Baz and Lucy Show axed from 2fm.

EchoO

Presenters Baz Ashmawy and Lucy Kennedy are the latest victims of RTE cuts as the station announced it is axing their weekend show.
The high-profile pair had co-presented the 7am-10am, Saturday and Sunday slots on 2fm for the past two years but will be taken off the air at the end of June.
RTE told the Irish Independent that the decision was "part of the ongoing project to reduce the cost base at 2fm".
In recent months, Mr Ashmawy (37) and Ms Kennedy (35) had been working without a producer -- a highly unusual situation, given their backgrounds as TV presenters.
Costs
Last night, Mr Ashmawy said: "The present economic situation has hit everyone in all walks of life and presenters are no different."
Ms Kennedy, who took maternity leave last month to give birth to her second child, Holly, managed to joke: "It's been a fantastic two years -- but I am looking forward to being able to have a lie-in at weekends."

Read more: http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/celebrity-news-gossip/going-without-breakfast-baz-and-lucy-get-the-chop-from-weekend-radio-slot-on-2fm-3126035.html#ixzz1wdYyBAOW

The Mail is saying that this is the first in a number of cuts to be made at 2fm over the next few months.

GSF

Austerity isnt all bad if its rids the airwaves from this muck!

EchoO

Can't say I disagree, it's going to be interesting to see who else is going to go.

dejopadu

2 people who arent very interesting, haha, im glad, the show was crap

wnolan1992

Excellent!

Utter drivel is all their show was, doubt there'll be many people sad to see them go.

Hopefully this marks the start of a major clear out at the station.

leggo

I don't like to celebrate people being put out of a job, but these were never cut out for radio. The small bits that I endured of their show were pure muck, and I've never taken to their personalities on TV or the like. They seem the kind of bland, fake presenters that offer nothing that Ireland churn out despite cries for something decent.

As fascinating as the station's downfall is as an observer, I think we'd all like it if 2FM could return to form again. So hopefully this will be the start of the rebuilding process.

IrishHomer

OMG but what will all the Southsiders listen to instead praytell?

kneemos

Sweet jesus mother of god they were painful.

plasmaguy

As a Commercial station, 2FM should go back to its roots and give a lot of young djs, etc a chance and pay them max 50k a year salary.

2FM started off on a shoestring budget I would imagine with a lot of former pirate radio people, and over time the budget just ballooned as well as the salaries of presenters to a completely unsustainable level.

RTE need to wake themselves up. You cannot hope to compete with other commercial stations while paying your presenters vast amounts of money, presenters who are no better and mostly worse than what's on rival stations.

They should also stop paying a premium to presenters just because they can due to the extra revenue from the licence fee.

Finally, presenters should get a job in RTE on merit, not because they are related to someone, or friendly with someone else, or because they are an RTE insider.

RTE is quickly approaching a situation where they should be privatised/sold off and I don't think anyone would be too disappointed with that. Most people in Ireland these days have sattelite and cable and would watch very little of RTE yet are asked to pay 160 euro for an organisation which is riddled with nepotism and back scratching.

wnolan1992

Other shows that should be axed:

Colm Hayes
Ryan Tubridy
Hector

Would go a long way to reducing costs if they sacked the lot of them and brought in some young talent. There are people on local and regional redio who'd give their left arm to have a crack at a national station, so why the hell not give them a go? Put out a call and bring in some fresh faces on six month trials. If they don't cut it, move on. Your listenership would take a hit in the short run, but would build back up again over time. Whereas the way it's going now, it'll just dissipate until the station isn't viable anymore.

Holy Warlord

plasmaguy wrote: »

As a Commercial station, 2FM should go back to its roots and give a lot of young djs, etc a chance and pay them max 50k a year salary.

A typical commercial radio DJ (as in disc jockey, as in a person whose show consists primarily of pressing play for popular songs of the day) does not work a full-time role in their radio show. They have to supplement that with hours elsewhere to earn a decent weekly wage.

50K wage for such an (elusive) full-time radio DJing gig (hardly the most taxing job in the world, really) is quite a generous overestimation of their worth. Assuming the DJ is multiskilled, then prep-work, production, and presentation altogether, I would think that a daily two hour show might end up being at most a 20 hours wage earned per week. And that is indeed being generous for what amounts to proverbial disc spinning. Half of a typical 40 hour working week in most jobs.

I would not value a bog-standard DJ's wage anywhere near 50K annually. I would place their value much closer to minimum wage.

The next step up is a proper radio presenter, who drives dialogue and monologue, who adds value to the programme they present - that kind of presenter is worth a lot more.

