Live overnight radio shows..??

Captian Swashbuckle

Working a week of nights on the road this week. Belfast to Kerry. The long haul.

Anyway, on the upside I am getting to hear some of the overnight radio across the country and well, its kind of pretty dire isn't it...?!!

Endless talkshow repeats and automated music. Lifeless really. I thought FM 104 was the only station still live so I was looking forward to that. Tuned in anyway and the Dj on tells me to keep listening for the rundown of what was big in 2014 so I did.............

Despite the jingles telling me it was live it sounded like whoever loaded the voice tracks forgot to put a few in..!! Nothing out of their '5 hits in a row' just an ad for a xmas promotion then more music till the same guy came on way later and just intoduced the next song..?!?

Is it just a case of budgets that these stations don't have live djs anymore or is there no point with a miniscule audience available???

I remember the days gone by when Gerry Wilson hosted the graveyard on 2fm or the overnighter on 104 with Greg Merriman. It was great radio and fun to listen! Surely there's enough people like myself working nights that it warrents looking at.

Now where's me coffee....

L1011

104 is live overnight, but the long music sweeps and minimal linking is done all day

radioland

L1011 wrote: »

104 is live overnight, but the long music sweeps and minimal linking is done all day

I don't get the resistance of PDs to live overnights - there's an audience for the mad, bad, bewildered etc and it's not as if it would cost much ,

Radio_Fan_67

Ireland is just too small for live overnights

munchkin_utd

bbc 5 live is live all night, with a show aptly titled "up all night" http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0070h86 .
Show is kindof like moncrief in the daytime, lots of crackpot yanks selling books on rare topics.

if you just want stuff to listen to, then theres loads of hour long podcasts you can download like the guardian football review, BBC film review and the likes that should shorten the journey.

L1011

radioland wrote: »

I don't get the resistance of PDs to live overnights - there's an audience for the mad, bad, bewildered etc and it's not as if it would cost much ,

Call it 150 a night (can be a lot less), +30% for general payroll cost (PRSI etc), 195 * 365 = 70k a year more or less. There's a few stations where 70k is a very significant figure to be spending.

Obviously others make it work for them or else nobody would be doing it.

Preset No.3

Hahahahahaha a jock on €70k a year????

L1011

Preset No.3 wrote: »

Hahahahahaha a jock on €70k a year????

Read the post properly

365 shifts a year is rather more than one person.

bbability

Radio_Fan_67 wrote: »

Ireland is just too small for live overnights

Totally disagree. Having worked the nightshift or come home late from a gigs many a night in the past I know how important it is to have a voice listen to. I think the BAI have to step up to the mark here. They insist on 20% news from 7-7 so why don't they insist on live radio for a percentage of the 7 nights during the night from 1am to 4am? For example Simon Beale is on from 1am to 4am and Jenni Falconer from 4-7am Heart in London.

I've always liked the freedom on night time radio and Greg Merriman, Jason Maine are two names that come to mind for me and the great memories of night time radio. It needs to be reinvented and regenerated in Ireland. There is absolutely no excuse. I think Mike O Brien was doing overnights on 4fm. Not sure if he still does or did the axe fall on that one!

Losty Dublin

bbability wrote: »

I think Mike O Brien was doing overnights on 4fm. Not sure if he still does or did the axe fall on that one!

Mike did one night a week live. They repeated it a few times over the rest of the week!!!

Oddly enough, RTE Radio 1 is live at night from a continuity point of view; it's just that the programmes they play out from 2AM-5:30AM are repeats.

radioland

L1011 wrote: »

Call it 150 a night (can be a lot less), +30% for general payroll cost (PRSI etc), 195 * 365 = 70k a year more or less. There's a few stations where 70k is a very significant figure to be spending.

Obviously others make it work for them or else nobody would be doing it.

Seriously if you can find someone paying that let me know as I'll be knocking their door down. Average pay in the sector is a hell of a lot less than that

Captian Swashbuckle

L1011 wrote: »

104 is live overnight, but the long music sweeps and minimal linking is done all day

40 minute plus music sweeps though...?!? If it was live it was pretty poor.

