Galway Bay FM listenership figures?

bobbyss

Are there any, in fact?
Are they published in the local media anybody know?
Is there a breakdown for individual presenters?
If a presenter is doing the same programme for let's say, 20 years or more, he or she must be a constant poll topper and absolutley irreplaceable. Otherwise, how can we account for the longevity of some of the GBFM staff?

gordongekko

bobbyss wrote: »

Are there any, in fact?
Are they published in the local media anybody know?
Is there a breakdown for individual presenters?
If a presenter is doing the same programme for let's say, 20 years or more, he or she must be a constant poll topper and absolutley irreplaceable. Otherwise, how can we account for the longevity of some of the GBFM staff?

Some of them are shareholders

bobbyss

gordongekko wrote: »

Some of them are shareholders

Yeah. I think K Finnegan is s shareholder and the MD (?) but don't know about other shareholders?

Any info on listenership figures? I switch the dial when I get fed up of them all. There seems to be a country and western show on Saturday morning which I spend two minutes listening to as the presenter spends more time on reading dumb requests than playing c&w music. Country amd western clearly is very popular in Galway. Finnegan seems to be presenting the same program since before the flood. So, these two programs clearly must be chart toppers in terms of listenership. But am wondering where are the stats to back that up.

L1011

The figures are recorded and would be made available to advertisers at the very least.

smallfridge

The figures are called JNLR and are released for all stations this week.

There's a breakdown of them from 3 months ago at bai.ie

not sure how to get individual breakdowns

L1011

smallfridge wrote: »

not sure how to get individual breakdowns

Pay for the appropriate JNLR report; or ask the station or their agency sales house - they provide the figures to advertisers.

GBFM has fairly strong overall figures which would be hard to maintain with many low rating shows.

bobbyss

L1011 wrote: »

Pay for the appropriate JNLR report; or ask the station or their agency sales house - they provide the figures to advertisers.

GBFM has fairly strong overall figures which would be hard to maintain with many low rating shows.

Are these the same figures that we see occasionally in the papers to let us see how various programmes and presenters are doing on national stations? We can see these figures when we buy the newspapers. Why are figures for local radio, GBFM in this case, dealt with differently?

ford fiesta

GB like a few of the local stations have ditched the chart / some oldies format in the afternoon and have a country / easy listening show on.

they do play some decent music overnight.

their breakfast show has to be the worst name ever - "Molly in the morning" (one of the guys who presents his surname is "Molloy")

snubbleste

And now the death notices

L1011

bobbyss wrote: »

Are these the same figures that we see occasionally in the papers to let us see how various programmes and presenters are doing on national stations? We can see these figures when we buy the newspapers. Why are figures for local radio, GBFM in this case, dealt with differently?

National figures are of more interest to a national audience - and the papers bother going to ask what the figures are; or subscribe to the national JNLR books.

JoeA3

snubbleste wrote: »

And now the death notices

Brought to you by Bus Eireann.

It's a fairly terrible station IMO. Bland, insipid, awful music, Keith Finnegan droning on (say no more), death notices, parish pump "local news", more death notices, country and western music. It all sounds so horribly dated and twee.

But I guess I'm not it's target audience. It's all my parents / in-laws ever listen to so it definitely has a market of sorts.

blue4ever

Cliff Walker

I remember they had a Celebrity and social media obsessed young camp dude on about 9 or 10 years ago, they were way ahead of 2fm.

JoeA3

Cliff Walker wrote: »

I remember they had a Celebrity and social media obsessed young camp dude on about 9 or 10 years ago, they were way ahead of 2fm.

I think he's still there. Brutal.

ford fiesta

JoeA3 wrote: »

I think he's still there. Brutal.

yes he is still there. he took over from the Susan Shannon lady who used to do that late evening slot.

JoeA3

ford fiesta wrote: »

yes he is still there. he took over from the Susan Shannon lady who used to do that late evening slot.

Now that's a serious blast from the past! I used to listen to GB FM a lot back in the day but these days it isn't on my radar at all...

bobbyss

JoeA3 wrote: »

Brought to you by Bus Eireann.

It's a fairly terrible station IMO. Bland, insipid, awful music, Keith Finnegan droning on (say no more), death notices, parish pump "local news", more death notices, country and western music. It all sounds so horribly dated and twee.

But I guess I'm not it's target audience. It's all my parents / in-laws ever listen to so it definitely has a market of sorts.

Yeah, that is how I feel towards it myself. I don't listen to it very often but when I do there seems to be a strong emphasis on C&W music. Now C&W music is hugely popular I would imagine throughout the country itself, otherwise they would not be too into it I would imagine. Yet, I don't think there is the same emphasis on C&W music on RTE, which is a little surprising given its national popularity.

