Is Pat Kenny to Newstalk a game changer?

mike65 · 31-07-2013 2:17pm #1

yes yes another thread, but hear me out. Does the exit of RTE Radio Ones flagship factual presenter (albeit a man in his 60s) signal a shift in the talk radio landscape?

Myself, I guess it depends on the reactions of both stations, does RTE Radio attempt to keep the Today programme running with say Myles Dungan (who would leap at the chance you'd have to think) or will they take this exit as the opportunity to reshape the morning schedule? If so how? Less serious discussion and more fluffy music? Maybe shorter factual programmes
a la BBC Radio 4?

Meanwhile will NT seek to buttress this coup by upgrading Breakfast (read ditch Chris Donoghue) and see if they can attack Morning Ireland properly rather than offering merely "news lite".

Might this move also attract other talents?

Thoughts?

Red Crow · 31-07-2013 2:18pm

No matter what people say Kenny does an excellent show and will bring a lot of listeners with him.

mike65 · 31-07-2013 4:07pm

Anyone?

themont85 · 31-07-2013 5:00pm

Well from my perspective I will probably start listening again. I ditched the station after listening for their first few years. Now I'm not the demo they're going after in fairness.

This is the biggest move in Irish radio ever. Established star in an eestablished time slot.

NT were never going to compete with Morning Ireland. MI is a brand which can weather producer and presenter change.

Between Joe Duffy and Kenny for poaching and they have the better one. He'll bring people with him.

In just 3 years RTE have lost their supremacy at 2fm and R1 for mid morning.

spank_inferno · 31-07-2013 5:12pm

What if:
Hook to morning slot
Kenny for mid morning
lunch show.
Moncreif for some light stuff.
Move Cooper over to the drive time slot.
Off the ball' for sport.

...... Now that is a game changer that woulx have the closeted quango that is RTE pooping their pants.

ebbsy · 31-07-2013 5:14pm

Pat Kenny is the only Radio 1 show I listen to, so for me it is a game changer.

Bard · 31-07-2013 5:26pm

Having someone of Pat's stature and calibre moving from the national broadcaster to an independent commercial station certainly seems like a bit of a watershed moment to me... and indicates to me, in a positive way, that anything is possible in the business after all.

RTÉ now know that they really need to rethink the way certain things are done in there. As Noel Curran said on Drivetime this evening, the playing field has been levelled;- RTÉ have to compete with the Independents but while only realistically being able to offer the same kind of salary levels... and rightly so.

What interesting times we live in...

Skrynesaver · 31-07-2013 5:30pm

spank_inferno wrote: »

What if:
Hook to morning slot

The notion of hearing that ravening loon as I grope towards conciousness is appalling, I suspect Pat will replace Hook when he goes/is pushed in the drivetime slot though Cooper is probably the best drivetime radio currently available.

spank_inferno · 31-07-2013 5:37pm

Skrynesaver wrote: »

The notion of hearing that ravening loon as I grope towards conciousness is appalling, I suspect Pat will replace Hook when he goes/is pushed in the drivetime slot though Cooper is probably the best drivetime radio currently available.

Fair point... I'm no fan of Hooky either.

I suppose if Ivan Yeats comes back to the breakfast it would make that line up stronger.

seligehgit · 31-07-2013 5:41pm

Game changer for me,Pat Kenny is a first class broadcaster.His range of knowledge is excellent and has no equal when it comes to current affairs.Keep him away from the touchy feely interviews.

CorsendonkX · 31-07-2013 6:07pm

Skrynesaver wrote: »

The notion of hearing that ravening loon as I grope towards conciousness is appalling, I suspect Pat will replace Hook when he goes/is pushed in the drivetime slot though Cooper is probably the best drivetime radio currently available.

Who listens to him on a regular basis? Didn't his listeners increase? His best show is on Friday when his two co hosts spend the show correcting him. It's like listening to an idiot savant without the knowledge, the slightest connection to a topic and Hook shoots off on a tangent that we probably heard before or makes massive assumptions like his recent sermon on grammar and the decline in reading.

Hook: "Children are reading less today than a 100 years ago"

Guest: "But George more children know how to read than a 100 years ago..."

Hook get's flustered and tries to bull his way along.

He talks about poverty then in the next breath mentions his home in Foxrock or his latest tropical Holiday. I tuned over today and he was fawning over Pat Kenny.

europa11 · 31-07-2013 6:44pm

Game changer here too.

The most likely response from RTE is to lose the dead-time slot that is 9-10, currently the domain of OMG Miriam, and keep things "heavy" after Morning Ireland, interspersing a bit of music here and there as Pat used to.

btw, I presume NT don't have to bring along one of Pat's more annoying traits, that of acting the drunk uncle at a wedding and 'getting in on' with the young musicians, in particular the god-awful Appalachian folksy stuff that elicited more than one "Wow!" from him.

