Irish radio is awful

Tallspoon

I have given up listening to the same old c@!p on Irish radio and got myself a Zen MP3 player. I now have the pleasure of listening to BBC Radio in the car, around the house or wherever.
Shows such as Jonathon Ross, Mark Radcliffe on Radio2, Andrew Collins,Stuart Maconie(BBC 6Music) and many others are very entertaining, innovative and of a consistent high standard. Most of the RTE shows feel bloated, lazy and to put it bluntly one gets the feeling that Gerry Ryan, Duffy, Whelan, Kenny et al do not really give a toss. RTE treat the listeners with contempt by bringing in the likes of Evelyn O'Rourke or Fiona 'im a playright,me' Looney or that irritating fake Hector to beef up the schedule.
The management at RTE seem terrified to change or innovate.
They have lost one listener in me and will probably lose many more

MrSinn

Tallspoon wrote:

I have given up listening to the same old c@!p on Irish radio and got myself a Zen MP3 player. I now have the pleasure of listening to BBC Radio in the car, around the house or wherever.
Shows such as Jonathon Ross, Mark Radcliffe on Radio2, Andrew Collins,Stuart Maconie(BBC 6Music) and many others are very entertaining, innovative and of a consistent high standard. Most of the RTE shows feel bloated, lazy and to put it bluntly one gets the feeling that Gerry Ryan, Duffy, Whelan, Kenny et al do not really give a toss. RTE treat the listeners with contempt by bringing in the likes of Evelyn O'Rourke or Fiona 'im a playright,me' Looney or that irritating fake Hector to beef up the schedule.
The management at RTE seem terrified to change or innovate.
They have lost one listener in me and will probably lose many more

I agree but,if you listen to the same few radio stations for years then its going to get boring
and leave joe duff alone,he's good for a laugh,oh my god,sure.
Can you get british radio stations in ireland on the zen?

adox

If you are in Leinster then Newstalk 106 has some pretty good shows.
Dunphy doing his thing in the morning and Moncreef in the afternoon are two excellent shows.

Also Ian Dempsey on Today Fm is still able to strut his stuff after all these years.

cgf

Not so sure about Dunphy being a great show, perhaps a good show

The Wide Angle with Karen Coleman on Sat & Sun mornings is well worth a listen and their sports coverage is good.

If you are outside Leinster, http://www.newstalk106.ie/home.asp

They also have podcasts.


About the only thing I listen to on RTE is Vincent Browne - always a good laugh

Tallspoon

I download the shows from the web to play on my zen.
I completely agree about Dempsey and Newstalk is good, particularly their sports show on weekday evenings with Ger Gilroy.
I lived abroad and only came back to Ireland 3 years ago and within a year or so I just couldnt stand listening to many of the radio shows being pumped out. They are so boring. Ryan is a smug, self satisfied slob. His performance has not changed or improved over the past 3 years. Duffy is a s£$t stirrer who gives airtime to the same bunch of looneys each day.
Wouldnt it be great if RTE appointed a hatchet man who cleared the decks of the costly dead wood currently on the air (they could also sack the Afternoon Show girls). They could then hire some talented unknowns who could bring some genuine innovation to Irish radio.

rfoley

I love this notion of the "talented unknowns". If they were so talented they'd have a job. The problem is that we have bugger-all of them.

Cork

I think 2fm is deradful. It could not be worse if it tried.

Radio 1 is also poor. Joe Duffy? I like Oscar the Grouch but Oscar would find it hard to keep up with Liveline Callers.

Today fm & Newstalk at least have some good shows.

Local Radio is a mixture of Radio 1 and 2fm with local news.

Hopefully, newstalk will get a quasi national licence.

I recently was doing a lot of computer work and started listening to US 80's radio - (Generation 80's etc) a lot of songs tht were not hits over here. I found it interesting.But not having broadband at home due to line failure put an end to that.

Big Balls

It's a bit like our soccer team.

You have 4 million people in Ireland and 60+ million in the UK. Which country is going to have more talented players?

And then when the money is much better in the UK, where do the good Irish players go? Yep, you've guessed it Mr Wogan.

As an unknown music radio presenter, I have no aspirations to be the next Gerry Ryan or Joe Duffy so I feel I'm out of the "Irish radio is boring" loop that is mentioned here but for the big names in radio when you compare them to the UK where budgets and licence fees are much bigger, the UK is always going to win.

Tallspoon

"I love this notion of the "talented unknowns". If they were so talented they'd have a job. The problem is that we have bugger-all of them."

