Competition: Your Pat Kenny, your call

Snickers Man

Pat "the Plank" Kenny claims that he is paid "peanuts" compared with the salaries top soccer stars are paid.

As if half a million a year for simpering up to people on the radio and TV is an insult to his talents.

Quite apart from the fact that there are no soccer players earning ANY meaningful wages at the age of 60+, which is where Mr Kenny is at in his course through life, and that it takes a modicum of skill and determination to get anywhere near a team paying anything like those wages, if Mr Kenny wants to be treated like a soccer player, I think we should be able to oblige.

How about organising an infiltration of the audience of his Frontline programme and subjecting him to the sort of personalised chants that top rank soccer stars regularly have to endure?

I mean, we could start with the bog standard "You're ****, and you know you are!" before moving on to the old favourite "Who's the wanker with the mike?" as he ventures into the audience to canvass individual opinions.

But surely we could match the ingenuity of soccer choirs to remind the targets of their venom, by way of a capella chants, of the particular foibles of their lives which are common knowledge?

I venture the rather mild,
"You're in my garden, in my garden.
Does your lawyer know you're here?
GET OUT!!
Does your lawyer know you're here?"

I'm sure many here could do better than that.

Anybody got any better ideas?

(Remember: let's keep racism, and sexism, out of football. Other than that, it's fair game on the smug bastard!)

Biggins

Mr Kenny is living on another planet in regards to his wages!
He wouldn't know reality or the price of milk if you shoved a carton in his face!

starbelgrade

"I often wonder why there isn't the same fuss over the salaries paid to footballers like John O'Shea, earning more in three weeks than Marian Finucane earns in a year.

"There is a double standard there. These people put themselves on the line, they entertain the nation week in, week out, and yet they are paid a trivial amount compared to footballers."

What a f*ckwit. The likes of John O'Shea get paid the market value for their services. And the money comes from football fans who willingly part with their cash.

The likes of Kenny & Finucane's wages aren't subject to any market values & the money is taken directly from the taxpayer & licence fee payer's pockets whether they are willing to pay it or not.

Yes, there is indeed a double standard, but it applies to RTE presenters wages & not those of football players.

rubadub

Surely he should be asking for the licence fee to be scrapped. If I own a football I am not forced to pay for footballer "stars" to tell me how to use it. If I own a TV capable of getting signal I am legally obliged to pay him whether I like it or not.

If he is such a star and thinks footballers have it so good shouldn't he ask for the licence to be scrapped, and enter the free market? he could stand to make a fortune if he really is so good.

I remember Ben Dunne on TV3's morning show commenting on the huge differences on how each station is run, about RTE squandering money. The same presenter on TV3 will read out sport and do the weather etc

abouttobebanned

Footballers are over paid. Pat kenny is over paid. Nurses are underpaid. That's it really.

suitseir

The ratings determine the listener ship and the advertisers accordingly place their ads where there are the most listeners so the best way over time to ensure that these overpaid talk show hosts fade away, is NOT to listen or watch them on the national airwaves! Switch to the other channels that are not funded (allegedly) by the fee licence.

Sometimes it makes me sick when I hear them addressing the nation and taking phone calls from people who are struggling to even pay for basics like electricity bills and these guys giving out about the way the country is being run into the ground! HELLO why make these phone calls???? When you DO RING these overpaid talk show presenters, you are increasing their popularity, hence the advertising, hence THEIR salaries. For God's sake, we give out about Surgeons getting huge salaries....they are minuscule in comparison....and they actually work to save lives!!!!

Donkey Oaty

Pat Kenny is a brilliant broadcaster.

His zany antics never cease to make me smile.

Logical Fallacy

Pat hardly risks career ending injury each time he does a show though.

And i think footballers get paid way too much, but any parallel drawn between the two is fairly ludicrous.

johngalway

Give him a free transfer, that should sort the whole episode out.

Donkey Oaty

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

Pat hardly risks career ending injury each time he does a show though.

And i think footballers get paid way too much, but any parallel drawn between the two is fairly ludicrous.

Reported.

Simply.Young

Donkey Oaty wrote: »

Reported.

Why?

flutered

footballers are getting wages to entertain, end of story.

Donkey Oaty

Simply.Young wrote: »

Why?

Pat hardly risks career ending injury each time he does a show though.