I value radio journalists (esp. investigative and challenging ones) and radio entertainment creatives (a rare breed - esp. comedy ones) the most. These kind of radio presenters, the good ones, put in the graft and craft for many hours behind the scenes, making it near a full-time occupation if done right. Those kind of presenters are worth compensating well.

.

Going back to the subject of ordinary 2FM DJs, it wouldn't surprise me if they are earning good, if largely undeserved, money. This is bloated and wasteful RTE we are talking about, after all.

*wacky 2FM sting*
"Now here's Rhianna's latest! Just like last hour!"
*zany 2FM banter*
"Wow! Hope you liked that! 'Cause here it is again!"
*kooky 2FM self-congratulation*

.

.

.

Never mind the quality, feel the width.

leggo

With respect, Holy Warlord, as I do agree with some of your argument...anytime that I hear someone say that a DJ (be it in radio or a live jock) essentially just spins some tracks and judges them on an hourly rate of pay, it undermines their main point. It shows that they don't understand the medium which they're looking to analyse.

That's simply not how skilled jobs, specifically in the entertainment field, work. You can't judge them on the same scale as, say, a retail worker who works incredibly hard but is ultimately replaceable so has very little value. Whereas a skilled broadcaster that cultivates interest, generates public conversation and maintains a healthy listenership is incredibly rare on this isle. It's that rarity that makes them valuable. Whereas people on the minimum wage, who by all means do tough jobs and are often very good at them, are ultimately not that uncommon. Especially these days. There are thousands of qualified, hard-working individuals willing to take any available job. That's the disparity between the two.

Like I said, it undermines your main point. I agree, in fact, that RTÉ salaries need to be looked at.

However, I'd suggest it be along more of a realistic middle ground: cut the extravagance but also maintain the high pay needed to remain competitive, and then demand bang for your buck from said broadcasters. If they don't deliver, numbers-wise, then cut them mercilessly. I doubt you begrudge the high salaries of any entertainers or broadcasters you really enjoy, for example. High salaries are part of the territory, it's the cronyism and the lack of quality output that ultimately needs to be scrutinised in my opinion.

plasmaguy

In fairness its not that hard of a job and the ordinary DJ/presenter has lots and lots of props etc to help them along the way. They read out funny texts, jokes, etc, this helps. They play music tracks, so for a 2 hour show, 1 hour of the total might be filled with music. Then you have the ads taking about 15 minutes each hour. Then you have the 5 minute news broadcast every hour. In truth the average presenter speaks in total for about 20 minutes an hour.

They don't even spin the tracks, its preprogrammed or one of the production team does it.

So they have 20 minutes of talking an hour to do and like I said much of that is reading out texts, emails and so on, which they respond to. Then they might be talking to someone on the phone.

So in truth the average presenter has 10 minutes of airtime to fill with their own opinions, funny chat, etc an hour. And for this many of them in 2FM are getting paid thousands weekly.

If 2FM replaced all the big money presenters in the morning with young talent, I don't think anyone would honestly care too much.

National Broadcasters like RTE are in my view heading for extinction anyways as they are not financially sustainable in an era of lots of radio stations offering much the same product and lots of TV channels offering the same product and usually better. RTE are fighting a losing battle and will be forced to keep cutting to try and stay competitive.

To me while the licence fee remains the same every year for RTE, they must be losing a sh*tload of advertising revenue if they keep making loss after loss.

It's hard to justify asking the ordinary person on the street for 160 euro every year to finance the excessive wages of RTE "stars".

leggo

But, to counter that, who are the people who get ripped for having high wages?

Finucane, Kenny, Tubridy, Duffy etc.

None of the above do the type of show you mention. All of the above do incredibly diverse, live shows that require tremendous attention to detail and command large audiences that need to be maintained (let's leave the 'Tubridy is leaking listeners' argument for another day) over a long period of time. That takes a tremendous amount of skill and deserves to be financially rewarded as such, in my view.

It's like politics: we expect these people to run our country, but not to be paid well to do so. But if you don't pay well, you put off an extremely talented section of people. For example: why would anyone put themselves up for that level of public scrutiny, in this day and age, for little over minimum wage? But people want the country run efficiently, at the same time, don't we? Therefore, you need skilled people and wage packets that ensure they aren't tempted instead by the lucrative private market.

By the same token, you wouldn't deal with the amount of crap and hard work that it takes to get to the top if you were going to be earning minimum wage. Trust me, I've seen some massively intelligent, talented and ambitious college kids put off by the most menial and basic of radio tasks. Baz and Lucy have had their dismissal covered by national newspapers, after all! No talented and intelligent person will want to risk that when they can avoid it for better money and quality of life. It makes no sense to do so.

