FEATURE:
Radio Gaga
ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Freepix
Why Is There Little Effort From Stations to Create Gender Balance on Their Playlists?
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I have written about this before…
PHOTO CREDIT: Ron Lach/Pexels
and will continue to do so. I recognise that some radio stations have made efforts to affect gender parity on their playlists. Get closer to it at least. I am not sure whether there are any radio stations in the U.K. that have equality. Maybe smaller stations can do that, yet it seems the major stations are still biased towards men. That is the way it has always been. In terms of their top-twenty songs or the most popular, some radio stations do have gender parity. That is only a very small selection of songs played. A niche statistic. Whilst it is important, we have to look at the entire playlist. Click on any station’s website and look at each programme and the music played. How many have as many female artists as males played? Very few have shows where there are more women than me. Yet, we normalise this. It is seen as the way things are. There is no doubting how women are dominating music. As I repeatedly say, this is not new. That has been the case for years now. The most exciting and incredible new artists are largely women. Most of the best albums of this year I would contend have been released by women. I also think that many legendary female artists do not get played enough. In all, there is more than enough choice for every radio station. The industry has not really addressed gender imbalance across their playlists. If small steps have been made to ensure their most-played songs are balanced in terms of gender, that really doesn’t disguise the fact that their entire playlists – all songs from all shows – is male-heavy. In some cases the discrepancy is fairly small. For some stations, it is embarrassingly large. I have been looking at various playlist on BBC Radio 2 the past week or two and some shows only feature a couple of few songs by women!
I have named-and-shamed stations such as Radio X, Absolute Radio, Greatest Hits Radio and BBC Radio 2 before. Even if the latter is good when it comes to their most popular songs – in terms of gender balance -, they definitely do not have gender equality across the board. Even the supreme BBC Radio 6 Music struggle in that respect. They are not featuring as many women as they could and should. Again, we normalise playlists that feature chunks of male artists without a female voice. If the reverse happens, would people complain?! It is rare that you’ll hear a run of five or six female acts/artists in a row. Back in 2020, the Gender Disparity in UK Radio Report highlighted a real gulf. So many radio stations struggling to feature women. BBC Radio 6 Music did get close when it came to their ‘playlist’. This is curated tracks that are played the most on a station, not the entire playlist. It is a portion of the tracks played across a station. It is not really good enough a station affects gender parity with their own playlist but the remainder of their musical output drops the ball. It is deceptive in a way, as it seems like there is gender parity across the station but in fact it only applies to their playlist. As misogyny is still rife in the industry and women have spoken out, one would think things would change. This year’s report showed improvements. It is quite particular. The first part of the report is analysis of the Top 100 Radio Airplay Songs from 2024 from U.K. and international acts. Where we see breakdown by station, that represents the Top 20 most played songs by British artists. It is good that we can see some equality from some stations but two things are clear. One, so many stations and desperately short of hitting balance. Also, as I have said, it is a very particular number of tracks. Stretch across all shows and every song played and then present those figures. How many stations would have the same positive figures like BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 2 – possibly not the former and most definitely not the latter!
IN THIS PHOTO: Ken Bruce
Perhaps the feeling is that, if stations hit gender parity on their own playlists/most played songs, that will be sufficient. Stations need to be aware of every song they play. It still look pretty bleak. When you listen to a show and not hearing a woman’s voice for four or five songs sometimes. Quite okay for them to be left out. I don’t think any big station in the U.K. has done enough. There are no excuses when it comes to the reason. There are no quotas or barriers when it comes to how many female artists can be included. Stations choose which artists to play, so they have control over that. If you collate all the stations from the Gender Disparity in UK Radio Report 2024 and average out the percentages, it would not be anywhere near 50%. In terms of gender party. Only a third of the main stations managed to affect gender balance. The remaining stations fared even worse. I think only four of five of the seventeen stations had the same amount of women played as men. It shocking to see how little real development and commitment there has been. Stations not doing enough across the board. If the most played songs playlists shows at least a few stations commit to gender parity, as mentioned, is there a single one that has gender balance across their entire scheduling?! Perhaps not. In 2024, that should not be the case! Stations deliberately overlooking women and having this inherent gender bias. If women feel they will not be played on a station – or only if they are among the most played artists – then that will affect their career. So many perhaps not coming into he industry because they won’t get played. All stations need to do more. There are no excuses or rationale for the way things are. From heavy-hitting BBC stations through to local radio, women need to be given…
PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels
THE respect they deserve!