To Rfoley
I think your viewpoint is disappointing. You imply that only big name dj's are any good. I take the opposite view. I think the big name dj's we have are pretty awful. Surely a people such as ours is capable of better than this. As an example, while living in London I used to listen to a radio show on GLR presented by Pauline MacGlynn (of Father Ted fame).
She sounded like a natural to me. She was funny, intelligent, entertaining and insightful but as far as I am aware she has not done much/any presenting in Ireland. Give this woman a job!
I'm not saying that she was a complete unknown but the Irish are amongst the most innovative, warm and entertaining in the world. If we can do anything it is talk for a living!

rfoley

Tallspoon wrote:

"You imply that only big name dj's are any good."

Eh, how do I imply that? No I don't! I never mentioned anything about big name DJ's. I was talking about these talented unknowns that should get jobs. As I said - if they had talent they'd get a job. Simple.

As for McGlynn. Well, she's hardly unknown.

FlutterinBantam

My God....!!!!!

I was warming to Tallsponn till he/she mentioned Pauline McLynn as a presenter....Hesu wept!!!!

I agree its time to shake up those well established ,corporate system working presenters,however if the answer is bringing in Big Brother type blatthermouths with tats and heavy regional accents....forget it....

Did you ever notice when those behind the scenes assistants is invited to the mike by the host... Sinead something...they are all called Sinéad! You can't shut them up!!!!

Get rid of that one Looney.... massive pain in the butt

nialldinho

Tallspoon wrote:

Shows such as Jonathon Ross

Where can you download Jonathan Ross' show? I couldn't see it on the BBC podcasts.

Tallspoon

Quote:
Where can you download Jonathan Ross' show? I couldn't see it on the BBC podcasts.


BBC Radio ripper!

RosieRo

rfoley wrote:

I love this notion of the "talented unknowns". If they were so talented they'd have a job. The problem is that we have bugger-all of them.

I'll give you an example of who was once a talented unknown, Graham Norton was of course turned down by RTE only to make a mint in the UK where they're more willing to take a chance younger and more creative ideas. RTE would rather play it safe and employ ex-big brother contestants to fill the daily TV schedules.

DublinWriter

Big Balls wrote:

And then when the money is much better in the UK, where do the good Irish players go? Yep, you've guessed it Mr Wogan.

Not really - Gerry Ryan's contract with RTE is around €425,000 p.a. The likes of Joe Duffy and Marianne Finucaine earn about €250,000 p.a.

While Chris Moyles might earn over a million sterling, the average front of mic person on BBC Regional wouldn't make anything near what RTE pay their 'stars' to broadcast to a similar sized audience.

Don't forget that Gay Byrne started his TV career with Granada in Manchester after initially being turned down by RTE TV (despite him having a successful Radio show on RTE Radio).

Big Balls wrote:

the big names in radio when you compare them to the UK where budgets and licence fees are much bigger, the UK is always going to win.

Take that arguement to it's logical conclusion and look at the pitiful state of FM Radio in the States.

FlutterinBantam

Never ceases to amaze me how we in Ireland tend to kind of "pro rate" our stipend to a UK scenario

Our radio and TV"stars" tend to earn BBC equivelents irrespective of the fact that they are broadcasting to about basically 10% of a BBC audience.

How RTE can justify 250k to Marian Finucane for a 2hour show Sat and Sun is beyond me..... I like it ....but ....250k for that!!!!!.... beat me with a very cynical stick please

DublinWriter

FlutterinBantam wrote:

How RTE can justify 250k to Marian Finucane for a 2hour show Sat and Sun is beyond me..... I like it ....but ....250k for that!!!!!.... beat me with a very cynical stick please

They can't, basically.

I do like Marian Finucane, even though her voice has gone as gravelly as a D.4 driveway and she has a very annoying habit of starting a questions with a high-pitched squeak when trying to sound incredulous.

However I'd put both her and Joe Duffy on a par with BBC regional presenters, most of which earn about 60K sterling pa.

byte

DublinWriter wrote:

While Chris Moyles might earn over a million sterling, the average front of mic person on BBC Regional wouldn't make anything near what RTE pay their 'stars' to broadcast to a similar sized audience.

According to a few leaks a month or so ago, it seems Moyles gets UK£630,000 per annum. But he's getting paid more than double than anyone else on the station.

Terry Wogan, over on Radio 2 is the best paid presenter there, with a whopping £800k wage. Chris Evans and Jonathan Ross each get over £500k.

dajaffa

cgf wrote:

Not so sure about Dunphy being a great show, perhaps a good show

The Wide Angle with Karen Coleman on Sat & Sun mornings is well worth a listen and their sports coverage is good.

