The Newstalk reshuffle

Jimbob1977

Will Doctor Ciara Kelly remain a regular feature?

Her locum in Greystones must be very busy

jimmyw

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

Will Doctor Ciara Kelly remain a regular feature?

Her locum in Greystones must be very busy

I hope so,it's great craic with George and herself in that segment, the things he comes out with is hilarious

ButtersSuki

Expunge wrote: »

It looks to me that Newstalk is heading into a period of audience decline with both it's Breakfast and Drivetime shows being totally changed (personnel wise).

Even if both those shows are fantastic from the get-go (which I seriously doubt), how long would it take for them to bed in?
1 year, 2 years?

Many existing listeners will be lost before the recruiting of new ones will begin, I'd say.

Stretching Pat Kenny even thinner from 9am followed by Hook at lunchtime will not be enough to undo the damage at the 2 important shoulders of the schedule.

Radio listeners like the stuff they like to be the same for ever and ever, Amen.
Managing schedule change is always tricky, but this new schedule at both ends of the daytime schedule is like an earthquake.

They should have left Hook where he was and dealt with breakfast first or the other way round, if that was possible - not both together.

Totally agree on moving Hook, why do it? It's incredibly risky, esp. with the inertia of Irish radio listeners.

ThisRegard

Well he was going to retire anyway, being moved to lunch has him staying on for another year or two.

ButtersSuki

ThisRegard wrote: »

Well he was going to retire anyway, being moved to lunch has him staying on for another year or two.

Was that not a negotiating tactic?

reason vs religion

Echoing what others have said, most recently @Expunge, this doesn't feel like the reshuffle of a confident and growing station and one that aspires to match Radio 1. Continuity is provided only by Pat Kenny, who's a relative newcomer to the station and whose listenership has stagnated behind Breakfast and the Right Hook, and Sean Moncrieff, the tone of whose show is quite at odds with the rest of Newstalk's schedule, leading one to question just how many of his listeners tune in just for his slot.

The seriousness of Newstalk's original intent is gone, but not replaced with something populist either (with possible exception of Williams). Instead it's just bland an uninspiring.

Starting Kenny earlier so as to attract R1 listeners, who currently must endure Tubridy until Sean O'Rourke, is clever and shortening Moncreiff was badly needed. There is also some logic to integrating Off the Ball into the end of the drivetime show, given how radio listenership plummets around 7pm. But it does rather feel that, having made significant gains up until the last survey, they're now having to reinvent themselves, something liable to dent their listenership.

I do, however, look forward to hearing Sarah McInerny, who has impressed me when I've seen her on Vincent Browne.

smash

What's taking the 7am-9am breakfast slot?

Expunge

Is this new schedule the work of the CEO, Tim Collins or someone else in the management chain at Newstalk?

It seems poor enough to me. There must have been other profiled people with some track record of holding a radio show together. The breakfast show looks like a rabble with no definitive anchor.

The drivetime not much better, despite Chris Donoghue's years on air.

Given the 'jobbridge' nature of Newstalk's production, poor aul Pat Kenny will have even more book club type dross in his extended slot.

Programming a pissy west of Ireland local station is one thing, getting the best out of a national talk station with a relatively well resourced competitor is another.

There'll be changes six months in.

neris

cant see myself listening to newstalk after the 7am news. I like the business news they have on before chris and ivan and can listen to them but i cant stand shane coleman or Paul "maybe im too close to the gardai" mcwilliams. Maybe tune into pat the odd time but after that wouldnt have any interest in the rest of their schedule

Bellerstring

Ivan Yates straight out asked Paul Williams this morning, would there be any needle, banter or slagging each other, like the current presenters.
Williams responded, No.
Well, I'm sorry, but it's off to Morning Ireland for me.
Williams seems like a one trick pony (scumbags) and admitted this morning that he hasn't got the first clue about anything to do with sport.
He also seems to have ZERO charisma.
Ever heard him laugh?
At anything???