Same goes for Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell's appearances, another low point he could well drop......or preferably drop in a well.

Either way, a good move by O'Brien. If anything this should shake things up out in Montrose.

If Ronan Collins needs directions to LyricFM, I can help

mike65 · 31-07-2013 6:57pm

If MLOD follows Kenny I'll be very disappointed to say the least.

I'll whisper this there is a chance that rather than Newstalk raising its game, Kenny will be dumbed down, wonder if he has been given any guarantees from an editorial pov.

InchicoreDude · 31-07-2013 8:19pm

Meanwhile will NT seek to buttress this coup by upgrading Breakfast (read ditch Chris Donoghue) and see if they can attack Morning Ireland properly rather than offering merely "news lite".

Why ditch Chris Donoghue? Are his ratings not good? I find him to be the best morning radio dude to listen to (but I have no idea how popular his show is in comparison to others)

greenpilot · 31-07-2013 8:25pm

mike65 wrote: »

Anyone?

Newstalk is too Dublin Centric, hardly anyone outside the Pale listens to it. Listening to it and their Ads one would think there is not another 3 million non Dubs in the Country.

Conmaicne Mara · 31-07-2013 8:41pm

spank_inferno wrote: »

Fair point... I'm no fan of Hooky either.

I suppose if Ivan Yeats comes back to the breakfast it would make that line up stronger.

I liked Ivan in the start but was happy to see him go in the end (nothing to do with his circumstances). He seemed to ramble incessantly, interrupt to talk shíte for the sake of it, and be ever so slightly obsessed with sex. Which is grand, when it happens the odd day, but he seemed to think it a great idea to do it every time he had a mic in front of him, got very boring very quickly for me.

constitutionus · 31-07-2013 9:21pm

i think the scope is definetly there for a restructuring of the radio landscape.

newstalk will definetly be moving their shows about to facilitate pat and i can see RTE having a hard time competing with him with a replacement so they may pull something out of left field and not even try - putting a totally differnt show on instead (though the smart money is on tubbs taking over)

RTE will have to fill the slot so there will be monkeying about of their schedule too simply by dint of moving people about.

should be fun and TBH this is the most exciting news on the radio front in decades. i for one cant wait to see how things pan out.

spank_inferno · 31-07-2013 11:36pm

greenpilot wrote: »

Newstalk is too Dublin Centric, hardly anyone outside the Pale listens to it. Listening to it and their Ads one would think there is not another 3 million non Dubs in the Country.

They started as a Dublin station before getting a national lisence granted.

Since then they have made great efforts to broaden their appeal to the marsh-lands of beyond the Pale

mrsdewinter · 01-08-2013 10:45am

Im genuinely excited about what this move means for Irish radio. But I have a quibble on the technical front. Marconi House will simply have to raise their game in transmission terms. I live in west Dublin and I can no longer tune my radio to Newstalk - about 2 years ago, Today FM dropped off the dial. If I - living inside the M50, smack bang in the middle of the demographic - am having trouble picking up a signal, how does Denis O'Brien expect the over-50s down the country to make the switch?

mike65 · 01-08-2013 10:49am

Reception is grand "down the country", maybe Dublin is the issue. (btw your age has no bearing on the ability to get a signal)

EdCastle · 01-08-2013 11:03am

Outside of Dublin, Newstalk isn't all that popular, Goodbye Pat Kenny!

Maybe we'll get Tom Dunne back on Today FM now for an evening show, that would be a sweet move.

EdCastle · 01-08-2013 11:09am

mike65 wrote: »

Reception is grand "down the country", maybe Dublin is the issue. (btw your age has no bearing on the ability to get a signal)

It's not all that great out further west of the Shannon.

Most 50's and older wouldn't even know what Newstalk is.....RTE, Today FM, Midwest, Galway Bay and IRadio making inroads into the youth market are kings which covers the full demographic.....Newstalk rarely gets a mention.

mike65 · 01-08-2013 11:46am

You'd have to suppose that Denis O'Brien will be rolling out a marketing campaign based around Kenny and whatever other changes are made in the next month. I expect to see billboards, radio spots and TV3 ads exclaiming the new era.

europa11 · 01-08-2013 11:56am

mike65 wrote: »

You'd have to suppose that Denis O'Brien will be rolling out a marketing campaign based around Kenny and whatever other changes are made in the next month. I expect to see billboards, radio spots and TV3 ads exclaiming the new era.

Don't forget a few full page ads in The Indo, Sindo and Hedduld Mike.:D

Not to mention more than a few magazine articles from the same stables, the publicity campaign should be massive.

