Newstalk Megathread

deadhead13 · 17-04-2009 11:04pm

NewsTalk have laid off 34 people in past few months, 35 if the reports on Ger Gilroys future are true.

GhostInTheRuins · 17-04-2009 11:15pm

Dave! wrote: »

Hey does anyone know if you can pay Newstalk to advertise for you during the news headlines?

I'd say you could get them to do anything with plenty of a bit of money.

GodOfRadio · 19-04-2009 9:57pm

Anyone else listen to Kim Kommando over in Ireland?

Koloman · 19-04-2009 10:15pm

deadhead13 wrote: »

NewsTalk have laid off 34 people in past few months, 35 if the reports on Ger Gilroys future are true.

Has any official announcement been made on this yet?

deadhead13 · 19-04-2009 10:17pm

Koloman wrote: »

Has any official announcement been made on this yet?

About Ger Gilroy? No not yet.

popebenny16 · 19-04-2009 10:34pm

sunday tribune had a thing on this gilroy thing today. they say an e mail was sent internally telling people not to speculate as it was hurtful to mr g.

if you think it was hurtful dont forget to text the breakfast show, texts cost 30 cents.

robo · 19-04-2009 10:41pm

Here is the article in the Tribune -

Newstalk confirms Ger Gilroy is not being dropped

Management of radio station Newstalk have confirmed that presenter Ger Gilroy is to stay with the station, despite speculation he is being dropped from co-hosting Newstalk's Breakfast Show in favour of former Fine Gael minister Ivan Yates.

Last week Newstalk sent a memo to staff which did not deny that Gilroy is to be axed but instead advised employees that the leaking of information was neither helpful nor fair to Gilroy, who is said to have first learnt of the job shuffle from media reports.

The memo praised Gilroy, who is due to marry next month, as a "very talented broadcaster" and said he would remain with the station. It ended with an admission that the situation could have been handled better.

"Of course you don't want people reading about a conversation I had with somebody else, or Ger's parents reading about that," said Newstalk CEO Frank Cronin this weekend. "Speculation about his future just before he's getting married, of course you wouldn't want that. While we have had discussions with Ivan Yates, nothing has been concluded, so any such comment was premature."

I wonder will Mr Yates be stepping in when Ger takes a few weeks off for his wedding and honeymoon? Or will they leave Claire with Conor Brophy - I would prefer to have Conor rather than Ivan Yates. And I would even more prefer to have Ger & Conor in the morning rather than Claire at all.

deadhead13 · 19-04-2009 10:52pm

Keeping Ger on makes sense, he is one of their better presenters. It will be interesting to see what he ends up doing. A shake up of the schedule would do no harm.

Firetrap · 20-04-2009 12:57am

Hopefully they'll axe Eamonn Keane from the lunchtime show and put Ger in instead. Of course, that'll never happen - bear with me on this :rolleyes:

Koloman · 20-04-2009 1:51am

Firetrap wrote: »

Hopefully they'll axe Eamonn Keane from the lunchtime show and put Ger in instead. Of course, that'll never happen - bear with me on this :rolleyes:

It would be "BREAKING NEWS" if that happened!

giftgrub · 20-04-2009 7:36am

Firetrap wrote: »

Hopefully they'll axe Eamonn Keane from the lunchtime show and put Ger in instead. Of course, that'll never happen - bear with me on this :rolleyes:

If Keane got sacked would we have to listen while he explains what a P45 is?

Because that would be worth it

coopersgreen · 21-04-2009 3:29pm

"My apologies to the news team, I just felt that story about me being axed was too important to cut away from".

thebigcheese22 · 22-04-2009 1:36pm

Anyone listen to the fella standing in for Eamonn Keane on Lunchtime? I think he's very good, he completely grilled Mary Wallace, twas very funny! :cool:

brettmirl · 22-04-2009 1:42pm

Its John Keogh that fills for him. He's very good.

Dars · 22-04-2009 5:51pm

anyone hear that Claire Byrne was approached by RTE about presenting Primetime???? ive heard it about 3 times already but dont know if its just speculation with all of the musical chairs thats happening in the media this week. its probably just rumour!

alpha2zulu · 22-04-2009 6:13pm

Just after 630am this morning....

Text in and let us know what the weather is like where you are

Thats 30cent please. You have to hope that nobody falls for little cons like that.

Koloman · 22-04-2009 7:00pm

Dars wrote: »

anyone hear that Claire Byrne was approached by RTE about presenting Primetime???? ive heard it about 3 times already but dont know if its just speculation with all of the musical chairs thats happening in the media this week. its probably just rumour!

