Following on from main thread in Current Affairs about Tubs in general (now closed and mod suggestion that Entertainment category is more suitable).
Indeed, entertainment in certain respects is what Tubs has provided, albeit perhaps in a way not intended. And still awaiting 150k payback to the licence fee holder.
And of course, his new career in Virgin Radio which is imminent.
copying some frequent posters from original thread.
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Cat-Mod: See post here regarding off-topic segues.
Who Kathryn? She's the presenter of The Morning Show on Q102 not on Virgin Radio, she is based in Dublin.
She took the job because she was looking at what is in her future. She lost Operation Transformation and unless she'd been given Traitors there is little coming up in terms of TV presentation roles. She had said previously she wanted to do more Radio.
Interesting dynamic. I see some soap operas in the UK are cutting back episodes, TV revenue must be declining fast, same probably happening here.
The article goes into why she took the gig. It’s an opportunity for her to helm her own show. Good luck to her. I wouldn’t be her biggest fan but in impressed she moved out of the RTE fold for this. Good on her I say.
What are Noel's long-term plans with her?
I know RTÉ have received criticism in the past for the amount of property and property porn programmes they air, but surely ”Room To Improve - Gaza” is a step too far for even them.
Dermot: You know… I think if you put the roof back on your losing a lot of light … but that's just my opinion.
Radio station reach (million)
The above is for 2024 Q3 (A decrease in listenership from the previous quarter)
The above is for 2024 Q4 (A further decrease in listenership from 2024 Q3)
Hours are also down from 8589 to 8057
*Source RAJAR
This illustrates perfectly that VRUK is hemorrhaging listeners and their current policy of personality led music radio is not working.
https://www.news.co.uk/latest-news/news-broadcasting-celebrates-another-set-of-outstanding-rajar-results/
"The Virgin Radio UK network delivered strong growth with 2.2 million listeners, an increase of 22.5% year-on-year. Virgin Radio Anthems achieved a record quarter in reach with 468k listeners, an increase of 69.6% year-on-year, and a record 1.4 million hours listened, an increase of 33.3%.
The Chris Evans Breakfast show with The National Lottery played host to some of the biggest stars of film and TV including Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Stephen Fry, Hugh Bonneville and Alison Hammond, as well as tennis star Venus Williams. The Virgin Radio UK network also celebrated 40 years of Band Aid with a new documentary, Band Aid at 40, reflecting on the charity’s cultural impact, featuring interviews with Bob Geldof, Midge Ure, Simon Le Bon, and Francis Rossi."
So from the official NewsUK press release, they have not mentioned Virgin Radio (the flagship radio station) other than to include it into the performance of the overall Virgin Radio Network (which is made up of all of the Virgin radio stations)
A drop of over 7.5% QonQ from RAJAR Q3 1.55 million ears to 1.43 million. So far it seems that NONE of this has been mentioned or highlighted by the UK radio media.
Sooner or later NewsUK are going to have to address the performance of the flagship station. They cannot continue to use the performance of the other Virgin stations on the network to gloss over or deflect attention away from this.
For example Sean Goldsmith and Eddy Temple-Morris who incidentally was moved out of his 10am - 1pm slot to accommodate Tubridy are performing far better over on Virgin Radio Anthems in terms of growth.
The flagship station's performance and trend has to be a cause of concern for upper management at NewsUK and must really stick in their throats.
Question: Did Tubs appear this morning on The Morning Show on Q102 ?
Does the Press Release mention Mr. Tubridy?
The Press Releases that accompany the announcements of RAJAR and our own JNLR numbers are always hilarious and ridiculous in their OTT positivity, mining for the tiniest nuggets to spin into a positive with silliness like “Presenter X continues to thrive in the 30seconds after the hourly news with a 0.01% year on year growth in the lucrative 65 and above who like Nationwide, wear blue socks on a Tuesday, and have pictures of JFK and the Pope above their fireplace market” .
The spin put on the numbers always give me a giggle, esp. the 2FM releases. If Mr. Tubridy didn’t get a mention in the Virgin release I would wager that is not a good omen.
Speaking of the Virgin releases however I’m drawn to the emphasis they always put on the guests that come on the show (mostly to promote a new venture) rather than the host. It’s complete filler, and very lowest common denominator / celebrity goss type stuff. It’s like it’s trying to avoid focusing on the show or the host and instead shout “look over there! It’s Denzel Washington!”. These are supposed to be personality-driven slots and instead we’re focusing on the guests. Intriguing.
Note, if you look at the NewsUK press release it does highlight performance figures for the Virgin network but when it comes to Virgin Radio itself, they spin it to highlight guests that have appeared on its shows.
There is a mention of Chris Evans but not because he is increasing or even maintaining listeners. No mention of Tubridy and yes, sooner or later he is going to be skating on very thin ice.
what are his JNLr figures for the Q102 show. They are out today also
Q102 are actually up half a percentage increase for JNLR 2024 Q4
98fm going in reverse again. Format change and presenter style makeover required at this stage.
