Newstalk nationwide

Jackie laughlin

Newstalk 106 was never great. It certainly didn't offer alternative points of view but it was lively, sometimes funny, and it was Dublin centred. As it drifted towards "nationwide" status, it dumbed down considerably. It's now a lost cause. However, a question arises: When will Dublin get local radio?

flogen

Jackie laughlin wrote:

Newstalk 106 was never great. It certainly didn't offer alternative points of view but it was lively, sometimes funny, and it was Dublin centred. As it drifted towards "nationwide" status, it dumbed down considerably. It's now a lost cause. However, a question arises: When will Dublin get local radio?

What do you mean by local?
Do you mean Dublin-only, like:
FM104
98FM
Q102
Phantom 105.2
Spin 103.8
Dublin Country (Star FM or something)

Or do you mean local within Dublin (ie Community), like:
Near FM
Dublin City Anna Livia
Beaumount Radio
Dublin South FM
Raidio Na Life
College radio (DCU, DIT, Griffith etc.)
Not to mention the few pirates still scattered across the capital...

Bear in mind that national stations (specifically commercial ones) are in the minority; most of what you hear is local radio, and there's more on the way too...

Dundalk Daily

College and hospital radio are hardly local radio stations now are they ?

Jackie I would say that the fact that a "local" Dublin radio station would be targetting such a varied audience, it may as well be national.

MrJoeSoap

Newstalk is the only radio station I'll listen to (by choice anyway!), and I really enjoy Moncrieff and Off-The-Ball. Its a decent alternative to RTE.

flogen

Dundalk Daily wrote:

College and hospital radio are hardly local radio stations now are they ?

Jackie I would say that the fact that a "local" Dublin radio station would be targetting such a varied audience, it may as well be national.

I don't see why not; as far as I'm aware the ones I mentioned broadcast outside their campus'; although they do tend to be temporary licences (but I'm sure that some colleges may be looking to go full time soon, if they haven't already)

Sad Professor

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Newstalk is the only radio station I'll listen to (by choice anyway!), and I really enjoy Moncrieff and Off-The-Ball. Its a decent alternative to RTE.

I agree. I really can't stand RTE anymore and only listen occasionally for the news. Newstalk is still a relatively very young station, one which will grow a lot in the future.

LordSutch

I think Jackie does have a point!
It certainly seems to me that having gone nationwide a certain amount of Fizz is missing from NewsTalk, with some of the presenters disappearing & some being moved to completly different time slots (Declan Carty comes to mind)!

I just wish thay could be a REAL news station like (BBC Radio 5) without so much of the "Opinion" based news material .................

Moncrief has to be their best presenter, thank God Kybird & Dunphy have gone and as for Orla Barry ..............................
And is it just me, or does she seem to force out her last breath with every last word? sounds like she is a heavy, heavy smoker?

mike65

ArthurF, opinion is cheap! Real news is the most expensive comodity in broadcasting. All that fecking txting is'nt occuring by accident.

Mike.

Jackie laughlin

I accept that half of the population lives in the greater Dublin area but since the advent of "Local Radio" Dublin has been fobbed off with music stations.

Newstalk, it seems to me and I accept that I haven't researched this, has gone over to some sort of lifestyle broadcasting. I've gone back to RTE but they keep inserting music programmes comprised of dated pop songs.

Now that I think about, if country music fans can get their own service, why can't intelligent, reasonably informed Dubliners have a news and discussion station?

flogen

Jackie laughlin wrote:

Now that I think about, if country music fans can get their own service, why can't intelligent, reasonably informed Dubliners have a news and discussion station?

As far as I'm aware Dublin's Country Mix has been just about hobbling along since inception; it has a market share of 2.9%; which is half that of Spin and Newstalk (which are both still loss-makers).

