Lyric FM's leading ladies on what listeners want to hear in lockdown
As our exterior world and daily activities shrink due to pandemic restrictions, our gaze has turned inward and people have been seeking mental stimulation from books, television and radio.
While the latter has always been popular in Ireland, listeners have flocked to the medium in the last year, with the most recent Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures from November 2020 showing listenership up across the board for national and local radio stations — 3.19m listeners tune in to the radio every weekday, representing 81% of all adults.
While current affairs shows benefited from people’s need for information regarding the pandemic, RTÉ’s classical music and arts station, Lyric FM, also saw a jump in listenership, as others sought respite from the stream of Covid-related news. The station increased its weekly reach to 309,000 listeners, up 27,000 year on year.
Ann Marie Power, RTÉ group head of arts and culture, described the station as “a salve for the soul, providing people with the world’s most beautiful music and serving as a cultural force in Irish society”.
We spoke to two of the station’s leading presenters about broadcasting in a pandemic and how it has highlighted the importance of music and the arts.
Aedín Gormley, the award-winning presenter of weekend shows and , says she was "reared" on music and theatre.
“My dad was a gentleman’s tailor by day, but at night he used to direct musicals on the amateur circuit and he was a big movie buff.
"My mother was a professional violinist, who would be playing in the pit for the musicals. She was also a violinist with the RTÉ concert orchestra, so I was brought to shows a lot.
"Dad had the old black-and-white films on the whole time. It was a real thing to snuggle up and watch old movies together.
"It is kind of funny when I look at what I’m doing now and I think, ‘oh yeah, that’s where it came from’.”
A Dubliner, Aedín has been able to continue to broadcast live from the RTÉ Radio Centre in Donnybrook throughout the pandemic.
“I have been really lucky. Because I am in Donnybrook at weekends, health and safety-wise it has been okay because there are so few people there. I do more prep from home, but I was thrilled to be able to broadcast live all the time.”
She says when the initial lockdown was implemented, the number of dedication requests she received for her show sky-rocketed.
“The first few weeks I did not get through all the dedications; I couldn’t keep up. It was just that link for people, particularly grandparents and grandchildren, who were missing each other. Radio is so special in that way and dedications mean so much to people, being able to connect in these strange times. It was lovely to be able to be part of that, but I have to say that I had a serious lump in the throat on occasions.”
Aedín was particularly conscious of the increasing number of younger listeners tuning into the show when they were spending more time at home. She introduced a Kid’s Choice slot, where they could vote for their favourite number from a musical or movie. She delights in the younger generation’s interest in the genre.
“We are constantly trying to get the younger generation away from their phone screens and on to radio but, at the same time, from the requests I get, there are all ages listening, which is really great.
Aedín says that, during the initial lockdown, she made a concerted effort to play uplifting music, but was reminded that music acts as a release for all emotions.
“It was very hard in March and April. We were trying to keep the mood up and, therefore, the music up. Then I remember playing other songs, like ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ or ‘That’ll Do’ from and people were on saying: ‘You brought a tear to my eye.’ But that was okay.
"It was like what Ryan Tubridy said about — we all need a bit of a cry as well. It is as important to have moving music as well as what we would call happy music — you need to be feeling what is going on as well.”
The listenership figures for both of her shows increased by 7,000. She says that many people have turned to the station for companionship during the pandemic.
“I was thrilled to have more listeners,” she says. “Radio is an extraordinary medium; it is a conversation. Yes, people are coming for the music, but also that connection with a voice talking to you in a room if you are on your own. Radio has been hugely important to people over the last year and thank goodness for it.”
Presenter Liz Nolan is talking to me from her kitchen table at her home in Limerick, from where she has been broadcasting her daily afternoon show, . Like many parents, she juggled her job with home-schooling during the initial lockdown, researching her shows as her son Seán did his schoolwork beside her.
“I research, put together and record the shows at home, working [remotely] with my wonderful colleague Linda McGlynn,” says Liz. “I miss the immediacy of being in the studio but, from another point of view, it opens up a whole new world of what broadcasting can do and how it can relate to people. It has certainly been new territory for all of us at Lyric.”
Liz grew up in Greystones, Co Wicklow, and lectured at the Conservatory of Music at the Dublin Institute of Technology before moving to Cork, where she was education officer with the Association of Irish Choirs. She began working full-time for Lyric after deputising on shows at the station.
“It has been 18 years since I moved down to Limerick to do a show here. I don’t know where that time went,” she says. “I couldn’t imagine a better job. It has everything — access to the greatest music and musicians on a daily basis.
"Also, my first degree was in English. I love words so, the medium of radio itself, I have always found it to be so full of imagination and possibility, in a way perhaps that the visual element wouldn’t give you. It has been incredible.
"Over the years in Lyric, looking over the shows I have done, of all of them, , the one I am on now, is the absolute dream. To research and listen to full, complete works, it is such a gift.”
Liz’s figures were also up in the most recent JNLRs, with her show jumping by 7,000 listeners. She says people appreciate being able to devote more time to listening to complete works of classical music.
She adds that the feedback she receives also reflects a broad range of listeners, which might be contrary to many people’s expectations.
“The lazy trope with classical music is that ‘oh, it’s for older people or people in a more privileged position’. All the feedback we’re getting completely contradicts this.
"We have a vast swathe of people contacting us, people in their 20s, people working from home and people from all four corners of the world. It is wonderful to get the feedback; it has opened up a whole new arena for us — or perhaps made us more conscious of it.”
When I ask Liz about the importance of music and the arts, her reply is instant and from the heart.
“The arts are not a luxury…. they are a lifeline. They present all that is good and true and uplifting in life. Without them, we are just a series of gestures towards nothing.
"Music is something that lights up a truer reality, a sense of who we are and what the possibilities of the world are. I couldn’t imagine a day without music, let alone a life without Lyric.”
- Aedín Gormley presents Movies and Musicals on Lyric FM, Saturday 1pm-4pm and Sunday Matinée 1pm-4pm; Liz Nolan presents The Full Score every weekday afternoon 1pm-4pm.
