Newstalk Megathread

Dub13

Yes its getting worse,maybe this is due to the fact that they have no competition.

Caoimhín

Yep,
And IMO its the best thing on Newstalk.

PaulieBoy

I was a solid listener to Newstalk right from the first day, till they went nationwide.
At that point the vibe was a "ditch Dublin and everyone in it, and embrace the rest of Ireland" , well I ditched them :-)

It had a good thing going for it, then the 30 cent a text, the constant "Welcome anyone outside Dublin", the ditching of anything to do with Dublin!

Yes, your correct, I am "racist" !!! There a loads of stations outside of Dublin, Cork had it's own station long before time began.
Newstalk was given a license to broadcast in the Dublin region, where there is a shortage of decent stations.
When they got the national license there should have been a new license for the Dublin region to replace the runaway Newstalk.

Different nation, different station, sure is! It's dumbed down hospital radio for cow shed builders!

mike65

*cough*

Mike.

LordSutch

The TEXT thing on Newstalk certainly annoys me, because they keep going-on about "Please send us your Texts NOW" and then they might read out two or three, when they have probably received dozens .......... so why keep bloody asking for them?

But what really annoys me is the frantic requests for texts with three minutes of the show left!
The Breakfast show comes to mind.

At least vomit inducing Dunphy has gone (Thank God) as he was the worst of all when it came to 'Pleading' for texts because "Texts are an integral part of the show" "We really Love to have your texts, they are very important & integral to us, etc, etc, etc" which always amused me because he very rarely read out any :cool:

Dub13

And Hook is also starting this 'army of traffic watchers' crap as well.

themont85

Anyone read Eamon Dunphy's piece in the IT yesterday. Was about the battle between O'Reily and O'Brian for INM and how he is siding with O'Reily. But what I got from the interview which I thought was interesting was why Dunphy left Newstalk, never new it was the 30c text thing that prompted him to really leave. Apparently he wasn't happy and said so on air and it was a major reason why he left. 13,000 extra revenue according to Dunphy from it.

Dub13

I remember Dunphy saying something about it on air when it first came out,I have to say I did not think it was the reason why he left.The breakfast show was much better with Dunphy IMO,it was a much more relaxed pace and not running along at 200mph like todays effort.

mike65

13,000 per show/day/week/month?

Mike.

AdrianC

mike65 wrote: »

13,000 per show/day/week/month?

Mike.

per year

Dub13

AdrianC wrote: »

per year

Thats all....jesues the amount of people they are turning off with this must out number that.

vibrant

mick_irl wrote: »

I don't get to hear Moncrieff that often but I do like the guy who comes in to explain words.

I like him too - Terry Dolan. Sadly he had a stroke recently, I saw him on TV3 "news" last week in an item they were doing about strokes/recovery. I wish him the best, he was always a pleasure to listen to.

LordSutch

Very sad news indeed to hear about Prof Terry Dolan's stroke, I just mentioned him in another Thread called 'In Studio' (How Sad).

He really Is/was great to listen to on the Radio.

mike65

13k a year? Anyone fancy a whip round? A raffle maybe? :pac:

Sad to hear about Prof Dolan.

Mike.

jimogr

themont85 wrote: »

Anyone read Eamon Dunphy's piece in the IT yesterday.

Yeah, a good piece, gave an insight into O'Brien's newstalk which I've had verified by a number of people who work/worked there.

jack24

Caught that article as well. Interesting reading. Certainly makes sense in terms of the previously well informed contributors such as Robert Fisk and Eamon McCann being replaced by tabloid style superficial coverage that dominates certainly the Breakfast show these days. Add to this the request to join the army of trafic watchers at 30c a go, the inane mutterings and forced 'banter' between the presenters, the seemingly endless ad breaks and the unwillingness to spend anything more than 3 minutes on any one topic and you have a great reason to turn the dial, which I did.

Dub13

Is Dunphy's piece online...?sounds interesting.

jimogr

Yes but you have to pay for it:
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/newsfeatures/2008/0412/1207902720970.html

Stylo

Just read Dunphy's article - what a load of cringing b*ll*x. The article is less about O'Reilly and O'Brien and more about himself. Sounds like he wants a job with the Times.

When he was on air, I thought he was bad enough, having the same ol friends talking the same ol trite 'your so brilliant Eamon' every bleedin evening and then morning - but now, he is just full of himself. When I did this...... When I did that ..... God does this a**hole never know when to shut the donald duck up !

