Future of radio in Ireland

Seren_

With the recent announcement of over 20 jobs lost at Phantom and numbers listening to the radio decreasing with each JNLR survey, what do you think the future holds for radio in Ireland?

Personally, I can only see the situation getting worse. I'm in my mid twenties and hardly anyone I know around my age listen to the radio. A number of stations are in financial difficulties. Should the BAI step in and amalgamate stations/reduce the number of licenses? Or should things be left to stations to fight for more reach in a smaller pool of people? or do you feel that things will get better?

I'm not really sure what I think, but there's a good crowd of knowledgeable and interesting posters on this forum, who I'm sure have some thoughts on the subject.

c_o_ck p_i_ss chillage

Kardashian FM

soc160

I remember Newstalk did an ad before, was an in house thing to promote sales on radio with them, Moncrieff was acting as someone interviewing an ordinary person about how much radio they consume. The interviewee says "oh none" then he reveals he listens in the car to work, and that someone has a radio on in work, and in the car on the way home etc... Moral of the ad was that people don't notice how much radio they consume. It's a passive media, so we generally consume it in the background, you'd say almost 50% of the population listen at some stage during the day, probably higher. In Dublin the commercial music stations battle each other to be the least offensive for want of a better word, the listener generally wants top 40 chart music so that means stations will create the same output with minimal fuss, people with no real interest in radio will not actively know what station they are listening to which can sway figures.

The situation at Phantom is terrible, a massive cull of staff but the reason they are doing it is to preserve the stations long term future. I have seen fans of phantom on here argue that all they want is music, minimal talk. Phantom have less of a news and current affairs requirement than other stations at the moment and have seeked further approval from the BAI to take this radical step. Aside from the terrible loss of jobs the move makes sense, minimise the workforce and outsource the work, although outsourcing the work for Phantom means moving it to other sales agents/producers within Communicorp... and that is the underlying point here. We are moving towards a big business model for better or for worse, the stations are in the hands of few, UTV and Communicorp dominate Dublin. This means that the stations aren't solely reliant on the money they produce... Personally I think it's the only way that a number of stations would actually survive. Take Newstalk 98FM and Phantom out of the hands of a richer benefactor or away from each other and they would fold based on the amount of money they produce compared to the amount they spend... BUT having said that, maybe that means stations won't be as reliant on money earned from advertising alone.

If Phantom continue to slide after this re-structure then we might see their license challenged whenever it is up for renewal, especially seeing as the man behind the original Phantom, Simon Maher, has his own alternative radio station online. The BAI need to monitor the situation and consider whether the license is best served under Communicorp or would it be better under a new set of owners who could fulfill it's original contractual obligations.

Having said all that I don't see a culling like that in any other station at the moment, most stations operate on fairly minimal staff as it is, the fear would be that there will be a congruence of operations. So News for all the communicorp stations would be served by one newsreader for a shift and syndicated to the other stations in the group, this would lead to job losses obviously but it would be 2-3 from each station rather than 20 from one station.

spillit67

I used to listen to a lot of radio. Late night radio was great and whilst low brow, it was an introduction to many types of topics in my teenage years. I used to listen late into the night of Radio 1 or Newstalk repeats (Dave McWilliams breakfast show at 12 at night for example). Off the Ball, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Newstalk in general- I loved it.

I suppose lifestyle factors changed it. I probably went from listening to 40 hours a week to zero hours a week between school and college. It's partly technology based but it's also the lack of invention on radio. We waited for years for the BAI to really liberalise the radio licensing market and they did it at a time of huge upheavel in the industry with iPods coming on stream which is unfortunate, but radio stations just seem to continue to disappoint in terms of their innovation. I love stuff like Spin putting their news on at Quarter to the hour. Maybe it comes down to regulations, but it annoys me how all radio stations just seem to do the same thing. 9-12; we must have a Gerry Ryan impersonator for housewives, 5-7; lets all start doing current affairs ect. I get my variety through the internet, through podcasts...radio is just dull and predictable these days.

end of the road

soc160 wrote: »

The situation at Phantom is terrible, a massive cull of staff but the reason they are doing it is to preserve the stations long term future.

i'm not sure it has one though? with most of its staff now gone and few listeners why not just put it out of its misery?

soc160 wrote: »

I have seen fans of phantom on here argue that all they want is music, minimal talk. Phantom have less of a news and current affairs requirement than other stations at the moment and have seeked further approval from the BAI to take this radical step.

