Reels to Ragas: Farewell Gerry, it’s been Reel

Irish music radio’s headlong rush into homogeneity continues apace. Next Tuesday evening, another idiosyncratic and fascinating show will air for the last time as Reels to Ragas says goodbye after 14 years on air on Lyric FM.

During this time, host Gerry Godley has introduced listeners to a colourful and compelling soundtrack of music from around the globe. A radio show bursting with taste and flavour, Reels to Ragas was all the better for the host’s ability to make cohesive sense of the tracks he was picking with aplomb from various dusty quarters.

While there are other interesting music radio shows on air – and some world music shows at that, including Nigel Woods’ Ear to the Globe on Dublin City FM – it is the lack of, what we’ll call for want of a better term, other music on the national airwaves that is the real loss here.

Shows that go beyond the pop and rock hinterland are rare on the radio stations that are propped up with our annual ¤160 licence fee. Wouldn’t it be better to spend that cash on some exciting music shows rather than, for example, another Ray D’Arcy vehicle?

Yet it’s the national stations’ loss. In 2015, we can get that music and other shows elsewhere because technology rules everything around us. As Lyric and other stations look fearfully at anything beyond their strict, conservative musical pale, real music radio adventure-seekers will continue to pass them by.