Off The Ball Official Thread <Mod Note - Post #1, #533, #6651>

heybaby wrote: »

This doesnt make sense at all. Newstalk breakfast confirming newspaper reports that the Off the Ball lads approached Newstalk management last year about moving the show to an earlier timeslot of 6pm and eventually a 5pm slot. Apparently the Off The Ball lads blinked first when demands werent met and they resigned en masse, taking their twitter account @secondcaptains with them, its been deleted. I cant understand why they would walk away from an award winning show that has been so well respected and popular after running it for ten years. Theres no doubt they could have pulled in more than their 39,000 listeners had they moved to an earlier slot but is it not completely counterproductive to walk away because they didnt have demands met ? or is there more to this story ?

My guess is money, in that with only 39,000 listeners there is only so much pay they can expect/demand. With the earlier start, they'd automatically pickup a lot more listeners and hence could demand greater pay. At the 7-10 slot, they will always be fighting with 'prime time' tv for listeners.

Xavi6 wrote: »

Incorrect, it's just been renamed @offtheballnt

I just saw that damn. What an awful shame. Its the end of an era lads. All I need now is to hear Cooper is leaving Today fm and i wont be listening to radio at all!!

I would have loved the show to start at 6pm, it would be perfect to listen while driving home from work.Not everybody wants to listen to current affairs at that time. Matt Cooper does a great sports hour from 6-7 on Fridays I would love something similar from the OTB lads every night

I've been listening to Off The Ball since 2002 and I've always enjoyed it. When Ger was presenting it in the early days it was good but I felt that Eoin and the lads took it to another level. So much sports reporting is soundbite nonsense but these guys had some brilliant contributors on their show which meant that you learned a lot by listening to them Will really miss listening to them in the evenings but hopefully we will hear (or see) them in the not too distant future.

Regardless of its ’cult’ status, you can’t ask a station to take an hour pulling in average 131,000 and replace it with a program with the potential to pull in 39,000 – a 92,000 drop!

For the lads to think that simply occupying the 6pm slot they would get the 131,000 was commercial frailty in thinking on their behalves.

Down to the nitty gritty – the demographic of the GH audience and OtB are completely different and is wouldn’t be a simple handover

http://www.ilevel.ie/media-blog/radio/102474-off-the-ball-resignations

Darsad wrote: »

Sad to see them go ! however i certainly wont miss Ken Burleys monotone live match commentary but then Ger gilroy is not exactly electrifying either.

Yeah...the Newstalk commentators are dire. As a child of the 80's I was brought up on listening to the excellent BBC 5 Live coverag....Ken droning on and yer man McIntyre don't come anywhere close to that (albeit very high) standard

@SecondCaptains twitter account backup with following bio "Just a Twitter handle looking to be returned to its owners."

tbh wrote: »

At a guess - 10 years of reading texts from the public telling the lads how great they were lead to them having an inflated sense of their own worth.

That's not me having a pop at them, btw, I love the show and I can understand how it happens. They figured if they went to management and made a demand, management would be so keen to keep them that they would acquiesce, and they were wrong.

The format is responsible for at least 50% of the show's success, and the people the other 50% (and that's being generous to the lads, tbh).

There's no shortage in Ireland of lads who can chat about sports. I know there's more to it than that, but that's the requirement at its core, everything else can be learned. I think the lads will find it much harder to find a show than the show will to find new lads.

shame, but these things happen.

I think you are being a bit unfair and presuming alot. First of all you only have one side of the story here, Newstalks, there was been total silence from the off the ball lads so far, so i think its a bit premature to put it down to ego.

Eoin and the lads crafted the most highly respected sports show on irish radio not purely because they were lovers of sport but also because of their natural chemistry on air, you cant just acquire or learn chemistry.

You also have to remember these lads have proven themselves to be very bright and Im sure they have analysed the situation, Id be very surprised if they were demanding an earlier slot and threw their toys out of the pram because they didnt get what they wanted.

Might i say , i have rarely heard such an outpouring of affection about a radio show, right now, Darcy's reading out listeners texts expressing their sadness that the Off the Ball lads have left. Its a very unsual occurance for one radio station to cover staff departures at another, this shows just how good the guys were.

InchicoreDude wrote: »

OTB already have 3 hours airtime,more than any of the other programmes on NT.

Breakfast & Moncrieff are also 3 hours duration - five days a week

Starting at 6pm wouldn't have been a good move, their listening demographic are still working, shopping, créching, cooking at that time and you would loose the hook of the opening 20 mins of the show at 7 which does the headlines and previews. Personally I loved clearing the decks and sticking the radio on in the kitchen tidying up while Mrs LB rang her friends or watched the telly.

The best thing about OTB was the volume of broadcast time allowed them to get in depth about sports that wouldnt normally get the coverage. The features and biographies as well as the politics and incidents of sport were fascinating.

The feeling I have is a bit like Saipan or Sexton leaving Leinster, nobody really wanted it to happen but people boxed themselves in to absolute positions and bluffs were called and in the end its a lose/lose.

Gilroy and Co. may continue with a show in the evenings, but I think they should retire Off The Ball as a title.

"Those boys, they never go home........."

People are talking about listenership figures here but surely having the largest listenership between 7-10 of a national radio station has to count for something.

Hook has a bigger listenership in pure numbers but not in percentage terms. We also don't see the breakdown per hour - he could get a big bump towards the end of hihs show leading into OTB which maybe loses listeners the further it goes on due to it not being prime time radio.

They say a sports show starting at 6 won't work? Both Hook and Matt Cooper, if/when they do sport, do it in that hour. They also said 4 guys sitting around talking about sport from 7-9, and later 7-10 wouldn't work but it did. Probably because for a long time they were left to their own devices to build up a great show without outside interference.

If 2fm are looking for a proper sports show give it to the lads and give them free rein. Ditto for RTE if setting up a sports station. Or TV3 - even on that 3e channel.

In some ways I would love to see them go the internet route completely - could really shake-up Irish broadcasting.

Im telling you the lads will have a plan, theyve had long enough to think about this, considering according to reports they first approached management about a schedule change late last year. I just cant see 5 bright guys who have been working together for ten years on an award winning radio show packing it in without having an alternative option. Mind you I cant see the internet being a viable option there wouldnt be enough money in it for it to pay for itself.


I see their twitter Handle is active again : ‏ @SecondCaptains

heybaby wrote: »

I see their twitter Handle is active again : ‏ @SecondCaptains

Ken is following it too.