Beat has been ranked among the top five radio stations in Ireland when it comes to supporting female Irish artists with on air plays.
The positive development follows the release of a report by Why Not Her which seeks to gauge gender disparity in the top 20 Irish artist radio plays among Irish stations.
Beat is one of a handful of Irish radio stations to have made marked strides over the last six months, with 35% of top 20 Irish artist radio plays coming from female Irish artists, up from 5% in the period from December 2019 to June 2020.
While Beat is cognisant that improvements have been made in 2020 we are acutely aware that more work needs to be done.
Commenting on the report, Head of Station Sound Niall Power said: "At Beat, we've always put Irish music at the centre of our playlist, but we made a conscious effort in 2020 to support emerging Irish female artists. I'm pleased to see our figures increase from 5% to 35% since the last report. It's also very important to us that these are primetime plays so the artists are reaching as big an audience as possible. Variety and diversity matter. It's been made somewhat easier by the quality of artists coming through like Denise Chaila, Lea Heart, Sophie Doyle Rider and Waterford's Carrie Baxter, who is our current 'Play Irish' Artist of the Week."
Nationally, 85% of the artists in the top 100 Irish radio airplay chart over the past six months have been male; only 11% have been female.
Prefacing the report, Why Not Her said: "This is not an opinion-based report. It is based on data. Facts. We at Why Not Her? ask what can be done to implement changes across Irish Radio that creates an equal opportunity playing ground for both male and female-identifying Irish acts?
"The findings on the Gender Disparity that exists across Irish Radio are a staggering and shocking display of an industry model that still needs drastic changes, especially in Regional Radio. Radio can not just choose token womxn to try silence all the many womxn who remain excluded off the airwaves. Variety and Diversity exists...
"We would like to applaud those in national radio and some individual stations who have made considerable strides towards a game-changing moment in Irish music history, some stations went from 0% to 20% and more. Thank you for being part of the solution: RTE 2FM, Spin 103.8, Spin South West, Beat, 98FM, LMFM & WLR FM."
