Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s What Happened
The Online Safety and Media Regulations Bill was published this week so we’ve got some new details about the Media Commission replacing the BAI.
A lot of the coverage around this bill focuses extensively on the online safety side of the story. However, there’s also a lot in here for broadcasters. We’ve reached out to the BAI with a number of questions about the new regulator, but we haven’t heard back yet. We’ll provide more detail as everything becomes clearer. There are a few things we know for sure though
- The broadcast Levy is being adjusted with the possibility that it’s being eliminated for community broadcasters. It’s currently not clear how community of interest stations will be impacted by this change. Additionally, streaming services will also pay a levy, however it’s unclear if this includes Broadcaster VOD services.
- The 12 minutes of ads per hour rule is being adjusted. Details on this arnt super clear either but let’s assume there’s no change from the proposed amendment to the broadcasting act from 2019. This would mean that instead of 12 minutes an hour, broadcasters will be able to have 20% of a certain block of time contain ads. Same amount of ads in a day, but you might have 14 minutes of ads in one hour, and 10 in the next. The amount of ads on RTÉ and other services with less ads is unclear.
There really is a lot to this and being quite honest, things aren’t as clear as I would have liked. Everyone seems to be a bit excited by all the online safety stuff, with traditional broadcasters kind of left to read and interpret the whole document ourselves. I will do something much more detailed than this at some point once I can clarify everything. for now, just know that big changes are on the way.
Feel free to read all the detail’s here
Ray Foley is moving back to Today FM after 6 years with Corks Red FM. We still don’t know the details on who’s replacing Ray on RedFM breakfast, but we have got details of a schedule shake up at Today FM.
- Ian Dempsey is getting an extra hour, 6:00 to 9:00
- Pamela Joyce is getting her own lunchtime show on the station, 12:00 to 2:00
- Ray will take over at 2, for 2 and a half hours. His RedFM slot was 3 hours. he’ll be on air from 2:00 until 4:30
- Paula MacSweeney switches early mornings for evenings as she now broadcasts between 7:00 and 10:00
- Finally, Fergal D’Arcy is leaving the station
Best of luck to all the movers on Today FM. I’m really looking forward to seeing Red FM’s moves on the cork breakfast market.
Finally this week, the manager of Athlone Community Radio, Irena Djak Cvetkovic, is now in the running for a place on Westmeath County Council. Jamie Moranpreviously held a seat on the council but that became available following his resignation. Irena has previously served as a local councillor in her home country of Serbia but has been living in ireland for the last 20 years.
Quick bits
Ciaran Cunningham was announced as the CEO of Radiocentre Ireland recently, he began work this week
Red FM gave away €200 each hour yesterday to celebrate 20 years on air
Newstalk has a new business editer
Albert Fitzgerald has left his role as managing director of Tindle
Former RTÉ broadcaster Jim Fahy has passed away
And that’s the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio news📻 and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for extra stories.