150KTubs - future career in Virgin Radio and other soulful pursuits **Mod: Read OP**

GSF

that’s a train wreck of a Rajar. But if you completely ignore the actual target audience what did he expect?

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156234#Comment_122156234

I have a diminishing circle of elderly relatives that will have the tv and/or radio in the background just for company.

I sometimes have to ask them to turn them down just so we can talk and the usual reply would be "I wasn't even listening to it".

Theyd all be strictly rte and/or local radio station. Their contemporaries are all the same.

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156272#Comment_122156272

Absolutely. Why would any British person want to tune into a radio show that is not for them? Tubridy turned that morning show into a club exclusively for Irish people. How Virgin's bosses allowed that to continue is beyond me. They should've known from Week 1 that that was the way things were going.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156312#Comment_122156312

That type of format is diminishing anyway so if they were expecting to scale back or amalgamate stations anyway then a sponsored DJ would be free money in the interim.

If they really cared about growing the slot he would have been pulled after week one.

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156323#Comment_122156323

What sort of format are you referring to? Maybe the UK market is different but any time I turn on mainstream Irish radio stations during the daytime, there's nothing but presenters on music shows talking and trying to be funny

Shan Doras

It must be a very crappy Job for the jnlr person tho going house to house, Last summer I was doing some cover work as a courier, I got to a small estate of about 12 houses but the parcel was missing both house number and eircode, so I decided to just knock on a random door hoping that whoever answered would know which house the person named on the package lived in and I was pretty surprised at the unfriendly reception I got, foreign woman opens the door and gives me a look of surprise, I show her the name, she shrugs her shoulders and the next thing her husband comes out asking who's at the door.

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156366#Comment_122156366

I recognised the JNLR lady who came to my door because she had called to our previous house, also doing a survey. On that occasion, it was for a private company.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156298#Comment_122156298

Yeah I am the same, but they have actually grown tired of RTÉ, often they have Quest or Yesterday on for Bangers and Cash or something similar. And are will watch Catchphrase and the Chase also, and they are never sure if they are watching ITV or VMTV.

Dubliner's were never really into their local radio for talk radio, so its Radio 1 or Newstalk (and have to say they've kind of ditch the Radio as well !)

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156036#Comment_122156036

Not unless Lyric FM's programming changes dramatically (it has changed from being an Classical and Arts station with the addition of Marty Whelan as a false competition to RTE1). Besides, there will always be some RTE retirees ahead of him in the queue. Tubridy is the face of the payments scandal and bringing him back would only reignite that controversy.

On those RAJAR figures, it might make more sense to dump him back on the News UK Irish local radio stations and give the slot to someone else in the Autumn if there is no improvement.

Regards…jmcc

GSF

on those numbers Virgin should pay him NOT to broadcast

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156492#Comment_122156492

It is hospital pass radio for Virgin Radio. If sponsorship and advertising for the VR slot declines then News UK management will be forced to make a decision on Tubridy's future.

Regards…jmcc

hawley

Dee Forbes will be shocked at these figures. Noel had told her that Tubs was an excellent broadcaster.

Expunge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156202#Comment_122156202

Ahem..... Marty Whelan. And now Simon Delaney. The current management would take him, alright.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156645#Comment_122156645

:/ I'd love to know how Simon Delaney gets so much traction with his career.

Full Tubs audience story here

https://www.sundayworld.com/showbiz/irish-showbiz/new-radio-listenership-figures-show-ryan-tubridy-is-struggling-in-uk-market/a1207859217.html

Eddy Temple-Morris ~ 469,000 listeners

Ryan Tubridy ~ 134,000 listeners

Chris Evans ~ 1,005,000 listeners

The new figures don’t give him much breathing space, he’s pretty much an unknown in Britain, despite filling in for the likes of Graham Norton, Terry Wogan, Jonathan Ross and Chris Evans on their shows down through the years when they were on holidays. It’s pretty much to be expected that there would be a dip in listeners for a new presenter, but there are eyebrows being raised that’s it’s so sizeable.

When did he last sit in for a BBC presenter?

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156366#Comment_122156366

Yeah, people are certainly colder at the door these days. During the winter I was walking around my estate and saw someone's chimney on fire. Called to the door to let them know and was pretty much told to **** off.

Expunge

Oh jeez, 134000 down from 469,000 is terrible. And this from Ireland's most "successful broadcaster" of recent years.

