Earlier this week Amazing Radio announced that it would be returning to DAB in the UK and for the first time, it would be broadcasting on DAB in Dublin, starting next week. I interviewed their CEO, Paul Campbell, for my thesis last year and was immensely impressed with their ethos, they really do care about the music. I’ve been telling bands about the stations for a good while but now that Amazing Radio has become our local radio station and it’s up to Irish bands and artists to get themselves on the air.
I’ve written about Amazing before but here’s a recap. Amazing Radio source all the music played on their station from their sister site, AmazingTunes.com. It’s easy peasy, all you have to do, as a label, artist or PR company, is make an account and upload your music. You can choose whether you can sell, stream or allow your music to be downloaded for free.
Every week, new uploaded tracks are added to their playlist and there are also request shows like Greg Porter‘s request hour between 6-7 on Fridays. Charlie Ashcroft’s Audition Show on Mondays and Saturday plays the best new uploads every week. Using a bit of savvy you can get your fans to request your music, make people take notice of you. Where Amazing differs from other stations is that all the music played is from new, emerging and independent acts.
While Amazing is based in Newcastle, they also incorporate other areas into their schedule, Shell Zenner is based in Manchester, Jim Gellaty is based in Scotland, Mike Taylor is in Austin, Texas. Other names involved are Paul Lester, the man behind the Guardian’s New band of the day and Cocteau Twin and Bella Union’s boss Simon Raymonde. These guys know their stuff.. plus there’s a planned expansion into the US market. You’d be nuts not to get involved, bands, musicians, artists, whatever genre you work in, there’s a show for you.
This is exciting for music in Ireland, it has the ability to get Irish artists more airtime, not only in Ireland but in the UK where Amazing has a decent listenership. Think about the benefits, kids somewhere in the UK or America listening to your music alongside bands from their hometown.
Down the road it’s going to be good for acts here and if they use their noggins could easily end up double gigging in the UK/US with bands from there, in return for gigs here. The possibilities are endless.
I don’t work for Amazing, I listen to it everyday, I love what they do, I love that they don’t have adverts interrupting the tunes, I love their ethos. There’s no excuses, even if you don’t have a DAB radio you can listen online, through TuneIn and their apps work like a charm. There’s no point in music acts complaining about not getting airplay, it’s up to you to be (yes, that word) pro-active.
You don’t have to be a musician to listen, if new and emerging music is your bag, this is the station for you. Go on, give it a go!
Images borrowed from AmazingRadio.com 🙂