the station delivered its product very well as a pirate, once the commercial realities came the station was going to have to move more mainstream, sad but true, if you want an alternative to top 40 then the pirates and even better the internet is the way to go with a station for almost everyone, its brilliant, i haven't looked back to fm radio since, infact i don't even own a radio, i can listen to the commercial stations online if i want to listen to them, people should give it a try.

soc160 wrote: »

If Phantom continue to slide after this re-structure then we might see their license challenged whenever it is up for renewal, especially seeing as the man behind the original Phantom, Simon Maher, has his own alternative radio station online. The BAI need to monitor the situation and consider whether the license is best served under Communicorp or would it be better under a new set of owners who could fulfill it's original contractual obligations.

but how would someone else be able to fulfill it's original contractual obligations when the current station has struggled to do so? surely its the case that the licence just isn't commercially viable and instead such stations should be able to operate under a community of interest model which will mean it only has to pay the necessary costs such as music licencing transmission costs and so on? that would be the best option for the licence to be honest, their could of course be other problems that may come with such a licence who knows but leaving things as they are doesn't sound like its going to work.

soc160 wrote: »

I don't see a culling like that in any other station at the moment, most stations operate on fairly minimal staff as it is, the fear would be that there will be a congruence of operations. So News for all the communicorp stations would be served by one newsreader for a shift and syndicated to the other stations in the group, this would lead to job losses obviously but it would be 2-3 from each station rather than 20 from one station.

i don't know, i think the BAI will scrap most of the rules eventually and we'l end up with a heart/capital situation like in the UK, dooms day stuff i agree but maybe it would be best to get it done as it could be the way irish radio may go?

gufnork

Streaming radio over the internet is surely the way it's headed. I do all my listening via internet these days and as such have opened myself up to a whole world of different shows, personalities and styles of broadcasting. If it's variety we're all looking for then look no further than your laptop, tablet or phone. I use my kindle Fire to stream while at home and my smartphone while out and about.

To be honest I wouldn't limit myself to stations that just broadcast to a very limited home audience anymore. It's much more exciting to hop and jump around the world each time I'm in the mood for a little radio.

Five Lamps

gufnork wrote: »

Streaming radio over the internet is surely the way it's headed. I do all my listening via internet these day ...

Phantom have been streaming on the Internet since the late 90s ... so have most radio stations.

end of the road

Five Lamps wrote: »

Phantom have been streaming on the Internet since the late 90s ... so have most radio stations.

i'm sure he's aware of that though, he was talking in terms of internet being the best way to listen for choice instead of terrestrial radio

GSF

Radio in ireland was designed as a job maximisation project so we have 8 minute long news and sports bulletins every hour, pointless irish language inserts, celeb news and so on just to meet the various quotas set by the regulator. What the listener wants comes second to these restrictions. Worked fine before tablets and smart phones freed people from the restrictions of being stuck with that set of options.

Elmo

Radio has become largely talk based irrelevance. Look at what 2fm are doing!

Phantom FM should have been given a national licence or a quasi national licence. Dublin is too small for the number of niche music services it has.

Sunshine should really be based in the Midlands or again be given a quasi national licence.

They could easily merge the two spin stations, since they have done that with iRadio.

to meet the various quotas set by the regulator.

Such quotas should be put on stations with a large enough audience to sustain those quotas. Smaller niche channels should be regulated based on their niche e.g. Sunshine should not be let become a pop station, not that I am a fan of Country and Western.

end of the road

Elmo wrote: »

They could easily merge the two spin stations, since they have done that with iRadio.

not really, i radio could merge because the audiences are similar, a dublin station merging with a station down the country would be a bit to much, while audiences would have similar tastes dublin needs its own dedicated youth station and not to be merged with other stations around the country, unless spin ever wins all the youth licences around the country of course which could mean they could be allowed to have national coverage, but maybe both spin stations merging could happen who knows

SamAK

Regarding distribution of radio -

There's more than just terrestrial FM broadcasting available. You have internet, which is good if you're stationary but radio is rather popular among commuters and people are relying on constant 3/4G connections so they can use their phone apps to stream online, assuming they don't have a data cap. Not a foolproof method of listening to radio uninterrupted while on the go, especially over long distances or with measly data packages offered by phone companies. And mobile internet coverage is hardly 100% in Ireland is it? So dropouts and 'buffering' become a pain in the arse.

Satellite radio has gained traction in some places... In the US, SiriusXM has around 25 million subscribers. Of course, consumers need a sat receiver to avail of this method, which holds it back a bit.