This is not only terrible for Tubs and Uncle Noel, it calls into question the judgement and credibility of a number of senior RTE people, still in their jobs despite all the "change".

A shout out to then Director of Television (now running the EBU) Noel Curran for really force-feeding that useless person on the Irish nation.

I believe he was the one who made Tubridy failure proof in RTE.

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156685#Comment_122156685

Delaney was an actor in Bachelor's Walk, a presenter on few other series (think there was one about connections between events and people) and a movie. He also was a daytime TV presenter. He seems to be a hard worker and has talent. Tubridy doesn't quite have his CV and was very much an RTE lifer until he was dumped by RTE. Unlike Tubridy, Delaney seems to have a much more varied CV.

Regards…jmcc

Expunge

Oh, yes. Also to say that 134,000 is a WEEKLY listenership figure. Not daily.

Yes, it's even worse than it looks.

Over to you, Bobson. In yer own time.......

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156645#Comment_122156645

The thing Marty actually loves music, does the annual opera tour to Verona every year, and regardless of what you think of Delaney at least he has a background in performance.

Tubs believes in nothing but himself. He is rte's self importance personified.

Marty Whelan knows about that after the spite towards him when he left rte for another station.

Besides a lot of lyric shows are self produced by the presenters which would be too much for tubs.

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156762#Comment_122156762

Bobson is in the middle of an emergency Zoom call, trying to work out how to spin this catastrophe. Well done to Eugene Masterson for unearthing the figures they were trying to bury.

Tork

RTE management would have to be out of their minds to take Tubridy back. Even though they seem to be acting as if they're out of the woods now, they're far from it. The TV licence problem is far from solved, and taking Tubridy back would be like adding petrol to the flames. No matter what spin anybody tries to put on things, Tubridy is the public face of the financial shenanigans at RTE. He will be forever associated with barter accounts and financial overpayments and an agent who was allowed to become all too powerful at the station. We now know that he's not anywhere nearly as popular or as good as the people who hyped him claimed.

Agent Coulson

Living in London on a fraction of what he was paid at RTE he must be burning through his savings

The reported £50k a year he is on at Virgin would work out after tax with him coming out with about £750 a week.

It might not financially viable to stay in London on just his Virgin salary soon, his rent alone must be taking up a huge chunk of that salary if not all of it.

nonetheless

There was a staff meeting early last Wednesday evening in which News UK presented slides individually illustrating performances across all of their radio services. It was interesting to see the listing of performances of each presenter. Ryan Tubridy was still partnered with Eddie Temple Morris even though he had vacated the 10am to 1pm slot last January. All of Virgin Radio UK presenters were in the green QonQ and YonY bar Tubridy's, with the slot showing negative and in the red.

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156779#Comment_122156779

Though I think that Marty Whelan's show is out of place on Lyric FM, the guy is a very professional presenter and really good at the kind of banter that hooks listeners. RTE should have given him the 09:00 slot on RTE1 but his audience has aged along with him. RTE never seems to have had proper targeting for age demographics like the BBC.

When 2FM started, it was intended to take back the advertising that RTE had lost to the Pirate stations (they were much better at serving their markets and had no licence fee to bail them out if they failed) and was aimed at younger audiences. The Pirate stations had local coverage and connections where RTE had none.

After Fianna Fail nearly destroyed the Irish local radio industry with the radio licencing, much of the competition for 2FM, and RTE, disappeared or was coagulated into a few local radio stations and some attempts at national stations. With the competition out of the way, RTE, and 2FM, reverted to being RTE. Tubridy was a product of that closed market. The difference between the talent of RTE ex-pirate presenters and Tubridy is stark.

When Tubridy was put into a market with real competition, he couldn't compete at the Senior Hurling level. The latest RAJARs have confirmed that. However, most RTE and Irish presenters would find it difficult to break into the UK/London radio business and they tend to attempt it in their 20s and 30s. For Tubridy, Virgin Radio is turing into his Radio Norwich.

Regards…jmcc

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156781#Comment_122156781

In Bobsons absence let me step in an obviously paid NK shill and say that the Sunday World are being disingenuous by posting these numbers. Tubs counts for three months of them. It’s a great headline but that’s all it is.

btw I think the show is a mess and won’t be surprised if it fails.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122157433#Comment_122157433

As I have said we really won't know anything until the next set of figures and perhaps even the years ones.

