Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s What Happened
We got the new summer schedule from 2FM yesterday as promised, and there are some names rising up the ranks.
Aifric O’Connell is joining 2FM breakfast replacing Doireann. She’ll be hosting alongside Carl and Donncha so 2 thirds of the existing team are staying on board to keep the ship steady.
Aifric is no stranger to 2FM breakfast shows as she’s previously hosted alongside Carl on weekend breakfast. Carl then jumped over to the main breakfast show, and now Aifric is joining him on weekdays. In recent years she’s been hanging out with the 2 Johnnies on drivetime.
2FM Breakfast with Carl, Donncha & Aifric starts Tuesday, when we’ll get a chance to hear if they evolve the show much.
In the drive slot we’re getting a bit more of a shakeup as Lottie Ryan and David O’Reilly take over from the 2 Johnnies. I’ll be interested to hear this show and see if it leads to anything. Lottie has covered lots on the station and has been an entertainment news reporter in recent times, while David has been a station contributor.
David Co hosts the any news podcast as well so does have presenting experience, but time will tell how that translates to radio.
I can definitely imagine Lottie and David working well together, but it will be a very different show compared with the 2 Johnnies. Best wishes to all involved.
Read about the 2FM schedule here
2FM might have got all the attention this week but I actually think there was a much more interesting scheduling announcement from RTE that didn’t get any attention.
As of Tuesday, RTE Gold will be on air with a full schedule as it introduces a new drivetime show. Breakfast and mid morning shows have been airing since 2017 and Ronan Collins extended the schedule when he left Radio 1, but now Carol Moran is launching a new drivetime show on the service. this means the station has presenters on air from 7AM to 6PM on weekdays, as well as a full schedule on weekends too.
It’s cool to see an internet only station from RTE finally go for a full schedule. I would hope RTE use this as an opportunity to promote the station heavily and eventually bring in some extra revenue with a few ads. stations like Classic hits aren’t going to have the same style as RTE Gold, so this competition in the industry is much needed.
RTE Gold has been moving in the right direction slowly but surely in recent years, so this is great to see. Judging from the online reaction Gold listeners are happy with the news and it’s rare enough rTE gets praise these days. Best wishes to all involved. Hopefully we’ll hear the station generate some revenue for the public broadcaster soon too.
Read the announcement from RTE Gold here
Radiothon has been airing on Corks 96FM once again, and has raised €409,178 for cancer charities in Cork.
I love pointing out radio being used for good, and the long running Giving For Living Radiothon is one of my favourite examples of this. the event has been running in Cork for 16 years now and has raised over €6.5 million over the course of its run.
There’s not a whole lot more to say on the subject other than to acknowledge that this is fantastic. Anything media can do to support charities is a good thing and deserves to be praised.
Well done to everyone involved in Radiothon once again this year, this really is fantastic stuff.
Read more about this years Radiothon here
Quick Bits
Broadcaster Adrian Kennedy has revealed that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer
Rachael English is taking over the News at One on RTE Radio 1
There was an opinion piece on local radios use of digital
Angela Scanlon has spoken about suffering with an eating disorder
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.