Today FM giving away a show for the summer

Bard

Today FM are giving away the chance to present your own Monday morning (5-7am!) slot on the station for 12 weeks.

From http://radionation.ie/2013/05/today-fm-summer-slot-up-for-grabs/ :

Have you got what it takes to be up before the night clubs close to entertain the country on the national airwaves? Then Today FM’s new competition could be for you!

The Communicorp-owned national station have launched a competition that will give someone the opportunity to “kick start the summer” by actually presenting the first show of the week every week throughout the summer months.

The national station will give the winning candidate a 12 week contract to do the “first show of the week” – covering the Early Breakfast show from 5-7am every Monday, each week in June, July and August.

Entries must be sent to the station by email in MP3 format and will be judged by a panel of Today FM’s own talent including current Early Breakfast show host Louise Duffy.

Well fair play to Today FM... that's one way to get new talent on air...

mike65

Cheap bastards! Still it could be the making of someone.

No use for anyone who lives outside communing distance mind you, if it was every day for 12 weeks or 12 shows back to back you could arrange something but one day a week for a 5am start?

heybaby

mike65 wrote: »

Cheap bastards! Still it could be the making of someone.

No use for anyone who lives outside communing distance mind you, if it was every day for 12 weeks or 12 shows back to back you could arrange something but one day a week for a 5am start?

Im all for new talent. One minor reservation though, quite often these competitions are purely a gimic to generate people talking about a new station rather than give a 'lasting' opportunity to a jock new to a particular station. i recall q102 doing a similar competition for several years running, anyone remember any of their winners? in fact any of them still even on the air ?

If this competition represents a credible chance for a jock to get a lasting gig then terrific. Now some people will say its great exposure, theoretically yes, but isnt X factor great exposure for singers for a few months and then they disappear? So id be wary. remember Today fm have Phil Cawley, Tim kelly and the returned Alison curtis as cover if they need, oh and now that showbizz correspondant Paula with her new late night Friday show, so as a station they dont lack jocks needed for cover work which realisticially is all any new jock is going to get at best, which makes me think this competition will serve the station more than it will serve the jock who wins it in the long run.

Sky King

Reckon many people would apply for this??

I wonder what kind of application would grab their attention.

Itssoeasy

Louise has tweeted that she has a new show on Saturdays in the summer 2-6pm.

GSF

heybaby wrote: »

Im all for new talent. One minor reservation though, quite often these competitions are purely a gimic to generate people talking about a new station rather than give a 'lasting' opportunity to a jock new to a particular station. i recall q102 doing a similar competition for several years running, anyone remember any of their winners? in fact any of them still even on the air ?

If this competition represents a credible chance for a jock to get a lasting gig then terrific. Now some people will say its great exposure, theoretically yes, but isnt X factor great exposure for singers for a few months and then they disappear? So id be wary.

Whats the worst that can happen? You get to present a radio show nationally for 2 months? Is that really going to harm the rest of your life, if you dont get follow up work on the station.

Sometimes people can only see the worst and dont take opportunities that present themselves.

Sky King

I agree with GSF. If nothing else, it would be a great experience.

smallfridge

Any news on the new presenter yet? It'll be nice to hear Louise on a Saturday afternoon. She's very easy listening.

Btr

Think you have to be from Mayo to apply

FearDark

Is this another jobbridge position?

Bard

FearDark wrote: »

Is this another jobbridge position?

Seriously?... what do you mean by 'another'? What ON-AIR positions on national radio have you seen filled by JobBridge?

Yeah... I don't think so.

heybaby

Right so , Spin south west's Danny Cremin is the new host of Louise's show for the summer, congratulations to him for winning the slot, however, Im not impressed. He sounds relaxed enough so doesnt seem to be daunted by hosting on a national but he really should be more prepared in his links, far too many crutches like giving the text number in every link, too many eh's and aw's and his punchline to a story he read about a kid bringing an artilllery shell to school was, 'jesus I havent heard that before', was ill advised.

Today fm were always going to be in a difficult position finding a replacement for Louise Duffy because she isnt a great presenter herself so they ran the risk of showing up her deficiencies by getting someone better for the summer, theres little chance of that happening judging by this mornings show.

Look its brilliant todayfm are giving a new person a chance but at the very least the new person could be prepped and be of a high standard to actually merit being on a national.

jimmy2flutes

But are they giving someone new a shot at radio stardom? Not really, they are taking someone from one of their other stations and putting them on air. Not exactly a new talent search!

wnolan1992

Slightly bad form to give the position to someone who already has a full time radio gig tbh. I understood this to be an opportunity for an unknown in the industry to have a shot.

But best of luck to him, hope he makes the most of the opportunity.

