2fm reboot - 1 year on

xMallx

Remember this time last year ? we were being promised a reboot of 2fm, every second day they were Issuing an new press release about some new program. I think it's fair to say it was a total disaster ? breakfast ratings have collapsed, weekend ratings have totally collapsed.The Nicky byrne show is seen by some as a success but in fact it's ratings are only about the same as Colm Hayes had in that slot. The evening youth shows have gone almost unnoticed.

marno21

xMallx wrote: »

Remember this time last year ? we were being promised a reboot of 2fm, every second day they were Issuing an new press release about some new program. I think it's fair to say it was a total disaster ? breakfast ratings have collapsed, weekend ratings have totally collapsed.The Nicky byrne show is seen by some as a success but in fact it's ratings are only about the same as Colm Hayes had in that slot. The evening youth shows have gone almost unnoticed.

Never going to get anywhere with absolute dirt leading the line (breakfast & drive).

No promotion of the evening shows and a poorly organised weekend lineup (chart show & Cormac Battle are Sunday evening shows, not Friday night ones).

hallo dare

Pathetic as always, and another National radio station isn't far behind it. Thank God for the AUX port that comes in a car these days.

Euphoria Intensifies

I started off being really excited to listen to Chris and Ciara (was a regular listener to them on iRadio) but I rarely hear them now - my radio is never tuned to 2FM, so it always has to be a conscious effort on my part to remember to tune in.

Any time I hear the breakfast show it's pretty terrible. Same with Tubridy - he always sounds so bored. I've heard Nicky Byrne and Jenny Green a few times recently and it's been alright, pretty inoffensive stuff, but they have good chemistry. I like Eoghan McDermott, so any time I hear him covering a slot I usually enjoy him. He should be on either drivetime or breakfast IMO, instead of the current hosts.

All in all it's been a bit of a disaster really.

doc11

The only disaster is the morning show but it's always been a basket case since Dempsey left.What do you do? Keep Will Leahys part time effort from limerick which had become extremely stale or give into hectors demands and keep the distinctly average breakfast show from Galway (funny how he could move for todayfm). While I don't often listen to the station the schedule seems alright, who from todayfm, 98 or 104 could they bring in to do a better job? Ratings are very hard to judge the quality of shows as there's far to much competition for the youth orientated market with mp3 players/itunes, podcasts,new regional youth stations,streaming services such as spotify, youtube and the 30 or so music channels on sky dividing the demographic.

heybaby

The 2fm reboot is a year old but Dan Healy has been head of 2fm since the previous summer 2013, he signed a 3 year contract as far as i recall. His failure to gut 2fm in July of 2013 entirely of its existing lineup is still being borne out today. 2fm exists purely because of its unique funding position, if it was an independent commercial station it would have died long ago. It has no identity, no discernible playlist, no presence in Dublin and no influence whatsoever on younger listeners. Stations like iradio have flourished in the vacuum left by 2fm.
It like Aer lingus should be sold off.

end of the road

heybaby wrote: »

It like Aer lingus should be sold off.

sold off to who? and what would be the point. the new owners would do feck all with it anyway apart from the same songs on loop. okay thats what we get probably at the moment but at least there is potential for change sometime if not sold off for the sake of it

flangemeistro

It is the complete disaster that the majority of people predicted,

I haven't listened to breakfast republic because the ads for it are so cringeworthy and childish. It's basically "we're giving away stuff pls tune in" followed by a predictably stupid comment from Bernard and then the witch that is Jennifer Maguire saying "shut up Bernard" and you can hear Keith's integrity dying with every sentence that leaves his lips.

I tuned to tubs for around 12 months when Darcy became completely unbearable and he was the opposite, he was bearable but he's just totally out of place playing Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars. The true meaning of a square peg in a round hole, they could have saved themselves a fortune and moved him to Mooney's slot.

I used to listen to Nicky and jenny until 12 when I'd switch over to today FM and at the start they were something different and a bit of craic but after awhile it became overpowering and the laughter seemed forced, Nicky has now become the male Kathryn Thomas for rte.

I don't listen to Rick O'Shea because his voice is so forced and overproduced which he gets found out on when doing an outside broadcast like at the young scientists, he also lost a lot of interest and respect from me when he needed Cormac to cohost the show yet the name remained the Rick O'Shea show.

Then we get to the car crash that is drive by with Colm Hayes, oh my good God, I used to always listen to Will Leahy but I wasn't necessarily a fan boy and I don't like talk radio or Gareth O'Callaghan so I tortured myself with Colm every day at 16:30 until very recently, the man is an amateur, if he wasn't Gerry Ryan's buddy he wouldn't even get a gig at an 18th, he's ignorant, arrogant and very condescending and tries to mention at least twice a day that he's originally from ballymun as a way of trying to connect with the general public and if things weren't bad enough it's now the Colm and Al show in everything but name, a terrible excuse for a comedian who is like a flashback to the "oh matron" days, it's like RTE only have him there to play the gay card and act like they're so progressive.
The innuendo and forced Freudian slips are exhausting and they laugh at their own "jokes" while trying to plug Al's next gig.
Complete and utter tripe.