So pay peanuts and you'll get monkeys.

And, by virtue of the fact you're posting in a radio forum...surely that's not what you want either is it? You want a good output, right?

Again, I think there's a legitimate argument to be had here re: RTÉ wages and trying to rebuild. But it's getting bogged down by these typical arguments that come up when RTÉ are mentioned that fail to understand and acknowledge why things are the way they are to begin with. And any subsequent argument is dead in the water if the root of it is, ultimately, flawed.

Holy Warlord

On a slight tangent, I don't see why 2FM needs to exist anymore. I remember similar being said ten years ago, and I agreed back then too.

In 1979, there was a clear space for the introduction of a pop/youth-orientated legal mainstream radio station here. And for most all of the '80s and early '90s.

But for many years now, there have sprung up a host of private commercial stations (nationally, and county/citywide) of its ilk, providing undemanding chart music rotations and prize giveaways/celebrities gossip/inane chit chat and so forth.

2FM is long since past filling a niche.

Granted, it might be some sort of money maker for RTE, and that's nothing to be sniffed at from a treasurer's point of view, but in terms of RTE's charter to entertain, inform, and educate, I think their efforts would be better served elsewhere.

plasmaguy

I agree, 2FM, like the LLS has long since stopped being innovative, different, unique and so on. It's just another populist station, no different to any other, it has no real public broadcasting merit to it as it might have when it was founded.

Fair enough RTE does do some things that a fully commerical station might not, such as Arts programs, plays, book readings and so on. But 2fm is just more of the same as other similar stations.

plasmaguy

leggo wrote: »

But, to counter that, who are the people who get ripped for having high wages?

Finucane, Kenny, Tubridy, Duffy etc.

None of the above do the type of show you mention. All of the above do incredibly diverse, live shows that require tremendous attention to detail and command large audiences that need to be maintained (let's leave the 'Tubridy is leaking listeners' argument for another day) over a long period of time. That takes a tremendous amount of skill and deserves to be financially rewarded as such, in my view.

It's like politics: we expect these people to run our country, but not to be paid well to do so. But if you don't pay well, you put off an extremely talented section of people. For example: why would anyone put themselves up for that level of public scrutiny, in this day and age, for little over minimum wage? But people want the country run efficiently, at the same time, don't we? Therefore, you need skilled people and wage packets that ensure they aren't tempted instead by the lucrative private market.

By the same token, you wouldn't deal with the amount of crap and hard work that it takes to get to the top if you were going to be earning minimum wage. Trust me, I've seen some massively intelligent, talented and ambitious college kids put off by the most menial and basic of radio tasks. Baz and Lucy have had their dismissal covered by national newspapers, after all! No talented and intelligent person will want to risk that when they can avoid it for better money and quality of life. It makes no sense to do so.

So pay peanuts and you'll get monkeys.

And, by virtue of the fact you're posting in a radio forum...surely that's not what you want either is it? You want a good output, right?

Again, I think there's a legitimate argument to be had here re: RTÉ wages and trying to rebuild. But it's getting bogged down by these typical arguments that come up when RTÉ are mentioned that fail to understand and acknowledge why things are the way they are to begin with. And any subsequent argument is dead in the water if the root of it is, ultimately, flawed.

To be honest, I'd have some sympathy for Baz and Lucy. RTE seems to be a basketcase run by people who don't know what they are doing. When a radio show fails, it's not always just because of the presenters.

There is too much resources thrown into some projects, while others are starved of resources and the fact their show had no producer tells its own story.

In my opinion RTE is a bloated and poorly run organisation and has been that way for decades now, and it manifests itself in many different ways such as recent controversial incidents around editorial and production values.

EchoO

leggo wrote: »

But, to counter that, who are the people who get ripped for having high wages?

Finucane, Kenny, Tubridy, Duffy etc.

None of the above do the type of show you mention. All of the above do incredibly diverse, live shows that require tremendous attention to detail and command large audiences that need to be maintained (let's leave the 'Tubridy is leaking listeners' argument for another day) over a long period of time. That takes a tremendous amount of skill and deserves to be financially rewarded as such, in my view.

It's like politics: we expect these people to run our country, but not to be paid well to do so. But if you don't pay well, you put off an extremely talented section of people. For example: why would anyone put themselves up for that level of public scrutiny, in this day and age, for little over minimum wage? But people want the country run efficiently, at the same time, don't we? Therefore, you need skilled people and wage packets that ensure they aren't tempted instead by the lucrative private market.