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The weekday audience for the 9am hour on RTÉ Radio 1 under Oliver Callan is now greater than it was when Ryan Tubridy was presenting.
The latest JNLR figures show an average of 349,000 people listen to Callan in the post-Morning Ireland slot in 2024, up from 343,000 in 2023, the year Tubridy left the national broadcaster.
https://businessplus.ie/media-plus/callan-o-connor-jnlr/
After having a good start on 2FM, he has poorer figures than his predecessors and successors, on all his shows. He managed to shoehorn an NKM stablemate into his programme today. Gave space to Donncha O'Callaghan to advertise his book and podcast. All the same subjects such as the Beatles, recommending books and films and texts from Irish listeners. Can't see him lasting much longer on there.
The classic NKM clients interviewing NKM clients move. 🙄 Did he declare they share an agent? No need to answer, I know he didn’t.
O’Callaghan would be a virtual unknown in the UK, even at the height of his playing career. Another example of Tubridy catering his show to an Irish audience while based in and broadcasting from London. Bonkers.
that beggars belief for sure. I’d wager that the vast majority of UK listeners don’t really care that much about Ireland. They certainly wouldn’t know the ‘local heroes’ around here. What surprises me is that somebody over there hasn’t had a quiet word with him about broadening his appeal. Even worse, he’s been given a chance to get a reach out to a wide audience in a different and which has wider here in Ireland might as well be just broadcasting from 98FM!! Bonkers indeed!
any report of audiences for Q102 shows?
Donncha O'Callaghan published a children's book last year, with a quote from Tubs on the front cover: "Perfectly captures the goofy kind of love that Dads have with their kids!"
I was shopping for Christmas presents for younger members of the family, and that was enough to ensure Donncha's book wasn't going to be purchased.
+1 on this. Q102 may have had a very slight rise in audience numbers but that is based on a 7am to 7pm total station measurement, not individual shows.
Also, does the JNLR operate with a margin of error disclaimer? I’m asking as I don’t know.🤷♂️
Posting this here also,
https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/radio/if-youd-asked-me-to-do-this-before-i-had-kids-id-have-said-not-on-your-nelly-kathryn-thomas-on-new-early-morning-radio-show/a1179478112.html
Kathryn Thomas said she got the seal of approval from RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst before making her Q102 debut.
Bizarre that she had a chat with Kevin Before about joining Q102, not sure why he'd care or why he'd meet with her TBH.
On the other hand according to Pat Kenny when he was their top paid Current Affairs presenter he didn't ever meet much with Kevin Before, The then Deputy DG/Head of News, only a lunch at one point.
This is part of the “are you in or are you out?” shenanigans with the whole presenter contracting mess in RTÉ. They’re not employees - opting instead for the far more lucrative and tax beneficial arrangement contracting affords them when it suits them - but want to be treated as employees when it suits too. You can’t be both, it’s either or. She had no business asking Backhurst anything about this gig, nor had he any business in talking to her about it.
Next they’ll be asking for holiday and sick pay.
An absolutely bizarre statement to make about getting a blessing from the rte dg, unless it went something like:
KT: so there's nothing for me in rte at the moment?
KB: yeah, tv everywhere is cutting back.
K T: but the minute something does come up keep me in mind, ok? I've got some radio work but I could easily slot right in, just call, you have my number, right?
KB best of luck with the radio show.
Kathyrn walks away thinking it's in the bag, or as Alan Partridge might say, "back of the net!"
Needless to say, Noel had the last laugh.
it just makes Q102 look bad. Which in fairness it is. So who cares!😂
Somewhat related to the above, I wonder how long RTÉ paid Tubridy after he was removed from the air? A few weeks? A few months? When Backhurst said he wasn’t coming back? Or until he started in Virgin?
We should be told the answer to this question.
RTE kept paying him for a good few months. It was covered at the time. Certainly from when he went off air to after Tubs claimed he was vindicated, which upset Kevin. Kevin then asked for clarification and Tubs people (PR Man?) came back to Kevin with the same response. They stopped paying him soon afterwards.
Yes. I’d just really like to know the actual cut off date.
Not the first time Mr. Tubridy was remunerated when no work was done of course. Would any of you be shocked if it was discovered it was Dec. 31st 2023? Or heaven forbid, after that?
I wouldn't considering that RTÉ said that Jim Jennings was on sick leave and then when he brought them to the WRC he exited on the 31st of August 2024, meaning he'd earned an entire year of work and then got severance. And the conspiracy theorist in me think that RTÉ asked him to take them to the WRC to show that such cases are unwinnable, note that they agree an exit payment rather than going through a public hearing, or one that would end up in a public hearing, and that they failed to give his Salary for 2023 in their 2023 annual report but gave the salaries for the other member of the newly formed "Leadership" team, just not the Director of Content!
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