2fm is now after getting so bad that it is gone back the days of playing snippets of upcoming songs, it's like they're saying "we know our presenters are ****e but please stick with us for the top twenty songs in Ireland that we've been flogging to death for the last month"

The only slight positive on the 2fm schedule is Eoin McDermott, he's refreshing and isn't afraid to rock the boat, he's absolutely wasted on the graveyard shift in the evening and should be given a primetime slot, he was like a duck to water the week he was at the helm of drive by.

And the the funny thing is that Dan Healy wouldn't even have him in the air only for Louise Macsherrys unfortunate illness.

So Dan Healy, you said in the RDS last year at the Radio and broadcasting exhibition that "you have to destroy a radio station to rebuild it" well congratulations on the first part of that statement but unfortunately your time is going to run out and you will be seen as a failure and the stubborn pig headed egomaniac that you really are.

bbability

Did you get it all off your chest? Are you feeling better now?

When a station that holds a special place in history like it does for many people around the country, to see it been dismantled and destroyed as Dan Healy admitted himself is very sad indeed. The thing is celebrities or people with big feck off hair cuts or have twitter accounts with massive followers don't attract listeners because they don't hear those things. Listeners to radio have an ear for good quality radio and quite frankly Irish people love listening to their radio. It seems from the tool used to measure audiences listeners are switching to other alternatives in the market. It's in black and white.
Someone once told me never argue over the emotion of a situation present the facts and they will provide the answers. The JNLRs clearly present the facts!

The Breakfast show is horrendous. The problems start there. It hasn't worked and no one is big enough to put their hands up and say 'folks this isn't working'. That's what's called leadership and it's totally lacking. It not the presenters fault. It's the boss/manager who should be brave enough to stand up and be counted for, and say and do what has to be done. The question is do they know what they are doing with this national treasure? The facts are clearly presenting themselves to us all (the listeners).
Anyway 2fm unfortunately doesn't even register with me anymore and from a guy who loves his radio that's a sad day.

Claude Burgundy

Breakfast - meh
Tubs - ok
Nicky & Jenny - ok
Rick - ugh
Hayes - meh

After that no interest other than Jenny at the weekend on my way to work.

I'm 38 and to be honest iRadio more than 2fm.

xMallx

The way RTE handled the thing was ridiculous, putting out press releases every few days about some change that was already leaked in the press or on here months earlier.

iseegirls

flangemeistro wrote: »

... the Colm and Al show in everything but name, a terrible excuse for a comedian who is like a flashback to the "oh matron" days, it's like RTE only have him there to play the gay card and act like they're so progressive.
The innuendo and forced Freudian slips are exhausting and they laugh at their own "jokes" while trying to plug Al's next gig.
Complete and utter tripe.

Completely agree. Al Porter is horrific. The forced chat between them is terrible. It puts me off ever listening to that show again.

Chis and Ciara have been good, and whenever I'm driving late it makes the trip bearable knowing that they are on.

Gits_bone

iseegirls wrote: »

Completely agree. Al Porter is horrific. The forced chat between them is terrible. It puts me off ever listening to that show again.

Chis and Ciara have been good, and whenever I'm driving late it makes the trip bearable knowing that they are on.

He's a bit...like...aggressive no?

flangemeistro

Gits_bone wrote: »

He's a bit...like...aggressive no?

Who, Al Porter or Chris?

Gits_bone

flangemeistro wrote: »

Who, Al Porter or Chris?

Chris.

flangemeistro

Gits_bone wrote: »

Chris.

He can come across a bit overpowering and dominant especially in relation to Ciara, and then she does the whole "no stop it Chris you can't say that I've had enough and I'm really pissed this time"
But that's just their thing and I've heard it so many times.

flazio

He comes across as being a 'shock jock' for the sake of being a 'shock jock'.

end of the road

flangemeistro wrote: »

He can come across a bit overpowering and dominant especially in relation to Ciara, and then she does the whole "no stop it Chris you can't say that I've had enough and I'm really pissed this time"
But that's just their thing and I've heard it so many times.

exactly. thats their act. if you've heard it for the first time or are not a regular, its easy to think it is more then it actually is

bbability

it looks worse than when Bill Gates launched Windows ME. When are they going to put their hands up and say it's not working.

flangemeistro

bbability wrote: »

it looks worse than when Bill Gates launched Windows ME. When are they going to put their hands up and say it's not working.

