The Ryan Tubridy Show **Mod: Read OP**

hawley

Virgin Radio also declined across all its services. The flagship station dropped 32,000 listeners and 763,000 hours, while the network as a whole was down 862,000 hours.

https://radiotoday.co.uk/2025/05/rajar-q1-2025-heart-brand-grows-bigger-than-bbc-radio-2/

Am surprised at this news. Don't know if there's information about Ryan's figures but would expect them to be up. I don't listen to other shows on Virgin but they have quite a strong morning output, between Tubs and Chris Evans.

RoTelly

He has too much of a tendency to stop mid-way through words and move on to this next thought. Rapid and funny st … but I was in oxford running around in pan… and then I got to the studio and I for the name of the person I was interv… I was completely discom… but then

hawley

Really good interview with Irish chef Anna Haugh who has a restaurant in London. She has a new tv series where she cooks for celebrities. Tubs right in saying that the English are not as welcoming or warm as us Irish. Don't get the same warm welcome when entering a restaurant in London.

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123449936#Comment_123449936

This is disappointing news on the whole for the station, but it crucially doesn’t provide show by show numbers.

I’d be pretty confident that not only has Ryan grown his UK audience numbers but that he’s also probably the no. 2 star in the Virgin stable now after Evans. You can tell by the texts and what’s app voice notes that the British audience are to paraphrase The Blow Monkeys “Digging Ryan’s Scene”. The St. Patrick’s Day OB in The Devonshire happened in this quarter too and that would have pulled in huge numbers I suspect as well as exposing Ryan to new listeners who would most likely have stayed as loyal listeners after that show.

I wonder are they holding back the show numbers to spare the blushes of the more established UK names in the station?

Does anyone know when the JNLRs are out? I suspect they’ll show a big increase here in Ireland for what’s proving to be a really enjoyable show.

Expunge

If Virgin radio is down overall, how in the name of God are some of you trying to spin this as a win for the disgraced Irish presenter? Unless the auld tongue is firmly in the cheek.

anyway, Q102 declined again in both listener reach and share. I'm sure uncle Noel has a few more "stars" he can throw at it to turn it around.

read all about it:

11-057949-Feb '12 Press Release

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123450308#Comment_123450308

What? You do know that a station can be down overall but that individual shows within that can be up, right?

The total performance is not reflective of individual shows. It’s a very rudimentary error to assume all decline is linear and correlated. I’ve seen nothing to suggest Ryan isn’t growing, nothing.

For arguments sake let’s say a station has 10 shows a day. Then we’ll say 3 are up but 7 are down in listenership - overall station numbers will be down but you have 3 shows increasing share.

Evans is the station’s biggest name. It is logical that he has the biggest numbers and that Ryan retains a huge portion of those listeners, as well as gaining new ones given his performance in the last year and half-ish. I’d imagine the decline comes later throughout the afternoon and evening.

It’s my opinion (that’s all) that Ryan is performing. If I’m wrong I’ll put my hands up and admit it, but unless we get show by show numbers it’ll be hard to know either way.

Can any of the more audience number savvy contributors tell us why the UK don’t do show by show numbers like the JNLRs or if there’s any way to get these?

Expunge

Yes, Pete, I get it. He could be outperforming the the trend but as you say, you're speculating and opining in the absence of data. I'd speculate that it's unlikely he's posting an increase - again just an opinion.

The show numbers are available to the companies who pay for it - just like here with the JNLR's.

RTE are always happy to release them. If Virgin don't want to do that, it's up to them.

There was someone on this thread who quoted some individual numbers in the past. Maybe they night be in a position to do so again.

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123450407#Comment_123450407

Thanks for accepting my point. Sure, he could be down for all we know but I suspect he isn’t.

That said, it is very strange that they don’t release them.

hawley

I don't think that they release those results in the UK.

hawley

Deleted

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123450025#Comment_123450025

Buffering problems, obvious sign of genius.

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123450407#Comment_123450407

Well it looks like I’ll be eating humble pie for dinner tonight. I’ve just seen that Ryan’s lost 4,000 listeners this quarter on Q102 and is down to 33,000 listeners now - a >10% decline.

This is a sad day. 😔

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123450480#Comment_123450480

Who presented on Q102 at that time prior to the arrival of Tubs and do we have any figures for them.

