The two Johnnie's are to move to the iconic mid-morning Gerry Ryan slot and Jen Z goes to drive according to the red tops today https://www.rsvplive.ie/news/celebs/2fm-planning-major-shake-up-32825017
I thought I remember them being in around 92.
He did "Fame and Fortune" too for a few summers before winning streak....there was another "lotto scratch card" summer filler too, something tells me it was called "millionaire" but I can't remember if that was before or after fame and fortune
Yeah I'd forgotten that. Millionaire was a few years before WWTBAM, and they had some rights argument over the name as the lotto owned Millionaire ?
1995 according to wiki
i remember them being on the bus drivers radio going to college in 88 or 89 so they were a long term fixture on 2FM breakfast if you heard them in 92
yeah I may be getting my wires crossed but would swear I heard them in 92. I started college that year so think I used to hear them on the way in in the mornings. They defected to Channel 4 around then so maybe I’m conflating the two things.
Zig and Zag only had a 5-10 minute slot on the 2FM breakfast show, they were not co-presenters.
They moved off the breakfast show in around 1990, when Ian finished Dempsey's Den on Network 2 (Ray D'Arcy taking over at that stage).
could be wrong but I seem to remember them doing a few specials (about an hour long) on 2FM brekkie around Christmas 88? Used to do a lot of misheard lyrics and stuff
Yes, I remember the misheard lyrics segment. Around 88/89. Those were funny actually. lol they permanently ruined Sweet Child o’ Mine with a misheard lyric around the piece “Where do we go, where do we go now”. A piece about Axl Rose actually wearing a wig and furjngbtre recording he lost it sbd started singing about it and asking the band “Where’d de wig go, where’d de wig go now”. Silly but funny!
Jason Donavan's " too many broken harps in this world, too many strings have been broken in two".... can't remember the back story to that one.
Enya's Charitable quest to "Save the Whale, save the whale, save the whale"
There is so much space on radio for good comedy / funny set ups. Unfortunately the airwaves are filled with a lot of forced unfunny inanities.
I’ll add a Contemporary Cliff Richard song “I Judt Don’t Have The Heart” they changed into “I Just Don’t Have The Harp” about his failure to get served Harp in a pub!
Yes, stuff like that was great radio and very funny I’m much older now so maybe less easily amused or impressed but presenters have stopped trying to entertain their audience instead they’re looking for the audience to entertain them and make their show with texts about the mad stuff you’re doing Shame
Mary Black's Donkey with "No Front Ears"....
I don't think it's an age thing Squonk, just a fall in standards or the belief that the listener will appreciate it.
It was great radio, with Zig and Zag. One of the ones they did was Starship, “Nothing is gonna stop us now”.
The lyric went “They say we’re crazy” and Zig and Zag claimed it was “Dempsey went crazy” and said it told the story of Ian getting cross over something.
36 years later when I hear the song all I can hear is the Zig and Zag version!!
It’s a testament to how good it was that there are a good few of us who remember various ones. It was a great time for radio really. I’m enjoying hearing some of those I either didn’t hear first time round or don’t remember now.
I remember clearly on the breakfast show when I was a child around 1989. zig and zag are telling the story that michael hutchence and andrew farris from INXS were sharing a room. andrew was snoring and with michael trying to get sleep he kicked andrew with his knee and wakes him up, michael then says to andrew "I kneed you tonight, cause I'm not sleeping" and according to zig and zag that's how they came up with the lines in the song 😀
another one I remember was olivia newton john "physical" they turned into "fizzy coke, fizzy coke, I want to get fizzy coke…."
Anyone listening to the "new" line up? How are the presenters getting on?
Caught the breakfast show, I didn't notice much difference between the new presenters and previous ones, similar content, just an odd text to say your doing a great job with the new show and such.
"Tommy used to work on The Dart" to the tune of Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer. You're correct about how clever it was, as evidenced by all the posters remembering the songs so many years later. So much better than most of today's content
I tuned in.... got what I expected.
Faux outrage..... fake laughs..... silly song.....
Strange to say but youd miss clock blocker now, They do a A to Z answers in 90 seconds that sounds even harder to do but perhaps RTE was giving away to many €10,000's before.
Gone from 6 seconds a question to less than 4. It’s let’s not give it away
Remembered another Zig and Zag version..... they did U2's Desire....
"Oh sister, in Lego" instead of "oh sister, can't let you go"...
Can't remember the back story.
I didn't think the new breakfast show was too bad.
I have a bit of bias because I thought Aisling Bonner was great on Spin.
And you can't pass. You essentially need to be incredibly lucky to get all the way. You should be allowed pass but get another question on the same letter.
Who’s on Fully Charged now? Aisling & Dave?
Assuming you mean Emma and Dave? Yes I believe it's just the pair of them.
Yeah sorry.
Interesting to see how that plays out.
How do you get around the idea that 2FM will probably never gain a bigger audience… you present the smaller audience as niche and a required audience that RTÉ must reach!
https://www.irishtimes.com/media/2025/03/15/can-a-new-schedule-re-energise-2fm/
That shouldn’t heap undue pressure on the young people, both on-air and off-air, who work at the station. It may be the case that no combination of presenters exists that can “re-energise” 2FM, and that this is simply the modest status it commands now.
So keep spending big money on presenters that you know won't bring in an audience… RnaG and Lyric FM presenters will be delight on the pay rises coming their way.
why are there so many double or triple pairings of presenters on 2FM ?
I thought the new Doireann show was being publicised as being her at it solo, but there are 2 contributors/producers with her on air for all of the show ???
It’s time this was called out. Doireann is around long enough now to helm a show solo. If she can’t, that’s a big problem. Unfortunately what started as an experiment with Nicky Byrne getting a nod and a sink job Jesas a radio presenter but paired with an actual jock so the show wasn’t a disaster, seems to have become the norm. It’s ridiculous at this stage given that we are constantly on the hook for banning out RTÉ. I’d rather one guy who knows his stuff going on for two hours doing a deep dive various bits of music he was interested in then, whatever the hell they’re putting out now. The celebrities aren’t adding any great value either given that 2 FM is far from being the most popular station in the country. It’s even worse that they’re admitting that they’re going to now anyway. Personally, I’d rather be a useful niche than an overbloated niche.
The Zig and Zag feature was called Alien Orientated Rock (AOR) and used to air at 7:45 and 8:45am. From memory I think they used to appear live as cohosts occasionally / maybe the last show before Christmas or long weekends etc. They also had an hour long Saturday show on 2fm around 10 years ago. I imagine the studio webcam was turned off for that slot.
trimming the fat of rte has gone well so far - in a few years there will be 6 on air staff for breakfast
