Has Today FM Gone Down The Toilet?

squonk · 05-11-2023 09:57AM #1

I don’t listen to terrestrial radio much these days apart from maybe Radio 1 during with hours. While I was waiting in the car yesterday morning however I did tune into Today FM. The music wasn’t too bad but the presenter was woeful. Putting on a voice and basically his entire poster was “Ok, it’s the weekend! Come on! Contact us, tell us what you’re being up to! It’s the mystery year, contact us and tell us what brings you back to hearing these sins! Here’s a few facts about the mystery year “. Then he posted some WhatsApp messages from callers.

I remember when TodayFM launched and even the Radio Ireland days it was fairly series about music but also had a great lineup of presenters that wiped the floor with 2FM. It was a great station and I couldn’t think of many presenters I didn’t like. Maybe time has moved on and I’m no longer the target demographic and you can’t judge a station on one 20 minute snippet but other quick listens I’ve had recently don’t trashy entice me to listen. It’s starting to sound like Spin’s older brother.

radiotrickster · 05-11-2023 10:57AM

You would have been listening to the Classic 9 @ 11 which has run for donkeys years. The premise is that the hour is themed around a certain year and you guess which year it is.

The presenter would be Stephen Daly who isn’t putting on a voice. You can see from his social content that that’s just how he talks.

I would argue he’s one of the better presenters at the station. He plays the music and doesn’t try to do content for contents sake.

Pricy Doze · 05-11-2023 11:04AM

Using WhatsApp voice notes from listeners is happening across the board on music radio stations for some time now. I remember when radio stations brought in SMS texts around 2000, a lot of "longtime listeners" hated it but the SMS went on to define the most successful Irish Radio show of the 00s, The Ray D'Arcy show

Quazzie · 05-11-2023 11:09AM

You were very fortunate to avoid the relentless reminders to throw your money at them for the "Cash Machine"

Ian Dempsey in the morning is like a robot he is that formulaic. A simple 2 minute segment dragged out across a half hour and several ad breaks.

squonk · 05-11-2023 11:18AM

Yeah I’m surprised Ian is still doing his thing. I stiffed listening arid 2010 regularly I think and he was getting a bit stale by then I’d thought.

Pricy Doze · 05-11-2023 11:21AM

To answer your question, No, Today FM has had a jnlr renaissance since Bauer took control. The low point for Today FM was under previous management in the mid to late 10s when they were going down the 2fm road of not playing any music over 5 years old.

squonk · 05-11-2023 11:21AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121327298#Comment_121327298

It wasn’t so much that the WhstsApp messages bothered me, it’s just that some were brainless and they could have been reading a segment from the Gettysburg Address for all the acknowledgment from the host. Back in the day Ray and the crew would discuss the texts or take the pi$$ at times.

Pricy Doze · 05-11-2023 11:29AM

Yeah I can't disagree about voice notes, the odd times that I've heard them, you always get folks putting on Joey from Friends type accents, how YOU doin

squonk · 05-11-2023 11:39AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121327348#Comment_121327348

I guess that’s why I stopped listening when I dud. The music changed. They were great early in with lots of indie stuff and then you had Tony Fenton in the afternoons with some cheese and an older style selection.

05-11-2023 01:20PM

Dave needs Dermot, completely useless without him. The music master thing is robbed straight from the BBC. Ray Foley needs to be told to leave also.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000 · 05-11-2023 01:30PM

Pretty much all Irish radio is terrible outside of Dublin, there's f-all choice.

In limerick I can get 2fm and todayFM which when it comes to music are interchangeable apart from todayFM has a talk show in the evening.

Beat/Spin, both identical, child presenters who speak with American accents and play the exact same 15 songs over and over. I know it's aimed at the younger generation but it's awful.

4fm/classic started out as a banger of a station with their selection of classic rock and great 80s hits, now their classic songs are Beyonce and Natalie Imbruglia.

Newstalk, fantastic sports station.

But as for music, it's all absolutely terrible.

05-11-2023 01:34PM

It was good back when John Kelly was on, I remember the week he left when he was practically having a nervous breakdown because they were trying to turn him more mainstream. The slot after him also used to be good but now it's all dreadful. Couldn't listen to a single thing before 5pm, real knuckle dragger territory.

