'Off the Ball' quit Newstalk

irishbucsfan

Rumour has it they're off to the state broadcaster

dekeed

Devastating news! Eoin, Ken and crew have been great company over the last ten years or so. Let's hope they bring back the OTB show on another national station.

Is there any further news as to why they walked?

mosstin

Macy0161 wrote: »

Gilroy was presenting it for years, as well as coming up with the format, before he was moved to breakfast. Personally I thought all the banter had got too much in recent years, and took time away from the sport coverage. To keep in context of this forum, nothing lost on the rugby coverage tonight.

100% agree with this. OTB whilst still featuring some great interviews had become the equivalent of listening into a conversation in a bedsit with a bunch of lads making fart jokes. They'd needed to change the formula for some time now. And I cannot figure out what the point of Ciaran Murphy is/was.

yosser hughes

P_1 wrote: »

Yeah but where do you draw the line? If you make rubbish programs by extension you won't make much ad money

They don't make money.newstalk operates at a loss. Never made a profit.
The programme will be fine with Ger Gilroy. The laddishness needs toning down anyway. I would though drop that guy McIntyre. He could really drive people away.

bamboozle

they'd be rubbish on RTE, they'd have marty morrissey and Des CAhill parachuted in to drone on about GAA non-stop.

sad news one of my favourite shows, they must have offers on the table if they walked en mass from Newstalk, between themselves, Keane, Yates, McWilliams, Dunphy all leaving...last one to leave newstalk turn off the lights.

Suasdaguna1

Tbh I'd get rid of des Cahill in a heart beat. Heard him talking to Wooden pat Kenny y'day and his dialogue, slurring, non interested in engaging in conversation re the Rog affair was embarrassing across the national airways.

irishbucsfan

If Off The Ball goes to RTE is there any chance they'd get involved with the TV coverage? Would Ryle allow it?

Edit: Well I suppose Off The Ball will stay where it is, I mean whatever they do next.

phog

Not sure what a radio programme has to with a rugby forum but there you go. I liked OTB but it had gone stale and at times the banter between presenters was cutting across their raison d'être - present sports news.

I didn't get to listen to it much recently but I suppose overall I'll miss it.

totallegend

Probably no-one here noticed but 2FM recently launched a new sports show from 7-8 pm, I would not be at all surprised to see the OTB lads moving over there and to see it expanded into a 6-8 pm slot.

thomond2006

phog wrote: »

Not sure what a radio programme has to with a rugby forum but there you go. I liked OTB but it had gone stale and at times the banter between presenters was cutting across their raison d'être - present sports news.

I didn't get to listen to it much recently but I suppose overall I'll miss it.

Their raison d'etre wasn't to present sports news. For me it was to provide three hours of comment and opinion with lots of light-hearted moments thrown in. Most people listening would know the sports news these days anyway from the internet.

RTE's sports slots don't come close, they're so bland. Don't agree that OTB had gone stale either.

lologram

phog wrote: »

Not sure what a radio programme has to with a rugby forum but there you go. I liked OTB but it had gone stale and at times the banter between presenters was cutting across their raison d'être - present sports news.

I didn't get to listen to it much recently but I suppose overall I'll miss it.

To each his own. I wholeheartedly disagree though. I have listened to it since before Newstalk went national and before Gilroy became sports editor and was replaced by McDevitt. Overall it has been consistently top notch and I will very much miss it. I hope the lads find a new location soon.

I will say though that I thought their rugby coverage could have been more incisive at times. Eoin would let Gerry Thornley and, to a lesser extent, Keith Wood ramble on with tired soundbites too frequently. That's a symptom of the somewhat toothless rugby journalism in this country as a whole though.

Macy0161

There's no indication that it's the end of Off The Ball on Newstalk anyway - whether it's Gilroy or someone else, I'm sure they'll put a team together, hopefully with a bit less "isn't it hilarious that murphs a bogger" business. Personally, I thought the Rugby section was a lot more insightful last night than it has been for a while. And maybe they'll get a football correspondent that can talk about all football, including our own bloody league.

tazman77

totallegend wrote: »

Probably no-one here noticed but 2FM recently launched a new sports show from 7-8 pm, I would not be at all surprised to see the OTB lads moving over there and to see it expanded into a 6-8 pm slot.

