Irish radio obsession with English football

zoobizoo

I can't listen to radio stations here on the weekends from now until the end of the football season.

It seems that every show on every station (bar Lyric and I presume Radio na Gaeltachta) obsesses with the Premiership... updates, scores, football news, and some broadcasting the games themselves.

Is it this bad in England?

CountyHurler

zoobizoo wrote: »

Is it this bad in England?

Yeah it is.. you cant turn on a radio in the UK without hearing coverage of the League Of Ireland..

barneystinson

zoobizoo wrote: »

I can't listen to radio stations here on the weekends from now until the end of the football season.

It seems that every show on every station (bar Lyric and I presume Radio na Gaeltachta) obsesses with the Premiership... updates, scores, football news, and some broadcasting the games themselves.

Is it this bad in England?

Demand and supply surely...?

I've no interest in the weather forecast but the feckers insist on broadcasting it hour in hour out :rolleyes:

syklops

zoobizoo wrote: »

I can't listen to radio stations here on the weekends from now until the end of the football season.

It seems that every show on every station (bar Lyric and I presume Radio na Gaeltachta) obsesses with the Premiership... updates, scores, football news, and some broadcasting the games themselves.

Is it this bad in England?

Irish radio obsession with English football

FYP. Actually:

:

Irish radio obsession with English footballsport in general.

twinklerunner

zoobizoo wrote: »

I can't listen to radio stations here on the weekends from now until the end of the football season.

It seems that every show on every station (bar Lyric and I presume Radio na Gaeltachta) obsesses with the Premiership... updates, scores, football news, and some broadcasting the games themselves.

Is it this bad in England?

Sport is hardly mentioned on Saturday on BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 Music. However, there is fantastic coverage on 5 Live.

NIMAN

Michael McMullan will be buzzing from now til May, he seemed to be on a bit of a downer there recently.

super_furry

People want to listen to it, radio stations give the people what they want.

Trebor176

I was dismayed to learn of its return to the radiowaves. It was nice having the music through Saturday afternoons on Today FM.

cml387

Irish radio is only responding to demand.
You will note that they have no obsession with English cricket, or English rugby league etc. etc.

soc160

Big listenership for those kind of shows, not an obsession at all really, its a service and it would be silly not to give people what they want. I'd say a majority of people in Ireland support an English team. And it fills talk requirements.

Max Headroom

I (for one) have no interest in soccer either home or foreign and agree with the poster, its a necessity it seems to cover it these days, and to almost interrupt songs because someone scores a goal.....yawn...

GSF

Premier League Live on today fm gets about 135k listeners on a Saturday so the audience is there for it

zoobizoo

Makes sense so but it strikes me as odd that one station wouldn't just go football free for those who don't care for it.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Oops69

It's a response to audience demand , just listen to the plebs having what they call a ' conversation' , 90 % of the content is the premiership or whatever it's called , the other 10 % women, drink , house prices...... How I bear being in the presence of these philistines never ceases to amaze me .








:cool:

ford fiesta

I don't listen to soccer on the radio. but when channel hopping on a saturday, its always amusing to hear the Today FM phone in show with either of the 2 presenters who have very strange accents and the callers from the back arse of the midlands moan and cry about how "we" should have played...

they're all very sad people.

soc160

ford fiesta wrote: »

I don't listen to soccer on the radio. but when channel hopping on a saturday, its always amusing to hear the Today FM phone in show with either of the 2 presenters who have very strange accents and the callers from the back arse of the midlands moan and cry about how "we" should have played...

they're all very sad people.

That's a very narrow minded and childish attitude to have. Nothing wrong with people investing and identifying themselves in a team or by a team. Plenty of fans with legitimate connections to clubs, mainly in Liverpool and Manchester that have been passed down from parents who may have lived and worked there.