One poster above noted how one presenter (Jimmy Norman? Jimmy who?) said it was 'the end of an era' because his show was being transferred to a different time slot. I found that amusing. Strange how people can have notions of themselves. Perhaps flags should have been at half mast throughout the county to mark this event. From the very little I know of him (if it was in fact Jimmy who) he is an absolute bog standard presenter. You would find his like in any station in the country. And many better.

I think Keith Finnegan is the boss of the place and he has been there doing the same thing for donkey's years. I think what would be good would be to have someone who would liven up the station and he is not the man for that. At this stage he has spoken to every Councillor in the country and on first names terms with them all I would imagine. This is not healthy and someone is needed, like Vincent Browne, to kick a few backsides. It's like a little fiefdom. Having said all of that the stats must prove that he is very popular. Just wish the stats would be published, freely accessible and analysed just as the national broadcaster's are.

I have always wondered also how that fellow on the motorbike giving the traffic report can give a comprehensive summary of the traffic. Can motorbikes overtake standing traffic over, eg, the bridge?

Who exactly are the target audience for GBFM? Galway is a multi cultural society. Coverage of GAA, C&W, death notices, must have limited appeal to our friends from Poland and elsewhere. Has the station evolved in any meaningful way to reflect all of this?

JoeA3

There wasn't as much C&W music on it in the 1990's. It was more "middle of the road" stuff, a bit like 4FM today, safe "classic hits" with a few current chart hits thrown in. For round the clock C&W you had to tune into Mayo's MWR FM.

So at some stage relatively recently, the powers that be at GB FM decided country and western was the way to go! I suppose they reckoned they couldn't compete with the iRadios for the younger set, so they're now firmly aiming at the rural older listeners it seems.

Most of the daytime schedule hasn't changed much in 25 years. Same presenters playing occasional musical chairs. Jimmy Norman is the guy you are thinking of. Deffo a bit of a misplaced ego in that guy alright! He quit the morning show a while back and now has some token voice tracked show in the evenings.

Cliff Walker

I wonder are Gareth o Callaghan and Keith Finnegan still on good terms ?

JoeA3

Cliff Walker wrote: »

I wonder are Gareth o Callaghan and Keith Finnegan still on good terms ?

Did Gareth leave them under a cloud? His breakfast show was oh so dull.

blue4ever

blue4ever wrote: »

Do the JNLR'S give that information for all the stations?...Interesting to see the % of different time slots.

L1011

Deleted User wrote: »

Do the JNLR'S give that information for all the stations?...Interesting to see the % of different time slots.

Yes, but you need to have access to the actual books.

They actually go down to 15min precision.

snubbleste

JoeA3 wrote: »

Now that's a serious blast from the past! I used to listen to GB FM a lot back in the day but these days it isn't on my radar at all...

The lurve hour with Corina Gavin

Cliff Walker

Its funny the way that the kf show changed name to Galway Talks for a couple of years but then changed name back to the kf show with old sig tune and all.

L1011

L1011 wrote: »

Yes, but you need to have access to the actual books.

They actually go down to 15min precision.

Thanks...

JoeA3

snubbleste wrote: »

The lurve hour with Corina Gavin

She lives a few doors away from me these days :pac:

This one goes out to all those MIL in Mountbellew...

bobbyss

blue4ever wrote: »

Does this table mean for example that between 2 and 5 pm, 22% of 74,000 people were listening to GBFM?

Where did the 74,000 come from? What does that figure represent?

What does the 34% represent?

L1011

No, it means 22000 were. The % is share of total audience - the national stations, iRadio and overspill from clarefm/mwr etc being the rest.

74000 is the reach, the total unique listeners. The same people don't listen to every show all day, hence adding shows together gets more than the total reach.

flazio

I remember 10 odd years ago the Jimmy Norman breakfast show used to claim it was the most listened to radio music programme in Galway. And to be fair it was a very good show with himself and Ollie Turner.
GBFM are still a turn to service when there are major weather incidents (school closures for snow, local roads closed after storms etc.)

I don't mind the death notices, most other local stations do that but what I don't like is the ad for a hearing aid service playing over the tranquil music used to close the notices, not a great way to "sympathise with the family and friends of the deceased."

Cliff Walker

I wonder did they ever consider hiring Hector after he was let go from 2fm ?

JoeA3

Cliff Walker wrote: »

I wonder did they ever consider hiring Hector after he was let go from 2fm ?

I'd say they wouldn't pay Hector enough to get out of bed.

gordongekko

JoeA3 wrote: »

I'd say they wouldn't pay Hector enough to get out of bed.

Thank god

ford fiesta

From looking at media pages for Galway and the west, that Jimmy Norman lad seems to have a very low opinion of himself!!!!!!!!