4FM

JUILLIARD · 02-12-2013 1:02pm #1

It's hard to believe that 4fm is almost 5 years on the air. I can't for the life of me understand how it survived. Remember the time when almost the entire output was coming from a hard drive ? Not that the output is much better these days, Bland 80s music and 6 hours of a Howard Stern wannabe trolling.

hufpc8w3adnk65 · 02-12-2013 1:36pm

I quite like Jim McCabe and Gareth. And club classics is a good show bar Suzanne the presenters voice.

Greyham · 02-12-2013 1:39pm

On a serious note though , what is the logic behind six hours a day, at opposing ends of the day for Boylan?

Is it so the shows generate buzz for each other?

JoeA3 · 02-12-2013 3:13pm

The Niall Boylan / Dave Harvey shows are truly horrific, I can't understand the appeal of those types of skanger whinge fest shows at all. But there must be a market for it somewhere seeing as they now have him on for 6 hours per day :eek:

Jim McCabe is inoffensive enough and Gareth is OK in small doses. Enda Murphy seems to regularly fill in across the schedules and he's very competent too. I'll occasionally flick over and you'll sometimes hear a good tune but the playlist is fairly small...

They do have a very slick jingles / promo package. 2FM could take heed.

The_Captain · 02-12-2013 4:25pm

My dad thinks its great in the afternoons when it seems to be oldies plus inoffensive chatter

Big C · 05-12-2013 11:25am

Think last night was so funny/ridiculous, Boylan had a quiz, must of trolled for months to get 3 biggest losers, the questions would suit a four year old, (made Larry Gogan's just a minute quiz look like Mastermind). What topped it all when Boylan tried to answer some of the questions and he was as thick as the others.

eg
Electric train travels north at 100mph against a 10mph headwind, what direction did smoke blow ??? DOH
Two words when put together hae the most letters ? answer post office doh

etc etc

Proview · 06-12-2013 5:09am

Big C wrote: »

Think last night was so funny/ridiculous, Boylan had a quiz, must of trolled for months to get 3 biggest losers, the questions would suit a four year old, (made Larry Gogan's just a minute quiz look like Mastermind). What topped it all when Boylan tried to answer some of the questions and he was as thick as the others.

eg
Electric train travels north at 100mph against a 10mph headwind, what direction did smoke blow ??? DOH
Two words when put together hae the most letters ? answer post office doh

etc etc

So like me you listen intently and know everything about the show because you post about enough,.... At least I admit its a guilty pleasure.... But I think you are in denial because you have posted about it so many times....... We should have a night out for those like me who admit they like the show and those like you who pretend to hate it ......but know every word said in every post you write about it ......

garclo · 07-12-2013 10:01pm

I like 4fm. I listen to jim mc cabe, Robbie fogarty and gareth most days. totally agree with previous posts about niall boylan, load of rubbish. the same people come on every day spouting the same nonsense. stopped listening to it a few months ago.

Infoanon · 08-12-2013 8:42pm

€11.5 million losses posted to date according to a SBP report today....

More Music · 09-12-2013 9:09am

I thought 4fm had a good lineup when they started. Some familiar voices, varied schedule, strong backers and really decent studios. They launched with a massive PR campaign.

They seemed to do everything straight out of the radio play book.

Where did it go wrong.......

Big C · 09-12-2013 5:56pm

too many big ego's who think they are good

Mr. G · 09-12-2013 11:56pm

I quite like 4fm, love the promos and images they use. The music is quite good too.

Some of the talk stuff in the evenings can be a load of crap however.

They mainly are up against Today FM and 2FM really, who only hold a small percentage in JNLR figures. Its a shame that a good station (since they changed their marketing to Classic Hits) like 4fm are making such high losses.

Radio is for life · 10-12-2013 3:03am

Mr. G wrote: »

I quite like 4fm, love the promos and images they use. The music is quite good too.

Some of the talk stuff in the evenings can be a load of crap however.