Surely you've got to be joking! She was a guest on Vincent Browne a few weeks ago and she demonstrated how completely out of her depth she was. She was torn apart by the other guests and showed her lack of knowledge on the big issues.

deadhead13 · 22-04-2009 7:03pm

Claire is fine at reading from a script, but thats about it really.

More Music · 22-04-2009 9:48pm

alpha2zulu wrote: »

Just after 630am this morning....

Thats 30cent please. You have to hope that nobody falls for little cons like that.

So did they read out the texts?

"John in Leitrim has texted in to tell us it's dry today."

How can you take the show seriously? Management haven't a leg to stand on if firing people for poor JNLR results with that kind of sh*te going on.

cashback · 23-04-2009 12:41am

It seems completely ridiculous to me that a national news station that doubles as a talk radio station( or should that be the other way around) finishes live broadcasting at 10pm!
I never really liked the guy they had in the slot before but it's really amateur to broadcast a repeat of a lunchtime news show in what is still radio primetime(almost).
And it also means an extra two hours of Eamonn Keane, which is an extra 100% and also 200% more of him per day than anyone needs in their lives.

alpha2zulu · 23-04-2009 5:57pm

More Music wrote: »

So did they read out the texts?

"John in Leitrim has texted in to tell us it's dry today."

God only knows...Newstalk are handy for the news/traffic at 630 but then i'm usually back to whichever station is playing the best tune:D

The whole thing is it makes "the breakfast show bargains emails" that were been pushed heavily by the duo until recently all the more ironic...perhaps somebody could have suggested a standard rate text to Matt Cooper as a bit of a bargain:P

Woger · 24-04-2009 4:29pm

Ivan Yates, bloody hell!!

Aidric · 24-04-2009 9:09pm

Koloman wrote: »

Surely you've got to be joking! She was a guest on Vincent Browne a few weeks ago and she demonstrated how completely out of her depth she was. She was torn apart by the other guests and showed her lack of knowledge on the big issues.

Saw that, she was embarrassing.

dh0661 · 24-04-2009 9:36pm

cashback wrote: »

It seems completely ridiculous to me that a national news station that doubles as a talk radio station( or should that be the other way around) finishes live broadcasting at 10pm!
I never really liked the guy they had in the slot before but it's really amateur to broadcast a repeat of a lunchtime news show in what is still radio primetime(almost).

I agree totally, but bad and all as it was - it was "listenable" compared to what we are offered now.

Anybody know what has become Declan Carty the presenter of late night live ?

dh0661 · 25-04-2009 10:16pm

Caught the full episode of the emergency for the first time today - IMO it is not as bad as previous posters implied.

mike65 · 27-04-2009 11:10am

Why do Newstalk not care about basic standards?

Yet again they managed to miss the kick off at one of their Premsier League games. So busy was (insert name here) reading out dumb-ass texts the Blackburn - Wigan game was 2 mins old before they went over to join the BBC commentary team.

robo · 27-04-2009 11:34am

I got a fright this morning...No Ger!
But fear not, he should be back tomorrow, he was off on his stag weekend!
It was odd, as Claire told Tom Dunne that there was no sign of Ger and she didn't know where he was, which made me wonder, but then she added in that he was away for the weekend at his stag!

brettmirl · 27-04-2009 1:26pm

mike65 wrote: »

Why do Newstalk not care about basic standards?

Yet again they managed to miss the kick off at one of their Premsier League games. So busy was (insert name here) reading out dumb-ass texts the Blackburn - Wigan game was 2 mins old before they went over to join the BBC commentary team.

Speaking about texts, Brendan O'Brien kept interrupting an interview with the South African Ambassador on Sat morning to read out texts relating to a story in the previous hour.

He asked her a question, then before she could answer, started reading out texts....sorry bumbling his way through texts for 3 minutes, then asked her for an answer.

mike65 · 27-04-2009 1:35pm

I tried to listen to him on Saturday but just had to bail out after about 10 mins its rare that a man can quicken my heartrate, raise my blood pressure and shorten my breath but he does it every time!

giftgrub · 27-04-2009 11:21pm

The Hooky Monster lost the run of himself this evening, cut across a guest with the declaration that we had swine flu here

goes to reporter saying "Ireland has its first case of the flu"

Reporter: Eh No George, we've been told theyre carrying out tests, thats all

brettmirl · 28-04-2009 10:19am

The HSE are actually holding back the test results so they can be revealed "exclusively" on Lunchtime with Eamon Keane.

mike65 · 28-04-2009 10:25am

After all the crap about the Health famine?

