Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s what happened
RTE need a new boss, but the board reportedly can’t agree on who it should be.
Dee Forbes has managed RTÉ since 2016, but her term will soon be over. RTE has been on the hunt for a new director general since January, but now things have hit a bit of a roadblock.
According to leeks, some members of the RTÉ board wanted David McRedmond of an post to get the role, but he had been ruled out by the selection panel. David was at TV3 for 9 years as their CEO, but in recent years he has been managing An Post. He is seen as a transformative figure which some on the board believe RTÉ needs.
The selection panel reportedly chose Kevin Bakhurst, who currently works for broadcast regulator Ofcom in the UK. Some board members reportedly much prefer McRedmond over Bakhurst, and this reportedly resulted in a fraught board meeting where the appointment was not agreed.
It’s all a bit of a mess by the sounds of things, but we’ll probably just need to wait and see how it all plays out. We’ll likely get more info on the whole thing this week as Siún Ní Raghallaigh who is both Chair of the RTÉ board and part of the selection panel for the top job, faces questions from the Oireachtas media committee.
Hopefully whoever does get the job will be able to help RTÉ become a stronger public service broadcaster. No matter what way you look at it, this could certainly have gone better.
Twitter has been in the news this week, same as every other week, except this time it’s radio related.
The social network has had a falling out with the BBC and NPR, after they were labeled government funded media on the platform. After backlash the BBC had their label changed to “publicly-funded media”, but NPR retained the government funded tag. This was the same as used to describe Russian and Chinese state media, and NPR felt it undermined their journalism.
NPR have stopped using Twitter now, becoming the first large news service to do so.
It all raises some interesting questions about how media should be labeled on social media. Is RTÉ publicly funded? Is any station who received Sound and Vision funds publicly funded? and when does publicly funded become government funded.
Twitter has gone through many changes in recent times, mostly since the platform was purchased by Tesla owner Elon Musk. Sections of the media haven’t had a great time since the takeover, and now we are seeing the first media organisation to leave.
Would you like your radio station to leave Twitter? Usually you vote in these things on our Instagram story, but you can vote on our Twitter this week for the laugh. Just search @radiolandIRL on Twitter, or click this link
It didn’t go very smoothly, but the shortlist for the Media Literacy Ireland awards was announced this week. After the typo in the URL was sorted (It’s an easy mistake to make in fairness), we finally found out who got nominated.
Right, let’s see who made the shortlist.
the Best Youth-Led Media Literacy Intervention
- Internet safety with an emphasis on Fake Advertising/Fake News (Super Shampoo)
- TY Media Week
- Safer Internet Day Ambassador Programme
- Scamoflage
Best Media Literacy Intervention
- Alva’s World
- Integration Radio Training Programme
- Press Pass Student Journalism and News Literacy Programme
- What is Digital Citizenship and How to Teach it – Online courses for Teachers
MLI Member Special Contribution
- Áine Ní Chaoindealbháin (Virgin Media)
- Joe Phelps, Getting Better Foundation
- Máire Aoibhinn Ní Ógáin (TG4)
- Seán Tadhg Ó Gairbhí (Tuairisc.ie)
MLI Media Literacy Media Champion
- Joseph Hoban (RTÉ)
- The Journal FactCheck team
- The Tonight Show, Virgin Media One
Congratulations to everyone nominated and best of luck at the awards. Media literacy is hugely important so it’s good to see it celebrated like this.
Quick Bits
8Radio is returning to FM for the next 5 weekends
Rte’s Long Wave service ceased broadcasting yesterday
Ray Foley broadcast from Mayo for Joe Biden’s visit
RTE also did loads of coverage of joe’s visit
Marty Morrissey got some praise for working on a bank holiday
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.
Transparency
This article was updated to correct an inaccuracy related to the tenure of David McRedmond at TV3.