Newstalk Megathread

Aidric

I happened to tune in to the start of the George Hook show yesterday. I was flabbergasted at how useless and inept the guy was coming across as. Is he always this bad? The conversation was one about those who now find themselves unemployed and what entitlements they may be due. The guy explaining it made it very clear and easy to understand, yet Hook had to repeat his questions at least three times in order to get a grip on the subject. It was hapless stuff, cringey even.

tbh

the problem is that NT don't pitch the show to people who want the news, it's pitched to people who want Georges opinion on the news. Unfortunately.

mike65

Repeating the question also a very cheap way of filling time, so fewer items means less research fewer guests/phone calls etc. NT is run on the principle of filling space between ad breaks as cheaply as possible.

Koloman

Aidric wrote: »

I happened to tune in to the start of the George Hook show yesterday. I was flabbergasted at how useless and inept the guy was coming across as. Is he always this bad? The conversation was one about those who now find themselves unemployed and what entitlements they may be due. The guy explaining it made it very clear and easy to understand, yet Hook had to repeat his questions at least three times in order to get a grip on the subject. It was hapless stuff, cringey even.

George may be many things but to say that he is useless and inept is going too far. He does have a good head on him in most debates and discussions. Maybe he was just making it easier for the listener to understand.

Social welfare entitlement debates can get very complicated sometimes.

alpha2zulu

Dont think anybody has mentioned it here yet, but since this morning, Claire and Ivan are only on the air from 7am, with 630-700am becoming "business breakfast" with Conor Brophy I think his name his.

The whole change at first glance looks like something drawn up on a back of a ciggie box, but the first 20minutes or so of the business show did sound quite good.

Arthur Daley

Hook's only worth listening to for the car crash radio that is his 5.40-6pm slot each friday with Michael Graham, the right wing US talk show host.

Koloman

Arthur Daley wrote: »

Hook's only worth listening to for the car crash radio that is his 5.40-6pm slot each friday with Michael Graham, the right wing US talk show host.

That's my favourite part of the show. It's great listening.

Koloman

alpha2zulu wrote: »

Dont think anybody has mentioned it here yet, but since this morning, Claire and Ivan are only on the air from 7am, with 630-700am becoming "business breakfast" with Conor Brophy I think his name his.

The whole change at first glance looks like something drawn up on a back of a ciggie box, but the first 20minutes or so of the business show did sound quite good.

Maybe they are getting that idea from 5 live's, Wake Up To Money which is a business show on before the main BBC breakfast show.

Aidric

Koloman wrote: »

George may be many things but to say that he is useless and inept is going too far. He does have a good head on him in most debates and discussions. Maybe he was just making it easier for the listener to understand.

Social welfare entitlement debates can get very complicated sometimes.

If the guy had been vague and hard to understand then yes, but like I said in my previous post he was very clear and easy to understand. Hook failed to grasp the basics of the topic being discussed, so much so that I could almost sense the guys frustration at having to repeat himself.

alpha2zulu

Koloman wrote: »

Maybe they are getting that idea from 5 live's, Wake Up To Money which is a business show on before the main BBC breakfast show.

Was thinking the exact same, however if they keep the standards up I dont see why it cant do better than a half hour of Claire/Ivan "banter". Time will tell of couse if NT management give it time to bed down, because i think the Sunday business shows have deefinetly shown there is a appetite for that format.

deadhead13

I find Conor Brophy very hard to listen to.

jack24

alpha2zulu wrote: »

Was thinking the exact same, however if they keep the standards up I dont see why it cant do better than a half hour of Claire/Ivan "banter". Time will tell of couse if NT management give it time to bed down, because i think the Sunday business shows have deefinetly shown there is a appetite for that format.

It didnt sound quite like 'banter' between Claire and Ivan. Someone else suggested they sounded like they were in different studios in terms of the warmth between them. Maybe Claire's feeling threatened it may become a one man show again (while secretly hoping for a one woman show). The whole thing is a mess, can't say I mind Conor Brophy though, its streets ahead of the text in the biggest pothole sh1te that was the staple of recent times on Newstalk.

FergalBoards.ie

While I like the Business Breakfast concept, I have to say I wasn't impressed.

An interview with some guy off of, was it MySpace Ireland?

And what was he talking about? Property.

It just adds to the feeling that no one really knows what they're doing in their main job and everyone is still obsessed with property.

Then he was asked his opinion about Eircom, and suddenly was all vague and non-specific basically saying "it's important". Well done Einstein.

This could have been a great chance to talk about recession guerrilla marketing, about the loss of the workday and corporate computer resources to Web 2.0, about reputation management.

None of the above.

tbh

deadhead13 wrote: »

I find Conor Brophy very hard to listen to.