Tork

Even so, will the figures really be that much better? I haven't listened to his show in a long time but if this thread is anything to go by, he is still making no effort to connect with UK audiences. Why would any British person tune into a radio show where the presenter is rabbiting on at speed about Irish things they know nothing about? If somebody British did the same thing on an Irish radio station, the hate-posting on boards would be off the scale.

GSF

Rajar is a 3 month book. It’s not the same as the jnlr methodology which is a 12 month rolling

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122157878#Comment_122157878

every day is a school day!

GSF

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122157968#Comment_122157968

it’s 100% on Tubridy. He started January 2nd. I’d say a lot of ETM’s listeners were people who left the radio on after Chris Evans but Tubridy isn’t managing to keep them through the 10am handover

tohaltuwi

Tubsidy might go down well here in Scotland. The Outer Hebridean islands love things Irish and really enjoy relating to other Gaelic cultures, though on some of the islands it’s commonplace to have to double-job to earn a crust, eg do your stint at the local filling station or ferry port or drive the post office van, then do a turn hosting local radio.

nonetheless

Kudos to the Sunday World for highlighting figures relating to the performance of The Ryan Tubridy Show on Virgin Radio UK.

Virgin/Q102 were very happy to spin these figures to hide the apparent disappointment of their latest signing.

nonetheless

Virgin Radio changed musical policy to suit the Q102 middle of road audience. This change began gradually last year and many left for Radio X for this reason. Tubridy is essentially an inane chatter slot replacing a horizontal music format show which was no different percentage of talk vs music to any of the other day strip shows. The music listeners have left, the Eddie Temple Morris followers have left (for Anthems and Radio X / 6 music) and many Brits have left. There are those who simply cannot stand listening to Ryan Tubridy and the losses are damning. Over 300,000 people is not to be sniffed at - it's actually Nova's Dublin audience in size. Now its ridiculous of The BMG and Bobson to criticise us for highlighting this mammoth loss 😝 and for News UK and Virgin Radio who are on rough waters with the SUPERFAIL of Talk TV, the loss of Graham Norton and many others including Chris Evans' newsreader (perhaps another who may of had enough of working with the whinger) 😉

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122158159#Comment_122158159

Tubridy could be playing Senior Shinty? :)

Regards…jmcc

Hyperbollix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156754#Comment_122156754

It would call into question the judgement and credibility of certain RTE executives if you were working from the assumption that they mistook Ryan Tubridy for an extremely able broadcaster and a star who was worthy of such primetime slots and extravagant pay deals…..

But I think we all know now that's not what was going on here. Tubridy was simply part of a golden circle of cronies who all helped each other to line their pockets with easily gotten taxpayer funding. His abilities or lack thereof really didn't come into it. They gave the guy a 1 hour daily radio show that a mentally incapacitated chimp could have handled and then bastardized their biggest TV show in order to cater for his very limited talent. Anything to give him as much money as they could get away with. What a joke shop.

RE the listening figures for Virgin, obviously in no way surprising. If most Irish listeners would struggle to find one reason to tune into that daily car crash, I don't know how they think British listeners were every going to go for it. They might as well tune into Radio Rwanda for all the domestic relevance that Tub's show has to a British audience.

God, it's fantastic. I was so certain Tubs would be carried out of RTE in a box in 30 years time or possibly the Aras. He's really gotten his comeuppance. Only a matter of time now before the plug is pulled. At which point I think he makes a return to RTE in some capacity. What did Al Porter do in the wilderness? 7 years? I suppose it's a bit too soon for Tubs but I wouldn't bet against him.

nonetheless

The cronyism at RTE has not stopped either - there are hundreds from Joe Duffy to Aidan Leonard to Rick O'Shea etc. who will be carried out of Montrosia in that proverbial brown box.

Tubridy may have a hard time getting a job at a hospital radio station if he contaminates the Virgin Radio brand and RTE will not want him back as he is an eternal poster boy for overpayments and RTE greed.

animalinside

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122156234#Comment_122156234

Some of the first search results on google for says 550,000 in an article dated 2023. And you're right, we're in a time when soaps are in a huge, possibly terminal spiral. Supposedly Fair City used to bring in 682,000 at one point, hope that answers your question lol.

As for Home and Away I think you might be referring to how when the first RTE online player figures were announced people were shocked to see Home and Away being around the top and maybe beating Fair City. This could be completely wrong but I think the reason for that was just because a lot of younger people were accessing it online on their computers while the tvs at the time didn't have online. I'm sure Home and Away is still up there, Home and Away and Neighbours have always done very well in Ireland, but there's no way it's beating Fair City.

