Ray Darcy's new Daily podcast starts March 9th

I have just started reading the interview.

A couple of things.

He says his dad was a prick. Is this the same dad he used to have on the show regularly and was telling us how great he was and whos pancake recipe he would always go on and on about. Or is Pancake dad his step dad.

He makes a point about RTE knowing what they were getting when they hired him. He is vocal yah see. But nothing about him knowing what the expectation the extra pay in RTE were all about.

He talks about listenership going up. But it took 11 years to go from half of what Liveline go to two thirds. That is not the boast you think it is Ray.

It is an odd interview and he is very lucky that Freyne conducted it. He gets the benifit of the doubt with no hard grilling.

But I really don't think Ray has put much thought it this. A 40 minute daily show, with presumably no music. What are we going to get 20 - 30 minutes of a news paper round up. I am guessing they will be doing the producing and researching themselves. Best of luck going through the papers everymorning. Trying to find a take all the other breakfast shows don't have.

Then the rest of the show is 20 minutes of Rays "A man more singed against then sinned act". Best of luck with that Ray. I give it six months at the most. Or will they spend it talking about the time Jenny didn't show up one morning and they rang one of the guests only to have Jenny answer it and tell them the guest was still in bed asleep. Hmmm why did you have his phone Jenny.

You should have taken the solt with Gold Ray. You were always better with the music stuff.

No. I’m not.

@hawley can confirm these numbers as I know he saw them too.

Tubs doesn’t help himself by the time slot - they’re usually on Tuesday or Wednesday at 1pm. The Toyman seems to forget people have jobs and don’t really want to spend their limited lunch time listening to him talk about books he hasn’t read and movies he went to for free and fell asleep during…in between the humblebragging and the name dropping…..

His delivery is awful in these live pods, even worse than radio and the regular bookshelf pod (with a guest) which at least had some elements of structure to them. The live pods are just him riffin’, guffawing at his own stories, namedropping, plugging free stuff and gigs he went to for free, name dropping, and using Aidan Power (who produces it) and Tom (the cameraman) as a crutch whenever he runs out of things to say. It’s truly awful stuff. You can watch them back if you need proof, but I urge caution.

Where do people have the time to be listening to all these podcasts?

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/vincent-browne-told-me-to-take-a-gap-year-abroad-ray-darcy-on-his-public-humiliation-over-losing-his-job-at-rte/a940103571.html

This idea that Ray D'Arcy worked with RTÉ over 40 years is a bit of a strech, where are his co-hosts of Jo-maxi today, while he joined Today FM in 2000. I am still not convinced of this RnaG work he did.

2 Pod casts D'Arcy Daily and Being Human (Another article suggest many of the household names that have appear on The Bookshelf).

I'd agree with VB, take a year out, and both teens could easily travel with him for a year and return to school the following year. (or your rich enough find a very posh boarding school for them!)

So he said RTÉ gave him no warnings, RTÉ disagree.

He perhaps blames lack of communication, the irony being on RTÉ as a communications company … not him where is job everyday is to … communicate.

He had been put on a 2 year contract for 2024 and 2025 … why?

Now he blames Liveline loss in audience for his loss in audience, because they lead into him, basically he's admitting he relied on a strong show.

Monaghan met with D'Arcy alone, this seems strange, I agree with him there should have been someone else in the room.

He is only offered the slot on GOLD in a follow up meeting with Monaghan.

I'd say that RTÉ had done a deal with Callan. Callan wanted more money and RTÉ said they need more from him to justify the pay, he then asked that he be moved to 11am as he didn't want to be making his way in for 9am. This means a shuffle in the schedule. It's likely that more people knew of that shuffle and put 2 and 2 together and was able to suggest that Ray was going.

and a reduce number of hours for D'Arcy's show with music show also axed. I don't think RTÉ would have reduced Ray's pay along with the reduced 45mins to his show.

He was doing 60 - 70 hours a week when on both radio and TV, he's suggesting a ten hour day ! How is that possible? There is no way.

On the pay issue: -

It’s a bit embarrassing. We became whipping boys. There was a particular point there when Dee Forbes was DG [director general] and the government were at RTÉ and she made promises to them about reducing the salaries.“It struck me that we were just pushed out. People would say, well good enough for you because you’re paid well enough to put up and all of that. But I think just because you’re well paid doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be well treated.”

Noel Curran (Christmas Cake Fruit) had made those promise long before Dee Forbes entered, however she had inherited his pay packet leading the Chair (Moya Doherty) to make her famous statement stating that a sponsorship deal with Volkswagen for his radio show would "more than cover" his pay. D4bre's join that summer and well just followed what Christmas Cake Fruit was saying and doing.