The only thing worth listening to is the drive time slot in the evening which is better than the insufferable Radio One news slot.

timmyntc · 05-11-2023 01:51PM

Weekend breakfast has the exact same playlist week after week. Same tired early 2000s songs, again and again.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121327825#Comment_121327825

John Kelly on Today FM - that must be 20 years ago surely!

05-11-2023 01:56PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121327881#Comment_121327881

Yes, that was when it was good.

TheBMG · 05-11-2023 03:08PM

from what I know TodayFM are enjoying the best ratings they’ve had in several years (even in Dublin which used to be a tricky market for them). Can’t imagine they’ll be changing stuff much!

Kaybaykwah · 05-11-2023 03:09PM

If it makes anyone feel better, FM radio is the same old drivel everywhere.

dxhound2005 · 05-11-2023 04:08PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121327815#Comment_121327815

Is that 15 songs today and a different 15 tomorrow. Or the same 15 every day?

NIMAN · 05-11-2023 06:32PM

You tend to hear the same collection of songs on music stations if you listen all day. Whoever picks the playlists get all the most popular ones, and get them played ad nauseum.

So you get Sia, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Dermot Kennedy, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo etc...plus the new golden boy, Cian Ducrot.

The thing that I'd find annoying about that, can give you 2 examples.

1) when we had Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush in the playlists due to Stranger Things. We had every dj tell us how amazing she was, they played the song to death. Then few weeks later, gone. And haven't heard another Kate Bush track since on Daytime radio.

2) basically same as above, this time for Sinead O'connor. She died and they fell over themselves to say how she was a once in a generation singer songwriter, how she changed irish music. They talked and talked about her for a week, played a lot of her great catalogue of music. Couple of weeks later, gone too. Haven't heard her played on day time radio much since.

05-11-2023 06:39PM

I listen to Paradise Radio a lot at the moment, great internet station with good mix. I used to listen to a lot of 6Music but that got very repetitive - now only listen on the weekends.

Irish FM is a wash out apart from evening on LyricFM.

dxhound2005 · 05-11-2023 06:47PM

One of the most popular stations in Dublin, Sunshine, has a varied playlist. And just one Ed Sheeran song in the last couple of hours. I would like to know how people can listen to dozens of stations for hours every day to come up with the stuff which is being claimed here?

https://irishradiolive.com/sunshine-106-8/playlist

pappyodaniel · 05-11-2023 06:53PM

I turned off the dial when Ray Foley reappeared. If I'm driving and I hear his voice on the radio, I just get this uncontrollable urge to swerve into oncoming traffic.

radiotrickster · 05-11-2023 07:54PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121329177#Comment_121329177

I would have said its one of the least varied playlists. Sunshine a year ago sounds the same to Sunshine today. The same Michael Buble, Ed Sheeran, Adele songs on repeat.

rolling boh · 05-11-2023 08:06PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121329177#Comment_121329177

I would think with channel hopping so easy and people maybe driving around a lot it's easy to tune in and out of several stations in a short enough time .I do it myself as a driver and do hear the same or two on different stations within a short enough time.

dxhound2005 · 05-11-2023 08:09PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121329494#Comment_121329494

You must be a dedicated listerner. They know a good formula, similar to BBC Radio 2.

dxhound2005 · 05-11-2023 08:12PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121329537#Comment_121329537

If you could put a link to the playists from those stations, it would be helpful.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000 · 05-11-2023 10:03PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328344#Comment_121328344

The same 15 every hour.

radiotrickster · 05-11-2023 10:14PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121330061#Comment_121330061

You might hear a few of the same songs every 2-3 hours but it’s not that repetitive that if you hear a song at 9am, you’ll hear it again at 10am.

Beat and Spin aren’t made to be listened to for hours on end either. If I remember hearing correctly, music stations like that would expect people to listen for the length of a car journey which is assumed to be 10-30 minutes. So if they play the same songs every three hours, it doesn’t matter because they don’t assume the same people are listening three hours later.