A NORTHSIDE man has completed his 800th show on local community radio station NearFM.
Vincent Flood, from Beaumont, got involved with the Coolock-based station in January 2001, when it was still in its infancy.
With a love for jazz, Vincent jumped at the opportunity to try his hand at radio when he got word of the new local station starting up.
“I heard about it, they were only starting working out of huts and sheds at the back of the building before they got a proper setting.
“Somebody told me about it and I decided to go over and have a chat with them. They set me up with a programme and I’ve been doing it ever since,” Vincent said.
Vincent began airing ‘Jazz Profiles’, a jazz documentary series which focuses on a different artist every week, every Wednesday at 2pm, and has maintained the spot through the years. January marked the milestone of his 800th show.
“There’s hundreds of jazz musicians. I take one of them and tell their life story through words and music. I have all the CDs and I write out their life story,” Vincent said.
“I tell a bit about where they were born and then I play a piece of music and then I tell another section and I work like that all the way through.”
Vincent chose not to do anything special for the 800th show and instead stuck to his usual regime of telling a particular musician’s life story through words and music.
The pleasure of being able to play jazz on air because it’s “on the way out” is Vincent’s favourite part of being on the radio.
“I’m an older person and when my generation was growing up jazz was always on. It’s still there and some people still like it,” he said.
“It’s becoming a specialist subject now, not many people know of it.
“I play music so I know what it’s like technically from the music point of view and I try to express myself in that sense.”
Vincent spoke with great pride for NearFM when asked about the benefits of local radio stations in the community. He noted that his work in the station is completely voluntary.
“That’s the important thing,” he said.
“I volunteered to do it because I like jazz and it gives me a chance to play the music I like. It drives my wife mad if I play it at home,” Vincent joked.
“I think it does help that we have a local radio station because more or less anyone can go in and have an opinion and you can express yourself any way you wise. It works alright for everyone and I enjoy it that’s for sure.”
NearFM is a non-for-profit radio station. For further information about getting involved in the station visit www.nearfm.com/volunteering.
REPORT: Hayley Halpin