Ok I get that for local stations the wage involved might make it less of a priority but to say the country is too small doesn't cut it. Rte are a public service broadcaster, surely I should be afforded the same service at 4.30am as I am at 4.30pm, no?????

madmaggie

I don't know what type of programme you had in mind, but if I'm awake in the wee small hours I put on BBC World Service. News every half hour, and interesting and varied reports from around the world. It's on 198LW from 1 am after close down of BBC Radio 4, and on MW, not sure of frequency there.

TallGlass

Your man on FM104 doing the over night is on 70K a year? Pheking hell, where do I sign up? Well minus your 30% is still about 45/40K a year after tax and there PRSI about 30/35K still not a bad wage, where do I sign up?

Mycroft H

198khz long wave for BBC Radio 4 and the World service after 1am. 720khz is a relay of BBC R4 LW up north. But usually 198 is strong enough.

L1011

TallGlass wrote: »

Your man on FM104 doing the over night is on 70K a year? Pheking hell, where do I sign up? Well minus your 30% is still about 45/40K a year after tax and there PRSI about 30/35K still not a bad wage, where do I sign up?

Someone else didn't read the post...

365 shifts a year requires far more than one person. If the multiple people who do it are being paid 150 a shift (which would be at the high end of the scale, realistically - it would much less on smaller stations) and you take in to account the additional costs of employing someone - employers PRSI, holiday time and any benefits (rarely exist these days), incremental costs on insurance etc it works out as costing about that, in total, for a full year.

It does not translate to one person being on 70k - there's probably less people on-air on 70k+ outside of RTE than you have fingers to count them on!

Even if you did get people to do it for minimum wage, which you possibly could, its still 8.65*6 (assuming you're 6am-midnight, some stations end earlier)*365*1.30 which is 25k a year of a cost. If you're PD in a station with extremely tight budgets and you can tell from Facebook/Twitter/texts that you've maybe a few hundred overnight listeners at most, cutting overnights is generally top of the list for savings.

lebowsky

I'd recommend Rhod Sharp on Up all night on BBC5 live. He does 3/4 nights a week. He's a great broadcaster and journalist. Varied topics and very few crackpots.

TallGlass

L1011 wrote: »

Someone else didn't read the post...

365 shifts a year requires far more than one person. If the multiple people who do it are being paid 150 a shift (which would be at the high end of the scale, realistically - it would much less on smaller stations) and you take in to account the additional costs of employing someone - employers PRSI, holiday time and any benefits (rarely exist these days), incremental costs on insurance etc it works out as costing about that, in total, for a full year.

It does not translate to one person being on 70k - there's probably less people on-air on 70k+ outside of RTE than you have fingers to count them on!

Even if you did get people to do it for minimum wage, which you possibly could, its still 8.65*6 (assuming you're 6am-midnight, some stations end earlier)*365*1.30 which is 25k a year of a cost. If you're PD in a station with extremely tight budgets and you can tell from Facebook/Twitter/texts that you've maybe a few hundred overnight listeners at most, cutting overnights is generally top of the list for savings.

So they would be running on a budget of about 70K P/A for overnight show/s. Suppose to some stations that's a big saving, I do think it's 70K well spent rather than having repeats on that no-one wants to hear! Surely a station would be better having a smaller promotion team out and about than dropping the live overnight show?

radioland

TallGlass wrote: »

So they would be running on a budget of about 70K P/A for overnight show/s. Suppose to some stations that's a big saving, I do think it's 70K well spent rather than having repeats on that no-one wants to hear! Surely a station would be better having a smaller promotion team out and about than dropping the live overnight show?

Not having overnights live is like providing transport restricted. For varying reasons there are large potential audiences being lost. I've done night time radio and I've seen those audiences.

L1011

TallGlass wrote: »

So they would be running on a budget of about 70K P/A for overnight show/s. Suppose to some stations that's a big saving, I do think it's 70K well spent rather than having repeats on that no-one wants to hear! Surely a station would be better having a smaller promotion team out and about than dropping the live overnight show?

Stations generally don't send the promotional team out unless they're being paid to if they can avoid it at all. Flyering, sampling etc are normally paid for. It wouldn't be the first thing to cut as it should be a revenue raiser.

The audience at night is tiny going on the JNLR figures, they are possibly proportionally more likely to get involved in terms of texting/Facebook etc though - if you're working on your own somewhere overnight the presenter is effectively keeping you company!

ford fiesta

BBC radio 2 axed the 3 to 6am slot a few weeks ago (alex lester, richard allinson). they now have 'best of radio 2' on instead. what a shame