He has cost practically every employer he has worked for, countless hundreds and thousands in the High Court by basically writing unresearched and basically untrue articles - even U2 ditched his book The Unforgettable Fire BEFORE it was published

A blight on the arse of humanity - everyone is at fault, bar him !

Sorry - I'll get off the fence now and tell you what I really feel - but hey, why should be be concerned anyway - he's nothing but a failed footballer and a very very very bitter man thinging the world owes him a favour :mad:

Dub13

Can you copy and paste it...?

Stylo

Here it is ...........

I'm with the old-style mogul

Those who care about freedom of the press should root for Tony O'Reilly over Denis O'Brien in the power struggle in Independent News & Media, argues EAMON DUNPHY , who has worked under both

IN JANUARY 2006, Denis O'Brien announced that he had acquired a 3 per cent stake in Independent News and Media (INM). As there was no love lost between O'Brien and Tony O'Reilly, the acquisition was noted with some interest. Especially as O'Brien was not obliged to publicly declare his 3 per cent holding. Was the telecoms tycoon teasing or threatening a rival who'd won the race to secure Eircom, pipping O'Brien in the process?

Today, O'Brien owns 22 per cent of INM. He is the second largest shareholder after O'Reilly. He clearly wasn't teasing the great man. War has been declared, the stakes are high, somebody is going to lose and lose big.

So far this story has been depicted as a struggle between two rich men with large egos. O'Brien has questioned INM's corporate governance, pointing in particular to the estimated £15 million O'Reilly "wasted" annually subsidising the London Independent.

Announcing INM's annual results recently, Gavin O'Reilly responded by questioning O'Brien's capacity to run a large international media company such as theirs.

As shares in INM are traded in large bundles by both parties, speculation grows ever more intense. Until now this story has been carried in the business sections of our newspapers. That is a mistake. This argument is about control of Ireland's most powerful publishing group and some of our most influential newspapers.

Given the importance of a free press to our democracy, the outcome of this war matters to every one of us. We should take a closer look at the protagonists and the real issues that lie behind this so-called clash of egos.

Here I should declare an interest: I have worked for both O'Reilly and O'Brien. I quit working for both and don't anticipate any circumstances where I will need to seek employment from either in the future. Strictly speaking I have no dog in this fight, although the 11-year-old fatwa issued against me by the Sunday Independent might incline me to take up the cudgels on O'Brien's behalf.

But the issues here are too important to be coloured by personal concerns. The single biggest issue is the integrity of newspapers, their willingness to publish inconvenient facts and allow their contributors to express opinions that challenge conventional wisdom and/or cause the governing elite to feel uncomfortable, better still distressed.

I WORKED AS a columnist for the Sunday Independent for 13 years. Many of the opinions I expressed were deemed controversial. I didn't really care - about anybody, however powerful. I was at odds with the cosy world around me and inclined to lay into the great and good with a relish that provoked considerable anger.

Seamus Heaney's poems were mediocre - this two days after he won the Nobel Prize. Pat Kenny was a plank, Mary Robinson a fraud, Dick Spring a treacherous gob****e. The Irish Times was smug and redundant, the house magazine for the Official Ireland I despised. RTÉ was frequently targeted. And then of course there was Big Jack and all of that.

A working class lad of no particular distinction, a former Millwall footballer to boot, the Sunday Independent allowed my voice to be heard. The complaints were many: Guinness threatened to pull their ads after one attack on Big Jack; Seamus Heaney was an admired friend of Tony O'Reilly; the then tánaiste Dick Spring was very angry.

And worse was to come when I attacked John Hume for conspiring with the Provisional IRA. The Hume/Adams talks began in 1988 and were conducted parallel to the IRA's vicious terror campaign. Official Ireland was shocked by the frequent and vicious attacks on Hume, then and now regarded (rightly) as a saint.

So was John Hume. He regularly rang the editor to complain, and made it clear that he would prefer if I were not writing for the newspaper.

In a Republic that was, to say the least, ambivalent about IRA terrorism, the Sunday Independent's savage onslaught on the embryonic peace process caused great offence. Not just to Hume, but to the Department of Foreign Affairs and to Irish America, which was seriously involved in what can now be regarded as a noble endeavour: the search for some accommodation with the terrorists.

During the 1994 World Cup, I encountered a senior Department of Foreign Affairs official in a bar in New York. An abusive tirade ended with the observation that I would be "f***ed before you're much older". Through all this, I enjoyed the support of Aengus Fanning, a brilliant editor with deep resolve. A resolve that never wavered for a moment. For Tony O'Reilly, there were heavy consequences at home and, in particular, among his influential peers in the wealthy Irish-American community.