Sky King

Um... ah... ehh... um... ahh .... eh....em...
And all that from someone who already works in radio! Must have been slim pickings in that competition. It's very difficult to listen to. Anyway fair play to him, I hope he gets it together for next week.I must say, I am liking the selection of a genuine regional accent for this gig. Kinda sick of saith Dublin cainty caincil on the saith baind raindabaish and of course Orsenal Drow at Goodison Pork.

heybaby

I'm open to correction but I didn't get the impression that Today FM were looking for new talent for this role per say. They billed it as a chance to a show for the summer.
In reality it was never going to go to someone who wasn't already working in radio, it wouldn't have been possible to throw a novice in there to do 9 links an hour, engage listeners and become familiar with cool edit and master control in the short space of time between the closing date for applications and today.
Today FM are essentially keeping this 'opportunity ' in house by giving it to a spin Jock, as both today FM and spin s w are communicorp.
Having listened to this mornings show I find it hard to believe there weren't better candidates in the mix. The content and delivery from someone already working in radio was simply not good enough for a local station nevermind a national.
Its an odd choice to go with someone so young too, today FM afterall have Declan meehan, bob conway, dempsey , darcy , cawley on their books all of whom are over 40, they are hardly trying to lower their age profile.
Nope, like other stations before them today FM had a gap in the schedule to.fill, they saw an.opportunity to market the station under the guise of giving someone a chance to host a show, but in reality I'd say it was choreographed from the start, think about it they are hardly gonna hire someone that would show Louise Duffy up are they?

Btr

heybaby wrote: »

I'm open to correction but I didn't get the impression that Today FM were looking for new talent for this role per say. They billed it as a chance to a show for the summer.
In reality it was never going to go to someone who wasn't already working in radio, it wouldn't have been possible to throw a novice in there to do 9 links an hour, engage listeners and become familiar with cool edit and master control in the short space of time between the closing date for applications and today.
Today FM are essentially keeping this 'opportunity ' in house by giving it to a spin Jock, as both today FM and spin s w are communicorp.
Having listened to this mornings show I find it hard to believe there weren't better candidates in the mix. The content and delivery from someone already working in radio was simply not good enough for a local station nevermind a national.
Its an odd choice to go with someone so young too, today FM afterall have Declan meehan, bob conway, dempsey , darcy , cawley on their books all of whom are over 40, they are hardly trying to lower their age profile.
Nope, like other stations before them today FM had a gap in the schedule to.fill, they saw an.opportunity to market the station under the guise of giving someone a chance to host a show, but in reality I'd say it was choreographed from the start, think about it they are hardly gonna hire someone that would show Louise Duffy up are they?

Heybaby - as usual you're spot on I think. Todayfm certainly cynically marketed it though. The stranger thing for me is that (leaving RTE) aside few media groups seem to move around staff as much as Communicorp , after all the stations supposedly have separate structures etc. I wish the new guy well but still think station needs a radical kick up the backside on b'fast show and mid morning . As for Louise' playlists.....difference between presenter and jock IMO

heybaby

According to link below, Cremin hasnt even done his leaving cert !!??!! I really dont know what to make of this at all. I think its a clever move by Today fm on two counts, first on the surface it appears Today fm are giving youth / new talent a chance and if he isnt quite up to scratch its understandable why, and secondly no matter what he does he's going to be inferior to Duffy as a presenter, so he doesnt show her up. My inital misgivings about this 'opportunity' were based on it purely being a vehicle that would benefit the station more than the individual more in the short term and it appears to be the case. There were 150 applications yet they opted for essentially a novice with some experience on sister station spin sw and on community radio, it makes no sense from a programming point of view and its disrespectful to listeners considering what i heard yesterday. Clearly Today fm knew exactly what kind of person they wanted before they started this charade.
A further point, if Today fm were really interested in getting a new voice on the air for the summer, then why not give them the saturday 2 - 6 pm slot ? It seems a little silly to parachute Duffy in there when she has a fulltime early morning gig. The current solution is a little messy to say the least.

http://radiotoday.ie/2013/06/community-radio-presenter-joins-today-fm/

Btr

heybaby wrote: »

According to link below, Cremin hasnt even done his leaving cert !!??!! I really dont know what to make of this at all. I think its a clever move by Today fm on two counts, first on the surface it appears Today fm are giving youth / new talent a chance and if he isnt quite up to scratch its understandable why, and secondly no matter what he does he's going to be inferior to Duffy as a presenter, so he doesnt show her up. My inital misgivings about this 'opportunity' were based on it purely being a vehicle that would benefit the station more than the individual more in the short term and it appears to be the case. There were 150 applications yet they opted for essentially a novice with some experience on sister station spin sw and on community radio, it makes no sense from a programming point of view and its disrespectful to listeners considering what i heard yesterday. Clearly Today fm knew exactly what kind of person they wanted before they started this charade.
A further point, if Today fm were really interested in getting a new voice on the air for the summer, then why not give them the saturday 2 - 6 pm slot ? It seems a little silly to parachute Duffy in there when she has a fulltime early morning gig. The current solution is a little messy to say the least.

http://radiotoday.ie/2013/06/community-radio-presenter-joins-today-fm/

Again, no disagreement Todayfm along with Rest of DOB empire sounds all over the place . Early morning show is not working I think , even the stable of early morn radio - the truckers seem to have departed. I suspect DOB needs a radio Czar , maybe someone like Jeff O'B to individually go through group and segregate formats