Rachael English should replace Marian full-time

JonathanAnon · 02-08-2009 3:06pm #1

I've always liked her style of presenting, she's clever but with personality. She's been presenting the Marian Finucane show (the Sat/Sun show when Tubridy got her spot) for the last few weeks, and she's done a good job. In these recessionary times, is it time to put Marian out to pasture, save the state a few quid, and give Rachael the job?

Marian was always okay, except for a) her recorded "And a very good morning to you" which really irks me b) the fact that she gets paid an absolute fortune of the taxpayers money and c) her tendency to go falsetto for dramatic effect.

deadhead13 · 02-08-2009 4:26pm

Newstalk should try and poach her. She would drastically improve the breakfast or lunchtime show.

02-08-2009 8:37pm

Totally agree. Newstalk should poach Rachel English.

She would be excellent in combo with Ivan Yates, it would seriously knock Morning Ireland.

Remember the old radio phrase "win the morning win the day".

Or she could easily compete head to head with Marion at the weekend. Or the Lunchtime news would be excellent with her.

If I was boss of Newstalk she would be hired!

dh0661 · 02-08-2009 8:39pm

IMO she is the best in RTE.

Agree with 54321, Rachel & Ivan would make an excellent morning show - on any station.

moe_sizlak · 02-08-2009 10:36pm

why not just put her back in the drive time slot in place of the awfull mary wilson

Firetrap · 02-08-2009 10:46pm

Didn't she quit that?

mike65 · 02-08-2009 11:10pm

Tend to agree, I bet she is picking up a fraction of Maid Marians wonga. She might view NT (even if they were so inclined to approach her) as needlessly risky move. She seems to be the sort who'll always find stuff to do at RTE. AT NT she'd be under pressure immediatly while working with fewer resourses and a less sympathetic management set up (say what you like about RTE but they don't treat news/current affairs as wallpaper).

dh0661 · 02-08-2009 11:23pm

mike65 wrote: »

(say what you like about RTE but they don't treat news/current affairs as wallpaper).

Good point.

Firetrap · 03-08-2009 12:43am

I think she does present other shows in the evenings/at night. I don't know if they're regular or just during the run-up to elections and the like. If she did quit Drivetime, she possibly did it to get off the treadmill. Maybe she's happier with a slower pace of things. I do agree though - I'd rather listen to her rather than Marian Finucane any day of the week.

As for moving to Newstalk, that wouldn't be a good move. The majority of journalists/presenters seem to view getting into RTÉ as the ultimate goal of their careers. There are quite a few people popping up on radio/television that I remember from TV3, Today FM, Newstalk and even local stations. I don't know what the financial state of Newstalk is but it's a station that seems to be going backwards. There's sweet feck all live programmes on after 10.00 at night. They were forced to bring back Culture Shock (arts program) and Splanc (Irish language program)

deadhead13 · 03-08-2009 8:10am

Your right, afaik Newstalk has yet to make anything like a profit. But the only way it can increase revenue is to increase listener, the only way to increase listeners is to improve the quality of programming. Hiring Rachael English would definitly do this.

Whether Rachael would want to leave RTE, I agree, is probably unlikely. The bit-part role she has there now could be of her own choosing. Maybe RTE have plans for her we are unaware of. But the Newstalk model as it currently exists is not working and drastic action is needed.

JonathanAnon · 03-08-2009 12:14pm

moe_sizlak wrote: »

why not just put her back in the drive time slot in place of the awfull mary wilson

Well, I would have suggested that but she did leave drivetime of her own accord. I remember the day when she announced it and it was clearly her decision. Mary Wilson really hasnt settled in to, even after the period of time that she has to do so. Maybe it's the fact that she was so long reading from the autoque, she cant think as quickly on her feet. Always found her good at reporting, and quite attractive on camera. Maybe she should return to this role?

humberklog · 03-08-2009 1:58pm

She has been doing the mid-week after 10pm show though. It's good and is nicely coming along too. It's on a break at the moment though.