I expect many at this stage are looking forward to what RTE's response will be, now with talk of another defection in the air the Autumn schedules out in Montrose might prove very interesting......and with any luck, offering a chance for new faces to come through and replace some of the tired ones currently going through the motions out there.

heybaby · 01-08-2013 12:47pm

As much as I'd like to think pat's move to independent radio might be a game changer I think it's move of a one off exception than a game changer. Kenny felt he was being disrespected at RTE so this move to Newstalk is essentially a two fingers to the Montrose headhonchos. DOB would have bankrolled this 2 million euro move because of the high profile of the presenter in question. It will make Kenny the highest paid presenter on independent radio ever, but as I said i cant see the flow of talent out of RTE becoming the norm or Independent radio genuinely competing with RTE.

My guess is RTE will put Miriam into pat's old spot, she's considered a heavy hitter, she's a household name and its a safe longterm option. She will go head to head with Pat and I reckon will win because of irish peoples' blind loyalty to RTE. Consider also the fact that many many people never change the dial on their radio from RTE, they turn on morning Ireland and it stays on RTE right throughout the day. I have already heard some people ask where Newstalk is on the dial?? You will literally have people who wont retune their radios despite wanting to listento pat, because they dont want the hassle of messing around with the dial, my aunt being one of them.

If Pat's move is going to attempt to be a game changer then Newstalk need a heavyweight on breakfast and the resources to go with it. Now if Newstalk could poach Sean O Rourke from RTE to headline their breakfast show alongside Aine Lawlor / Rachel English ... now you're talking game changer.

Cathalibm · 01-08-2013 1:22pm

I feel sorry for Tom Dunne. He has a good show between 10- 12, At least he still his sunday evening show for the moment. I bet he was seriously pissed when being told that he was being canned! I know that i would be. From listening to the radio while driving around dublin in the 10-12 timezone, there are only 2 serious options, tom on newstalk and kenny on radio 1.

1 of those is now going on the 4th september. Personnelly im not a fan of kenny, find him to be a Gaybo lite for Dublin. He has no serious presence outside of Dublin. Looks like I'll be dusting off my cds to listen to them in the morning.

On a side issue im finding myself listening less and less to Newstalk. Considering what they did to the Off the Ball crew a few months ago & now to Tom Dunne it looks like the owners have no loyalty to the presenters and listeners.

marno21 · 01-08-2013 1:40pm

mrsdewinter wrote: »

Im genuinely excited about what this move means for Irish radio. But I have a quibble on the technical front. Marconi House will simply have to raise their game in transmission terms. I live in west Dublin and I can no longer tune my radio to Newstalk - about 2 years ago, Today FM dropped off the dial. If I - living inside the M50, smack bang in the middle of the demographic - am having trouble picking up a signal, how does Denis O'Brien expect the over-50s down the country to make the switch?

Today FM moved from 100.3 to 101.8 a few years ago and turned down the power, you should still get it on 101.8 or 100.9.

Newstalk should still work on 106.0, or failing that 107.6

mrsdewinter · 01-08-2013 2:42pm

marno21 wrote: »

Today FM moved from 100.3 to 101.8 a few years ago and turned down the power, you should still get it on 101.8 or 100.9.

Newstalk should still work on 106.0, or failing that 107.6

When I'm out and about, I've no trouble picking up the signal via either my phone or the car radio - it's just the radio on my (8yo) stereo that lets me down. It simply scrolls thru all the available stations - and Today FM and Newstalk simply aren't there.
In any case, it's interesting to hear that DOB enterprises *did* tinker with the signal with Today FM.
Hope somebody at Marconi House has a look at this issue. Before September.

01-08-2013 2:46pm

Kenny is getting Tom Dunne's slot?

Cyber735 · 01-08-2013 2:47pm

Cathalibm wrote: »

I feel sorry for Tom Dunne. He has a good show between 10- 12, At least he still his sunday evening show for the moment. I bet he was seriously pissed when being told that he was being canned! I know that i would be. From listening to the radio while driving around dublin in the 10-12 timezone, there are only 2 serious options, tom on newstalk and kenny on radio 1.

1 of those is now going on the 4th september. Personnelly im not a fan of kenny, find him to be a Gaybo lite for Dublin. He has no serious presence outside of Dublin. Looks like I'll be dusting off my cds to listen to them in the morning.

On a side issue im finding myself listening less and less to Newstalk. Considering what they did to the Off the Ball crew a few months ago & now to Tom Dunne it looks like the owners have no loyalty to the presenters and listeners.

I'd have to agree

CorsendonkX · 01-08-2013 4:21pm

spank_inferno wrote: »

They started as a Dublin station before getting a national lisence granted.

Since then they have made great efforts to broaden their appeal to the marsh-lands of beyond the Pale

They do have a limited number of texters, Hook and Moncrieff texting audience seems to live in Skerries if the last couple of weeks is anything to go by.

The Women on Air lobby won't be too happy with Newstalk lack of Sisterhood especially during the mid week. The Breakfast Show seems the place they like to slot in the "token" female.

Is Pat Kenny to Newstalk a game changer?

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