Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s What Happened
50 years ago today, Raidió na Gaeltachta went on air. That’s an amazing achievement.
Generally I don’t cover birthdays, but there’s something different about 50 years, and there’s something different about Raidió na Gaeltachta. Even 50 years on, there really is no station quite like it, sure Raidió Rí-Rá is in a somewhat similar space, but RnaG has that scale.
It might not be the most listened to station but the service it has provided over the years must be acknowledged . A birthday concert takes place tonight at 7:00 and you will be able to hear that on the station, or you can watch on RTÉ.ie/gaeilge. There’s loads of content on that website so check it out if your interested.
Lá breithe shona do Raidió na Gaeltachta agus 50 bliain eile rompu
Radiocentre Ireland have published their first big report, and it’s given us some interesting insights. All the information is based on a survey of 1,000 adults conducted in February by Amárach Research on behalf of Radiocentre
There’s loads of interesting bits in this and the Irish times have loads of data if your interested, but here’s just some of the interesting numbers that we got.
- 27% of people say they listen to more news since the pandemic kicked off, with 20% listening to more talk shows.
- More than half of adults now listen to podcasts, with 76% of those between 18 and 34 saying they listen to podcasts. I wish Radiocentre tried to get a breakdown of Irish produced podcasts vs international productions. But maybe that will come in future research.
- Almost half of those working remotely say they use radio as a source of companionship.
Overall, this is interesting research but I want to see the raw data. Like how many people over 50 are listening to podcasts? I don’t know. I think this is great info but if it’s going to just be given to radio stations it’s going to be cherry picked in the same ways as JNLR.
Check out the Irish Times article here
Finally this week, the Beat Breakfast team have launched a new after show podcast. The Afters is a best bits podcast in many ways but there are extra bits too.
This is something we’ve seen before, PJ and Jim did have an after show podcast when they were on Classic Hits and they now have GloryDaze which is basically the same thing but on Radio Nova.
It’s hard to predict how successful these podcasts will be, but the GloryDaze podcast does have 69 ratings on Apple Podcast so it at least has some listeners tuning in. it’s also rated very well which is a good sign.
We’ll need to wait and see if these podcasts take off, and perhaps more importantly if they can bring in extra revenue.
Check out the podcast from Beat here
Quick Bits
Stephen Byrne is leaving RTÉ 2FM
Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman of Newstalk Breakfast fame are releasing a single
Ireland got loads of nominations in the New York Radio Awards
A number of walks are taking place across Ireland today in solidarity with broadcaster Charlie Bird
In a word… Radio, from the Irish Times
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.