I wouldn't go switching her for the ol' maid on saturdays on a full time basis though. Sure she might be better than MF but so what? MF does fill that show very well and in a very different way than RE. If a station shifts someone along every time someone they think is doing a better job then that station loses all continuity and indeed credability. MF is good, fits the slot well, has built the audience and found her niche. It's not broke so don't fix just for the sake of fixing.
They've two excellent presenters in MF and ME and doing it in very different styles, that doesn't mean that they should use one to knock the other off.
I think that they use them about right at the moment. Just enough to leave you thinking you want more. Good skills there.

squonk · 04-08-2009 10:05am

Rachel was doing current affairs at Clare FM before she got the gig in RTE. She's excellent but from what I remember, the reason she quite DriveTime was to get out of Dublin, move back to Clare and take life a bit easier and concentrate on what she wanted to do herself. In that light I reckon she's probably thinking she's got all she wants at RTE. Joining NT would bring her back to Dublin and I'm guessing that's not on for persnoal reasons. Also she'd have less freedom. We don't hear enough of her though.

orourkeda · 04-08-2009 3:21pm

Marian Finucane should be fired for making that stupid noise with her mouth

deadhead13 · 23-08-2009 6:08pm

Rachael is taking over from Rodney Rice on the Saturday lunchtime show.

FlutterinBantam · 23-08-2009 6:36pm

Where is Gerald Barry gone from the News at One on Sunday??

Sorry if a bit off topic:o

parasite · 23-08-2009 6:56pm

how many weeks in a row has Marian been missing now? she had a few weeks off around Easter too, easy work for a few hundred grand a year

deadhead13 · 23-08-2009 7:20pm

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

Where is Gerald Barry gone from the News at One on Sunday??

Sorry if a bit off topic:o

I might be wrong, but I think I heard him being named as the producer at the end of last weeks show.

tampopo · 25-08-2009 12:10pm

I think Gerald Barry is off on holliers, I think he mentioned it when the Dail Seanad etc took theirs. he said he'd be back when they are... or was that The Week In Politics?

Anyway, no I don't want English to replace Finucane (who should be replaced) as she always sounds, to me, to be laughing her face off, regardless of the topic.

kmick · 25-08-2009 12:19pm

I like Marion lets keep them both and replace some of the male donks on radio.

Big Tone · 25-08-2009 12:49pm

orourkeda wrote: »

Marian Finucane should be fired for making that stupid noise with her mouth

Her voice?

Anyway I dont thing Marian will be or should be replaced.

Rachel is good too and does a a great job on The Late Debate.

ateam · 26-08-2009 7:49pm

Disgraceful amount of weeks off for Marian given she only works two days a week, for two hours. Who negotiates these contracts.

mike65 · 26-08-2009 8:16pm

She must be the best paid on euro per min basis by some distance.

JonathanAnon · 26-08-2009 11:56pm

RTE is a fkn joke. I was just thinking about this today..

Kenny and Tubridy have been off for ages and are just back.
Joe Duffy is off again for another week, though this could be related to his bad leg. Damian o'Reilly standing in.
PBH filling in for Mary Wilson today (though I would prefer this on a more permanent basis).

Money is earned far too easily.

fryup · 30-08-2009 11:19am

i don't like Rachael English's presentation style...her very careful "over pronunciation" of words, gets on my wick:o

anyone else??

JonathanAnon · 30-08-2009 12:38pm

fryup wrote: »

i don't like Rachael English's presentation style...her very careful "over pronunciation" of words, gets on my wick:o
anyone else??

I kind of understand what you're saying, she does tend to speak slowly. I dont find it as annoying as Marian's falsetto, Tubridy's pretentiousness, Gerry Ryan's arrogance etc etc.

Is Marian still on 400K a year, and giving out about the civil service?

deadhead13 · 30-08-2009 12:54pm

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Is Marian still on 400K a year, and giving out about the civil service?