They mainly are up against Today FM and 2FM really, who only hold a small percentage in JNLR figures. Its a shame that a good station (since they changed their marketing to Classic Hits) like 4fm are making such high losses.

I can't honestly say I listen that often to the station but quite shocked when I read the thread and the losses incurred. I can only assume the losses were predominantly lost in the early days and under the old regime.

Quoting a piece of the online reference it suggests "Accumulated losses at Choice Broadcasting, the company behind multi-city radio station Classic Hits 4FM, increased to €11.1 million in 2012, up from €9.5 million in 2011. The company owed €8.6 million to creditors, according to yesterday’s Sunday Business Post."

To be honest considering 90% of the losses were made in the first 3 years and the losses since 2011 and up to December 2012 were only 1.6 million, seems to indicate that the leakage of money has slowed down drastically and the main losses were inherited from a bad start off period.

The station has changed and all I hear is good reaction from friends to the station. I caught the tail end of Niall Boylan and the first hour of Gareth O Callaghan the other day on a journey from Galway. Honestly I can't really fault either presenter. I did lose reception coming out of Galway for a few miles but all in all I can see the attraction in the station. It was tight and talk, imaging, personality, music all sounded like it was well thought out with the listener demography in mind, One wonders will the constant negative negative publicity on their financial status damage the credibility of the station.

Looking at the recent JNLR figures it seems they are growing slowly and certain they have captured a market outside Dublin but one hopes that's enough to pay the bills.

Btr · 10-12-2013 12:09pm

Radio is for life wrote: »

I can't honestly say I listen that often to the station but quite shocked when I read the thread and the losses incurred. I can only assume the losses were predominantly lost in the early days and under the old regime.

Quoting a piece of the online reference it suggests "Accumulated losses at Choice Broadcasting, the company behind multi-city radio station Classic Hits 4FM, increased to €11.1 million in 2012, up from €9.5 million in 2011. The company owed €8.6 million to creditors, according to yesterday’s Sunday Business Post."

To be honest considering 90% of the losses were made in the first 3 years and the losses since 2011 and up to December 2012 were only 1.6 million, seems to indicate that the leakage of money has slowed down drastically and the main losses were inherited from a bad start off period.

The station has changed and all I hear is good reaction from friends to the station. I caught the tail end of Niall Boylan and the first hour of Gareth O Callaghan the other day on a journey from Galway. Honestly I can't really fault either presenter. I did lose reception coming out of Galway for a few miles but all in all I can see the attraction in the station. It was tight and talk, imaging, personality, music all sounded like it was well thought out with the listener demography in mind, One wonders will the constant negative negative publicity on their financial status damage the credibility of the station.

Looking at the recent JNLR figures it seems they are growing slowly and certain they have captured a market outside Dublin but one hopes that's enough to pay the bills.

4fm needs to leave Dublin market like it's left them. It's showing real potential particularly along western coast but my only question remains did it know what it wants to be - in not sure it does. As for accumulated losses, I think they can be written off for tax against future earnings . Bay ain't silly and this looks like a long term project

Radio is for life · 10-12-2013 12:24pm

Btr wrote: »

4fm needs to leave Dublin market like it's left them. It's showing real potential particularly along western coast but my only question remains did it know what it wants to be - in not sure it does. As for accumulated losses, I think they can be written off for tax against future earnings . Bay ain't silly and this looks like a long term project

With respect your suggestion makes no sense. As it is they do not seem to advertise in the Dublin market. Are you suggesting they surrender Dublin on the next licence renewal. I'm confused? Why would they even do that when the only extra cost is the electricity on the mast. That has to be the weirdest suggestion. Maybe you could explain the benefit of "leaving the Dublin market" because I don't get it and how that's even an option. Dublin is where it's at and maybe they will crack it some day. If your not in you can't win, as they say.