DAB radio, along with internet, are probably the methods that will, at some point, overtake FM as the dominant method of distribution. DAB is similar to FM in that it can use the same transmission towers as FM, thus keeping costs down. But, AFAIK, there's only approx 50% DAB coverage in Ireland. And, you need a DAB receiver, which is another barrier to growth of this method.

But DAB only broadcasts at 128kbps, and the sound quality could sometimes sound worse than FM, so eventually DAB+ was developed, which streams at 192kbps. But older DAB receivers are not forwards compatible with DAB+, which is another issue to be overcome if it's going to gain popularity. FM receivers are still the dominant technology, and quite a bit cheaper than DAB at the moment. Until there's a substantial shift in the technology the average radio listener can afford or wants, then FM will still be king...and right now i'd say that even internet radio is more popular.....

soc160

end of the road wrote: »

i'm not sure it has one though? with most of its staff now gone and few listeners why not just put it out of its misery?

the station delivered its product very well as a pirate, once the commercial realities came the station was going to have to move more mainstream, sad but true, if you want an alternative to top 40 then the pirates and even better the internet is the way to go with a station for almost everyone, its brilliant, i haven't looked back to fm radio since, infact i don't even own a radio, i can listen to the commercial stations online if i want to listen to them, people should give it a try.

but how would someone else be able to fulfill it's original contractual obligations when the current station has struggled to do so? surely its the case that the licence just isn't commercially viable and instead such stations should be able to operate under a community of interest model which will mean it only has to pay the necessary costs such as music licencing transmission costs and so on? that would be the best option for the licence to be honest, their could of course be other problems that may come with such a licence who knows but leaving things as they are doesn't sound like its going to work.

i don't know, i think the BAI will scrap most of the rules eventually and we'l end up with a heart/capital situation like in the UK, dooms day stuff i agree but maybe it would be best to get it done as it could be the way irish radio may go?

Ok, I think we all might be missing a the few central points regarding radio in Ireland... Not just this post but others. We are lagging in terms of Broadband and Wifi as it is, I don't own a car but can i assume most don't come with Wifi at the moment? So we can rule out a large portion of potential online listeners there, one of the appeals of radio is it is easily accessible, no one is going to tune in online for generic hit music... yet Fm104 is the most listened too station in Dublin possibly because it is so accessible to the masses. Most stations claim that listeners only listen for up to 22 minutes at one serving so having one hundred different alternatives out there isn't the issue, each station is striving to keep that listener on board for a maximum amount of time. So every station is trying to increase the amount of time someone listens, that's why competitions at such exist. I don't think the delivery of radio is relevant in terms of JNLR figures and what the argument is based on, the number of people listening is based on FM radio, which is the most accessible .

One of the points I was making was that we are moving to a centralised radio based media, whether that's right or wrong, we can't be nostalgic about it. It is required to sustain a number of stations because the money isn't there to sustain them.

I think you kind of answered your own question there end of the road, the license might not be viable, but the requirement for news and talk has been reduced, so if somone elese wants to challenge for it why not let them, why throw the towel in now and allow the station and license to fold after 5 years? Very short term, look at the license Today FM have and how that failed, look back at Newstalk a few years ago when it was a mess...

end of the road

soc160 wrote: »

the license might not be viable, but the requirement for news and talk has been reduced, so if somone elese wants to challenge for it why not let them, why throw the towel in now and allow the station and license to fold after 5 years? Very short term, look at the license Today FM have and how that failed, look back at Newstalk a few years ago when it was a mess...

okay
1. it would be the station that would fold not the licence which would be change to a community of interest licence meaning less restrictions then with a commercial licence
2. i never stated that nobody should be able to challenge for the licence, all i asked is how would a new station be able to deliver the current contractual obligations when the current station even with a large backer is struggling, i think that is a fair question to ask.
3. today fm's licence being a national licence has a good chance of being a success which it is, i believe it was other reasons that the original station failed and not the commercial viability of the licence which theirs no question that its commercially viable
3. i believe all stations targeting a small market like phantom should be able to broadcast under a community of interest licence meaning they don't have to broadcast news or irish language programs unless they wish to, along with removal of other restrictions where possible.
4. in my opinion phantom was always going to have a ballenceing act to try keep hold of old listeners from its pirate days and get new ones as well, that along with getting advertising and probably sponsorships to, that and all the other restrictions that come with it being a full commercial station were never going to make things easy, thats nobodies fault, thats the reality for stations targeting a small market here in ireland from what i can see
5. is this the final roll of the dice for phantom? who knows, i certainly don't, but either way it will be interesting to see where the station goes from here, i wish those who are effected by the job losses and those who stay well for the future