If you are outside Leinster, http://www.newstalk106.ie/home.asp

They also have podcasts.

They got permission to go nationwide so I'm sure you'll be able to get it in most urban areas soon enough

Tallspoon

rfoley wrote:

I love this notion of the "talented unknowns". If they were so talented they'd have a job. The problem is that we have bugger-all of them.

I just discovered this talented unknown. She is from Dublin and her show rocks.
Another case of Irish talent being given a chance abroad while we must suffer the same old sh1te year after year after year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/anniemac/?focuswin

DublinWriter

Tallspoon wrote:

Another case of Irish talent being given a chance abroad while we must suffer the same old sh1te year after year after year.

Obviously she didn't go to UCD and wasn't able to find the secret connecting tunnel between the campus on Montrose.

mickd

Indeed but what a thrill it must be to get your own show on the best music station in the world. Why would she ever want to come back to the dross and muppetary that constitues music radio in this country , Dempsey & D'arcy my arse.

Wertz

Tallspoon wrote:

I just discovered this talented unknown. She is from Dublin and her show rocks.
Another case of Irish talent being given a chance abroad while we must suffer the same old sh1te year after year after year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/anniemac/?focuswin

Been listening to Annie for ages now (she used to do a nightshift midweek show) and her thursday night slot of electronica is a real weekend build up type show....an atypical Dub accent, genuine passion for what she's doing, a likable vibe and some craic out of her (without being too "oirish") and of course some great tunes and guest DJs. I think the nearest we ever got to that on 2fm was Mr Spring and it didn't last long.

The difference with Radio1 is they actually encourage DJ/presenters from sound production backgrounds and hands-on experience in spinning tunes, instead of grabbing people fresh out of some college course in media studies and groomign them for years in the hopes of producing the samey sounding "next big thing" with the generic mid atlantic/dort twang and the musical tastes of a 12 yr old.

I switched over to 2fm just now to see what kind of show is on....and they're f*cking talking about cars? WTH? It's 8.30pm...WHERE'S THE BLOODY MUSIC??? [EDIT] Oh it's about the LCert...my bad.

BWood

i have to agree Irish radio tends to bore me apart from a few exceptions like Tom Dunne's Pet Sounds,The Blast with Ray Foley and Rick O Shea...i generally listen to BBC Radio 1 on the Internet or in the car (depending on the freqeuncy being adequate)....i find that the Presenters on BBC Radio 1 and even Capital fm from London are better then such here in Ireland...
its unfortunate that Radio doesnt play a big part in Ireland as it does in the United Kingdom (and yes im aware of the difference in population between the two countries but that said it is still significantly less of a intrest here)


The presenters in the UK such as Chris Moyles and Scott Mills get a rather large following both from their on air shows and on their personal gigs from around the country.

MrJones

dont agree with you.
there are alot of good talk shows on irish radio such as dunphy's former show in the mornings on newstalk. also the last word is fairly good. then you have karen coleman on newstalk which is very interesting. sam smyth on today fm on sundays. fanning on 2fm in evenings soon to be on rte radio is good. the football show on newstalk in evenings is good. i actually think pat kennys sohow in the morning on radio is very good..seriously
music wise -it could be much better. there's isnt really an alternative to tom dunne. donal dineen is great but is on too late and is not avaialble on podcast.
i was listening to bbc radio 1 for a while there on the net and i got bored of it because they just rotate the same songs.

Tallspoon wrote:

I have given up listening to the same old c@!p on Irish radio and got myself a Zen MP3 player. I now have the pleasure of listening to BBC Radio in the car, around the house or wherever.
Shows such as Jonathon Ross, Mark Radcliffe on Radio2, Andrew Collins,Stuart Maconie(BBC 6Music) and many others are very entertaining, innovative and of a consistent high standard. Most of the RTE shows feel bloated, lazy and to put it bluntly one gets the feeling that Gerry Ryan, Duffy, Whelan, Kenny et al do not really give a toss. RTE treat the listeners with contempt by bringing in the likes of Evelyn O'Rourke or Fiona 'im a playright,me' Looney or that irritating fake Hector to beef up the schedule.
The management at RTE seem terrified to change or innovate.
They have lost one listener in me and will probably lose many more

Big Balls

BWood wrote:

its unfortunate that Radio doesnt play a big part in Ireland as it does in the United Kingdom

Such a load of rubbish. I don't think there's any country in Europe that tunes into the radio on a daily basis more than Ireland. Go through the BCI website and you'll find the facts.