Dan Healy admit that he's wrong? More chance of people tuning into breakfast republic.

flangemeistro

Ironically the only 2fm show that has gained listeners since the Dan Healy destruction is Tubs which is the only show he didn't touch.

xMallx

flangemeistro wrote: »

Ironically the only 2fm show that has gained listeners since the Dan Healy destruction is Tubs which is the only show he didn't touch.

Actually Tubridys gain is all down to the fact that he now starts at 8.45am.

flangemeistro

xMallx wrote: »

Actually Tubridys gain is all down to the fact that he now starts at 8.45am.

So he's gained 20000 listeners in 15 minutes?

callaway92

I'm a big fan of 2FM at the mo. Pretty much the only station I have on while driving, and usually at home too except for local GAA coverage.

Nicky Byrne
Eoin McDermott
Ruth Scott & Paddy McKenna
Cormac Battle
Ryan Tubridy
Breakfast Republic
Rick O' Shea




Colm Hayes & Al Porter

eiresandra

flangemeistro wrote: »

So he's gained 20000 listeners in 15 minutes?

I would think so. In fact, I could see his figures may have been down if he hadn't been given the 8.45 quarter hour.

I don't have access to the individual quarter hours for 2FM, but I do know that Breakfast Republic's average quarter hour is 30,000. Now, one might presume reasonably that the peak of their audience is in the 8 hour. Therefore, the quarter hours in the 8am hour must be considerably above 30,000 in order to make up for the very low quarter hours in the 6am hour and early part of the 7am hour. I think you could expect the 8.45 quarter hour to be around the 50,000 marker.

Now, many of these will listen past 9am anyway, so wouldn't be extra listeners for Tubridy. They would have been counted already. However, it's fair to say many people arrive in work/college/school at 9am and are no longer radio listeners.

So, my guess is Tubridy got 20,000 listeners and possibly more from that quarter hour.

mickydoomsux

I'm a casual listener to 2FM who basically only turns it on when other stations aren't playing music.

It's just awful outside of playing music. Hacky standard radio stuff and a bunch of semi-celebs who can't do radio at all.

Itssoeasy

flangemeistro wrote: »

So he's gained 20000 listeners in 15 minutes?

Well as far as I can see tubs gained the exact amount of listeners that the breakfast show lost. But honestly what other breakfast show finishes not on the hour ?

xMallx

For a loss making station 2fm has a very bloated schedule.

C14N

I listen to them in the morning, tend to switch over and back between them and Dempsey whenever a song I hate comes on and could stick there for a few days until the same thing happens again. I wouldn't say either are fantastic but when I'm getting breakfast in the morning I need something a bit chirpy that tells me the news and I really just don't have time to be fiddling around with my own music and Bluetooth speakers. I must be mad but I suppose I was one of the 5 people that liked Joe and Keith on Phantom before they closed up shop.

I am very surprised that they can afford to have 3 presenters every day though considering everything I hear about radio is that it's a dying format.

flangemeistro

The first casualty of Dan Healys "Schedule shakeup" failure is Colm Hayes, just a pity it took him 18 months to eat humble pie and put the taxpayers money and ears before his ego, http://m.rte.ie/ten/news/2015/0623/710073-rte-2fms-colm-hayes-to-leave-drivetime/

Fran1985

I would say Dan Healy has been restricted by contracts to what he can and can't do.

Colm Hayes was more than likely on a 2 year contract that required 5 days a week. Now, heading towards the end of that deal, Dan can make alterations to the contract and move him off the day time schedule.

Weekend breakfast is a HUGE demotion though for Hayes though who, despite the recent show, is a decent broadcaster!

flangemeistro

At one time, I could leave 2FM on constantly from 7am to 7pm, but that changed around 2007 or so. Since the revamp I'd barely listen to it at all; except for the odd show at the weekends. I miss how it used to be.

flangemeistro wrote: »

I don't listen to Rick O'Shea because his voice is so forced and overproduced which he gets found out on when doing an outside broadcast like at the young scientists, he also lost a lot of interest and respect from me when he needed Cormac to cohost the show yet the name remained the Rick O'Shea show.

I once heard a very plausible explanation for why Rick usually presents a show with a cohost. The man has a form of epilepsy (I've been to several Brainwave table quizzes where he has been the quizmaster) so he tends to have a cohost just in case anything happens to him.

L1011

Karsini wrote: »

I once heard a very plausible explanation for why Rick usually presents a show with a cohost. The man has a form of epilepsy (I've been to several Brainwave table quizzes where he has been the quizmaster) so he tends to have a cohost just in case anything happens to him.

He has had a seizure on-air at least once when doing a single handed show, many years ago in FM104 (so a decade plus at this stage).