People found that the oils retained the scent of the woods and resins and that by applying it to their skin they transferred the scent to themselves. It was the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut who popularised incense and fragranced oils by sending out expeditions to source plants from which they could harvest the ingredients necessary.

Originally exclusively used in the domain of the priesthood, scented oils were soon incorporated into the bathing ritual. People soaked in fragrant oils and created wax cones and creams heavily scented with rare resins which were liberally applied to skin and hair. It was the Greeks that first created liquid fragrances much like the ones that we use today.

The use of spices was also incorporated and popular scents contained ginger, myrrh, cassia, pepper, frankincense, jasmine, cedar and sandalwood. Liquid fragrance meant that special containers had to be used, adventing the birth of the scent bottle. These were commonly crafted from alabaster, hence the name alabastrum. They were often decorated with gold and the fragrances they stored were made up of alcohol free oils infused with scented powders.

Egyptians took to elaborately decorating their scent bottles, making use of materials such as ivory, ebony, gold, alabaster, stone and precious gemstones. These were highly prized items in any household and soon their popularity spread to far away lands like China, India and Phoenicia. The Arabs were the first to distill the scent of roses into a liquid form by extracting oils from the petals.

This was truly the first fragrance that used the modern process that we know today, creating a fragrance with a much lighter base. Avicenna, an Arab doctor, was the first to introduce this technique, using the delicate scent of the rose which immediately became popular. Earlier fragrances used powerfully scented herbs and resins but the rose was immediately popular due to its subtlety.

Catherine de Medici had a hand in influencing perfume as we know it today, enlisting the aid of an Italian perfumer to create original infusions for her. Scented gloves became popular in the seventeenth century and it is reported that when Cleopatra first sailed out to meet Marc Anthony that she used perfumed sails, which announced her arrival with clouds of perfumed air.

Scent is a powerful tool that can impress memories upon us. Many people will tell you that the smell of pine trees always remind them of Christmas mornings, or that a particular fragrance will always hold a fond memory of their mother or grandmother for them. Many people reserve a particularly treasured fragrance for special occasions and will wear it for momentous occasions only, impressing upon us the fact that we still consider perfume as precious and rare.

We submitted all our works for our teacher to evaluate on our works. We also had to read our works aloud in front of the class. When I was done reading my essay, another student stood up and became angry at the things I said on my paper. She asked me what I thought of the people who took those fad diets when I wrote my paper and told me that my essay was insensitive towards obesity. Her strong yet calm words hit me really hard. The experienced definitely humbled me and taught me to become more sensitive in dealing with people especially in my work.

That’s when, in 1981, an entrepreneur called Chris Carey made a decision to base pirate station Radio Nova firmly on FM. He sold the advantages of “clutter free” stereo FM and it was a huge success. So much so that in 1988 the government, when establishing the new legal independent radio sector, made a very big decision to go FM only. Such was the impact of this decision that RTE pre-emtively re-branded its pop music station from Radio 2 to 2FM.

In just seven years Irelands radio industry moved from AM to FM.

Now we are well into the new millennium with a new medium capable of advancing radio as much as FM did all those years ago. Question is: who will have the balls to make the big decision?

For more on Digital Radio in Ireland see www.digitalradioltd.com