"I feel like I'm not represented – not just on Today FM – but across the board. And I'd like to feel that I'm represented more and I'd like to think that my peers and women of no matter what age, feel like they're being represented," says Today FM presenter, Alison Curtis, about hearing women's voices on Irish radio.
Speaking to Róisín Meets podcast presenter Róisín Ingle, the Canadian born broadcaster, whose popular Saturday Breakfast show was recently extended to Sundays, says the underrepresentation of women is particularly an issue when it comes to current affairs.
“One topic that’s really on a lot of people’s minds in Ireland – and it’s not affecting the people that are talking about it, physically – is Repeal the 8th. You just constantly hear men, men, men talking about this. And obviously everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I just don’t feel that I, as a 40-year-old lady, often hear somebody that represents maybe my point of view on air.”
It is not just a gender diversity issue though, she says. It’s also about accurately reflecting society as a whole.
“All radio stations need to, not only look at the fact that they’re not really reflecting half of the population, but even if you think that we’re not reflecting the fact that not everybody living in Ireland now was born in Ireland,” she said.
Curtis started working with Today FM 17 years ago, not long after she moved to Ireland from Canada. While working on the Ian Dempsey show, she pestered then-CEO Willie O’Reilly for a shot at presenting herself and landed her highly respected Sunday evening music show, The Last Splash.
She says she doesn’t buy the argument that people don’t like women’s voices on the radio.
“I was constantly told that people don’t like women on air the whole time I was doing that show. The Last Splash was 3 or 4,000 at the time when I took over and it grew to 41,000 – and that’s on a weekend slot,” she said.
Curtis praised Newstalk for ignoring, “whatever market research is floating around out there,” and installing female presenters Collette Fitzpatrick and Sarah McInerney in primetime slots in its recently revamped schedule. She is hopeful that it is a positive indicator for the future.
“I think we just need to give people a shot … I think you have to look at the whole radio landscape and we have to start making changes.”
Alison Curtis presents Saturday Breakfast 8-11am and Sunday Breakfast 7-9am every weekend on Today FM
To listen to Alison Curtis in conversation with Róisín Ingle or other episodes of the Róisín Meets podcast, go to Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher or www.irishtimes.com