The 400k figure is 3 years out of date. When RTE releases the salaries of it's top earners it is actually what they were paid 2 years ago, not today. RTE has delayed the release this year because they know it is going cause a media storm.

Even when the 10% pay cut is taken into account, they are in fact being paid a lot more than 3 years ago.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/calls-to-rein-in-salaries-of-rte-stars-paid-more-than-obama-1873255.html

JonathanAnon · 22-02-2010 2:13am

Just listening to John Murray's contribution filling in for Marian for the last few weeks. Have to say, for a lad that meant to be just a boring business show presenter, he did VERY well. Showed a lot of personality, and was very competent.

So here's the deal.. Fire Marian, and get him to stay on after the business show and to come in on the Sunday as well.. I'm even better than Colm MacCarthy :-)

FlutterinBantam · 22-02-2010 12:25pm

John didn't do too badly at all, tolerable in my opinion.

The auld Doob accent gets on my tits though, this shortening of the long vowels and lengthening the short ones pisses me big time.

Like calling Fás=Foss

Seán= Shon

Ferry= fairy

Where was marzie?

On another trip to SA I suppose with some group of schoolkids.

How the name of jeebus does she get away with it.!!!

JonathanAnon · 22-02-2010 2:03pm

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

How the name of jeebus does she get away with it.!!!

I've no idea. Like the rest of the upper echelon of the public service, she can do whatever she wants. Really is ridiculous, I mean she only does two half days as it is ffs....Time to give the position to someone newer and fresher. She simply costs too much for the two shows a week.

humberklog · 22-02-2010 2:33pm

Yeah I thought Murray grew into the slot a lot better this week. Janeymac J-anon I really like his business show. Don't find it boring at all. It could be but the direction that he has taken it is really entertaining. Quite oddball and irreverent by times...which is good in my book.

Plowman · 22-02-2010 11:07pm

This post has been deleted.

tipperaryboy · 25-02-2010 1:18pm

JonathanAnon wrote: »

I've always liked her style of presenting, she's clever but with personality. She's been presenting the Marian Finucane show (the Sat/Sun show when Tubridy got her spot) for the last few weeks, and she's done a good job. In these recessionary times, is it time to put Marian out to pasture, save the state a few quid, and give Rachael the job?

Marian was always okay, except for a) her recorded "And a very good morning to you" which really irks me b) the fact that she gets paid an absolute fortune of the taxpayers money and c) her tendency to go falsetto for dramatic effect.

Very good point.She should have her own show at the weekend.

Sergeant · 25-02-2010 1:40pm

tipperaryboy wrote: »

Very good point.She should have her own show at the weekend.

She does have her own show at the weekend. She presents Saturday view on Saturday at 1PM. Took over the slot from Rodney Rice. Still the consummate professional, lively, engaging, and able to ask the right question at the right time in the debate.

Cunsiderthis · 25-02-2010 2:27pm

As Marion has 13 weeks off each summer, with 2 weeks( ie 6 shows) holiday fro Christmas and easter, and a week for half term in Oct/Nov ( another 4 shows done by someone else) and a week for half term in February ( another 4 shows done by someone else), it's a wonder the show can be called teh "marion Finucane show" at all.

I calculate she is off more than 24 weekends out of every 52, and i agree she probably needs a lot of time off from the rigours of boadcasting 4 hours a week for the weeks she is on duty.

Incidentally, if she works 28 weekends a year, broadcasting for 4 hours a weekend, this means she broadcasts for a total of 112 hours per year. As she is reported to be paid +- €450 000 per annum, thats a rate of over €4000 per broadcasting hour.

Can anyone think of someone better paid than that?

Aidric · 25-02-2010 3:17pm

Did she not present some religious programming on tv as well? Still vastly overpaid of course.

Cunsiderthis · 25-02-2010 3:19pm

Aidric wrote: »

Did she not present some religious programming on tv as well? Still vastly overpaid of course.

You mean she might work a little more than 112 hours a year for +-€450 000 ?

Rachael English should replace Marian full-time

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