He said there was “a constant ­tension” between on air-presenters and ‘the suits’ in RTÉ.

Really? Because that doesn't seem right when Jimbo Jennings goes to Joe Duffy's retirement do.

But he feels contracted presenters deserve more due to what he calls “the three Ps” — “a lack of permanence [in contract], a lack of privacy and most importantly lack of ­pension”.

Three P's covered

1. Lack of Permanence
   1. We found out that all of the top ten earners are on a 2 to 5 year contract with RTÉ, D'Arcy was there for 11 years on a high wage, that others don't get
2. Lack of Privacy
   1. Even if you consider that D'Arcy is a high profile person, I'd say these last few years have been the most he's been in the public eye.
3. Lack of Pension
   1. The high pay cover you for your lack of pension, just look at how the government introduced auto enrollement …. why?… because may low paid workers rely solely on PRSI in their pension years.
4. And longer holidays, they were all getting between 6 and 8 weeks

I had to pull somebody up on this in [RTÉ] when it was announced that Claire Byrne was leaving. The person was looking down their nose at Newstalk [part of Bauer Media] and mentioned that we do public service broadcasting and I was saying, ‘Well, come on now’. I think they were taken aback at how forceful I was about it.

It's an odd reply to that but my reply would have been simple, since Pat Kenny left the audience has not fallen, since Tubs left the audience has not fallen, and when you leave its unlike that the audience will fall.

It finish with a comment from an RTÉ spokesperson. I wonder who that is? Name the spokespeople.

Good post Ro but you’ve seriously underestimated the holidays - they had between 10 - 12 weeks off. A former poster tabulated Mr. Duffy’s appearances on Liveline for a number of years and the figures remain in the thread for all to see. Mr. Duffy famously once took 2 weeks off after presenting Liveline on the first 4 working days in January.

Similarly Mr. Tubridy’s contracted radio show appearances worked out to approximately. 9 months of the year, again giving him 3 months off.

When did he complete his Masters? As with any qualification unless you’re maintaining your knowledge through continuous education AND practice it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.

Mr. Duffy was another lad who thought his 40+ year old basic degree in a course that’s unrecognisable today to what it was when he completed it made him an expert on not just that subject, but most things. His famous angrily-shouted line to Michael O’Leary “I have the education as you” based solely on the fact that they both went to TCD shows how “silly” he is. Mr. Duffy’s logic would have one believe a research masters for example in nuclear physics is the same as a taught “Orts” degree…..intriguing.

Genuinely wasn’t aware of this. His degree is 41 years old (or 41 years out of date) this year and he hasn’t practiced. He wouldn’t even get a graduate entry level role in HR given how much the discipline has changed since, and of course, his age. I’m not saying this to be a dick btw, just a factual statement.

I don’t have the same disdain for D’Arcy as I would for some other presenters. I rarely listened to his show as I wasn’t the target audience. I also think he was a very limited “talent”. All that said however I do think he was badly treated in the end in RTÉ. When one considers the send off Mr. Duffy received it is a stark contrast indeed.

I am a contractor. I earn nothing like what Ray was on, but I have PRSA, which I pay into every month. In it's current state it's about enough to keep me in 2 pot noodles a day until I die, (which if that is all my diet consists of might be sooner than I planned!) but hopefully come retirement age the pension pot will be a bit bigger.

My contracting/Accounting firm set me up with a meeting with a pension adviser. The meeting cost me nothing as the consultation was paid from my taxable income.

Ray bemoaning the fact he doesn't have a pension is him stating very clearly he was too tight to pay for advice, and too thick to look into it, where he would have found the initial consultation would have cost him nothing.

I think he was treated as well as any other employee would have been, if their contract ran out, and they were offered a new one with reduced pay. He could go to another company, if they wanted him… but the offers weren't there.
If he'd stayed with RTE on RTE Gold, he'd be able to retire in 3 years. On a great pension.

Duffy took retirement. I agree, he was lauded to an insane degree, which he didn't deserve. He was no Gay Byrne, no matter how much he wanted to be. And the insane money spent for a retirement party was ridiculous.

Completely agree. Larry Gogan did it. And Larry was far more beloved, in my personal opinion.

Well poor Joe has no pension according to himself. Just a coincidence this topic always came up when talk of his outrageous fees came up of course……

If it were true (which I simply don’t believe) the blame lies firmly at his own doorstep, or his agent’s. Again, he could have had a very nice pension from RTÉ had he chosen to be a salaried member of staff, but that would have meant a cut to the headline salary figure,

well I was bored on a journey and stuck on his podcast.thats 45 minutes I ain’t getting back.🤦