By the same token, you wouldn't deal with the amount of crap and hard work that it takes to get to the top if you were going to be earning minimum wage. Trust me, I've seen some massively intelligent, talented and ambitious college kids put off by the most menial and basic of radio tasks. Baz and Lucy have had their dismissal covered by national newspapers, after all! No talented and intelligent person will want to risk that when they can avoid it for better money and quality of life. It makes no sense to do so.

So pay peanuts and you'll get monkeys.

And, by virtue of the fact you're posting in a radio forum...surely that's not what you want either is it? You want a good output, right?

Again, I think there's a legitimate argument to be had here re: RTÉ wages and trying to rebuild. But it's getting bogged down by these typical arguments that come up when RTÉ are mentioned that fail to understand and acknowledge why things are the way they are to begin with. And any subsequent argument is dead in the water if the root of it is, ultimately, flawed.

I don't really have a issue with Kenny, Duffy..etc being well paid, but I do have a problem with the fact that market forces seems to have played no part in determining their salaries over the past couple of decades. No combination of TV3, Today or Newstalk could match paying them what they have been earning. Which means, they have been overpaid for years. They should have been paid competitively i.e. just a bit more than the competitors would be willing to pay - enough to keep them at RTE.

leggo

Ooh, I dunno about that, that's a big claim. We don't know what those in the commercial arena are earning, simple as, and Denis O'Brien is hardly stuck for cash. We know that Dunphy earned €100k for one day per week, for example. So it's quite possible that the likes of Ray Darcy is earning as much or more than the names mentioned to run a massively successful, daily show.

plasmaguy

Commerical radio is run on the principle of trying to make a profit. RTE is not run along such a principle and makes a massive loss every year which is paid for by the licence fee.

RTE are another of these bloated public sector companies such as Eircom, Aer Lingus, etc were, that have never completely adapted to open competition. RTE still thinks it has a monopoly on the airwaves and can pay its presenters what it likes.

As recession bites and taxes increases in future years and water charges and property taxes and all that, it will be increasingly hard to justify why people should pay 160 euro to RTE when there is so many and often better alternatives.

EchoO

leggo wrote: »

Ooh, I dunno about that, that's a big claim.

I don't think it is. Not only does over half RTE's budget come from the licence fee, but because of it's dominant position in the market place it can charge a lot more for advertising than it's rivals can. It just wouldn't be viable for TV3, Today fm or Newstalk to pay it's presenter anything close to what RTE does.

Yes, Denis O'Brien is a very wealthy man and could, much like loss leaders in retail, match those salaries in an effort to attract listeners. But I think what happened when he tried that with Dunphy kind of proves my point. His Saturday morning show on radio 1 had an audience of around 260,000. One year after his move to Newstalk he had 50,000 listeners. Before he left, Newstalk were trying to cut his fee by half. Having a show on the that is RTE Radio 1, is much more important than who the presenter is.

For his RTE radio show and his football punditry(around 20 shows a year) he was getting 330,000 euros a year. No UK broadcaster would hire him. His equivalent on TV3, Cascarino and keown would be on a mere fraction of that, i.e he has been grossly overpaid for years.

As for not knowing what those in the commercial arena are earning, Mark Gagney recently - "No one would pay them that kind of money in the commercial world. I know damn well they (commercial broadcasters) couldn't. So where are they going to go? It's not the real world, but RTE is not the real world generally. It's a semi-state body"

leggo

I agree...

• ...that RTE has an unfair advantage in competing for advertising. As you said, the licence fee allows them an extraordinary head start on the competition. And I also feel their remit as 'public service broadcaster' should be looked at, in 2012. With stations obliged to provide a % of current affairs etc as part of their broadcast licence agreements, they are all providing a public service. So the licence fee should be apportioned correctly to take that into account, whether RTÉ suffers or not.
  
• ...that RTE, as a whole, needs to be re-vamped. Everything, from the unnecessary amount of producers and researchers they employ, to their programming commissioning structure, to their method of hiring, is ridiculous and isn't conducive to quality output deserved of the licence fee. I just feel that high salaries of top salaries aren't their biggest problem. It's an easy stick for the media to beat them with as it appeals to Irish people's natural begrudgery of those more fortunate. See my earlier point about politicians for more.

I disagree...

• ...that commercial stations cannot compete at the top level due to the licence fee. Mark Cagney works for TV3...they are notoriously stingy. It doesn't follow that ALL commercial outlets HAVE to be that way. Look at ITV, in the UK, being able to lure Jonathan Ross away from the Beeb and pump so much money into the likes of X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, to stay ahead of BBC's Saturday night offerings. Yes, there is more money in advertising there, but the BBC also earn much more via the licence fee. So it balances out. You can't compare TV to radio either, it's a different ballpark (TV advertising is in a different league, price-wise, to radio).
  
