Will Ian Dempsey ever return to RTÉ?

I see no reason for him to change at this stage. He has a good number where he is and retirement probably beckons. He left RTE on bad terms and I doubt he'd want to go near them again.

When the move to TodayFMwas announced, he was refused entry to the Montrose campus and complained that over 20,000 albums of his were not returned to him by RTÉ.

20K albums… are you sure about that?! I know he’s definitely said some stuff belonging to him was never returned but 20k seems unlikely!

It’s funny how it was such a huge deal back then for RTE “stars” to dare jump ship and how RTE treated those who dared to do it. Marty Whelan a few years previously moved to the ill fated Century Radio and when that ended disastrously, RTE really made him squirm cap in hand to get back in. He was a long time doing Daz adverts.

Nowadays it seems perfectly cool to jump to a rival and you can happily work out your notice. They’ll even have you on the flagship Late Late Show to talk all about your big move (Claire Byrne). So I’d say Iano would of course be welcomed back, times have changed. But I really doubt he’d want to go back.

Edit: I see his Wikipedia entry mentions 20k albums. Still feels a bit unlikely!

The dispute was probably the records were given to Ian Dempsey at work. RTE says they are property of the show and Ian is going to say they were given to him personally. If you are going up against RTE legally you better be sure you are going to win because RTE have bottomless pockets (that you taxpayer, Zero accountability). Maybe Ian got legal advice that the outcome might be uncertain. That would be a hard pill to swallow.

You jump ship on RTE, there are going to be consequences and repercussions. Remember Gay Byrne was head hunted for Century and Even though he was retired he was afraid to take it. I dont know how everyone remembers him but he had loads of soft money from RTE and £5k for opening supermarkets, a morning radio show and the Late Late show. Uncle Gaybo got money easily and was conned out of it twice as fast. He was afraid of RTE but he wasnt always the fastest cat in the room.

Sure RTE had Uncle Gay back a few years later for the few odd jobs little series. RTE did a lot of nasty meddling with Century and over charging them for technical services and what not. Eventually Century went bankrupt and RTE swooped in to pick up the talent.

If Ian Dempsey was going ….. he could have shipped out the pearls 50 at a time and RTE would never have known. RTE must have some Analog back catalogue.

Dermot Whelan and Ian Dempsey shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence together, Ian is on totally different wavelength of DJ to Dermot.

Yes Dave is self-absorbed and I don't particulary like him but Dermot is even more self-absorbed and absolute tripe on the radio, always was from 98fm up to now, I wouldn't even put him on hospital radio.

You're the only one that brought "Dermot and Dave" into this thread.

If you're referring to me, I had mentioned Marty Whelan (not Dermot!), who in the very early 90's controversially jumped from RTE to the ill-fated Century Radio. Purely as an example of how big a deal it was then and how much "power" the RTE chiefs had over their "stars" then.

He is very close with the 2 puppeteers.

Marty left for Century in mid 1989

Checked with a buddy DJ. He said that a Radio show would own the records. It was naive of Ian Dempsey to think that RTE would allow him to walk away with records given by visiting celebrities and promotional material from music labels. Imagine what RTEs Analog catalogue looks like?

I would have thought that Gay Byrne was still broadcasting on RTE when Century were in business. Gay Byrne used to constantly complain about his salary when presenting. Didn't go down well with a lot of people who were struggling financially at the time.

RTE have been recording over their own stuff going back years. They brought out a DVD a few years ago called "The best bits from back Den", supposedly the best bits from The Den. In reality it should have been called "All we could find of The Den in the archive".

Gay Byrne was never badly paid, He was however conned left right and centre by every every Shylock including Darragh Murphys (and also "fizzy orange" from Love/Hate) Grandfather. He should have been grateful for a job because he would never have made it CO grade 3 in the P&T. I never got why housewives fawned over him.

Yeah but magnetic tape is both expensive and degrades and they lost a few all Ireland finals. Now you can buy 200TB for a few grand for storage.