My point is that Dublin will get a decent News and Discussion station when it becomes economically viable.
Newstalk as a Dublin-only station struck the most logical balance between lifestyle, comment and news and even that didn't make any money for Communicorp (which could be why it has shifted focus, although I've not really had the chance to pay too much attention to it since it went national). You can be sure that few would attempt to make a hard-hitting news/discussion station in any market in Ireland because there simply isn't the regular audience for it.

Jackie laughlin

Flogen,
This is the familiar neo-liberal approach to broadcasting and all else. OK, it's the dominant ideology today but there is profit and profit. Newstalk proved that talk radio in Dublin was economically viable. It then went after a bigger market and tailored content to attract a more general audience. Unless competition is tightly regulated in broadcasting, we always end up with "57 Channels and Nothing On"!

flogen

Jackie laughlin wrote:

Flogen,
This is the familiar neo-liberal approach to broadcasting and all else. OK, it's the dominant ideology today but there is profit and profit. Newstalk proved that talk radio in Dublin was economically viable. It then went after a bigger market and tailored content to attract a more general audience. Unless competition is tightly regulated in broadcasting, we always end up with "57 Channels and Nothing On"!

But it wasn't economically viable; it was/is being kept afloat by Denis O'Brien's money... besides, as much as the format may have changed, the channel has always been comment-based... perhaps what they're discussing has just become a little lighter.

Whatever about this being a "familiar neo-liberal approach" the fact is that commercial radio stations need to attract an audience to survive, as much as I'd like to see some hard-news radio (even newstalk at it's best wasn't that), I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority in the city.

Do bear in mind, however, that the BCI still have Newstalk's original Dublin-only licence and could offer it up if they felt there was demand/need for it... they probably won't do that for a while though.

Jackie laughlin

Flogen,
Are you sure about this? I understand that Newstalk still hold their Dublin licence.

DMC

They don't.

They handed back the licence for a news/speech based station for the Dublin area, but crucially, they kept the Dublin frequency as part of their quasi-national licence.

Jackie laughlin

Thanks for this info. Given that Newstalk use 106 MHz, is there still a frequency vacant on which a Dublin news and talk channel might operate?

flogen

Jackie laughlin wrote:

Thanks for this info. Given that Newstalk use 106 MHz, is there still a frequency vacant on which a Dublin news and talk channel might operate?

Apparently they originally hoped to keep both licences, continuing to be a Dublin-only station for the Dublin audience while broadcasting nationally too (and sharing much of the content between the two, as you can imagine) but the BCI were none to pleased with the idea (as it wasn't part of their bid that won the national licence in the first place) and so they leaned on them to hand over their Dublin-only licence.

Is there a frequency? Physically, yes, I'm sure they can find space on the FM dial for a fair few more channels yet... will they offer it up again in the near future? I doubt it... maybe if Newstalk national becomes a huge success and it becomes apparent that there's room for 3 news-based stations in 1 city.

edanto

Jackie laughlin wrote:

It certainly didn't offer alternative points of view

why can't intelligent, reasonably informed Dubliners have a news and discussion station

I'd agree! Something with the range and flow of opinions on boards, but just on the radio!! Let people discuss things all they want, but get them to back up opinions with some facts.

Hmm... just going with that idea for a minute. What would a station like that sound like? What kind of shows would be on it?

Say, for an afternoon or drivetime show, they could pick topics from the either the daily news or big stories of the week and have people ring to 'debate'. Debate's a kind of stuffy word for what I have in mind, but can you imagine the kindof show I mean.

Reckon people would listen? Then again, maybe it's already out there. Don't really listen to the radio much myself. Is there a show like that?

Probably already one on newstalk and I miss it from being in work

edanto

mike65 wrote:

ArthurF, opinion is cheap! Real news is the most expensive comodity in broadcasting.

That's a really interesting point.

luckat

Newstalk is grand most of the time - it was the only station to give on-the-spot coverage to the Dublin riots last spring, for instance.

