Dan Healy says it’s ‘hard’ to find male presenters

radiotrickster

Dan Healy was talking about replacing Tara Kumar and said “whatever is going on, it’s really hard to find men (presenters).”

Correct me if I’m wrong but I would guess that most stations have more men than women on them presenting. Has Dan Healy not considered just poaching someone instead of waiting for them to email him a demo?

Take a look at Fm104 on weekdays. They have five men from 7am-7pm and then two women in the evening.

Nova have five men and one woman.

Spin1038 have five men and two women.

I would have expected there were more men presenters out there than women.

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/rte-2fm-boss-opens-up-about-eoghan-mcdermotts-future-at-the-station-42135217.html

I find women hard to listen to especially on the radio!

Glaceon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119871721#Comment_119871721

The ones I've heard on 98FM, Today FM and 2FM all sound the same to me, just generic south Dublin accents.

Doodah7

What he really means is that it is hard to find a two-bit influencer/minor celebrity/down with the tiktokers male with absolutely no radio experience that he can parachute into the roster.

It would be very straightforward to find an experienced male radio DJ if he wanted to.

TheBMG

Dan isn’t looking for run of the mill bog standard shut up and play the tunes DJs.

Hes looking for larger than life fun personalities who can incessantly beg for WhatsApp’s and do the ‘what’s your favourite biscuit’ topic at least once a week ..

washman3

When i read this first i thought "what the fcuk does Danny Healy Rae know about radio presenters" 😂😂😂

radiotrickster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119871740#Comment_119871740

I listen to 98fm and none of the women sound the same. Rebecca on their breakfast show is very posh (but so is Brendan). Suzanne Kane has a fairly neutral Dublin accent (I would say more Northside than Southside) and I believe Leanne Hanafin is from Kerry. Her accent isn’t strong but it’s not very Dub anyway.

California Dreamer

All radio stations are suffering from the same problem and that is keeping existing talent and recruiting the next generation. There are no pirates on anymore so nobody coming through. The legals don't really do night time or overnights that was their training ground.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119872081#Comment_119872081

You take that back !

Muller1991

Speaking as someone who tried to get into the industry a couple of years ago and trying again now, Its a very tough nut to crack, I have the degrees behind me ( Radio production and Broadcasting ) I have some experience via the pirate route and I also have experience on temp and regional stations.

It seems to me that a lot of PD's are looking at the latest "Influencer" rather than the next Larry Gogan, Ray Foley, Ian Dempsey and the late Tony Fenton to name a few. All of these have risen through the ranks of "Radio"

Its a mick in the kickey for people in similar positions to myself. Ill keep trying though :D

Sam Tyler

As someone also looking to get into radio that is quite a statement to hear from Mr Healy.

Up and down this country there is so much undiscovered talent (male and Female ) and passionate radio people. But because we don’t have X amount of “Insta” or Tik Tok follower’s we will never get a look in on national radio.

With 2fm being part of RTE it should be in their remit to nurture and develop new talent.

Do something about it Mr Healy. Why not do a nationwide talent search?

bureau2009

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119876786#Comment_119876786

Good point!

I've often wondered how 2FM "presenters" got their gig in the first place.

Doubt it was from an open public competition!

Seems if you move in the right circles, know the producers etc you're in with a chance!

In my view 2FM is a disaster of a station and has the most annoying, untalented presenters imaginable!

And if they are so established on social media, how come that following is not showing up in the listenership figures?

Some of the "greats" of 2FM from the 80s were:

Gerry Ryan- shock jock and housewives friend - hosted 3 hours every day 5 days a week - hate him or love him, he was good at what he did and no-one came close

Dave Fanning- a walking music encyclopaedia- the musicians DJ- distinctive voice (as indeed all the DJ's at the time had) - specialised in up coming bands

Larry Gogan- Kind of middle of the road - again a great music knowledge - specialised in easy listening and of course, his Quiz

Mark Cagney- against his voice easily recognisable- king of the night time and went album tracking

Barry Lang- hated his show but it had an audience- mainly younger kids - he was good at what he did though so can't fault him for that.

Jimmy Grealy- Drive time- gotcha home from school/work - easy listening 70's songs - and of course his side kick thing

Mickey McNamara- from Limerick on a Saturday afternoon- kept the show on the road

Ian Dempsey- the legend of breakfast time

These are just a few to mention - they all had their own niche and area of expertise- you could never confuse one with the other in terms of their voice or style- they all offered something different.

