Rathole Radio is an internet radio show and podcast about music, free culture, news, interviews, and politics. Brought to you by Dan Lynch with humor, the best in new music, and exclusive live performances. All from sunny Liverpool in the UK.
How many listeners do you have on average?
It varies a lot between the live show and the download. We get about 40-50 live listeners usually but each episode then gets 1000+ downloads. I suppose because of time differences most people can’t join the live show and the download is more convenient.
If you could interview any living artist, who would it be?
Until very recently I would have said Solomon Burke but he sadly died a few weeks ago. I’m going to cheat and mention a few I’d love to talk to. Jimmy Cliff, the reggae legend would be fantastic to interview. Also Aretha Franklin but I hear she doesn’t really do interviews any more. Finally I’d probably plump for Robbie Robertson or Levon Helm from The Band, I love their music and I think they’re criminally underrated, I’d like to change that.
What do you think is the role, if any, of podcasters in helping independent artists become more popular?
I think it’s important to play and support independent music, artists doing it for themselves. People sometimes ask if I’d play mainstream music if I had a license for it but I’m not sure I would. I like playing stuff people aren’t likely to hear elsewhere, in this way we can distinguish ourselves from mainstream radio and hopefully support artists along the way. I really believe in today’s Internet age artists have never been in a better position to do it for themselves and control their own careers.
What are your favorite Podcasts to listen to?
I’m a huge fan of Kevin Smith the film director, and for a long time I’ve listening to his show SModcast. He’s now expanded it into an entire network with a show every day and he does lots of live shows. I listen to most of the shows on the network so this takes up a lot of my time. I also listen to some of the Guardian newspapers podcasts like Football Weekly, Science Weekly and Media Talk. Finally I listen to a lot of music podcasts to get ideas and I love AMPed, the weekly round up show from the Association Of Music Podcasting, of which I am a member.
If your podcast could cover just one Artist, who would it be?
Wow that’s tough, just one artist forever? I suppose it would have to be James Brown for me, I love him and his band were incredible. Flawless musicianship, funky beats and a little bit of a political message whipped into it. What more could you want?