The most surprising thing about Heed FM is how normal it sounds. And the most surprising thing about that is how unusual this is.
Broadcasting for just one month, Heed FM is a radio station that is also an artwork, the substance of which is a series of conversations between the artist Garrett Phelan and various individuals and groups of young people – aged between 18 and 25.
Apart from Phelan, the participants are anonymous, and the recordings – made over an eight-month period – are being broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without radio jingles, adverts, news, weather, time checks or all those other things that punctuate our radio listening.
Absent too are the patronising notes of some of Ireland’s more august radio presenters, that slightly emetic, encouragingly friendly tone that appears when a segment calls for a young person’s voice.
Neither does Phelan attempt anything embarrassing, such as getting down with the kids.
Instead, he takes his collaborators at face value, and pitches his estimation of their intelligence at a level with his own – which is considerable.
In one discussion – which ranges from dogs, to music, to wondering what a world without money might look like – the conversation turns to crime, and its seeming inevitability.
“But, how would you change that?” Phelan asks, and I realise that this very ordinary question is seldom aired in a context like this, or with the implication that each individual person has the power to make change.
Irish talk radio is peppered with regular presenters and pundits. Nuanced discussion tends to be replaced with the tactic of getting two people whose opinions lie at opposite ends of the question at hand, and letting them at it.
True, this is the cheapest option, but it doesn’t lend itself to those useful, occasionally wonderful discussions where new opinions arise, and new ideas can be formed. Political interviewers try to catch their guests out, rather than reach a deeper understanding of the questions at hand.
No ‘snowflake’ drifters
And this is before we even get to phone-in shows, where the presenters have an unquestionable genius for stoking outrage and plumbing the shallow depths of glib feeling.
On Heed FM, 80 hours of recordings are being played over the lifetime of the project. So, even though it has already been running for a week, tune in and you’ll find you get a chance to hear everything over time.
Identifying participants from their conversation and voices, I find inner-city youths, Young Fine Gaelers (or they could be Fianna Fáil, it can be hard to tell the difference), activists, the comfortably off, LGBT young adults, new Irish from around the world; and not a single one conforms to any of the stereotypes I am used to from the rest of the media.
Unless I have yet to hear that particular interview, there are no “snowflake” drifters, wallowing in entitlement and lacking direction.
Neither do they seem to think the world owes them a living; and none seem determined to shock or disturb their listeners through attitudes perverted by internet porn.
Instead, it’s like eavesdropping on brilliant conversations, interviews, stories, and stream of consciousness musings on accents, post-code consciousness in Dublin, politics versus activism, dog breeding, what not to feed birds, the importance of maths, Czech stereotypes of Ireland, social media, and the best way of establishing a choke hold if you happen to find yourself in a fight.
The person talking about maths should be hired immediately by the Department of Education, such is his passion, and the way he communicates it.
But that’s exactly the point.
Demonised
Finding and targeting young people is the holy grail of advertising, and also for audience builders and demographic researchers. In the process, they tend to become, by turns, stereotyped, sensationalised, demonised and pandered to.
What Phelan and his team have done is to get rid of all that. His insistence on anonymity for his contributors – unless they choose otherwise – creates an atmosphere of respect and trust, where you feel as if you’re hearing authentic, articulate, intimate conversations, rather than created dialogues by people made over-aware of their public.
Phelan is an artist with an international reputation for sound works, radio projects, drawings and sculptures, and was commissioned to create Heed FM by The Arts Council, as part of their ART:2016 series.
“Radio,” he says, “is sculpture that can travel through you”; and if you think about one of the definitions of art as being something without an overt purpose, that can fundamentally change how you feel about yourself, the world, and your place in it, and which can also surprise and delight, his description is perfect.
And if you’re still hankering for physical art works, look out for billboards around Dublin, where participants created images for the branding campaign.
Uncynical, inspiring, fascinating, serious and occasionally laugh-out-loud amazing, Heed FM is an unexpectedly exceptional project, which also sheds light on how poorly served this group are in the media in general.
Targeted and patronised they may be, but how seldom, it seems, are they really listened to.
Find Heed FM at 94.3 in Dublin, and stream online at heedfm.com, broadcasting until November 18th.
