Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s what happened
The leader of the opposition, Mary Lou McDonald, is taking legal action against RTÉ.
The Irish Times are reporting details of the case, but we at Radio Land have not been able to verify their information. We don’t have any reason to doubt their reporting, but we want to be very careful as legal proceedings are ongoing.
This story has been well reported, so we’re going to provide links to a number of sources covering the story. The Irish Times has the most detail, but you might find it interesting for example to see how RTÉ are covering the legal action against themselves.
Here are a few of the reports:
The NUJ (National Union Of Journalists) have also commented on the situation. you can read that at the link below.
All we can really do with stories like this is wait and see what happens. Hopefully things can be resolved quickly.
Read the story about the NUJ response here
It’s got a backstory longer than Taylor Vs Serrano at this point, but the drama between south east Radio and Wexford county council has more updates.
Missed our previous coverage?
For a basic recap of everything check out instalment Three.
What’s the latest
The long and short of it is that the head of south East Radio, Eamonn Buttle, has asked for an independent enquiry into the matter. He has also asked for an apology after he feel’s he was defamed by David Minogue, Wexford county council secretary.
The apology request comes as a result of Minogue accusing Buttle of leaking emails to the press. Minogue now excepts this isn’t what happened, resulting in Buttle saying, “I await your apology in this regard.”
So, that’s one side of the story, the other side is the enquiry.
Minogue apparently reiterated his requests for a service level agreement with the station, a request that again received a strong rejection from Buttle.
Following Buttle’s email, Minogue, who is also the ethics registrar, forwarded on buttles complaint to the cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council as well as the council’s chief executive.
After Minogue forwarded the complaint about himself, The cathaoirleach of the council contacted Buttle to inform him that she was considering further action under the terms of the Local Government act 2001.
Buttle then requested the independent enquiry.
The amount of back and forth in this story is insane, but the Irish Times have done a great job once again covering the situation. While I have covered everything, I have had to simplify somewhat, so I’d recommend reading the Irish Times coverage for all the details.
This is a very serious story so it’s one we’ll continue covering as things develop. It’s not the kind of fun radio stuff that I enjoy covering, I’d much rather we were discussing jingle packages honestly, but being aware of this situation is very important.
A new social networking platform has launched dedicated to those in the radio industry, or those with an interest in radio.
The Radio Space has been created by Nails Mahoney and Tracey Lee who some of you may know from OnAirCoach. The space is built on the Mighty Network’s platform and is already growing fast.
The reason we started The Radio Space is because, no matter how many Groups people join on Facebook etc, they never fully get to be ‘radio people’ on there. So, we figured – a place only for radio people. Where our terms are understood, our quirks are enjoyed and our knowledge is valued. This is social media for radio people. No one else! Also, with no algorithm, you get to see who and what you want..not what the site hands to you. That’s a big plus. We’re very excited for what this can become and also really thrilled at the amount of people who signed up at the launch. Radio is alive and kicking!!
Nails and Tracey from OnAirCoach/ The Radio Space – speaking to Radio Land
It will be interesting to see how this space grows over time, but I do think the concept has lots of potential.
If you’d like, you can also now follow Radio Land on The Radio Space. We plan to experiment with posting our news posts to the platform over the next few weeks so why not give us a follow?
Very best of luck to the team with this new project, this will be really interesting to watch over the next few months.
Check out The Radio Space here
Quick Bits
RTE won broadcaster of the year at the New York Radio Awards
The new Radiocentre Ireland website has launched
RTE’s Live Dawn Chorus is going to be simulcast with the BBC this weekend
Spin is the official radio partner for Longitude 2022
CSN student Tony Sayers won radio dj of the year at the student media awards
RedFM became EdFM to celebrate Ed Sheeran’s concerts in cork
Jennifer Zamparelli has said she has no problem sharing her sex life on radio
Rebel Prisoner, a new radio documentary airs tomorrow morning on Newstalk
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.