But it really needs to split its channel and have one side news and the other sport on weekend afternoons. I wouldn't personally regard long-drawn-out coverage of games as 'news'.

flogen

luckat wrote:

Newstalk is grand most of the time - it was the only station to give on-the-spot coverage to the Dublin riots last spring, for instance.

But it really needs to split its channel and have one side news and the other sport on weekend afternoons. I wouldn't personally regard long-drawn-out coverage of games as 'news'.

Indeed, it's coverage of the riots showed it could deal with surprise incidents like that, while RTE were left seriously wanting.

I'd agree that the sports coverage is excessive, but that's only because I'm not a huge sports fan; I'd say it gets some decent listenership (and sports coverage is fair enough when it comes to news coverage)

spank_inferno

I think when you target a much wider audience you have to broaden your focus to attract as many listeners as possible.

Advertising revenue is based on the number of people listening rather than their respective intellects

Newstalk was never strong especially in the morning, & with the move of Declan carthy to the night time slot the los of that very community orientated show has definetly changed the flavour of news talk.

If I may throw out these outrageuos generalisations.

Morning show listener: Hoping for better banter than morning ireland
usually disappointed by how s**te claire byrne is

Orla barry Show: The realm of undersexed middle aged women who are no
longer turned on by Gerry Ryan's voice

Brenda power phone show: Hypocondriacs, fear mongerers, naieve bafoons
who fall for every scam going (and like to ring
in about it)

after that it thankfully gets better!

NewsWire

I like NewsTalk , but i their primetime lineup(if you can call it that) is terrible.a three hour Sports show everynight?...thats not on..following that is a boring late night talk show.

for me their daytime programmes are top class but it just falls away into the evening..

Andrew 83

I think Off the Ball is good to have every night. No other channel really has an equivalent so it gives them a good niche audience.

LostinBlanch

spank_inferno wrote:

I think when you target a much wider audience you have to broaden your focus to attract as many listeners as possible.

Advertising revenue is based on the number of people listening rather than their respective intellects

Newstalk was never strong especially in the morning, & with the move of Declan carthy to the night time slot the los of that very community orientated show has definetly changed the flavour of news talk.

If I may throw out these outrageuos generalisations.

Morning show listener: Hoping for better banter than morning ireland
usually disappointed by how s**te claire byrne is

Orla barry Show: The realm of undersexed middle aged women who are no
longer turned on by Gerry Ryan's voice

Brenda power phone show: Hypocondriacs, fear mongerers, naieve bafoons
who fall for every scam going (and like to ring
in about it)

after that it thankfully gets better!

I agree it's programmes pre 12.30 need to be sorted out bigtime. Orla Barry and Brenda Power YAWN bigtime.

DMC

NewsWire wrote:

but i their primetime lineup(if you can call it that) is terrible.a three hour Sports show everynight?...thats not on..following that is a boring late night talk show.

"Primetime" for a radio station is generally held as being its daytime schedule, 7am-7pm. I think its the right time in the schedule for a sports show.

irish_bob

well where do i start with newstalk 106
why not with thier morning show with ger gilroy and claire byrne
i never got claire byrnes appeal, when on tv 3 news , she always came across as completly gormless , she had that lovely primary school teacher look about her
as for gilroy, could the man be any more smug
that show city edition that used to be on , only thing i ever heard on it was when a doctor would answer peoples questions about bladder trouble or something , was like holby city on the radio
its baschically crap right up through lunchtime untill moncrief comes on who can be funny some times but is really only alright in small doses
george hook is the pick of the bunch and i enjoy his friday evening slot with the shock jock from america , its good for a laugh
at the weekend , we have karen colemen who although a tough lady and a not afraid to ask hard questions makes vincent browne look right wing
they should never have gotten rid of david mc williams , they couldnt afford him now even they asked him back
newstalk could have been so much better , its a big let down really

livia

Newstalk,i my opinion, is gone just as boring as RTE,very-middle-of-the road and never quite as up to date with the news as RTE.There were times when it was a Dublin only station when it could be quite anarchic,especially G.Gilroy but now even he's got got the slippers on.Listeners to Talksport, James Whale has a tribute show on for the late Mike Dicken ,21st Dec starting 10 o clock

constitutionus

flogen wrote:

Indeed, it's coverage of the riots showed it could deal with surprise incidents like that, while RTE were left seriously wanting.