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123450535#Comment_123450535

No idea tbh. I can honestly say I don't think I ever listened to the station prior to Ryan’s arrival. The name Scott Williams is in my head but that actually may be from when the station launched - it may not even be the same station tbh. Dave Harrington? Honestly I’m only speculating at this stage. Outside of Ryan and Kathryn Thomas I doubt I could name any of their other hosts - and that’s with them being plugged constantly on Ryan’s show.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123450535#Comment_123450535

found it

https://www.q102.ie/news/q102-news/dublins-q102-records-boost-in-radio-listenership/

Here's a breakdown of some of the latest JNLR figures for Dublin's Q102:

Weekly Listenership - 156,000 (+10000)
Breakfast with Aidan and Venetia - 26,000 (+3,000)
Feel Good Workday with Andy Preston - 41,000 (+4,000)
Feel Good Drive with Liam Coburn - 41,000 (+5,000)

That's from August 2023. Significant drop from 41,000 to 33,000, on the other hand weekly is up from 156k to 188k

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123450605#Comment_123450605

Basically a 20% drop in listeners. I don’t understand it tbh.🤷‍♂️

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123450480#Comment_123450480

The plan though is to lose those light listeners and concentrate on the influential type, the type that matters and Ryan no doubt is better with a more dedicated hardcore before his inevitable big UK TV talkshow.

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123451392#Comment_123451392

I guess I hadn’t thought of it like that. It’s nice to know I’m in the “influential type” set though!

GSF

if Virgin radio had ANYTHING positive to spin this Rajar result believe me they’d be using it. The hours drop is massive. Never seen anything like it. It’s very very unlikely mathematically for anyone to be posting higher numbers with a drop like that

GSF

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123450480#Comment_123450480

well at least you are part of a very exclusive community- getting more and more exclusive

yagan

Ryan is all about the quality over quantity. Serious professional you know. He's probably holding back though to be sure he totally "gets" his future UK TV audience.

Before we know it he'll be so familiar with his UK audience that he'll even have his own catchphrase that's as catchy as an Abba lyric.

hawley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123451519#Comment_123451519

Not trying to be critical of him, but he needs to reduce the number of recommendations he gives per show. I didn’t hear today's show, but he recommended four books, three films, two television series, a documentary and an album yesterday. It's almost impossible for listeners to get through that amount of content and listen to his programme. He's putting people under too much pressure. Also, it can be quite expensive.

GSF

https://x.com/virginradiouk/status/1922582137913397303?s=46

I not sure this is exactly why he left his previous employer!

amlinopta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123452941#Comment_123452941

A spoofer! Made a fairly dramatic u-turn between March 2023 when he shut down plans he had no plans of leaving "the job I love" and May 2023 when he decided he had had enough.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123453886#Comment_123453886

Maybe he had an epiphany, a voice from a cloud telling him to embrace his destiny, to follow Wogan and Andrews!

its only a matter of time until he explodes in England.

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123452941#Comment_123452941

That is quite a creative re-telling alright. Perhaps there’s a creative writer hiding behind the radio host?

I’ve long said I can separate the art from the artist as it were, and while I can listen to his radio show and enjoy it I simply cannot condone the shenanigans that were exposed in his final months in RTÉ.

Alexander Skarsgård is in studio “live” (he emphasised this) next week. Ryan reminded British listeners that he has previously met Skarsgård on TLLS.

Ryan was also doing that nervous tapping on the desk thing that I had thought he’d grown out of just before the last break. It was very loud and distracting.

Music isn’t too bad this morning but i can’t remember when the show last played a “new” (to its own playlist) song. The rotation between plays for each song does seem to be getting shorter too. RDS all over the place as usual but that’s not Ryan’s fault.

Oh someone asked recently if I was listening to the Q or Virgin feed - I made a conscious effort this morning to listen to the Virgin feed but you need to create an account and login to do so, so that was me out.

Expunge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123453928#Comment_123453928

I think the provisional IRA bombing campaign in England ended some years ago.

But yes, mishandling a pipe bomb on Oxford Street is the closest Tubs will come to exploding in England.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123452941#Comment_123452941

Now that's some amazing amount of spin.

hawley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123453928#Comment_123453928

If you look at it in the short term, you could say that it has been a failure. In a way he's like a general of army who, midway through a battle, everyone thinks that he has made a tremendous blunder. Slowly as the smoke begins to clear, you see that he was right. Think that's where Tubridy is right now. He's waiting for the smoke to clear.

dxhound2005

Virgin Radio is available on Freesat, channel number 736. I must check sometime if Tubridy on Q102 FM is in sync/synch with that. It would not be unusual to have a mismatch, where stations exist on more than one platform.

An internet free way to enjoy all the delights of Virgin, not just Tubridy. Jayne Middlemiss on as I type this. And keen listeners could record the shows on their TV for convenient listening later.