Lady Chatterton

PeterTheEighth wrote: »

Colette Fitzpatrick:
Yates: "And colette you have two small children".
Fitzpatrick: "And you're going to ask the guys how they manage to juggle things as well are you?"

Well Colette, if that's an insight in what's to come, then you can keep it and I'll go back to Morning Ireland.

Peter, I find myself in the strange position of agreeing with you :eek: I think you're spot on about Colette.

I thought she was incredibly rude this morning. She wants it every way, I seem to remember her giving interviews to glossy magazines along the lines of ....it's so hard for women to juggle it all etc...

Poor Coleman is a nice man but he is too dull and overly PC for me. As for Williams, well after his outburst about Sinn Féin on the LLS ahead of the General Election in February, he can hardly describe himself as an impartial reporter.

constitutionus

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Caught the tail end of it. They were collectively awful. Williams cracked some joke like "you had to be PC in Leitrim or you wouldn't get into the IRA".....huh?

soon as i heard that i thought "jesus he cant even get through the first 5mins without going off on one"

he's gonna be a disaster, i went right off to RTE at that point.

everytime i hear him now i keep thinking of that callen kicks "scummmbaaaags" spoof of him on his comedy slot.

Declan A Walsh

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

I will suspend judgement on these changes until I hear all concerned in action.

In relation to Paul Williams, he used to host a program on the north-west station Ocean FM - in an opt-out for the Leitrim area.

Given what people have been saying about Paul Williams as a presenter, it might be useful to dig up some audio of his time on Ocean FM.

Colette Fitzpatrick has considerable broadcasting experience. She started with Wicklow's East Coast FM. I first heard her on that station during the '90s co-hosting the breakfast show, which would have your usual mix of music and light chat. She then turned up on Today FM as a newsreader. Colette then turned up in the '00s as a newsreader on TV3 and then she got to present programs on TV3. Newstalk came knocking in 2015 as well.

See:
http://www.communicorp.ie/newstalk-announces-sunday-morning-show-hosted-colette-fitzpatrick/

Incidentally, Colette Fitzpatrick co-hosted a General Election debate earlier this year on TV3 with none other than Pat Kenny.

force eleven

I thought Hook was retiring and now he's suddenly taking over prime lunch slot? I'm sorry but he is 75 and getting a bit doddery.I thought he would be better of presenting a light weekend show and nothing else. Ivan going is a big blow. That morning line up will need time to bed in. No guarantee the chemistry will be there. Might give that a miss for a while. All in all not too inspiring Newstalk...

Harry Angstrom

Jimmy Garlic wrote: »

Paul Williams is an oddball. A strange man. I wonder if he will be able to contain his rampant sensationalism.

Not very likely. He could even make the weather sound menacing.....

"Scumbag clouds in the morning, bastard rain in the afternoon. Lightning in the evening which could split you in half".

Harry Angstrom

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

Will Doctor Ciara Kelly remain a regular feature?

Her locum in Greystones must be very busy

I hope she stays on, if only for the updates on Hook's itchy scrotum.

Richard Hillman

Healy was the only show I could not listen to. It was anti-goverment, faux outrage muck.

I am very worried about the breakfast show. The show is usually bad without Ivan and I expected them to do something different but not turn it into a PC Lovefest with liberalist views going unchallenged.

The drivetime show will be same, unlike The Right Hook which is the only show on Irish TV and Radio that will actually question things like immigration.

JaMarcusHustle

Can someone give a quick run down of what each show is like or should be like? In terms of content, tone, etc.

I used to listen to NT when I drove to and from work, though it was only the morning site that had Ivan and then George in the evening might really liked those 2 shows. Going to start listening to the radio more at work going forward.

DubTony

tommyhayes1989 wrote: »

Agree. Really like Coleman and Chris. But they need someone in the corner playing devils advocate

That devils advocate would need the patience of Job and the logic of Aristotle (if Aristotle was actually a very logical person, that is).

Faugheen

If I was Richard Chambers I'd be very unhappy right now. Every time he's been called to cover he's always delivered a good show and is a fresh, young voice. He would have been perfect for the new Lunchtime show or as the political head on the Breakfast show instead of Coleman.