I'd agree that the sports coverage is excessive, but that's only because I'm not a huge sports fan; I'd say it gets some decent listenership (and sports coverage is fair enough when it comes to news coverage)

not to mention when liam lawlor died they ditched their saturday sports show to cover it while RTE was still waffling on about junior GAA.

im somewhat conflicted by newstalk lately. like most of you i think the stations took a turn for the worse since it got the national licence which is a real shame cause it was such a breath of fresh air. ok their incompetence was legendary when they started up with breaks in transmissions a regular occurrence but it sorted itself out with a decent line up and as mentioned they were definitely on the ball when it came to surprise news stories on the ground, the love ulster riots being the best example. i was in work when that was happening and it was surreal to here someone commentating on something going on down the road from me (was off nasau street at the time).

its still the station of choice for me when im going to work on the bus and have it on in the backround when i get there but i cant help thinking things started going down hill when eamonn dunphy left.
clair and ger, while ok, are no dunphy and i dont see them being as controversial either. like him or loath him eamo is one of the only commentators that hasnt been raised in the same backround as the rest of the media which is why his view is so popular. he has a "common" touch for want of a better term (and i despise using it) but more and more of the staff in newstalk seem divorced from the average person.

orla barrys ok for a militant feminist and fun to wind up but brenda power is the perfect example of what i was just on about. her show is appalling and the only way i can get through it is to assume its a comedy. moving declan carthy from this spot was a disaster. he's doing ok in "late night live" but it doesnt seem to flow as well as when he was doing city edition.

the next newbie, eamonn keane (?), is at least entertaining and the best of the new blood. he takes a more aggressive approach to politicians which can really throw them and he's occasionally got TDs to say things they regret (a certain minister who commentated on the bertie gate affair stating "we all know where the leak is coming from" ended up in front of the tribunal for it!) and im slowing becoming a fan but while he seems to be taking a dunphy style he can come off as a smug git to rival gilroy too so its a bit of a balancing act

im still not used to moncrieff being on half an hour earlier (ditto i shouldve said for the morning show, 6.30!. turned it on once and was convinced i overslept )but of all the shows, next to the right hook, its the one that seems to have suffered the least from the national transition. its light and fun while being occasionally deeper when its merited and comes off as one of the stations best shows. not helped in small part by the inclusion of normal people. seans stated himself that its powered by the interactivity with the audience through texting and provided some of the best moments on the show ( the nickname "incomplete pete" still cracks me up ) and the introduction of the three biddies that come on to talk about stuff who generally seems to be the mothers of staff members provides us with a view we wouldnt normally get from the professional broadcaster set. he can still be a twat from time to time but at least hes not a slave to his views.

george hook, well what can i say, he still does what he does and does it well. ya can see how hes the stations biggest draw and main competitor to matt cooper. while i might switch over to 5-7 live it wouldnt be for long.

like others i dont like sport so i switch off the radio then. to be honest thats the one real complaint i have about newstalk. they ape RTE way too much. dont they realise theres a huge market out there that dont want to listen to sport in the evening and if they stuck another show on instead they'd hook the entire lot of em? its not like sports not covered. its on the morning show, the george hook show and has several hours on a saturday and sunday. give us a bit of choice for gods sake!