One of the popular Irish-American publications carried a bitter attack on the Sunday Independent for its "McCarthyite" campaign against the push for peace. The Clinton White House let its displeasure be known. O'Reilly was answerable for our crimes. There is no doubt that the man Denis O'Brien recently described as "an old-style mogul that really needs to go" felt some heat.

Fortunately, O'Reilly's resolve never wavered either. Old-style is the right style when you're placing your own interests second, your journalists first. Owing me nothing, O'Reilly defended my right to express an opinion.

During this fraught period, I met Tony O'Reilly in west Cork, where I was living. We discussed the North, he established where I was coming from and told me to keep going.

Although I was no Carl Bernstein, and wouldn't want to be Bob Woodward, O'Reilly referred to the legendary journalists who broke the Watergate story that led to Richard Nixon's downfall. His friend Ben Bradlee edited the Washington Post during Watergate. The late Katherine Graham was the publisher.

At a certain point in the Watergate drama, Bernstein and Woodward's copy became almost too hot to handle. To publish or not a story that would ensure the end of a presidency? Bradlee and Graham stood by their hacks.

O'Reilly belongs in that tradition. I write of my own experience merely to establish that very important fact. We don't have to look far to establish O'Reilly's unyielding commitment to our free press. The London Independent has been cited by Denis O'Brien as an example of poor corporate governance. If he was seeking to establish his media bone fides, O'Brien couldn't have chosen a worse example.

Tony O'Reilly was in favour of the invasion of Iraq. The London Independent has vigorously opposed the invasion, a mission lent unimpeachable credibility by the reportage of its brave and brilliant Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk.

Tony Blair, who knighted Tony O'Reilly, has been pursued relentlessly in this classic example of campaigning journalism. Denis O'Brien's characterisation of O'Reilly as an old-style mogul is rendered cheap and rather pointless set against the views of Fisk and his former editor, Simon Kelner, whose profound appreciation of O'Reilly was vouched to me in London as recently as last week.

The London papers lose money, a substantial amount of it, as a result of a price war initiated by Rupert Murdoch, but the service rendered to their readers' interests is incalculable. O'Brien argues they should be sold, which begs an important question: to whom? Selling the London Independent would grow INM's profits. Selling the Sunday Tribune would also lend lustre to the group's bottom line. We can only speculate about the damage a change of ownership of these newspapers would inflict on the common good.

RICH BOYS LIKE Denis O'Brien aspire to media ownership. Doors open, people listen when you speak, gravitas is conferred way beyond the dreams of merchants. Alas, as outlined above, publishing on the INM scale is for wealthy men rather than rich boys.

Old-style barons prepared to take the pain, willing to stand by great reporters as well as opinionated former Millwall inside-forwards.

Although it ended acrimoniously, I reflect fondly on my working experience with INM and Tony O'Reilly. I was free to write what I wanted, and supported, right or wrong. A couple of their newspapers have spent the best part of a decade trying to damage me with vulgar abuse, bearing unwaveringly malicious intent. No mud has stuck. The journalists concerned are entitled to their punishing opinions, as I am to mine. If you dish it out, you are obliged to take it. C'est la vie.

Denis O'Brien's capacity to absorb the pain, much less the responsibility that comes with media ownership, is a matter of grave concern as his bid to take control of INM reaches its decisive phase. Before reflecting on my traumatic experience working for O'Brien's radio station Newstalk, let's consider the correspondence recently released by Gavin O'Reilly as INM went on the offensive in this conflict.

In June 2003, Gavin O'Reilly sent O'Brien a note congratulating him on his stewardship of the Special Olympics. This letter is worth publishing: "Personal, 23rd June 2003. Dear Denis, I fully suspect that I might be the last person you'd expect to get a letter from, but I just felt I had to write to congratulate you on, and thank you for, the Special Olympics. Saturday evening was a really unbelievable showcase - like never before; that owes to your incredible perseverance, drive, creativity and generosity.

"It may sound corny to utter it - but I felt truly proud to be Irish - and from the reaction of everyone I met, it will certainly go down in the annals as the night Ireland Inc played the leading role in such a wonderful and inspirational undertaking as the Special Olympics. Our involvement - as media sponsor - was fairly modest in comparison to others, but we were, and are, delighted to have played our part.

"At some stage (at your choosing), we should get together . . . as I detect that absence has not been our greatest ally! In the meantime, renewed congratulations and my personal best wishes to you and Catherine. Yours sincerely, Gavin O'Reilly."