No station interrupts songs to give a goal update either, they usually check in 3-4 times an hour or give a goalflash between songs. It's such minor thing for most listeners. Being honest most people have no interest in the weather as mentioned before but we get it every hour or every day, because it fills a requirement and brings in sponsorship.

wnolan1992

I've always found it weird that Premier League Live hasn't made the move to NT. Even as a soccer fan, I would agree that there is very little decent alternatives to it on Saturdays because 3 of the National stations are all talking at the same time, 2 of those exclusively about soccer.

ford fiesta

soc160 wrote: »

That's a very narrow minded and childish attitude to have. Nothing wrong with people investing and identifying themselves in a team or by a team. Plenty of fans with legitimate connections to clubs, mainly in Liverpool and Manchester that have been passed down from parents who may have lived and worked there.

No station interrupts songs to give a goal update either, they usually check in 3-4 times an hour or give a goalflash between songs. It's such minor thing for most listeners. Being honest most people have no interest in the weather as mentioned before but we get it every hour or every day, because it fills a requirement and brings in sponsorship.

Is it childish in a way to obsess so much about an english club, where most of the players on it are not even from that inherited area or from england itself?

Are these supporters also as passionate about the english soccer team?

NIMAN

The Irish football fan is a weird animal.

Hates Irish football.
Adores Rooney or Gerrard when they are playing for 'their' team.
Hates Rooney or Gerrard when they are playing for England.

whisky_galore

The needs of the majority outweigh those of the minority.
Have zero interest in soccer and sport in general so a heap of podcasts/music is handy for Sunday afternoons to blank out the wall to wall sports coverage.

soc160

ford fiesta wrote: »

Is it childish in a way to obsess so much about an english club, where most of the players on it are not even from that inherited area or from england itself?

Are these supporters also as passionate about the english soccer team?

No. Does it matter if they are English, does it matter if they are French, Italian or German teams? What about fans who support a team outside of Europe? Would you go as far as to transfer that view into other sports such as Rugby or GAA?


It's a global trend that people will have an interest in something not located in their back garden. Why begrudge someone an interest and a passion for something because you have little or no interest in it. Is it an issue that our state broadcaster carried every game of the Football World Cup on one of its stations, would you question why they would show matches not featuring Ireland?

Most of these fans would be as passionate about the English National team. They won't be showing support, many would be willing them to lose but again that is a more global issue, most of our coverage of the Premier League is coming from England, so those that have an interest regularly hear about how good England can be and how they should do X and Y to improve. We absorb that and it becomes a point of discussions because people can relate to the team more and have a better knowledge of the English team that others as a result. Although that is beside the point of Irish Radio carrying Premier League coverage, the figures show it's a winner.

stephenireland

Great to hear Irish commentators on BBC - Kevin Kilbane, Alan Green, and Conor Mc Namara from Limerick leading the way on Match of the Day and Radio Five Live

More Music

Irish radio has an obsession with things English in general. This extends to news coverage also.

The stories that feature on Irish news baffle me sometimes. I listen to LBC quite a lot and used to listen to Talksport and BBC 5 Live, Ireland or things Irish never feature in their news.

fryup

but we're still part of england, did no one tell you that??

currys, dixons, pc world, tesco, b&q, homebase etc etc

cml387

Thank god for podcasts. I tend to be on the road a lot on Sunday afternoons and having no interest in GAA or premiership the choice is somewhat limited.
Nowadays I catch up on Kermode and Mayo.

In the wintertime Radio One had an alternative music service for a while on Sunday afternoons on FM (I think) some yearsago but discontinued it, possibly because not liking sport is a sin as far their Sports Department is concerned.

OldMrBrennan83

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Doctor Strange

Ah excellent, the annual thread.

MJ23

Most of them are Lemmings who have never been to the city of their beloved team.
Sit in the the pub talking shyte for the day to each other, slagging each other about how many times "we" won the cup.

dRNk SAnTA

MJ23 wrote: »

Most of them are Lemmings who have never been to the city of their beloved team.
Sit in the the pub talking shyte for the day to each other, slagging each other about how many times "we" won the cup.

I'm a big football fan, I follow the premier league closely, support manchester united. I even watched the world cup when Ireland weren't playing. I'm not a lemming. Maybe I just have different interests to you.

hullaballoo

I love all the sweeping generalisations these threads bring up. English teams have a massive following here and news is about bringing people stories they are interested in. You're really asking why so many Irish people follow English teams, but that's not a discussion suited to this forum.

