College radio

I started out my (still short but getting there) radio "career" on college radio in Galway in a lovely little thrown together station called Flirt fm. It was, and still is run my two paid staff and over 100 volunteers and you're guaranteed to hear some damn fine music no matter when you tune in. For a station run by amateurs it's gone some excellent broadcasting and is always worth a listen. Quite a few of Galway's top DJ's have shows at night on the themed evenings, Monday is rock and metal, Tuesday has Indie, Wednesday is Leftfield, Thursday is Electronic/Techno treats and Friday brings hip hop and soul, all underground, all well thought out by people who really give a shit about their music and most importantly all good.

I had a listen in this morning and despite fumbling with mics and some awkward silences the entertainment was still there and the playlisted music is the finest you're going to hear on the airwaves, put together every month by Paula Healy, station manager. I was on Flirt for just over a year, trying my hand at as many shows as I could, talking a shocking amount of nonsense and at least once going straight from a summer beach party to the breakfast show at 8a.m. All of the playlists are on the website (flirtfm.ie) and looking back over the playlists during my time there I got tad nostalgic.

Here are a few of the gems I would never have heard if I hadn't been in there (as a first year college student I was still hanging on to my RAWK!!! roots, going to Cuba nightclub for a fix of AC/DC, Rage Against The Machine and Foo Fighters) It was being exposed to a lot of this "indie" stuff that forced me to broaden my horizons.

Common ft. Lily Allen - Drivin' Me Wild

Battles - Atlas

Vampire Weekend - Bryn

And a few I played a lot of at the time for whatever reason

Alabama 3 - Mao Tse Tung Said (Radio K Edit)

King Missile - Jesus Was Way Cool

Messiah J And The Expert - When The Bull Gores The Matador