brettmirl · 28-04-2009 10:34am

Is your sarcasm detector not fired up yet today Mike?

mike65 · 28-04-2009 10:40am

Still too bloody early for me, clearly.

robo · 28-04-2009 11:58am

Why are the HSE exclusively giving Newstalk information - Mary Harney never used to give them interviews. I wonder were there new alliances made after Brenda Power was dropped from the morning time?

mike65 · 28-04-2009 12:18pm

damselnat · 28-04-2009 12:28pm

Of ad breaks on Newstalk, did I just hear an entire ad break taken up the "publicans of Dublin" or am I just going completely mad??

mike65 · 28-04-2009 12:43pm

You did, I heard that yesterday. Desperate times.

robo · 28-04-2009 1:22pm

Heard the same myself...publicans are really desperate to get us going to our local pub.
Do you reckon Dara gets a free pint in every pub he goes into?

Badabing · 29-04-2009 3:49pm

I think a show is in trouble when Claire Byrne constantly rips the pi$$ out of a show on after her show. Poor Tom can't catch a break.

mike65 · 29-04-2009 3:53pm

I play a little game with myself, how many seconds will elapse before Dunne mentions an item of clothing? Its rarely more than 30!

Dave! · 29-04-2009 4:48pm

I play the same game with how long before the next ad break... Often I make a drinking game out of it. I'm usually locked by 9.30am!

mike65 · 30-04-2009 11:41am

So then Ivan Yates confimed as replacement for Ger Gilroy, talk about missing the point. Its the other wan who causes 90% of the distress.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0430/1224245682787.html

First David McWilliams, then Eamon Dunphy and most recently Claire Byrne and Ger Gilroy have all failed to make a significant dent in the opposition. The latest audience figures show 65,000 total listeners during the course of the Newstalk breakfast show compared with 437,000 for Morning Ireland.

From mid-May, Cronin is replacing Gilroy with Ivan Yates, the former Fine Gael minister who also finds time to run a chain of betting shops. Says Cronin: The new show will be faster paced with a crisper delivery of news and a much stronger business focus, particularly in earlier segments, and it will be more authoritative/

/Our ambition is to double our listenership in the next 12 months.”

Well if they cut the crap then clearly they are going in the right direction but that also means they will have to be able to get the right calibre of interview subjects or those who are after hard news discussion will still stick with RTE.

jack24 · 30-04-2009 12:33pm

I agree, Gilroy is taking the rap for what was presumably an editorial decision to become the radio equivalent of GMTV in the morning. They better cure Yates of his prediliction for constantly saying eeeehhhh!!!

Claire Byrne will now have to pretend to know what she's banging on about for longer periods of the show. They should rename it 'What I think' with Claire and Ivan or 'In my opinion'.

I'd like to find the press quotes from Claire Byrne when this all reared up a few weeks ago, she was practically packing Ger's bags for him.

pfk-0p · 30-04-2009 3:50pm

mike65 wrote: »

So then Ivan Yates confimed as replacement for Ger Gilroy, talk about missing the point. Its the other wan who causes 90% of the distress.

mike65 wrote: »

you're right
they're cutting the wrong person, claire byrne really brings the show down, the only reason she's being kept on is because she's the only female presenter of a main show on the weekdays. i listened on monday morning from 630-700 and the whole half hour consisted of reading out a few newspaper headlines, bantering with herself, as gilroy was off, and then a chat with the business guy sandwiched in between about 4 ad breaks.

they also need to cut tom dunne, it's 3 hours of talking about various items of clothing, his children and laughing after every sentence, i rarely get to hear it but when i do it's just terrible.

Dub13 · 30-04-2009 4:55pm

So were now for Gilroy..?

mike65 · 30-04-2009 5:51pm

Weekend sport?

fred funk }{ · 30-04-2009 6:52pm

Bad decision. He was definitely the best out of the two. I think McWilliams was the best out of the lot of them and had a half decent show.
Sometimes the show now is very painful to listen to, all the text crap that they are pushing every two minutes in unbearable. I used to like the papers slot with the guests just before eight o'clock but they done away with to. I don't listen nearly as much as I used to.

fred funk }{ · 30-04-2009 6:54pm

mike65 wrote: »

Weekend sport?

It is clearly his comfort zone though, you can sense how at ease he is when the football segment comes up.

Koloman · 30-04-2009 8:05pm

mike65 wrote: »

Weekend sport?

I think it would be a retrograde step for him to go back to sport. The other sports presenters might get a bit miffed!

Newstalk Megathread

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