Btr · 10-12-2013 3:21pm

Radio is for life wrote: »

With respect your suggestion makes no sense. As it is they do not seem to advertise in the Dublin market. Are you suggesting they surrender Dublin on the next licence renewal. I'm confused? Why would they even do that when the only extra cost is the electricity on the mast. That has to be the weirdest suggestion. Maybe you could explain the benefit of "leaving the Dublin market" because I don't get it and how that's even an option. Dublin is where it's at and maybe they will crack it some day. If your not in you can't win, as they say.

Yes I'm suggesting that they should exit Dublin market . Electricity cost of aerial is likely minuscule as transmission is primarily digital . Foolishly in Ireland we have multicity licences and as 4 are not penetrating Dublin, they'd be better out of it . Outside Dublin they're an alternative to Today or 2 fm - inside the pale they sound like a lot of the competition . As for how it might be an option to leave Dublin, I'd have thought a case to the BAI. That said. I admire their backers for sticking with them

Bebo Rocks · 10-12-2013 3:31pm

I'm surprised dob hasn't snapped it up and moved it into Marconi house,

L1011 · 10-12-2013 3:39pm

Bebo Rocks wrote: »

I'm surprised dob hasn't snapped it up and moved it into Marconi house,

Competition Authority & the BAI would both likely refuse that.

Losty Dublin · 10-12-2013 4:41pm

Btr wrote: »

Yes I'm suggesting that they should exit Dublin market . Electricity cost of aerial is likely minuscule as transmission is primarily digital .

So you say that they should abandon the largest market for listeners and advertisers even though you reckon that it's costs them very little to run. Explain that one to us, please

ford fiesta · 11-02-2014 9:59pm

The 'Club Classics' show is now just 'Classic Hits' from 7 to 9pm still with Suzanne Kane. The show is now voicetracked as was very evident last night!

dr Golden · 11-02-2014 11:48pm

ford fiesta wrote: »

The 'Club Classics' show is now just 'Classic Hits' from 7 to 9pm still with Suzanne Kane. The show is now voicetracked as was very evident last night!

No wonder ! They are 13 million in the red.

Expunge · 12-02-2014 9:29am

No wonder ! They are 13 million in the red.

Really? How the hell is it still going?
I take it the collection of frequencies and Multi City licence is the only real asset that company has.

How would a company 13 million Euro in the hole find the liquidity to keep wages and expenses paid on a weekly basis. How can it be done?

Infoanon · 12-02-2014 2:03pm

Expunge wrote: »

Really? How the hell is it still going?
I take it the collection of frequencies and Multi City licence is the only real asset that company has.

How would a company 13 million Euro in the hole find the liquidity to keep wages and expenses paid on a weekly basis. How can it be done?

New investors - you could ask the same about Newstalk btw

Antenna · 22-09-2014 5:03pm

Anyone notice the breakdown of 4FM yesterday (Sunday) morning until a bit after 10AM (due to outage of satellite distribution to the transmitters) , audio was silent?

they weren't the only ones affected - Newstalk everywhere OUTSIDE Dublin (I don't think Dublin 106.0 was affected) , Spirit (Spirit locally had backup prerecorded music and apology announcements),

When 4FM came back, Gareth O'Callaghan joked that someone he knew (on discovering the station silent) thought that it was he who won the euromillions and not turned up to work. He also said something that according to engineers the problem was caused by the valves in the transmitter glowing too brightly!

Cork_chick_94 · 22-09-2014 6:37pm

I saw Niall Boylan on TV3 the other day and he was acting as if he was a household name superstar.

droidman123 · 22-09-2014 6:41pm

I stopped listening to 4fm a long time ago because of suzanne mc cabes voice.,switched to sunshine,then it was worse!! Check out niamh mahers voice reading the news..cringe.rte gold for me now.

Trebor176 · 22-09-2014 11:06pm

I much prefer Sunshine to 4fm. It's a shame that the format changed so much since it started, and it's something I have said before. Sunshine is a bit repetitive, yes, but I can tolerate the music more. Still, 4fm is better than Q102, which can be quite unbearable. Another station that was great in its infancy, and even better when it was Lite FM.

4FM

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