Newstalk Megathread

DMC

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

they are aiming at a specific target market, and it's not the punters who listen to MI;)

SUN, Star Mirror merchants .. thems the people they wants;);)

Well, if they want that audience, then they should replace Claire Byrne with Claire Tully.

It's a pity you can't see tits on the radio*












*apologies to Eric Idle

GhostInTheRuins

thebigcheese22 wrote: »

The rest of us are nice :pac:

I know, I myself am one

hacx

Moncreiff read out my emails two days running. AWESOME!

connundrum

Today... I switched from The Breakfast Show to RTE 1.

And I reckon it'll be a permanent move.

The Breakfast Show just seems disjointed of late (pre-Ivan Yates joining), and I feel like I was actually being charitable in listening i.e. if I stick with it, it'll get better.

Today I actually felt a tinge of anger, as despite my patience with the show, and my loyalty to it, it failed me yet again.

So good luck to you I say.

I will be back for Tom Dunne, Moncrief and OTB though, so all is not lost.

Edit: Just to add to my thoughts.

I'm not looking for the Breakfast Show to be a replica of Morning Ireland, as then there would be no alternative.

I want Morning Ireland to be the Irish Times, and I was NT's Breakfast Show to be The Irish Independant (handy size). I want my news presented with some analysis, small bites of opinion from the hosts, and in a lighter than deadly serious manner.

I do not want to hear listener's texts, twitter whoring, inside jokes, jostling for airtime, interviews constantly cut short, half arsed reasearched topics and biased commentary/interviews. I may be asking for too much though

robo

I did the same - what a difference! Rather than reading texts, they are giving location reports!

nevey

I don't think it is okay for a radio presenter to use his show as a vehicle for expressing his own opinions as frequently as this guy does on Newstalk.
Today, Newstalk were all excited about their scoop on whether or not Enda Kenny had asked Trevor Sargent to approach Sinn Fein about their possible support for a FG-led government after the 2007 election. It seemed to me to be a real non-story or at least not much of a story, and more something that could well be attributable to a misinterpretation of a throw-away comment. So Eamo leads us through the scenario step by step and proceeds to intuit that it must be true as Trevor Sargent is a stand-up guy and why would he lie? Whereas ... I can't remember his exact words, but he basically said Enda is an eejit.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of Enda, but can you imagine a serious journalist making such a partisan comment? Does anyone else find Eamon Keane to be just unbearable to listen to?

deadhead13

nevey wrote: »

Does anyone else find Eamon Keane to be just unbearable to listen to?

I think it is more of the case......is there anyone who doesn't find Eamon Keane unbearable?

coopersgreen

deadhead13 wrote: »

I think it is more of the case......is there anyone who doesn't find Eamon Keane unbearable?

Exactly this.

JonathanAnon

I think the show is good, but then I'm still just happy that I've found someone besides Ronan collins to listen to at 12 o'clock.

nevey

JonathanAnon wrote: »

I think the show is good, but then I'm still just happy that I've found someone besides Ronan collins to listen to at 12 o'clock.

There is that. It is actually the only reason I listen to him. I usually switch over to Radio1 as soon as it is safe to do so.

What's the deal with this megathread? I posted this as a stand-alone discussion. This post is about Eamon Keane - it really isn't to do with Newstalk. There are at the moment 2 threads on this first board about FM104 and 2 about Radio1. Why hide all the chat which is vaguely related to Newstalk on 1 thread?

Dub13

I agree,I think one thread for everything Newstalk is to much.

GhostInTheRuins

JonathanAnon wrote: »

I'm still just happy that I've found someone besides Ronan collins to listen to at 12 o'clock.

Same as myself, it's the only reason I might turn him on. Come one o'clock it's right back to radio 1 though.

StaticNoise

Be careful of Moncrieff's show.
I've worked on it and a great deal of the texts and emails are fake (just in case you didn't know).

That said, I still enjoy it, but the '...Kids...' VoxPops can be quite irritating. Imagine hearing that on loud monitors in a confined studio. Nearly as annoying as the Ladies; which is prerecorded of course.

Thumbs up to Newstalk however. Returning soon.

However, the fact that live broadcasting stops so early gets on my wick, especially from a national broadcaster.

tbh

nevey wrote: »

There is that. It is actually the only reason I listen to him. I usually switch over to Radio1 as soon as it is safe to do so.