newstalk at the weekend is a mixed bag. i like karen coleman and the interviews she does can be real hard hitting at times making for good listening and i regularly tune it. ditto for the business show which ties in more often than not with politics. they had great coverage of the whole smart telecom debacle and it was from them that i first heard Eircom got smarts 3g liscence.
but the arts and entertainment show is painfull and i count the secounds till it ends, usually switching over to the best of the last word when its on. i dont know what the hell senator norris is doing. he was a good replacement for moncrief when sean was on holiday so giving him a show seemed like a no brainer but the thing just leaves me lost and i havent heard it more than twice.

dunphy left the station saying he though they werent ready for going national and while i dont think thats the real reason he left (i personally think screwing people out of twice as much money for the texting had alot to do with it) he does seem to have a point. some of the shows are downright weird, and seemingly run by students versed in the subject. theres a history show at some stage in the week but i havent been arsed to listen to it. ditto for "splanc", i cant speak irish so i dont listen to this. i like my irish spoken by well porportioned TG4 weather girls or not at all . still i give em credit for trying.

all in all newstalk still appeals to me more than RTE. certainly ive got more in common with their presenters than marrion , gerry (voice of the young:rolleyes: ) ryan, turbidy (FFS) Pat and co. not to mention JOE (im a common working class lad like you, if common working class lads earn 250k ayear ) DUFFY. RTE represents the establishment to me. its a bunch of people interviewing people they drink with in a staid and safe enviroment where you dont expect any real revelaton that hasnt been stamped and indexed a week before hand ( i mean the taoiseach telling people "you only have 3 questions", when the hell did we become stalanist russia ) so any new forum that can upset that has got to be a good thing, hell i still think hook is boasting about the fact harney wont come on his show in a weird way newstalk is to RTE what tiswaz was to swap shop, some what anarchic but fun and different than the establisment show. big question is what'll happen to it in the future? afterall look what happend to the tiswaz lads in the end

mike65

Eamon Keane is driving me nuts. Such a smug arse, with a very small bag of tricks - a big sigh "whatever....", "newstalk breaking news!", exclaming "exclusive on Newstalk!" in a fashion that the Sky News tickertape would find too insistant. Frankly daft exaggeration for cheap effect - the decision by Bush to put in another 20,000 troops was described today as a crusade in passing during a conversation with a proper journalist from the London Times. and so on. He also seems to think that having association with a variety of public sector NGO type do-gooders makes him an expert on social matters and law and order - he never misses a change to have a dig at McDowell and (Harney come to that). To be honest the more I listen the more I suspect he's a grade A spoofer.

Mike.

constitutionus

looks like he's your " brenda power"

just thought i'd toss this in cause its vaguely tangently associated to it. im listening to news talk in the backround at the moment and they reported theyve found three (open to correction, but its definetly more than one) survivors of that boat thats gone missing. RTE did a big out side broadcast today with the young one below in my sig interviewing people from the coastal town where there from. they pretty much declared all 5 of em dead yet it looks like theres hope yet.

nice to hear a good story for a change, heres hoping they get the other two

Shifty

Picked this up from the RTE website:

The search for five men missing since their fishing vessel sank off the Wexford/Waterford coast last night has been called off for the evening.

The owner of the Pere Charles, Michael Walsh, said he hoped for a miracle which would see the five crewmen return safe and well, but the likelihood of this was reducing the longer they were missing.

Two life rafts from the vessel have been recovered. Debris was also found close to the location where the fishing vessel is believed to have gone down.

The trawler is believed to have sunk off Hook Head at around 6pm yesterday. The alarm was raised when the trawler sent out a distress signal. Four of the missing men are Irish; the fifth man is from Ukraine





Two crewmen from a second trawler that went missing off the Waterford coast have been picked up in their life raft.

A search for two other crew members is continuing amid difficult sea conditions.

The two men, who spent 20 hours in the life raft, were picked up 14 miles west of Mine Head and only 13 miles from the location where the Pere Charles sank.

They have now been airlifted to Waterford Regional Hospital where they are said to be in good condition.

