Dave Fanning promoted to Lunchtime

Will and Rick are staff of RTE..big names on 2FM back in the day... interesting to see where they will go once RTE Gold closes...Yes Rick has a new seasonal book show on Radio 1..Will is down in Limerick and has a Solicitor day job... but wonder will they take redundancy and leave RTE.?

RTE have nowhere to put Fanning but don't want to get rid of him so this is what you get. It's awkward for RTE as they don't have a BBC Radio 2 type station for older presenters to move to but they don't help themselves with how narrow the focus of Radio 1 and 2fm are.

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

I honestly think the current younger target audience cohort listening to 2fm no longer appreciates Dave Fanning and he would be better off in a slot on a station that he enjoys and the audience benefits in the current climate.

I think his weekend mornings were hitting an audience outside 2fms target market. This is reflected in the style of music dave plays, which is probably driven by him and in no way conforms to the usual day time radio. Also his guests seems to be properly researched so that they have something genuinely interesting to say. Fair enough they’re promoting a book or podcast, but the bulk of them make for good listening.

He suits a speciality show but unfortunately 2fm obviously doesnt see this as paying the bills

ford fiesta wrote: »

Will and Rick are staff of RTE..big names on 2FM back in the day... interesting to see where they will go once RTE Gold closes...Yes Rick has a new seasonal book show on Radio 1..Will is down in Limerick and has a Solicitor day job... but wonder will they take redundancy and leave RTE.?

That's interesting as I recall Rick doing either a book or poetry series on Radio 1 in the past and I think he seemed out of place on 2FM for many years to be honest. That's not intended as a negative about Rick's abilities as a broadcaster - he was wasted on 2fm in some respects however; he also had a loyal following during his time on the station.

I think Will Leahy may have been practising as a solicitor in Limerick on a full-time basis back in the days when he used only present on Saturdays on 2FM. He also works on the Rose of Tralee festival show for RTÉ tv each August.

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

RTÉ was forced to announce major cutbacks due to it's poor financial situation with dwindling commercial advertising revenue, changes in how people consume media, no increase in TV Licence Fee for quite some time etc;

As part of these measures, they have been cutting some of the top earners salaries, cancelling shows/not renewing them, selling land at it's Montrose H.Q. campus on Donnybrook which will see housing built and already resulted in the set of Fair City been moved elsewhere within the RTÉ campus.

The latest cuts include further reductions in salaries, the closing of Aertel, the closing of the RTÉ Digital Radio network which includes it's involvement in DAB and with that comes the closure of RTÉ Gold amongst others. They are also said to be leaving the current premises used as RTÉ Lyric fm main base in Limerick City with services shared between Dublin & Cork.

Ideally, it would make more sense for RTÉ Gold to be broadcast on FM instead of RTÉ 2fm these days as it has a young target demographic who would probably migrate to it Online if they follow the station unlike older audiences who would be more suited to traditional sources like FM.

Gold FM would be a no brainier. However you just know they'd screw it up with DJ's endlessly talking.

I reckon 99% of 2FM's listeners would prefer not to hear what Billy and Jenny( or whoever they are)think about every inane topic that enters their vacuous heads. Yet they insist.

The Dave slot on Sat..Sun is the longest running (2014) on the current 2FM schedule

ford fiesta wrote: »

The Dave slot on Sat..Sun is the longest running (2014) on the current 2FM schedule

I would not have known this. I've not been a regular listener of 2fm for quite a while as I cannot identify with the personalities or content nowadays. I would probably listen more regularly if RTÉ Gold was on the FM dial as I like a break from speech/talk radio every now and again. I don't mind DJ's having the odd bit of chat/interaction but I feel lost whenever I tune in to 2fm so I stopped listening to the station that was once regarded as Ireland's Number 1 for music!

I then switched to Today fm although; when that station dropped Friday Night 80's and Jim O'Neill I lost interest and even Ian Dempsey's Breakfast Show has grown repetitive and could do with a reboot while they still have a sizeable audience share. I used enjoy Ian's show in the mornings on 2FM and for many years on Today fm along with The Last Word with Eamonn Dunphy at the helm.

I tend to spend most time these days listening to RTÉ Radio 1, NewsTalk and Classic Hits (ex-4FM) and the odd time I might also tune into our local radio on Cork's 96fm, Cork's REDfm and C 103fm to catch up[ on local news.

ford fiesta wrote: »

between 4fm/classic hits and RTE Gold, I know which one I'd choose!!

You would choose RTÉ Gold every time!!!

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

I used really enjoy the original 4FM when it first launched - it was like a mixture of BBC Radio 2, old RTÉ Radio 2fm featuring Jimmy Greeley and a hint of RTÉ Radio 1 with the late Derek Davis (who used regularly fill-in for Joe Duffy on Liveline some years ago), Tom McGurk (who used fill in for Today with Pat Kenny during Summer leave and David Harvey a former RTÉ One tv continuity announcer back in the day.