What's the deal with this megathread? I posted this as a stand-alone discussion. This post is about Eamon Keane - it really isn't to do with Newstalk. There are at the moment 2 threads on this first board about FM104 and 2 about Radio1. Why hide all the chat which is vaguely related to Newstalk on 1 thread?

bit of a tough call to be honest, typically what happens is that you get two or three replies, and then the thread drops off. Another gets started the next week and the same thing happens again.

This thread is an effort to put all those posters in touch with each other, but we're still finding our way a little bit. It's kinda difficult trying to find the balance between one overall thread covering everything newstalk and hundreds of smaller threads discussing every aspect of every show with one post each. I get it wrong from time to time, but I promise, my intentions are good.

I can't de-merge, but if you want to start a new thread I won't merge that one.

nevey

tbh wrote: »

bit of a tough call to be honest, typically what happens is that you get two or three replies, and then the thread drops off. Another gets started the next week and the same thing happens again. .

If the threads are about different things then why merge them? If they only get one or two replies so what? They'll shuffle off the bottom pretty quick. I think on boards posters are generally pretty orderly about their contributions. I think it is better to see new threads every day so the radio board is a bit dynamic. I listen to Newstalk a lot, but I stopped reading the Newstalk arghhh thread when it got too long. I haven't checked the megathread in ages though I do find discussing Newstalk interesting but it's annoying to check out an update and find that it is someone complaining about a factual error on OTB or something. I click on threads with interesting title and I don't think I'm alone there.
In this case EK's antics were outrageous. Moreso than usual. I would have liked to hear feedback from anyone else who may have heard him as I was thinking of complaining to Newstalk formally.

tbh wrote: »

I can't de-merge, but if you want to start a new thread I won't merge that one.

I'll have to wait till he gets me all annoyed again now! Which shouldn't be too long:mad:

Thanks for providing the feedback but still grrr for the merge!

deadhead13

Good to hear Terry Dolan Back on Moncrieff.

mike65

Was he not ill?

deadhead13

He had a stroke.

mike65

Ah thats right, knew it was something big.

ateam

StaticNoise wrote: »

Be careful of Moncrieff's show.
I've worked on it and a great deal of the texts and emails are fake (just in case you didn't know)

Somehow the texts and emails come from people from across Ireland - counties where very few people listen to Newstalk. That was Tom in Sligo or Sheila in Clare. Very fake.

hacx

How fake? Does the producer just scribble **** down just to **** with him, or what?

ateam

hacx wrote: »

How fake? Does the producer just scribble **** down just to **** with him, or what?

Who knows, I think they're called "ghost texts". The 30 cent cost of a text as well makes you wonder about how many people are actually texting in.

robo

So did they have the best election coverage? I think so - they were on air over the weekend more than RTE.

GhostInTheRuins

deadhead13 wrote: »

Good to hear Terry Dolan Back on Moncrieff.

Nice one, he was the only reason I'd deliberately tune into Moncrieff on mondays, glad to see he's back.

StaticNoise

ateam wrote: »

Somehow the texts and emails come from people from across Ireland - counties where very few people listen to Newstalk. That was Tom in Sligo or Sheila in Clare. Very fake.

Exactly. It doesn't really capture the national spirit enough!

hacx wrote: »

How fake? Does the producer just scribble **** down just to **** with him, or what?

Yeah. In the studio the computer is beside the sound desk. The internet connection to the text number (hosted remotely) is open in the browser and it's constantly refreshed. I'd say one text in 5 is read out.

If a text comes in that is not liked by the research team, it doesn't get passed through to Séan or go out. All texts are passed through via a talk to studio computer program (over the network) where the SMS is copied and pasted to Séan basically a networked chat application. To stir up debate, texts are commonly made up.

robo wrote: »

So did they have the best election coverage? I think so - they were on air over the weekend more than RTE.

Definitely. It was very interesting. George was even better.

hacx

Interesting. Does Séan know of this? Does he know which ones are fake?

StaticNoise

Yes he does. Whenever he comes in during the recorded parts of the show he'd be aware, AFAIK.

mike65

Would anyone from NT fancy commenting?

On the elections I thought NT did a great job all things considered, they clearly decided to go for it big time and with RTE on helf measures, will have gained a few new listeners for a while anyway.

Genghis

Absolutely, credit should be given where it is due, and Newstalk deserve credit for their election coverage. Good, solid analysis, good contributors and squatting at the RDS with updates from across the country. Well done, I say.

robo

Genghis wrote: »

Absolutely, credit should be given where it is due, and Newstalk deserve credit for their election coverage. Good, solid analysis, good contributors and squatting at the RDS with updates from across the country. Well done, I say.

They also had live coverage with Jonathan Healy in Cork - I like Healy.