Newstalk - Breakfast Show

caught a bit of Alan Quinlan this morning talking about the rugby game. he mentioned that Ireland had 75% possession as opposed to 25%.

fantastic insight there.

Shane Colman is totally gutless when trying to challenge a guest. He had an anti smoking campaigner on this morning giving out about the main character in Dublin Murders (a brooding detective type) chain smoking his way through the episode.

Shane couldn't lay a glove on the chap even though think of the children was basically his only point. All he could do was read out a quote from the actor about artistic realism, twice, to give the opposing view. Even if not prepared a half decent interviewer should have been able to come up with several counters off the top of their head - the texters did pretty quickly anyway. Cuddihy isn't great but he would have handled that better.

I listened to the breakfast show on Newstalk from the very start, when it was presented by David Mc Williams, and his 20/20 news. I enjoyed listening to him.

I nearly left the station when Nora Casey was presenting. Just couldn't stand her, but I stuck with it and she eventually moved on.

Also loved it when Dunphy and Yates presented the morning show. Hated when Williams presented and now I've given up the station altogether in the morning.

Nowadays I listen to LBC in the morning. (https://www.globalplayer.com/live/lbc/uk/) A choice between Nick Ferrari, a seasoned professional journalists or those two muppets, there's no contest. I occasionally switch to RTE to catch up on whats happening here.

Maybe when Brexit has eventually died down, there won't be as much interest for an Irish listener on LBC, but for the moment it's the difference between night and day, compared to Newstalk in the morning.

I also occasionally tune in to Pat Kenny later in the morning, but he has really strong competition with James O'Brien, another excellent presenter, on LBC.

Can't stand Ciara Kelly. Wish she'd go back to doctoring or just bugger off somewhere else. I don't care where she goes, just so long as I don't have to listen to her.

Moncrief can be ok in small doses, but he's up against Sheila Fogarty in the afternoon on LBC. Personally, I'd prefer to listen to her, unless it's about something which is only of interest to British people.

Then at 6.00pm, LBC has the Nigel Farrage show. I'd prefer to be stone deaf, or have nothing on at all rather than listen to that pratt. By by then Yates, Matt Cooper and Drivetime are on, so I have usually switched back to Irish stations by then.

Sounds like a Party Political Broadcast for LBC, but with the advent of listening to the radio on the internet, competition for listeners has really opened up.

I remember when all you had to listen to on the radio was RTE 1. There was no RTE 2, 98fm, Spin or anything else. If you wanted music, you could tune into pirate stations operating offshore in the North Sea, Radio Caroline, Luxembourg etc, but the reception was very poor, but I suppose, in hindsight, better than nothing.

As for the TV in the 1960's and early 70's, it comprised 4 stations for those close to the East Coast. RTE1, HTV and BBC1 and BBC2. Those further away, or not near the Border, they lived in single channel land.

RTE TV used to open up around 6.00pm with Charles Mitchell reading the news in his dinner suit, least I'm told he read it in his dinner suit. The station closed down daily at about 11.30 pm, with the national anthem, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krZEfzKAhD4) while BBC also closed down and showed programmes from the Open University and everything was in black & white


Ahh! The not so Good Old Days

generalgerry wrote: »

Yeah but you're expecting the wrong thing if you are expecting reasoned and balanced coverage on Newstalk. I heard the story early this week about male solicitors rating their female counterparts, and they had that biddy from the Rape Crisis Centre on discussing it. Just ridiculous.

You mean a biddy who actually is a lawyer and might have some relevant knowledge? Who should they invite to discuss it, you or the brain-dead morons who are stupid enough to still do it? (I don't overly care about the what's app conversations but how can they be so dumb?)

BillyBird wrote: »

Did you listen to the piece? It's all well and good to talk about free speech but free speech does not mean that every clown deserves a slot on the radio. (That's what vox pops are for.) This lady was not able to support her point with anything other than her opinion. Does free speech guarantee every kook a slot? Or should we set a bar that says you need some sort of facts or logic to support what you say.


Like you my only exposure to O'Neill was a few clips on the new. Nothing he said would have me say "there's a serious publication, get more of that on the radio"

No, I didn't hear it, so can't comment on whether she made any sense or not. I was only commenting on the idea that someone from a publication like Spiked shouldn't be let on Newstalk.

BillyBird wrote: »

Sly dig from Pat during the handover this morning on the new call in section of the breakfast show.


He said something along the lines of "I have Joe Duffy on the show today, huge coincidence considering you guys are now doing Liveline"

I thought that “section” was only for last week? God, it’s brutal.

The main reason I don’t like to Ciara Kelly’s show is down to the call ins. Morons giving their take on something while Ciara does that “yeah, yeah, yeah”, the last “yeah” is done on an inhale.

That and “Liveline” are the radio equivalent of boards.ie and listening to it is torturous.

plodder wrote: »

No, I didn't hear it, so can't comment on whether she made any sense or not. I was only commenting on the idea that someone from a publication like Spiked shouldn't be let on Newstalk.

Would a trigger warning be of any assistance?

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

Pat is a big fan of his “kicking the can” sound effect.

Perhaps that could employ some from of klaxon to alert those of a more “sensitive” bent, P?

Wouldn't make a blind bit of difference, these lads are strict echo chamber punters.

No differing opinions welcome, and definitely no platforms to express it is how they roll.

tototoe wrote: »

Todays topic..naf songs. Oh how we laughed, such joy.

They come across as quite awkward, or dorky, whenever they try to cover anything light hearted or silly.

tototoe wrote: »

I'd go much stronger than that.

Idiots would be one word
Gobsh!tes another.
utter plonkers.
pathetic..

Trying to do the lighthearted stuff is worse than their arrogant interview style. Its bloody awful radio and not needed.

I don’t mind them, to be honest. But I, rarely, get to hear too much of them.

Do you listen much yourself, T? Are you somewhere where you don’t have control over the “dial”?

If they bothered me that much I’d be switching off. I feel the same way about pretty much all the “morning shows” on all the other stations. Too many “banter merchants” acting zany and playing dreadful music for my liking.

If I might, I’d suggest turning on Lyric FM and listen in to Marty Whelan’s show. But, then again, If you’re not in control of what’s on I guess headphones are your best bet. Or earphones, even. Apparently, there’s an important difference.

tototoe wrote: »

"Do you listen much yourself, T? Are you somewhere where you don’t have control over the “dial”?"

That's exactly my situation.

Not a great position to be in, at all.

I once spent a summer in a place that only played FM104, it was the same four or five songs that seemed to be played every hour, between the ads and the inane chatter.

Nearly drove me insane.

I hate the listeners call-in slot we’re being subjected to of late. It seems the Newstalk Breakfast team are desperate to improve the show but don’t know what to do.

plodder wrote: »

I love the way Andrea Gilligan says 'adulthood' as 'addled-hood'. That's exactly how it feels sometimes.

She’s a good presenter but she does have that slightly stiff “news reader” delivery.

Professor Genius wrote: »

She has awful pronunciation. This thing about dropping ‘g’ at the end of verbs is dreadful ie ‘workin’’ instead it ‘working’

Accent vs pronunciation.. where do you draw the line? I hadn't noticed it, though I like her accent. Maybe, I spend too long listening to Beth Rigby on Sky.