Tag Archives: ireland

Smiling

Over Christmas, we visited Dad in Pittsburgh and one day had lunch at Eat n’ Park. It’s a family-casual restaurant, and the “uniforms” are polo shirts with various slogans printed on the back.

A slogan that particularly caught my eye was “Be the Reason Someone Smiles Today.” It’s a great sentiment, but what’s more, I recognized it as the title to a lively song song I’d heard on the Irish Radio Station I’ve been listening to for the past few years.

Obviously, that phrase isn’t going to be unique to a specific song, but it did get me wondering. Somewhat ironically, I generally “listen to the radio” via the Internet and use my time driving for podcasts; so I wondered if this song was popular internationally, or perhaps a cover of someone else’s.

The version I’m familiar with (and it may be original) is by Irish Artist Bernie Heaney. It’s quite catchy; I hope it makes you smile too.

Midwest Radio

I like to listen to the radio during the day. It provides a nice level of background noise without being nearly as distracting as working in an open plan office.

But, about a week ago, I got bored with the local stations I’ve been streaming and told my Google device to “Stream a random radio station from somewhere in the midwest.”

To my surprise, it worked.

The first song I heard was Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” OK, it’s a oldies station. This is consistent with “somewhere in the midwest.”

Next came a station break and the DJ had what I can only describe as a brogue. It had been a while since St. Patrick’s, but OK….. I don’t know what schtick he’s in the middle of, so I’m not gonna judge.

The next commercial break, I heard more people with what I decided were probably Irish accents, but the ads were targeting the farming community (plowing contests, farm supplies and the like). The brands weren’t anything familiar, but there are still some regional banks and supermarket chains. So I kept listening, wondering where this station might be located.

Google had identified the station as “Midwest Radio 96.1 FM” so I put those words into the search box.

And yep, it turns out the station really is out in the Midwest.

Midwest Ireland that is!

So, I may have a new favorite radio station.

(Image via pxhere.com, public domain image under Creative Commons Universal license)