The Irish Coast Guard said the search for the 72-foot Honey Dew II with four people on board was launched just after 6.00pm.

There had been no radio contact with the vessel since 1.00am.

A spokesman for the Coast Guard said the naval LE Emer, the water-based Coast Guard helicopter and the Ballycotton lifeboat are at the scene.

The trawler with its crew of an Irishman and three foreign nationals set out from Kinsale yesterday.

mike65

Those two rescued are from a second trawler sinking!
It happened between Kinsale head and Ardmore somewhere I think, the five from last night are all dead if not found by now sadly. Waterford Harbour/Hook head area is absolutly deadly I can only put most of the losses down to the powerful and fast currents created by the headland.

Mike.

constitutionus

aw crap, thought it was too good to be true

still nice to hear about the other lads, heres hoping the get the other two.ya gotta respect anyone that can go through that. anyword on the 3000ton ship thats heading towards that gas platform in the north sea?

*EDIT* sorry just realised i went way off thread so just ignore my last question , promise to get back to newstalk later

Kwekubo

flogen wrote:

I don't see why not; as far as I'm aware the ones I mentioned broadcast outside their campus'; although they do tend to be temporary licences (but I'm sure that some colleges may be looking to go full time soon, if they haven't already)

There's been rumblings that the various Dublin colleges will club together to create a single, full-time (during term) station: http://www.ucd.ie/observer/v11i11/n-dublincollege.html

Jackie laughlin

Newstalk charge listeners 30c to send THEM a text! Imagine if the Irish Times charged letter writers for writing to the editor!!

MrJoeSoap

Jackie laughlin wrote:

Newstalk charge listeners 30c to send THEM a text! Imagine if the Irish Times charged letter writers for writing to the editor!!

Don't most radio stations do the same?

Jackie laughlin

No, I don't think so. RTE use standard 086 or 087 lines.

constitutionus

yup, jackies right. when you hear 53*** it generally means its a premium text line. the only exeception i know is today FMs last word show.

i used to be a regular texter to newstalk and got a fair amount of em read out but stopped when they instituted this rip off, which is sad cause one of newstalks strengths was the listener interacton which frequently put forward a view the presenters would never come up with.ever since its introduction theres been a marked reduction in the amount of quality insightful messages and i cant help thinking an entire demographics been cut off in terms of a voice, 30cents nothing if your earning a good wage or use a company phone. it adds up pretty ****ing quick if your counting your bus fare.
in fact im pretty sure the whole rip off text thing is what drove dunphy to leave. im not saying its the only thing but he was very vocal about it on his morning show when it first started and was gone before long after that

superdudeman007

Jackie laughlin wrote:

Now that I think about, if country music fans can get their own service, why can't intelligent, reasonably informed Dubliners have a news and discussion station?

Isn't that why they licensed Anna Livia?

Michael G

Sad Professor wrote:

I agree. I really can't stand RTE anymore and only listen occasionally for the news. Newstalk is still a relatively very young station, one which will grow a lot in the future.

Me too. Since we culchies got it, I don't need to suffer RTE 1 any more. I agree that Eamonn Keane is a pain in the hole, and I still listen to Gerry Ryan, but at least I now have somewhere else to go in the evening when Matt Cooper is talking about something boring like children, health or sport, and Lyric FM is playing repeats of Your Hundred Best Tunes from BBC Radio 2 around 1973. And the Sunday evening history programme on Newstalk means that there is something on at that time that those of us with opposable thumbs can listen to.

Jackie laughlin

Michael,
I found refuge with Newstalk when I could no longer stand RTE lapsing into outdated pop music while I was looking for intelligent talk. However, as nationwide coverage got closer, Newstalk changed dramatically into a very boring "lifestyle" station. OK, it's still talk but God, it's become dull and unintelligent. It's like Gerry Ryan going on for the greater part of the day. I've returned for the most part to RTE 1 but switch off when they fill-in with music.