Radio is huuuuuuuuuuuuge in Ireland.

BWood

ok...it may have been over zealous of me to say that Radio doesn't have a major part in Ireland compared to the UK....however i still stick to the opinion that Music Wise the UK have a better output of Radio and much more popular then here in Ireland.....i suggest you look at the ofcom report that was released....

MrJones

music-wise id say you could be correct. This could also be to do with the fact that England has many densely populated cities whereas ireland has 1-Dublin(maybe Cork too). It is also because there are bigger population-markets for the different kinds of music,so many many varieties of music stations can survive because they will get a big enough audience.
I think irish people are big fans of radio talk shows so you were widely inaccurate on that point. irish people like a good debate!

BWood wrote:

ok...it may have been over zealous of me to say that Radio doesn't have a major part in Ireland compared to the UK....however i still stick to the opinion that Music Wise the UK have a better output of Radio and much more popular then here in Ireland.....i suggest you look at the ofcom report that was released....

projectmayhem

while it's true that we irish like talk, we clearly like music (the vast majority of stations are music-based)... and i think there is a market for more "abstract" tastes (look at PhantomFM's fanbase, and they've been off the air for how long now?).

if RTÉ is supposed to cater to a wide array of tastes, why don't they on 2FM? why not have some metal show, or some funky jazz show, etc. etc.? the same way there's a show about gardening and fishing on Radio1, there should be abstract shows on 2FM that cater to a smaller, but receptive audience

Wertz

projectmayhem wrote:

if RTÉ is supposed to cater to a wide array of tastes, why don't they on 2FM? why not have some metal show, or some funky jazz show, etc. etc.? the same way there's a show about gardening and fishing on Radio1, there should be abstract shows on 2FM that cater to a smaller, but receptive audience

Exactly.

I have nothing against the coverage of current affairs and sport on our indiginous stations (it's always very well done and there's no shortage of it)....but musical diversity os simply non-exisatnt espcially on 2FM.
Here's something to consider; Oxegen festival is coming up in a couple of weeks...take a look at the line up and name me some of the less well known acts that get ANY airplay...you'd be hard pressed to name me five of the big name acts that get daytime airplay. Don't even get me started on the dance line-up...yet tens of thousands of people are forking over hundreds of euro for tickets to go see these acts.
It's a load of f*cking nonsense...2FM and the rest should have some sort of mandate for actually putting out new and varied music, instead of sticking with the tried-and-tested formulaic crap they seem to favour...a load of wedding DJs the lot of 'em...

mr_disc

What sickens me is that when i switch on the radio all i hear are adds and rubbish talk / jokes/ promotions from the DJs, i just wanna hear back to back music ( like they had on Atlantic 252, i think it was called, ages ago ).

The amount of stations is another problem, im in galway and only have effectively only 3 music stations to pick from ( 2FM, TodayFM, and Galway bay FM ).

HELP !!!:(

projectmayhem

mr_disc wrote:

The amount of stations is another problem, im in galway and only have effectively only 3 music stations to pick from ( 2FM, TodayFM, and Galway bay FM ).

HELP !!!:(

it's not the number of stations, it's the variance of music. i'm in dublin and can't count the number of music stations we have, but all of them are effectively the exact same.

Wertz

Atlantic252....there's a memory and a half...I recall hating that station back then, but looking back it was pretty good, even if it was just a rolling loop of 50 tracks.
I think the ads are one thing that really f*cks up Irish radio...they're of dire quality and tend to be on waay too much...I know they're a necessary source of revenue but they could at least have some sort of moratorium on how often each are played in a day...and get rid of that T&C's apply and financial regulatory bollocks.

Anyways, I'm an hour into the essential selection with Pete Tong, then it's the rap show with Westwood at 9, reggae dancehall at 11, and the D'n'B show with grooverider at 1am...quality.

DublinWriter

projectmayhem wrote:

it's not the number of stations, it's the variance of music. i'm in dublin and can't count the number of music stations we have, but all of them are effectively the exact same.

Dig around - there's some interesting legal community stations including Near, DCAL and Anna Livia who provide a refreshing alternative.

mr_disc

Dont see any of it improving though.. in fact quite the opposite....

BWood

Wertz wrote:

Anyways, I'm an hour into the essential selection with Pete Tong, then it's the rap show with Westwood at 9, reggae dancehall at 11, and the D'n'B show with grooverider at 1am...quality.

Im listening to that to....i was listening to Scott Mills' wonder years before then....which was great...