I'm probably too old to listen to mainstream radio these days which is obviously geared to the 18-30 marketing group anyway so why would it interest me? But when i do occasionally switch on, it's just all the same stuff and presenters just over-trying to be relevant/shocked/funny etc

For those in the know, could you do a similar list of people today of whatever DJ's are on a particular station and say the same about them? I don't think you could. Also, EVERYBODY knew these names - old and young. They had personalities- they sounded human, and "normal"- even Gerry Ryan :D RIP

Muller1991

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119876870#Comment_119876870

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119876870#Comment_119876870

Great points.

Growing up 2FM was the most popular station to listen too. Granted the market wasn't as big as it is now.

I get that the industry has changed in many ways re: formats , Schedules, Demographics and the introduction of influencers to the market ( That has only become more noticeable in the past year or two )

But if you look at the latest JNLR book the most popular shows are presented by ( Spolier ALERT) people with a radio background.

Ian Dempsey , Ray Foley , Jim Mc Cabe and PJ Gallagher , Niall Power , KC and Ross to name but a few are for the most part all seasoned professionals when it comes to radio.

Crazy Idea but maybe Dan Healy should look to people with radio backgrounds, or maybe step aside and let someone new take the reigns of 2FM.

The pirates of the 70s- BIG D Radio (273) , Radio Dublin (253) and a few others helped build the quality of 2FM DJ we got in the late 70s and into the 80s - you’ll never have those set of circumstances again - 2FM essentially took on broadcasters already with experience when it was going live first - they learned their trade on the pirates and then walked into 2FM

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119878051#Comment_119878051

That was the situation for a number of the presenters taken on in 2FM right up until the early '00s. I think Tracey Clifford is the most recent presenter to have come from the pirates - early to mid '00s, I think, with Hot FM. She was with Spin1038 before 2FM though. Re the current male presenters on 2FM, I think the most recent to come from the pirates was Dan Hegarty and Cormac Battle, both from Phantom in the early '00s.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119878151#Comment_119878151

There were pirates after the 80s?

Didn't the local licence thingy come into play and all the garda raids stopped?

end of the road

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119878512#Comment_119878512

yes, pirates right through the 90s 2000s and 2010s.

dublin and cork mainly but the odd few in other areas.

there are still a couple dotted around the country but the move to online listening along with it being harder to get transmission sites is changing the situation.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119878603#Comment_119878603

Ah, stopped keeping up with that sort of thing when the Garda raids stopped and the local radio licensing came into play- never knew there were still unofficial radio stations.

You'd be listening to Rafferty's Baker St one minute, the next minute, loads of shouting then silence ...

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119878909#Comment_119878909

A handful of pirates around the country defiantly did not close at the end of 1988, including Radio Dublin, which kept going until the early '00s. There was something of an explosion of dance-oriented stations during the 1990s along with various other types of stations. Phantom FM started off as a pirate in the 1990s before eventually getting a full license for alternative rock - it subsequently renamed itself TXFM and did not renew its license in 2016. The Dublin pirates now are part-time, mainly weekend, operations, and almost exclusively oldies-oriented.

Two former Dublin pirates have had temporary license runs this year and last year: Freedom FM (pirate from 1995 to 2003) and Easy Radio (pirate from 2001 to as recently as 2020 believe it or not!).

ButtersSuki

Basically what he’s saying is “If only Lottie Ryan was a guy”

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119880558#Comment_119880558

sure she has 1 or 2 brothers...please no more Ryan;s

ButtersSuki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119883125#Comment_119883125

Rex, the thespian and playwright don't you know? 🙄 Has written and starred in "a sitcom for radio" for Gerry's mate Colm Hayes (when Hayes was on 2fm). So yes, the taxpayer's monies have made their way to Rex too.

its_steve116

Using only their current presenters, I think this is the best they could do regarding a 6am-7pm schedule.

0600 Doireann, Donncha & Carl

0900 Jen Z

1200 Tracy Clifford

1400 The 2 Johnnies

1630 Jenny Greene

Muller1991

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119906931#Comment_119906931

I'd tend to agree with that line up although I'd give Tracy an extra hour either side.

I'd also move game on from 6pm to 7pm and then have an evening show of some description from 8pm-10pm and have Dan Hegarty from 10p onwards.

onemoreopinion

How does one even get on their radar? Every decision seems to be influencers. I was a spini for my sins and the taste I got from getting close to radio made me run for the hills. Everyone seemed miserable.

pappyodaniel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119871740#Comment_119871740

I know what you mean, though maybe not the accent but the samey thing with the female presenters is that they're all just a bit "vanilla" bland personalities.