The 2 Johnnies are leaving 2FM

HBC08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168734#Comment_122168734

And the number of 15 year olds that listen to radio has plummeted, ie the "pie" is much smaller now.

A commercial youth radio station is an outdated notion now.

The world has changed and kids get all their entertainment on their phones.

Chun the Unavoidable

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122168985#Comment_122168985

Barry was a generation ago in 2013 TBF, 2FM's 1990s heyday is almost valve radio in terms of today.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169124#Comment_122169124

Exactly, 2fm is an anachronism.

When it was created half the population was under 25 years of age and Mart & Market was standard tv.

squonk

Well I did say more than a generation ago! Not radio but even the Beeb called time on TOTP in 2008! That was a huge shock at the time but they saw the way the wind was blowing. I’d say the best thing to do with 2FM if you want to keep it is go for the oldies like myself who did listen back in the day and are accustomed to regular programmed radio. The ship has sails for anyone under 30 I’d say.

Sigma101

Now that these lads have an established national radio listenership, wouldn't it be a good time for another station to snap them up? They could take a lot of listeners with them. A commercial station wouldn't have the same issues accommodating their other work. RTE could lose out on the double here.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169043#Comment_122169043

In decades ? Jerry Ryan died in 2010 with 296,000, the 2 Johnnies only had half of this. Imagine 2FM getting that kind of audience for any show now. Jerry remains king of 2FM.

Doodah7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169356#Comment_122169356

Gerry. Gerry Ryan.

Shan Doras

Even before Dan Healy arrived there, they kept canning shows that failed to match the past glories of the 90s which only ended up making things worse, Colm and Jim Jim were famously deemed a failure and replaced by Hector but Hector ended up doing a lot worse.

Shan Doras

One thing the two Johnnies can be proud of is that 2fm didn't kill their partnership/careers stone dead like Colm and Jim Jim and Chris and Ciara

HBC08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169356#Comment_122169356

As you know 296k listers in Gerry Ryan's heyday was a different metric to listenership now.

Not denying he was the king of 2fm but times have changed.I didn't listen to the 2 johnnies regularly but they increased their listenership massively for that slot in a short time.Thats just a fact.

As others have stated their reasons for leaving are they are bigger than 2fm.

Can't say the same for the likes of Lottie who presumably wont be going anywhere anytime soon.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169319#Comment_122169319

Unless it suits their own lifestyle I can't see them being bothered.

They didnt need to go to Dublin to grow the audience they had before 2fm so the only instance I can see them being bothered with a national broadcaster is if it was from their own home studio and on terms that suited their existing business.

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169188#Comment_122169188

It was even earlier than that - July 2006. Only a few months earlier, "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley had become the first UK number 1 on downloads alone. How people consumed music was changing rapidly, the BBC were actually pretty quick-thinking to drop it. As you said, they saw which way the wind was blowing.

Funnily enough, I was thinking earlier when did the rot begin the set in at 2FM. My guess was around the same time, 2005/2006, IIRC, there were quite a few "relaunches" of the station around that time.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169444#Comment_122169444

Of course I have always said if someone in RTÉ can move on RTÉ should be trying to keep them. If Gerry Ryan had been offered a role on the BBC RTÉ should have wish him well and invested time in someone new.

Bobson Dugnutt

2FM doesn’t really have a public service remit these days. I wouldn’t scrap it though. Just change its function.

1. programming in languages other than English and Irish
2. Shows presented by people from minorities (travellers, LGBTQ, immigrants, neurodivergent etc)
3. Some world music
4. Talent showcase of Ireland’s music scene (hip-hop, drill, punk, electronica etc)

The folks who want boring old dad rock can continue to listen to Gold.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169474#Comment_122169474

RTÉ around 2004 had started to relaunch all of the properties, were 2FM became RTÉ2fm and Network 2 went back to being RTÉ2.

The rot was already in RTÉ long before online charts as many watch the BBC and MTV on cable.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169151#Comment_122169151

Bring back mart and market!

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169495#Comment_122169495

I think RTÉ disagrees, Moya Doherty was very clear on that in November and the new DG agrees.

It never had any real PSB, it was once total funded by advertising.

I think your plan might kill it altogether.