Gracious, solicitous, generous and accurate, because O'Brien had indeed presided over an unqualified success.

O'Reilly's message was as revealing as O'Brien's reply: "Strictly Private and Confidential, 3rd July 2003. Dear Gavin, Thank you for your letter dated 23 June. Forgive me, but my first reaction was to throw it in the bin. As far as I'm concerned, Independent News and Media have spent the last seven years trying to destroy my reputation. Some of the coverage of my affairs, both business and personal, in the Sunday Tribune, Sunday Independent, Irish Independent and Evening Herald have caused hurt and enormous damage to my reputation, not to mention the emotional distress suffered by my wife, Catherine, and my family. I very much doubt whether you or any member of your family could have survived a similar onslaught. Control of the media brings privileges and responsibilities.

"While I am waiting for the appropriate time to rectify the damage, I note and appreciate your gesture and in a spirit of goodwill I am willing to meet you to see whether we share any common ground. Yours sincerely, Denis O'Brien."

Yes, bitter, small-minded, with the thinly veiled threat to "rectify the damage" somewhere down the line. INM's crime appears to be nothing worse than reportage of the controversial circumstances that led to O'Brien's acquisition of Ireland's first mobile telephone licence. A free press at work, exploring a matter of profound public interest.

The most chilling - or boneheaded - reference in O'Brien's missive is to "control of media" and the "privileges and responsibilities" attached. His inference is that Gavin O'Reilly should exercise control over the editorial content of the newspapers mentioned in his letter.

THE POINT ABOUT a free press as presided over by O'Reilly's INM is that editorial content is a matter for journalists, not proprietors. Journalists, the best of them, are congenitally uncontrollable. Which is why the many fine journalists who work for the O'Reillys respect them.

INM is not perfect, there are always issues with the reporting of O'Reilly's own business interests, and the bottom line is a corporate imperative. But INM journalists are broadly free, even as they sometimes savage each other. We need look no farther than Bertie Ahern's recent travails as covered by the Sunday Independent for proof that INM is a broad media church that facilitates Eoghan Harris and Gene Kerrigan.

My experience at Newstalk offers no such reassurance. As editor and presenter of The Breakfast Show, I operated in the constant shadow of a man with strong opinions about the content of the programme. His name was Denis. O'Brien's misgivings were not conveyed in person. But his people let me know when he wasn't happy with, say, Robert Fisk, Eamonn McCann, or the various contributors to our business slot.

Although, with a small team of gifted and committed young journalists, we increased audience share exponentially, our view of what The Breakfast Show should be was as odds with the proprietor's. The hassle, though low-level, was constant and utterly demoralising.

To be fair to O'Brien, he is not the only person responsible for the journalistic slum that is commercial broadcasting in Ireland. The system of regulation of the sector that has been put in place is pitiful. However, I can testify to the fact that O'Brien has done nothing to render the slum more habitable. And, in the context of such inadequate regulation, the prospect of O'Brien controlling both four national newspapers and two national radio stations is one that should concern everyone in a free democracy.

My previous experience with Today FM informed my view of what could be achieved with the support of one rich kid who understood the challenge of taking on RTÉ.

After its inauspicious beginning, Today FM was heading for bankruptcy when Australian consultants were engaged to put the house in order. Having analysed the problem, our Aussie friends decided that The Last Word programme I edited was surplus to requirements.

Again a small, dedicated and gifted team of young journalists were engaged in the task of offering listeners a respectable, and we hoped innovative, alternative to RTÉ.

As the axe was poised to fall, I went to John McColgan, the majority Irish shareholder, to plead for a stay of execution. He backed me and said no to our consultants, enabling The Last Word to survive, ultimately providing Today FM with the foundation upon which to build a very successful commercial radio station.

One rich guy made that difference. It took the bones of five years and much in-house nurturing to create a programme that remains a credit to the commercial sector. I don't think Denis O'Brien would have liked the anarchic mix of shade and light that my team and I created at Today FM.

Which is why Newstalk continues to struggle, incurring massive losses that have been funded from O'Brien's pit of new money. He is no John McColgan, much less a Tony O'Reilly. The record of sackings, resignations, and bitter feuds with former executives of his various business ventures suggests that he is indeed the man revealed in that letter to Gavin O'Reilly.

He doesn't like hacks to be out of control. And the thought of him running Independent News and Media is, to me at least, disquieting.