4FM had an interesting lineup alright. Jimmy Greeley was back to being a music presenter, like his days on RTE Radio 2 and Millennium Radio. He was eventually to return to the role of newsreader, like his days on 98FM. Tom McGuirk was the drive time presenter. He had to play the odd bit of music between the chat with the guests! Derek Davis presented a show on mid-morning Sundays. It was a good current affairs program. He sometimes stood in for Tom. Damien Kiberd was the lunchtime presenter. David Harvey was a weekend presenter but increasingly stood in for Damien, until it became permanent. Niall Boylan effectively replaced David Harvey. There were a number of different specialist music shows as well. Quite a different station for sure. Gareth O'Callaghan was the last of the original presenters to leave what was now known as Classic Hits...unless you count weekend presenter Owen Larkin who left for a while and then came back again; he only left last year!

Unless 2FM is about to be rebooted as some kind of hybrid RTE Gold and 2XM (people have forgotten about that digital station), Dave Fanning does look somewhat out of place at that time of the weekend. Nighttime 2FM suits him best for his kind of music, but it still is not ideal, given the changes in 2FM. I wonder what will happen next.

It has been quite a few years since Dave Fanning has had a music show slot. In latter years of the show, in around 2011 - 2013 his 8 to 10pm show on 2FM was pre-recorded.
Hope he gets to revive this show on 2FM, but I doubt this will happen.

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

4FM had an interesting lineup alright. Jimmy Greeley was back to being a music presenter, like his days on RTE Radio 2 and Millennium Radio. He was eventually to return to the role of newsreader, like his days on 98FM. Tom McGuirk was the drive time presenter. He had to play the odd bit of music between the chat with the guests! Derek Davis presented a show on mid-morning Sundays. It was a good current affairs program. He sometimes stood in for Tom. Damien Kiberd was the lunchtime presenter. David Harvey was a weekend presenter but increasingly stood in for Damien, until it became permanent. Niall Boylan effectively replaced David Harvey. There were a number of different specialist music shows as well. Quite a different station for sure. Gareth O'Callaghan was the last of the original presenters to leave what was now known as Classic Hits...unless you count weekend presenter Owen Larkin who left for a while and then came back again; he only left last year!

Unless 2FM is about to be rebooted as some kind of hybrid RTE Gold and 2XM (people have forgotten about that digital station), Dave Fanning does look somewhat out of place at that time of the weekend. Nighttime 2FM suits him best for his kind of music, but it still is not ideal, given the changes in 2FM. I wonder what will happen next.

If memory serves me correct you also had the likes of Brian McColl (or Nails Mahoney as he was known on 2FM) used follow McGurk on 4 with Tom McGurk as I recall Tom used chat with Brian each evening. Marian Farrell used play classic hits in the schedule too if I'm not mistaken and Dave Heffernan (formerly of Anything Goes) was the original presenter of "Guaranteed Irish".

I've not heard Gareth O'Callaghan for quite a while and I know he departed due to serious illness so; I wonder how he's coping these days. He did some interviews after leaving 4FM but it's been a while since I read or heard anything on Gareth. Used enjoy his old 2FM programme: Gareth O'Callaghan in the afternoon and his "Net-News" (which was ahead of it's time) and the tear-jerker sad story once a week back around the mid-'90's!

ford fiesta wrote: »

This new schedule only refers to Saturday from this and Twitter sources...So what is the schedule for Sundays?

https://www.rsvplive.ie/news/tv-film/2fm-announce-brand-new-saturday-21305780

Dave Fanning is listed from 1:00pm - 3:00pm on Sunday 26th January on the RTÉ website radio schedule.

26 Jan 2020 1:00pm
Duration: 2hrs
The presenter brings in his record bag of hand-picked music for your delectation.

AwaitYourReply wrote: »

Dave Fanning is listed from 1:00pm - 3:00pm on Sunday 26th January on the RTÉ website radio schedule.

26 Jan 2020 1:00pm
Duration: 2hrs
The presenter brings in his record bag of hand-picked music for your delectation.

Sunday afternoon must be a dead time for radio.

kneemos wrote: »

Sunday afternoon must be a dead time for radio.

Maybe the target youth demographic are just not listening at this time on a Sunday as many are recovering from the Saturday night while others may be engaged in weekend activities such as sports/events/family time etc;. I would guess there must be a noticeable dip and 2fm station management have chosen this time-slot deliberately for Dave.

ford fiesta wrote: »

I wouldnt trust that programme description!!!! I think that has been the description of his current timeslot too, which doesnt fully reflect the show (majority is guests, reviews etc).
Dave does some work with Virgin media 1 on the six o'clock show. This new 2FM slot could be his final on 2FM. Think he has said before he prefers the talk format of his shows and got the feeling he was happy doing this at 9am.

He’s not one for really engaging with the average Joe over text or phone. He seems to prefer the professional interview or review etc.