Shan Doras

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169474#Comment_122169474

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169500#Comment_122169500

There kept trying to overtake Dempsey's figures on Today FM with terrible results. This was John Clarke's last ever of many revamps , two years later he himself was removed as program director. https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/alarmed-rte-radio-axes-martys-show/26280022.html

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169547#Comment_122169547

Yes…it was the John Clarke era that saw the numerous revamps. I still get shivers when I think how awful Colm and Jim-Jim were on 2FM…and that dreadful, and short-lived show they had on Sunday nights on RTÉ1.

The departure of Ian Dempsey to TodayFM was a sign of things to come too. Seem to recall an ever-changing lineup of breakfast hosts after Ian left. I think Gareth O'Callaghan took over the slot immediately, did it for a maybe three years or so, then they brought over Damian McCaul from The Den, who IIRC was a disaster and ratings plummeted. You-know-who then came in, and, in fairness, steadied the ship, before the disastrous Rick & Ruth pairing. A safe pair of hands was than brought in with Marty, an odd choice for a "youth" station.

Kingslayer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122167514#Comment_122167514

I have a theory that Zamps is using this extended leave excuse as a way to get Healy over a barrel. Sort of like - I will come back to work when you meet my demands, an extreme negotiating tactic. I mean who goes to Donegal for a 2 month holiday?

techman1

only "saved it at the last minute" cause it was doing a Glenroe and the viewership was too high, their chomping at the bit to get rid.

They ruined glenroe by trying to make it sexy and relevant in their eyes. Why couldn't they have left it a rural country drama with realistic storylines that were believable. The affair between miley and fidelma was puke inducing and so far from reality. If miley was a suave urban type like dick brennan well yes that would work. But miley with fidelma was awkward and cringe. At the time I was glad it was killed off. I think they were trying to shoehorn it into something it wasn't

its_steve116

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169466#Comment_122169466

If I'm not mistaken the pre-recorded stuff (interview etc) was done in Cahir but some of the live output would obviously have come from 2FM HQ in Donnybrook. I've seen footage on Instagram that suggests that they (at least some of the time) broadcast from 2FM HQ.

Chun the Unavoidable

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169547#Comment_122169547

I'd forgotten that Marty did the 2fm breakfast show. That whole era was dominated by keeping the listeners for Gerry Ryan as high as possible as that slot was bringing in a lot of money to the station so if Marty was regarded as having a knock on to Gerry it was Marty that had to go, and not anyone looking at Gerry and asking him a few questions (although the old Gerry Ryan megathread here asked plenty and recognised he was long past his sell by date in that slot).

Now in retrospect the money he was bringing in was high - im not 100% buying the whole "when Gerry died 2FM's income went out the window" as he died at the highest days of the economic crash and that income may have gone anyway - but there was no denying that his economic clout was disproportionate and having Marty (then 50) and Gerry (53 when he died) and Larry (73 at the time Marty got the boot) being the schedule from 7am till 3pm wasn't screaming youth radio at all.

RINO87

Ha! They were playing Boom Boom Boom by the outhere brothers… sounds like it was pulled mid song!

Chun the Unavoidable

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122170251#Comment_122170251

i think some days its done from tipp in its entirety as they refer to Afric being in Dublin

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122170396#Comment_122170396

His audience may still have been there, and RTÉ didn't start funding 2FM from the licence fee until 2011. But yes revenues could have fallen at the station as time went on and his show could have seen continued drop in audiences.

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122170396#Comment_122170396

Even in 2FM's 90's heyday, I could never understand why Larry Gogan had a home there. By the mid-90s, he was an anachronism for RTÉ's "youth" station.

Breaston Plants

Listened to a bit of this today out of curiosity more than anything, what is her role? Just to fake laugh at the 2 boyos jokes?

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122170227#Comment_122170227

Dick Moran I think you mean. Also I think that was the mid-1990s. The series had to move on from Biddy, Miley, Tessy, Dinny, Mary and Dick, the idea originally was that it was close enough to the urban sprawl of Dublin but still Rural enough.

The series became too expensive for RTÉ in anycase, RTÉ had 3 options : -

1. Axe it replacing it with an indo drama (as they did)
2. Keep it but make in more Ballykissangle / monarch of the glen like
3. Make it into a full time soap like Fair City

Joe Lynch I think left because he was asked to take a pay cut. These actors in RTÉ are all relatively well paid.

jippo nolan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122169502#Comment_122169502

and it’s presenter, the late “Cowjack”