Libelous against the radio listeners of Ireland.

However, if you report me for not being funny I'll back you.

Celly Smunt

but,i also get paid peanuts to top footballers? perhaps i also have a case?

Foxx92

Seeing as he's an Irish presenter we should compare him to the League of Ireland. He earns more than the entire leagues players' wages(per week) in a year.

starbelgrade

Kenny, in that interview also said;

"These people put themselves on the line, they entertain the nation week in, week out, and yet they are paid a trivial amount compared to footballers"

I don't know where he gets the notion that RTE presenters are "entertaining the nation". JLR figures show that his & Finucane's radio shows draw a listenership of just over 300,000 each - just over 6% of the population of the 26 counties & less than 5% of the total population.

Hardly what one would call "entertaining the nation".

On the other side, the top 4 clubs in the Premiership would have a regular combined total of over 300,000 at their stadiums every single match day. And that's just 4 clubs attendances. Not to mention the millions around the world who tune into the live games, watch the highlights & stream online.

If you put RTEs radio listenership figures in footballing terms, they are not even in the Conference League, let alone the Premiership.

(For non-footballing fans, The Conference League is the 5th tier of English football)

ricman

ITS a stupid argument,the premiership players are in the top 1 per cent earners in england,watched by milllions every week.Thats like a part time accountant complaining ,why don,t i get paid the same as the governor of the central bank.
RTE is supposed to be a cultural public service radio station ,its not supposed to be a easy way to get rich.
if you have talent and want money ,go and work for the bbc ,like terry wogan.
HE,S a good radio presenter for current affairs,but hes also another
grossly overpaid civil servant who works for a semi state .
if rte was a private company the presenters would have faced large salary cuts, because advertising income is down. .
The wages on today fm, newstalk are much lower than rte because it survives in the real world, not in some some government protected semi state
with so called benchmarked unrealistic wages.

Mister men

Unbelieveable. These guy's are living on another planet

starbelgrade

Well, I've just e-mailed Pat Kenny regarding this issue. I doubt that he'll pay any attention to it, but it didn't take much more effort than a copy & paste from my posts here;

Dear Mr.Kenny,

I am writing to regarding your interview in Sunday's Irish Independant, entitled, "We're paid peanuts compared to soccer stars, says Pat Kenny".

In the article, you are quoted as saying;

"I often wonder why there isn't the same fuss over the salaries paid to footballers like John O'Shea, earning more in three weeks than Marian Finucane earns in a year. There is a double standard there. These people put themselves on the line, they entertain the nation week in, week out, and yet they are paid a trivial amount compared to footballers."

What a ridiculous comment to make - the likes of John O'Shea get paid the market value for their services. And the money comes from football fans who willingly part with their cash.

The wages of RTE presenters aren't subject to any market values & the money is taken directly from the taxpayer & licence fee payer's pockets whether they are willing to pay it or not.

Yes, there is indeed a double standard, but it applies to RTE presenters wages & not those of football players.

And I would also take exception to the notion that "These people put themselves on the line, they entertain the nation week in, week out". According to JLR figures, Finucane's radio shows draw a listenership of just over 300,000 each - just over 6% of the population of the 26 counties & less than 5% of the total population.

Hardly what one would call "entertaining the nation".

On the other side, the top 4 clubs in the Premiership would have a regular combined total of over 300,000 at their stadiums every single match day. And that's just 4 clubs attendances. Not to mention the millions around the world who tune into the live games, watch the highlights & stream online.

If you want to put RTEs radio listenership figures in footballing terms, they are not even in the Conference League, let alone the Premiership.

Mr.Kenny - you work for a semi-state body & you and your fellow presenters are paid extremely well for your services. To suggest otherwise is frankly, disingenous. To compare your wages to that of Premiership footballers, is simply ludicrous.

Yours Sincerely,

**** *******.

His email address for anyone who's interested, is todaypk@rte.ie

FlutterinBantam

Final proof that those overpaid punters out in Montrose are out of touch with reality.

They are beginning to believe their own hype.

Thought Kenny would have more sense though.

ascanbe

Fair play to you on the e-mail, **** *******; that's an unusual name, how do you pronounce it?
Anyway, you should have finished up the e-mail with the immortal line..'I'm off now to sue a woman about a field'.