Unless there is some reason why radio should not broadcast certain news items on the basis that they offend out-moded world views, I don't see much of a future for this thread.

Fuzzy Clam

hullaballoo wrote: »

I love all the sweeping generalisations these threads bring up. English teams have a massive following here and news is about bringing people stories they are interested in. You're really asking why so many Irish people follow English teams, but that's not a discussion suited to this forum.

Unless there is some reason why radio should not broadcast certain news items on the basis that they offend out-moded world views, I don't see much of a future for this thread.

Its a thread about radio. Im following it with interest as its a topic i have discussed with friends in radio. I do hope the over moderation tendencies that proliferate Boards are not going to kill an active and interesting thead.

soc160

MJ23 wrote: »

Most of them are Lemmings who have never been to the city of their beloved team.
Sit in the the pub talking shyte for the day to each other, slagging each other about how many times "we" won the cup.

dRNk SAnTA wrote: »

I'm a big football fan, I follow the premier league closely, support manchester united. I even watched the world cup when Ireland weren't playing. I'm not a lemming. Maybe I just have different interests to you.

I always find these discussions have someone moaning because another person supports an English team and they aren't allowed to support them because they haven't been there, mainly because the other person has little interest in the sport. The focal point of the argument is usually a gripe about them supporting an "English" team. It's not allowed for some reason, but these issues don't seem to exist if its a team based somewhere else. Some people like to discuss books, some like to discuss music, others like to discuss football and in terms of radio, football draws in more listeners. To insult someone because they enjoy something (which happens to be the most popular sport in the world) is petty.

No value in keeping the thread open.

Fuzzy Clam

soc160 wrote: »

I always find these discussions have someone moaning because another person supports an English team and they aren't allowed to support them because they haven't been there, mainly because the other person has little interest in the sport. The focal point of the argument is usually a gripe about them supporting an "English" team. It's not allowed for some reason, but these issues don't seem to exist if its a team based somewhere else. Some people like to discuss books, some like to discuss music, others like to discuss football and in terms of radio, football draws in more listeners. To insult someone because they enjoy something (which happens to be the most popular sport in the world) is petty.

No value in keeping the thread open.

yeah, close the thread because there are a couple of posts that have strayed o/t.

Its sad but yours is a typical response from people who believe that just because you feel that sport should dominate radio, then those of us who don't like it should suffer it.

As i said earlier, i've discussed this with people in radio, people in positions of influence. It is extrodinary how many of these people are totally ignornant of the fact that no everyone wants to hear about English football.

hullaballoo

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

Its a thread about radio. Im following it with interest as its a topic i have discussed with friends in radio. I do hope the over moderation tendencies that proliferate Boards are not going to kill an active and interesting thead.

Moderator: if you have an issue with the moderation on this site, please take it to the appropriate forum, which is Feedback. There is a site-wide rule against commenting on moderation in-thread outside of that forum.

Please bring this back on topic.

zoobizoo

OP here. I've no issues with people supporting any teams or interested in any sport.

Do the likes of Q102 amd 4FM cover the football also?

Dublin Red Devil

What else are you going to put on the radio though. More crap music playing the same 10 songs over and over again? More stupid talk shows with guests nobody cares about? More mysery news and fecking weather?

The other fella

I love the obsession with football coverage...Its the way the media make a soap opera of players lives that annoys me.

soc160

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

yeah, close the thread because there are a couple of posts that have strayed o/t.

Its sad but yours is a typical response from people who believe that just because you feel that sport should dominate radio, then those of us who don't like it should suffer it.

As i said earlier, i've discussed this with people in radio, people in positions of influence. It is extrodinary how many of these people are totally ignornant of the fact that no everyone wants to hear about English football.

Dominate radio? Compared to what? More music and current affairs than sport across the dial. Not everyone does want to hear about football but there is clearly a healthy appetite for it so why change that.