Open It Out

Thanks to OpenFM , I finally made the decision to get my ass in to gear and drag myself and my other half along to the George on Sunday night. I felt it was about time and now being involved with the new station I thought I'd be a bad gay if I couldn't relate to the infamous Sunday Bingo @ The George . Okay, fair enough I'm only out of the closet 5 years, although what has stopped me from experiencing one of the most well known nights out in the gay world in Dublin. Like any good Catholic visits the pilgrimage at Knock, its our Pink Duty to see the Bingo night and drag soiree that follows. So off we went. To say I was surprised would be to put it mildly. Funny, I get older and life seems to do that to me more and more. It was great. As anyone that knows me, I'm not the biggest fan of the George for a night out, although I will definitely by making more Sunday visits. The show began an hour later than I had heard, kicking of at 10pm. Shirley Temple Bar...

I was pretty late coming out. Officially, the 23rd of June 2005, at the age of 31. Most of my close friends all knew, although for me it was like shedding a great weight from my shoulders. Something I had shrouded myself in for years. The word GAY held me still and in some way paralysed me for so many years. I believe now, looking back that I had internalised homophobia. I remember I'd flinch at the word. I'd constantly questioned whether I was normal or some sort of freak that was going against nature. Its bizarre how much time we can waste caught inside our own prison, or more appropriately, in this case the closest. So, it all came about one Summer Solstice on top of the Hill of Tara. I had gone there in the late evening with my house-mates. It was the first time I had experienced Tara at this super special occasion. There was such a vibrance and energy about the place. Kids running in circles and people everywhere smiling and chatting. Its quite a magical feelin...

The Internet is a very interesting place. While I was in college copious amounts of time was spent surfing the web for Interesting story Ideas and the latest political news. Of course, there's a stage in everyone's life when you realize there's more to the Internet than dull stories and the latest academic journal on the Americanization of modern Ireland- thanks MTV. This new found thing is of course gay dating sites. It's a funny thing, you log on sit back and see what people say. For instance, besides meeting the OpenFM team this week, I found myself lost in the wilderness of 'asl' lingo. It took me around 4 days to figure out what they where talking about and when I did i thought those now meaningless abbreviations had so much potential. What about, 'wab' which translates as want a boyfriend? or 'ypac' your pictures are cute. They where having none of it apparently. Besides my gay dating antics, the Internet recently came home to the mecca...

I'm Liam Cahill the Deputy Station Manager here at Open FM. So as I write this it's Sunday and what a boring and pointless day it is. For many, it's a day to recover from the previous nights adventures. But for me, it's spent food shopping and catching up on the weeks news. You see I'm a self confessed news and political junkie (usually U.S. focused). So, what does this week bring in terms of Open FM? Well, when we do eventually settle on a proper time, Open FM's management meeting can be very productive. If you're lucky, you may even be given a cheese sandwich. Although, being a gym bunny I tend to pretend I had a large lunch. This week, we're focusing on sponsorship, the heart of any radio station, in a bid to get Open FM's fiscal ball rolling, with that said we're not far off. Also this week we'll add a few more stops to our recruitment drive, where you ask? Well, DIT for a start. So, the week has lots of meetings- what's new. ...