Fungiii

need more lisences given out

Chillwithcian

Whatever about RTE, im sick of wall to wall pop music on 98fm/104fm and all the other 25-35 stations plasterd around the band scans, we need some proper alternitave stations!!!

projectmayhem

DublinWriter wrote:

Dig around - there's some interesting legal community stations including Near, DCAL and Anna Livia who provide a refreshing alternative.

i'm a northsider (shwar, etc.) so nearFm and dcal don't reach my eardrums unless it be dark afaik.

as for anna livia, the sheer unprofessional nature of the on-air staff annoys me to no end. if you can't chatter for 3 minutes without having any dead air, then radio isn't for you.

Big Balls

Chillwithcian wrote:

Whatever about RTE, im sick of wall to wall pop music on 98fm/104fm and all the other 25-35 stations plasterd around the band scans, we need some proper alternitave stations!!!

You may be sick of it but FM104 is the most listened to music radio station in Dublin. They must be doing something right.

You want alternative music/alternative stations, that's fine, but appreciate that many of FM104's listeners don't.

muletide

cant wait for newstalk to go nationwide I always have it on when I am near the pale - some great shows on it and no Shakira

Chillwithcian

Big Balls wrote:

You may be sick of it but FM104 is the most listened to music radio station in Dublin. They must be doing something right.

You want alternative music/alternative stations, that's fine, but appreciate that many of FM104's listeners don't.

To be fair though, the majority of FM 104's listners are in the 20-35 age bracket which means that they will play the top 40 tracks to suit the advertisers. My point is that the BCI should not be favouring giving licences to these type of stations because they will know that they generate more revenue. I accept your view though, some people only like to listen to that praticular type of genre and thats fine as well.

projectmayhem

Big Balls wrote:

You may be sick of it but FM104 is the most listened to music radio station in Dublin. They must be doing something right.

You want alternative music/alternative stations, that's fine, but appreciate that many of FM104's listeners don't.

yup, and that's what Fm104 is for. we have fm104, why do we need spin (which got a dance license in the first place afaik), 98FM and all the other stations that do the exact same thing in the exact same city?

Wertz

The problem with a lack of alternative music content on stations is that mainstream becomes so much the norm that most people simply don't realise what they're missing out on....who honestly wanst to be bombarded by the same selection of generic stuff day in day out, and have it only change as record companies dictate what enters the charts and ultimately what gets played?
Popular chart music has it's place, even on my holier-than-thou BBC R1, but it's balanced and offset by other genres even during daytime airplay...the most alternation our home stations seem to get at peak times is playing some 80's oldies that we've all heard a hundred times.
Sticking your figurative neck out and playing something a bit left of field, a bit metal, or a bit electronic will not have listeners turning off in their droves...who knows, you might actually atract listeners since you're deviating from the apparent norm as broadcast by every other station out there...

Chillwithcian

Wertz wrote:

The problem with a lack of alternative music content on stations is that mainstream becomes so much the norm that most people simply don't realise what they're missing out on....who honestly wanst to be bombarded by the same selection of generic stuff day in day out, and have it only change as record companies dictate what enters the charts and ultimately what gets played?
Popular chart music has it's place, even on my holier-than-thou BBC R1, but it's balanced and offset by other genres even during daytime airplay...the most alternation our home stations seem to get at peak times is playing some 80's oldies that we've all heard a hundred times.
Sticking your figurative neck out and playing something a bit left of field, a bit metal, or a bit electronic will not have listeners turning off in their droves...who knows, you might actually atract listeners since you're deviating from the apparent norm as broadcast by every other station out there...

yeah, i agree with you compleatly!

projectmayhem

Wertz wrote:

The problem with a lack of alternative music content on stations is that mainstream becomes so much the norm that most people simply don't realise what they're missing out on....who honestly wanst to be bombarded by the same selection of generic stuff day in day out, and have it only change as record companies dictate what enters the charts and ultimately what gets played?
Popular chart music has it's place, even on my holier-than-thou BBC R1, but it's balanced and offset by other genres even during daytime airplay...the most alternation our home stations seem to get at peak times is playing some 80's oldies that we've all heard a hundred times.
Sticking your figurative neck out and playing something a bit left of field, a bit metal, or a bit electronic will not have listeners turning off in their droves...who knows, you might actually atract listeners since you're deviating from the apparent norm as broadcast by every other station out there...

absolutely. i'd like to see some figures for how popular internet radio is in ireland, as i find that's fantastic for getting a brilliant mix... but naturally, it lacks DJ's and whatnot.