin, although why they are not on drive time, I do not know.
Re: Is Phantom FM US style Radio in Disguise ?   By Simon Maher on 10/21/2007
Hello all...very sleepy so will keep this short! I know I have to emphasise this regularly but thats ok: Phantom 105.2 is licenced as an Alternative Rock Station. That is specifically different to an "alternative music station" or any other definition. As such, we are allowed to broadcast under very strict definitions and category quotas. Thats just the nature of the business. With regard to the specialist shows being on at Drivetime, well thats just simple economics. Pearls show, Jims show, Rays Metal show, Laura Lees Goth show etc are fantastic programmes but are by their nature of limited appeal. If we can't deliver listeners in numbers between 7am and 7pm then we can be as diverse as we like, but also bankrupt in about 15 minutes. We do our best to get the music (and speech content) right at all times and we are always working to achieve this. Cue boasting: Last night, Phantom was given a PPI radio award for best music driven local station in the country. End boasting. As always, we are always open to suggestions for improvement. Not saying we will do anything with them, but Id like to hear them anyway :). Simon.
Re: Is Phantom FM US style Radio in Disguise ?   By Rev Jules on 10/22/2007
First of all, I think that the general thrust of what Simon is saying is that Phantom FM is mandated to broadcast a certain kind of music in its schedule, the genre is 'alternative rock', it could just as easily be 'hip hop' or 'country' and in that respect it conforms to the kind of radio station commonly found in the States, many of which are also local radio stations, and this mandated genre is its main focus at Drivetime. I congratulate Phantom on the PPI award but I would suggest that the main objective idea of my post, that Phantom is a radio station similiar in approach to many found in the USA, has beeen proved, my personal taste in the genre broadcast being purely subjective.

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