98fm Schedule

chilloutrelax

98FM is shaking up its weekday line-up from 25 August, with Leanne Hanafin taking 10am–1pm after the recent departures - back to a one presenter show. From 1 September, Andy Preston lands a full-time evening slot (Mon–Thu 7–10pm, plus Sundays) — a notable comeback after what went down at Q102.

New weekday schedule:

07:00–10:00: 98FM’s Big Breakfast with Rebecca & Brendan
10:00–13:00: Leanne Hanafin
13:00–16:00: Barry Dunne
16:00–19:00: 98FM’s Big Ride Home with Brian Maher
19:00–22:00: Andy Preston (Mon–Thu)

GSF

Nice to see Andy Preston getting a show again. He was very poorly treated by Q102

hotmail.com

It looks like they are cutting out the insufferable and unbearable chit-chat between two presenters between 10 and 1 and going back to traditional music with odd interruptions.

Barry Dunne hanging on somehow.

ford fiesta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123717475#Comment_123717475

on 98 since around 1996 ?

its_steve116

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123717711#Comment_123717711

I was in junior or senior infants with a different Barry Dunne. He used to say "my name is Barry Dunne, and I live in a place called Ballymun..."

Apparently he was actually from Kilbarrack.

hotmail.com

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123717711#Comment_123717711

To stay hip he painfully sounds like a 16 year old girl at times.

JoeA3

Barry seems to have carved out a niche as the "Cash machine guy". Anyone outside of Dublin would have barely known of him until he became the voice of the cash machine. It's certainly not done his profile any harm.

Declan A Walsh

In relation to Andy Preston, he got some gigs on Classic Hits shortly after his departure from Q102. I assume that he has left Classic Hits now.

Re Barry Dunne, he is the longest lasting presenter on 98FM both among the current presenters and in terms of the longest length of time ever with the station. The "Cash Machine" has certainly made him more well-known as it is broadcast on all the Bauer Media-owned stations across the country ("across the Go Loud network of stations"). One of them, Today FM, also has Barry as a once a week presenter. Maybe he will gradually get more shows to present on Today FM and eventually leave 98FM all together.

Andy and Barry would know each other from the 1990s pirate scene, particularly with Sunset FM and Hot107.

Max Power 2010

Andy and Barry go waaaay back to Radio Dublin IIRC, Sunset and Andy's HOT 107, closing in 95 as Andy secured a legal gig on FM104 and Barry not long after on 98.

Great to see them on the same rota again, but with the above said about Barry a Today FM move might be nice, however you'd of said the same about Andy's move to Q102 at the time.

I think the new 98 Rota works well and will be interesting to see how it fairs out for Market share in the next few cycles.

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123720684#Comment_123720684

It should be noted that they were not with Radio Dublin during the same period. Andy was there in the late 1980s - I think it might have been his first pirate. Meanwhile, Barry did a stint with Radio Dublin around 1994 while moving around between various pirates.

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123723485#Comment_123723485

They were both working there during 1990 after the move from Inchicore Road to Vincent St West.

98 now have Andy, Barry, Brian Maher (Hits106/DLR), Mark McCabe on air as well as Pat Gill (content director). Shiver me timbers, is the most piratical line up on the Dublin airwaves?

Infoanon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123723485#Comment_123723485

Andy Prestons first pirate was Diamond 106 from the Star 'Cinema' in Crumlin.

Andy got fired from Radio Dublin , allegedly for copying Joe's 'Bright Eyes' single and playing it on Sunset.…

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123723584#Comment_123723584

I never knew before that Barry did a stint on Radio Dublin in 1990. I am still learning stuff about him! So that, I am guessing, is where Barry and Andy first crossed paths. That must be also where Barry first crossed paths with Simon Maher, leading him eventually to get involved with Simon's Coast FM.

Radio Nova (covering Dublin and the commuter belt to be technical about it!) have a lot of ex-pirates on air too: Greg Gaughren, Pat Courtenay, Matt Dempsey, Andy Clarke and Pat James, as well as CEO Kevin Branigan. Incidentally, Barry Dunne worked on a number of Kevin Brannigan led pirates in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Yeah, Barry was a busy man!

Dublin's Q102, post-Andy Preston and Scott Williams, still have a lot of ex-pirate presenters: Liam Coburn, Paul Bradley, Martin King, Johnny Bowe and Aidan Cooney, and I think Lynsey Dolan is too. Edit: It just so happens that Johnny Bowe was also with Radio Dublin in 1990!

It should be said, though, that the majority of the ex-pirates on Nova and Q102 tend to be confined to the weekend schedule, except for cover.

Expunge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123723598#Comment_123723598

This has to be one the most Dublin Pirate things ever to happen!

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123724219#Comment_123724219

the story I heard was that Tracey Lee, Chris Murray and Andy all left Radio Dublin en masse after hearing Eamon Cooke and his accomplice boasting about breaking into and robbing Sunsets TX site.

Also, I’m sure Bright Eyes was not a difficult song to source (even in pre Discogs days) and probably wouldn’t have been getting regular airplay on ‘Dublins Dance Factory’

then again they did play a remix of the Fraggles so anything’s possible

Declan A Walsh

I see Claire Beck, formerly of Phantom/TX FM and Today FM, is also on the schedule. She is another presenter that started on the pirates: DLR/Hits 106 was at least one like Brian Maher. Incidentally, Barry Dunne was briefly with DLR. This guy was everywhere in the first half of the 1990s!

Infoanon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123724403#Comment_123724403

I am fairly confident that Joe 'Doyle ' went on 'radio news' and explained that he had fired Andy for copying Bright Eyes(Watership Down) , Andy had a 'nightcap' style segment on the 'Dance Factory' iirc.

Is the mass exodus of Chris ,Tracey etc relating to a different station were they exited when they found out who the new owner was ?

The boasting of the theft of the Sunset rig left a bad taste ,saying enough but not enough to be charged , similarly boasting about informing the ODTR about certain stations setups and 'raid' plans.......

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123723584#Comment_123723584

Come back to us when Gerard Roe gets to do the The Anorak Hour on Sunday's.

Tape decks and accompanying hiss compulsory.

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123723598#Comment_123723598

Back in the day Andy once played a promo on Sunset, proudly saying that the station didn't 't play things like John Mile's Music as it played in the background.

Hours later he'd cheerfully play said song on Radio Dublin, stating that it was a favourite of his 🤣

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123724974#Comment_123724974

no, different split ;-) the jocks had been working both stations but the tx thefts by Eamon and his sidekick were the final straw IIRC

Declan A Walsh

Going back to the schedule, who would be the second longest presenter amongst the current presenters? This could be a difficult one to answer as the rest all arrived at 98FM long after Barry!

its_steve116

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123725141#Comment_123725141

Karl Dawson is the longest-serving one I can think of, off the top of my head.

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123725289#Comment_123725289

Brendan O’Loughlin of Rebecca and Brendan fame; off-air it’s probably their commercial production guy Dara who’s been there since day one (and did the same role at Sunshine 101)

matrix mick

So they screwed over Suzanne kane by lumping her with brian dowling, only to then replace them with an inferior version of her. The mind boggles.

The playlist is shockingly small also.