Gen.Zhukov

The fantastic thing about these appalling figures making it into the public domain is that all control of the situation is lost -

When the inevitable 'Have you considered your future with VR Ryan, because we don't really see it if we're being honest' conversation happens - Noel's little spin monkeys could have laid the ground with -

'Tubs mum's heartache missing her son', We hear from an emotional Mrs T in the Irish Rag

''Anyone can suffer homesickness…", reveals Ryan Tubridy in a frank and touching interview with Evoke

"Ryan Tubridy refuses a three year contract with VR as his heart is in Ireland", an emotional Tubs confesses in a Irish Daily Mirror exclusive

See the stern of that vessel way out there on the horizon…that's the - MV PR Control

nonetheless

It's just 53 minutes old and is from his old friends RSVP.IE!!

Ryan Tubridy's UK morning radio show down in listenership compared to last host https://www.rsvplive.ie/news/tv-film/ryan-tubridys-uk-morning-radio-32846510

Mr Disco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122157741#Comment_122157741

weak and repetitive.
2/10
Your heart not in it any more?

Understandable

Brian Scan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122157032#Comment_122157032

"The reported £50k a year he is on at Virgin"

Where was this reported?

tohaltuwi

Since about 2018 myself and a slew of other posters had identified the reality of Tubsidy’s broadcasting talent or lack thereof, and were confronted with gaslighting type responses by Friends of Tubsidy .

Threads in any way critical of Tubsidy were complained about, and there was a certain narrative accepted by a certain status quo and you breached it with trepidation.

This cohort of early critics have been thoroughly vindicated, but we had to wait because this is How Ireland Works

fplfan12345

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122159426#Comment_122159426

I know right. Savagely overpaid.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122158704#Comment_122158704

This is clickbate from Evoke

https://evoke.ie/2023/06/13/entertainment/soaps/10-surprising-fair-city-facts

Go on you want to click it to read what they have said about the audience numbers

On average, 550,000 people tune in to Fair City every night, which makes it the most-watched drama series in the country.

The series even rivals its British counterparts Coronation Street and Emmerdale on Virgin Media as viewers around the nation tune in every

Apart from the launch episode which brought in over one million viewers the most-watched episode to date was aired in 2001 and saw Billy Meehan being killed by Lorcan Foley.

This is not an up-to-date figure they are using.

Home and Away back in the day was getting 300k of an audience!

It first airing on RTÉ ONE has 90k to 100k and RTÉ2's later showing has 40k to 50k, while its often the top most watch show on the RTÉ Player. That brings them close to that 200k figure at least (not to mention the +1 showings of the show, and its omnibus editions). It'd be interesting to know how well each of the tradition soaps are doing across TV and online.

Brian Scan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122159646#Comment_122159646

I agree that he would be savagely overpaid at £50,000. However that's not what I asked. Where was it reported that he is on £50,000 at Virgin?

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122159722#Comment_122159722

From some newspapers I think we are estimating between 50k and 100k, TBH at this point this is not really what matters IMO

SharkMX

I read in one of the UK papers ages ago that he was on 100k. But 50k of that was on condition that he increased the listener numbers.

Hyperbollix

After this Virgin fiasco, any salary for Tubridy as a radio presenter will seem too much. It's he who should be paying the company to put hims on air....

To think he could still be in Montrose hoovering up €180k pa for sweet FA, if only he could have engaged with reality and made a humble apology. I bet he wakes up in cold sweats about that little folly.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122159934#Comment_122159934

So if that 50k starting is correct but he has only held onto 28% of the previous presenters audience then mark to market he'll now be on 14k.

However I still suspect his current position is subsidized via sponsorship and personal contributions.

He probably would have NK highest earner so it's logical that NK would do anything to keep the brand of a former cash cow relevant.

Agent Coulson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122159426#Comment_122159426

Multiple places

https://www.independent.ie/style/celebrity/celebrity-news/ryan-tubridy-agrees-drastic-pay-cut-as-he-kicks-off-new-radio-show-on-tuesday-morning/a293816632.html#:~:text=The%20show%20will%20also%20air,(%E2%82%AC92%2C000)%20with%20Virgin.

https://www.businesspost.ie/article/ryan-tubridy-kicks-off-new-virgin-radio-show-on-vastly-reduced-salary/

https://www.buzz.ie/culture/ryan-tubridy-take-huge-pay-31472616