SPEAKING TO ONE former Communicorp executive this week did nothing to reassure. This person summed up by saying: "This was not a free-thinking organisation." It was certainly one in which journalists were way down the pecking order, after marketing and advertising.

Newstalk executives lost patience with me over a dispute that may seem insignificant, though I don't believe it is. The station being a financial basket case, a decision was taken to double the cost to listeners who texted our programme. Loving the interaction with our audience, regarding the texts as a resource, I was shocked to be confronted with the new deal just before I went on air.

Had any other merchant sought to double their costs, we would have gone after them. Now we were proposing to rip off listeners. I told our listeners what was going on and expressed disapproval.

All hell broke loose. "What do you think you're doing?" the managers wailed when I came out of studio. "Journalism," I replied. Inquiring later about this get-rich-quick scheme, I was informed about a new revenue stream that was badly needed to pay my wages. The new revenue stream would yield €13,000 a year. I laughed and prepared to pack my bags. All bar one of the outstanding young team of budding journalists left shortly after. O'Brien didn't care.

As the war between old-style mogul and Denis Wannabe heads towards its denouement, one is forced to take sides. As a journalist and a citizen, I'm with the old-style mogul.
© 2008 The Irish Times

Dub13

Thanks

mike65

Stylo you don't work for one of the organisations mentioned per chance?

Mike.

Stylo

Actually Mike, I used work for O'Reilly, waaaaaay back, but that has nothing to do with it.

You don't have to be on either side to have a strong opinion, tho it seems on this, and other boards, your question would not be out of place

I've just had enough of that 'bowsie' (to put too nice a term) on someone tha most people wouldn't touch with a barge pole

GhostInTheRuins

Thanks for that post.

mike65

Aggggh! Eamon Bloody Keane. Once again suggesting something that is not actually the case - this time that Pat Kenny was going to speak to Newstalk (at least he did not say 'exclusively') when in fact it turned out he was merely speaking to a random reporter wherever he was. Certainly not in studio (which would have been
a surprise). Then he went off on one of his 'funnehs' as he read out "reaction" from Clinton, Obama, Berlusconi, Ahern etc.

Keane you are as funny as toothache. Stop it.

Mike.

LordSutch

mike65 wrote: »

Aggggh! Eamon Bloody Keane. Once again suggesting something that is not actually the case - this time that Pat Kenny was going to speak to Newstalk (at least he did not say 'exclusively') when in fact it turned out he was merely speaking to a random reporter wherever he was. Certainly not in studio (which would have been a surprise). Mike.

Thats exactly what I was talking about in the thread titled "In Studio"!

Sorry to be so pedantic Mike, but why leave out 'the' as in (Certainly not in the studio)

Curious indeed :cool:

ArthurF 'in office'.

mike65

Shuffles off, looking at shoes...../

Mike.

GhostInTheRuins

I have to say I thought the exact same thing (Kenny in the studio)

I felt sorry for all those chumps sending in their 'hilarious' names for Kenny's plot of land at 30c a go :rolleyes:

Edit: Sometimes I wonder why I bother listening to Eamon Keane at all because he mostly just makes me angry.

Radio Mad.

The letter below appeared in today's Irish Times...

=======================================

EAMON DUNPHY AND NEWSTALK

Madam, - Eamon Dunphy joined Newstalk in September 2004 as the presenter of the Breakfast Show. Two years later he sought to amend the financial terms of his agreement and to move to another part of the station's daytime schedule. When his demands could not be accommodated he left.

Throughout his time with Newstalk he was provided with significant programming support and the Breakfast Show benefited from major marketing initiatives.

The most serious aspect of Mr Dunphy's article in last Saturday's Weekend Reviewrelated to Denis O'Brien, chairman of Newstalk. Mr Dunphy wrote that he operated: "in the constant shadow of a man with strong opinions about the content of the programme" and that "his people let me know what he wasn't happy with, say, Robert Fisk, Eamonn McCann, or the various contributors to our business slot".

This is most serious because it is wrong. At no time did Eamon Dunphy ever bring to my attention - or indeed to anyone else in the station - any concerns in this regard. It is an unacceptable slur on those who have worked, and those who continue to work, in Newstalk.

A core objective at Newstalk is to be objective, balanced and fair and to avoid the slandering or libelling of individuals.

The notion that Eamon Dunphy would find himself in the constant shadow of anyone stretches the imagination, even one as fertile as his. - Yours, etc,

ELAINE GERAGHTY, Chief Executive, Newstalk, Mount Street Crescent, Dublin 2.