I can't see 2FM cutting an hour off their drivetime show. It would be a good advertising slot.

totallegend

thomond2006 wrote: »

Their raison d'etre wasn't to present sports news. For me it was to provide two hours of comment and opinion with lots of light-hearted moments thrown in. Most people listening would know the sports news these days anyway from the internet.

Yeah, it's like that joke from Family Guy, the TV newsreader goes "Coming up at 11, the news you read on the internet four hours ago".

What OTB provides is the sort of in-depth discussion of sports that you can't get in a half-hour daily bulletin or two minutes tacked onto the end of the regular news.

What I really like is that with three hours to fill every night, they have to make the effort to identify interesting stories outside of soccer, GAA and rugby and often they're the most interesting pieces.

Their random interviews with long-forgotten sports people have turned out to be radio gold; they did one a few weeks back with the first woman ever to run a competitive marathon, fascinating stuff.

I can't believe that all five guys resigned en masse without having a back-up plan. They are definitely going somewhere; RTE is the only logical fit because no UK broadcaster would take a punt on it. I don't think 'Country Pages' would have the same appeal over there.

peterako

This seems to be the most likely reason.

Also stated on the Breakfast show on Newstalk this morning.

durkadurka wrote: »

I'm going to posit a theory. Audience drops off after drive time period ends at 7.

.........they pitch for the lucrative 6-7 slot.

......

but Newstalk were not for moving the slot earlier....

phog

thomond2006 wrote: »

Their raison d'etre wasn't to present sports news. For me it was to provide three hours of comment and opinion with lots of light-hearted moments thrown in. Most people listening would know the sports news these days anyway from the internet.

RTE's sports slots don't come close, they're so bland. Don't agree that OTB had gone stale either.

The banter is alright during the show but when the sports news is been presented they go off topic at times and it can be difficult to know exactly who/what they're on about, especially, if they talk about stuff that was topical earlier but you're only catching up on the news. Sports news to me should be just that, opinions/analysis can be added later.

What I mean by stale is that they generally use the same pundits week in week out.

.ak

The reason OTB is so popular is because of the light-hearted/banter aspect. If it doesn't have that in it's reincarnation it'll sink.

thomond2006

phog wrote: »

The banter is alright during the show but when the sports news is been presented they go off topic at times and it can be difficult to know exactly who/what they're on about, especially, if they talk about stuff that was topical earlier but you're only catching up on the news. Sports news to me should be just that, opinions/analysis can be added later.

What I mean by stale is that they generally use the same pundits week in week out.

Going off topic into any kind of subject is part of the appeal.

danthefan

thomond2006 wrote: »

Going off topic into any kind of subject is part of the appeal.

Absolutely. It was never just a sports news show.

jones

I've listened to OTB since the early days, in truth it was the reason i ever listened to newstalk so they'll be losing one listener anyway. Will miss it big time. hopefully the lads get another gig soon

totallegend

.ak wrote: »

The reason OTB is so popular is because of the light-hearted/banter aspect. If it doesn't have that in it's reincarnation it'll sink.

That's what I'd be worried about if they moved to RTE, that they wouldn't have the same freedom or editorial control, or that Ryle Nugent would step in and say "hey guys, we love what you do but we have some suggestions to make it EVEN BETTER"...

Ever heard 'Ball Busters' on a Saturday? Christ.

jamiedav2011

phog wrote: »

The banter is alright during the show but when the sports news is been presented they go off topic at times and it can be difficult to know exactly who/what they're on about, especially, if they talk about stuff that was topical earlier but you're only catching up on the news. Sports news to me should be just that, opinions/analysis can be added later.

What I mean by stale is that they generally use the same pundits week in week out.