  Ray Darcy was offered Gerry Ryan's job when the latter passed. Are you telling me that he's willfully stayed with commercial radio for a fraction of what RTÉ was offering him? Of course he didn't. Necessity just means they cut down on the extravagance of RTÉ. Darcy doesn't need a team of 10 full-timers behind him, and he still beats RTÉ numbers-wise. So he's good for his salary. What isn't good is the fact that a poorer-performing show, like Tubridy's, costs so much more to produce while being funded, partly, by the public. Commercial stations can compete when they need to, they just pick their battles. So, in terms of presenters, RTÉ does need to pay high salaries to compete. It's elsewhere that's the problem.
  
• ...with your assessment on Eamon Dunphy's show. Figures fell when it turned out he was only there sparingly. Its downfall had nothing to do with how much Newstalk were paying him or what station he was broadcasting from. But the fact that he was offered €100k for a once-weekly gig on a part-time basis to begin with, if anything, proves my point that they can compete when they want to.

andrewg82

thats a shame they had a good show

EchoO

leggo wrote: »

I disagree...

• ...that commercial stations cannot compete at the top level due to the licence fee. Mark Cagney works for TV3...they are notoriously stingy. It doesn't follow that ALL commercial outlets HAVE to be that way. Look at ITV, in the UK, being able to lure Jonathan Ross away from the Beeb and pump so much money into the likes of X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, to stay ahead of BBC's Saturday night offerings. Yes, there is more money in advertising there, but the BBC also earn much more via the licence fee. So it balances out. You can't compare TV to radio either, it's a different ballpark (TV advertising is in a different league, price-wise, to radio).
  
  Ray Darcy was offered Gerry Ryan's job when the latter passed. Are you telling me that he's willfully stayed with commercial radio for a fraction of what RTÉ was offering him? Of course he didn't. Necessity just means they cut down on the extravagance of RTÉ. Darcy doesn't need a team of 10 full-timers behind him, and he still beats RTÉ numbers-wise. So he's good for his salary. What isn't good is the fact that a poorer-performing show, like Tubridy's, costs so much more to produce while being funded, partly, by the public. Commercial stations can compete when they need to, they just pick their battles. So, in terms of presenters, RTÉ does need to pay high salaries to compete. It's elsewhere that's the problem.
• ...with your assessment on Eamon Dunphy's show. Figures fell when it turned out he was only there sparingly. Its downfall had nothing to do with how much Newstalk were paying him or what station he was broadcasting from. But the fact that he was offered €100k for a once-weekly gig on a part-time basis to begin with, if anything, proves my point that they can compete when they want to.

And I disagree with a lot of the above, but we're just going to go around and around in circles here. So lets agree, to disagree.

hufpc8w3adnk65

Baz and Lucy were horrible on air!No chemistry and sounded really awkward...Wonder what show will replace them?Probably bring back Zig n Zag!Ha ha!

bbability

I'm sure Noel Kelly will send more troops in.. 2fm is in a bit of a jock at the minute..this is small fry to the real issues facing the station. It's crying out for some leadership.

padd b1975

leggo wrote: »

Ooh, I dunno about that, that's a big claim. We don't know what those in the commercial arena are earning, simple as, and Denis O'Brien is hardly stuck for cash. We know that Dunphy earned €100k for one day per week, for example. So it's quite possible that the likes of Ray Darcy is earning as much or more than the names mentioned to run a massively successful, daily show.

I recall Ray saying on air that he earned a similar salary to Bertie Aherne.
This was a few years ago.

The Muppet

I didn't really like either on TV but I did enjoy their radio show. I though they worked well together, sorry to see them go really.

my friend

padd b1975 wrote: »

I recall Ray saying on air that he earned a similar salary to Bertie Aherne.
This was a few years ago.

both hardcore Fianna Fail'ers - ahern has been found out, arsey somehow still has his fans and more bizarrely his large remuneration

bureau2009

When I first heard Baz and Lucy I couldn't believe it was so awful.

What astounded me though was that it was ALLOWED TO CONTINUE being so awful and unlistenable.

And what on earth were highly paid producers and the Head of 2FM doing all this time?

squonk

I caught bits of this show from time to time and thought it was awful. I don't like Baz or Lucy in general though so I think combining them wasn't ever going to make me happy. It's terrible to hear about people losing a job however but I'm sure they knew it was a possibility and they'll no doubt not be long idle anyway.

I'm not a bit fan of Paddy & Ruth either so hopefully something more intelligent will be put on in their place at some stage.