I quite like him, but then I don't have any real interest in the business world. One problem I do have, tho, and this kind of relates to Claire as well, is that the questions they ask seem to be trying to demonstrate how well they know the subject, rather than trying to clarify or explore something that the interviewee is talking about. They seem to be spending their whole time (Conor and Claire) trying to "catch people out" rather than having a discussion. For example, Conor was talking yesterday to someone from the ESRI (I think anyway) and while Conor was taking 5 minutes to ask a question you could hear the guy going "yeah, yeah, yeah" as if to say "Just get to the point!"

Dub13

How is Ivan and the teenage girl getting on..?I am off work the last week or so and have not been up to listen.

SEPT 23 1989

I thought Gilmore was going to lose the head with her this morning

same stupid question over and over not letting him answer properly

not very professional

she annoys me

andrewk08

I have been a listener of Newstalk since it started. However, I stopped listening to Hook's EGO about 6 months ago. Now that Ger has left the breakfast show, I have switched from that too (to RTE). Not sure who calls the shots at Newstalk, but the Breakfast Show is so full of Gafs from Clare; Ger brought some intelligence to discussions. Clare seems very nice, but she isn't the sharpest knife in the box and I just couldn't listen to that ex-TD/Bookie guy. Now the only show I listen to is Lunchtime and the weekend business program.

TarfHead

andrewk08 wrote: »

I have been a listener of Newstalk since it started. However, I stopped listening to Hook's EGO .. Now the only show I listen to is Lunchtime ..

George Hook ego BAD - Eamon Keane ego GOOD ?

JennyQ4496

I cannot stand George Hook on radio or in person, He is obnoxious and full of his own self importance and loves the sound of his own voice! A*****e! I can't understand how anybody can listen to him, the tone of his voice even irritates the hell out me!:mad:

andrewk08

If you listen to Hook on the rugby panels on RTE, he periodically talks over and bullys the other presenters until he gets the floor. His show was often an attempt to publicise himself, with outdoor broadcasts etc., it was like Parnell running around the country. The American election finished it for me, couldn't listen to him sucking up to so many and how did the editors allow so much time for it. Maybe if I lived in USA I might have that level of interest. Most people in work listen to matt cooper and I have joined their ranks.

Eamon Keane can sometimes can take some strange angles on stories, but at least he asks the hard questions. I would never expect to agree with a presenter all the time.

projectmayhem

For what it's worth, the only real reason I tune into newstalk is Moncrief...

humberklog

projectmayhem wrote: »

For what it's worth, the only real reason I tune into newstalk is Moncrief...

I was just looking at him earlier today while he was in the window of BT's.
I was eating a curly-wurly as he was interviewing some woman about cabbages.

Generally excellent show...pity I didn't catch a juicier piece of conversational action.

deadhead13

The difference in the quality of Drivetime's and The Right Hooks coverage of the Child Abuse Commissions report on wednesday, clearly demonstrated all that is wrong with Newstalk.

Drivetime devoted almost the entire show to the issue. With informative analsysis of the report. Re-enactments of witness statement. Interviews with well informed contributors, including some of victums.

Hook on the other hand had two quests who didn't even appear to have read the summary of the report and frankly didn't really address the issues that it raised. The questioning was all over the place. George spent an inordinate amount of time telling us how he finds reading accounts of child abuse very difficult and upsetting.....it is not always about you George ffs.

You could point to RTE's vastly bigger budget...etc, but Newstalk's effort on this very important news item was just, very poor.

mal1

Did anyone hear Michael Woods call Pat Rabbitte 'Pat the Rabbit' this morning on Newstalk?

subway

i do listen to it quite a bit, but the amount of ads is getting ridiculous.
ive stopped listening to the breaksfast show as i find claire to be very abrasive and abrupt with people. tough interviewing isnt about belittling guests.

i don enjoy george, but probably for all the reasons everyone else hates him!
i dont rate him greatly as a investigative broadcaster or interviewer, but do find him to be pleasant and to have, generally, interesting topics. iam finding myself flicking stations more and more these days however

robo

I hear the Pat the Rabbit comment..hilarious!

But on George Hook - does anyone know why he has stopped twittering?? He was all go at it and then all of a sudden has stopped, anyone know why? Did he say anything on his show?

Dub13

robo wrote: »

But on George Hook - does anyone know why he has stopped twittering?? He was all go at it and then all of a sudden has stopped, anyone know why? Did he say anything on his show?

Maybe he realized twitter was crap.

robo

I dunno, cos his 2nd last message said that he would explain why he was not on the site lately!

ntlbell

projectmayhem wrote: »

For what it's worth, the only real reason I tune into newstalk is Moncrief...

it's one of the very few reasons i turn newstalk off.

mobius42

robo wrote: »

I hear the Pat the Rabbit comment..hilarious!

But on George Hook - does anyone know why he has stopped twittering?? He was all go at it and then all of a sudden has stopped, anyone know why? Did he say anything on his show?

He's too busy using his Sky+ box to have time to use Twitter.