Some of the segments were some of the best in Irish sports media though.
The American guy on Tuesday nights was excellent, Johnny and Eoin on Thursday was great radio, Graham Hunter and Gabrielle Marcotti are two of the best footie journalists out there and their rugby coverage is the best in the land.

What made the show great was that it wasn't just 'sports news' delivered like RTE do, there was real analysis, but also lots of humour and you felt like you knew the lads after a while.

Also, after years of broadcasting, they weren't getting annoying, which is a difficult thing to do.

chupacabra

Most of all, I'll miss Dog Chat.

tazman77

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/door-still-open-for-off-the-ball-presenters-despite-mass-walkout-29108504.html

'Off The Ball' had 39,000 listeners, compared with 131,000 for George Hook's 'The Right Hook', 95,000 for Sean Moncrieff's programme and 61,000 for the lunchtime show.

An earlier start for 'Off The Ball' would have meant taking time from one of these, which would have hit ratings and advertising revenues.

CGD

I think it was an engineered move and they have something lined up already. No main stream station will give them the 6pm slot 5 days a week. Their listernship numbers are good not great I think they might live to regret it!!

totallegend

'Off The Ball' had 39,000 listeners, compared with 131,000 for George Hook's 'The Right Hook', 95,000 for Sean Moncrieff's programme and 61,000 for the lunchtime show.

An earlier start for 'Off The Ball' would have meant taking time from one of these, which would have hit ratings and advertising revenues.

Very simplistic way of looking at it (as would be expected from the Indo).

It ignores the fact that radio listenership is higher before 7pm than after across all stations, it's nothing to do with George Hook being a fantastic audience-magnet.

A much fairer comparison would be Off The Ball versus other stations in the 7-10 pm time slot; I'd say it's one of the few in which Newstalk is anyway competitive with RTE or Today FM.

kippy

tazman77 wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/door-still-open-for-off-the-ball-presenters-despite-mass-walkout-29108504.html

How accurate are those figures I wonder?
Do they ever take into account (for example) online listener ship?
I would suspect that a large portion of the OTB listener ship would listen online or via some other medium?
I know I listened online or via pod casts most of the time and I know a good few people who would rarely have listened to the show via "traditional" means.

That being said, Hooks show is the biggest pile of WUMMERY on radio at the moment, an absolute joke of a show if you ask me. There defo doesnt need to be 2.5 hours of it.

Is there a space in the radio spectrum in Ireland for dedicated sports radio station, if only it were to be on stream for a few hours a day?

phog

kippy wrote: »

How accurate are those figures I wonder?
Do they ever take into account (for example) online listener ship?
I would suspect that a large portion of the OTB listener ship would listen online or via some other medium?
I know I listened online or via pod casts most of the time and I know a good few people who would rarely have listened to the show via "traditional" means.

That being said, Hooks show is the biggest pile of WUMMERY on radio at the moment, an absolute joke of a show if you ask me. There defo doesnt need to be 2.5 hours of it.

Is there a space in the radio spectrum in Ireland for dedicated sports radio station, if only it were to be on stream for a few hours a day?

At a guess listening to podcasts or online don't really create many options for raising advertising revenue.

kippy

phog wrote: »

At a guess listening to podcasts or online don't really create many options for raising advertising revenue.

Doesn't the online show also contain adds? (as in it is live)

.ak

kippy wrote: »

How accurate are those figures I wonder?
Do they ever take into account (for example) online listener ship?
I would suspect that a large portion of the OTB listener ship would listen online or via some other medium?
I know I listened online or via pod casts most of the time and I know a good few people who would rarely have listened to the show via "traditional" means.

That being said, Hooks show is the biggest pile of WUMMERY on radio at the moment, an absolute joke of a show if you ask me. There defo doesnt need to be 2.5 hours of it.

Is there a space in the radio spectrum in Ireland for dedicated sports radio station, if only it were to be on stream for a few hours a day?

It's a lot easier for a radio station to monitor online listeners, so I would say yes, it does include those.