PeterTheEighth

ThisRegard wrote: »

She was right. Would a bloke be asked the same question?

Ivan Yates was trying to complement her on what hard work it must take to do her job and raise the children and she threw the compliment back in his face. It's like that brand of feminism where the woman shouts at you for holding the door open for her cos "she's capable of opening the door herself".

MrsD007 wrote: »

Peter, I find myself in the strange position of agreeing with you :eek: I think you're spot on about Colette.

I'm happy for you that you find yourself being in the "strange position" of being right for once. But then I guess even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Lady Chatterton

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Incidentally, Colette Fitzpatrick co-hosted a General Election debate earlier this year on TV3 with none other than Pat Kenny.

I remember the GE debate and it wasn't Colette's finest hour, she couldn't control the candidates, Pat Kenny had to intervene so there was some kind of order.

I think Chris Donohue, Sarah McInerney and another would be 100 times better in the morning. I'd love someone like Mick Clifford or maybe they could have a guest presenter join them in the same way that Vincent Browne does. Another contender for the role could be Gerard Colleran, (former editor of the Star) he is mouthy but at least he is intelligent, articulate and not uber PC.

soc160

Faugheen wrote: »

If I was Richard Chambers I'd be very unhappy right now. Every time he's been called to cover he's always delivered a good show and is a fresh, young voice. He would have been perfect for the new Lunchtime show or as the political head on the Breakfast show instead of Coleman.

He's still working his way up, maybe hell move into a senior reporters role with Shane Coleman moving on.

What exactly is the idea of Hook's show, surely a one hour news show suited that spot, here's todays news and opinon and then moving into a magazine show. TRH is a bit of everything really so having that midafternoon seems odd.


As for OTB being included at 6.30, im sure it will be minimal, maybe one of the guys in chatting about sports and moving the show on, like Matt Cooper usually finishes with some sport doesn't he?

ghostdancer

Goose81 wrote: »

Its pretty clear from listening there its going to fail, Williams sounds an absolute joke. Doesn't have a clue about politics or sport, what's he there for..

probably to play the populist, sensationalist faux-outrage part now that Yates will be gone.
as said earlier, the LCD of the show, for the morons who think everything on radio is a vast liberal feminist conspiracy.

ghostdancer

ThisRegard wrote: »

I don't think so considering there's a 3 hour sports show coming right up after it, don't see the need for it.

well they already do it with Pat on the Breakfast Show, and Tom Dunne on OTB....

ThisRegard

soc160 wrote: »

What exactly is the idea of Hook's show, surely a one hour news show suited that spot, here's todays news and opinon and then moving into a magazine show. TRH is a bit of everything really so having that midafternoon seems odd.

Another news magazine I don't think suited considering you had the Breakfast show until 10 followed by another news magazine show from 10 to 12.30. There's only so much news out there.

ghostdancer

Faugheen wrote: »

Looks like Quinlan will be taking over the sports anchor role. A real Morning Ireland feel to the line up now. I wonder what it means for Oisin Langan...

I wonder is Langan going to OTB now that they've lost Colm Parkinson?
they've been filling with guests on the show for the past 2 weeks, which they surely can't continue with forever.
I'd imagine it's probably more likely that they'd have someone else who works in the background go full-time on-air like Richie McCormack who could bring a bit of personality to what is now a pretty dull OTB show.

ThisRegard

ghostdancer wrote: »

well they already do it with Pat on the Breakfast Show, and Tom Dunne on OTB....

As I said, not for 30 minutes they don't. It's a couple of minutes chat.

Spanish Eyes

What's happening with Jonathon Healy?

Has be been booted out or what?

ghostdancer

ThisRegard wrote: »

As I said, not for 30 minutes they don't. It's a couple of minutes chat.

and it's very likely that this will be for a few minutes chat too at some point during the last half hour, not all the OTB lads around the table talking sport with Chris and Sarah for 30mins.