Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s What Happened
Gavan Reilly has announced that he is leaving Newstalk, after hosting weekend show On The Record since 2019.
He will be continuing in his role as political correspondent for Virgin Media News, and suggested in his final Newstalk link that this decision has really come as a result of wanting to spend time with his young family.
Stressing that this was totally his own call, Gavan emotionally thanked his managers at both Newstalk and Virgin, and also thanked the contributors and team behind the scenes who made On The Record what it is.
Seán Defoe will be filling in on the show for the next 2 weeks, with a permanent replacement set to be announced at some stage soon.
Really I think Gavans last link tells this story better than any text can, so I’d really recommend having a listen to the podcast clip linked below. The very best of luck to Gavan going forward, he’s probably one of the biggest voices in irelands independent broadcasting sector so it’s going to be interesting to see what comes next.
Listen to the podcast clip here
Broadcaster Bob Brolly has left his bbc job after more than 30 years. He hosted Bob Brolly’s Irish Show on BBC local radio in the UK, but this show came to an end on BBC during the pandemic.
Bob alleges he was asked to audition for a new contract, something he refused to do. After expressing anger about this on his show the show was pulled, with his contract left to expire. That contract expired this week.
The bbc dispute this somewhat, saying nobody was asked to “audition”. In a statement they said “Last year we announced there would be changes to all local radio schedules across England, to achieve this fairly we followed our usual recruitment policies for interviewing candidates for presenter/producer roles in local radio,”.
BBC local radio has been going through huge cuts recently and bob is far from the only one to lose his show unfortunately. Bob is in fact one of the lucky ones as he’s announced this week that he’s bringing Bob Brolly’s Irish Show to a new station in the form of BRMB. BRMB relaunched in Birmingham earlier this month after the station which originally used that name became FreeRadio 10 years back.
It’s sad to see what’s happening in the world of UK radio, and we can only hope we don’t see a repeat of that over here.
Beat 102 103 presenter Megan O’Regan Byrne is taking part in irelands answer to Love Island Grá ar an Trá. I watched the first episode and it’s legitimately really good.
Basically the singletons live in the Love Teach (Love House) with one half of each couple tasked with teaching the other Gaeilge. Gráinne Seoige keeps an eye on proceedings, deciding which couples stay, and which are going to have to take their pack of Tayto and hop on the bus home. At the end the couple with the most focail win €10,000, and hopefully fall in love.
Megan was coupled up with Sean, who is a big fan of flirting as Gaeilge. Megan on the other lámh only has a cúpla focal, but loved Irish in school. They already seem to be settling in well so who knows what might happen.
It would be cool to have someone from the world of radio do well in the show so we’ll be hoping it went well for Megan and Sean. The show is prerecorded and only airs once a week unfortunately, but if you’re looking for something fun to watch you can catch up on Virgin Media Player.
Quick Bits
Bauer has got a new boss for its audio business
Freedom FM is back on air today
Today FM’s Alison Curtis has said she feels sorry for Ryan Tubridy
An Irish times poll shows many people simply won’t pay for RTE
Rte is looking for sponsors for sports and Playback
And that’s the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio news📻 and be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn for more fun from the world of radio.