Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s What Happened
Broadcaster Niall Boylan is making his return to Classic Hits Radio on Monday, after an unsuccessful run at the recent European elections.
Niall was not elected in the end, but did prove popular with voters. By the end of proceedings Niall had received over 50,000 votes. He’ll be hoping that many of these voters join him for his return to Night Time Talk on Irelands Classic Hits.
You’d wonder if Niall was able to negotiate a raise from his Classic Hits bosses with his new boost in popularity, but that’s hard to say.
Niall was very critical of the media during his election campaign. He called out Newstalks Shane Coleman for spinning “liberal and woke nonsense” every morning, he also heavily criticised RTE for not including him in TV debates and editing his appearances on Drivetime. He recorded one of his campaign videos on the RTE campus, saying “they don’t want to give you that voice”.
All this may alienate some, but it has clearly given Niall a popularity boost if his election results are anything to go by. Speaking to the Independant this week Niall said he wouldn’t be running in the general election, instead choosing to get back to radio.
It’s fascinating to see Niall getting back to traditional media rather than doubling down on his podcast, but there you go.
Let us know your thoughts on Nialls return over on social Media. Just search Radio Land Ireland.
Check out Nialls return promo here
It feels like much longer, but today marks a year since everything exploded at RTE.
It all started with RTE underwriting a sponsor commitment in presenter Ryan Tubridy’s contract, and that resulted in a backlash unlike anything the broadcaster ever faced before. Things have calmed down a bit now, but the great RTE drama won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
RTE is expected to announce their new strategy on Tuesday, with expectations that much more of RTE’s output will be made by third parties. We’ll need to wait and see if RTE decide to officially pull the plug on their Didgital radio services, but it’s likely that stations outside of RTE Gold will be scrapped.
Hopefully RTE get some funding security over the next few weeks and the organisation can properly heal from the past year. Did you know the whole scandal has its own Wikipedia page? check that out below.
Read the RTE secret payments Wikipedia page here
Finally for now Limericks Live 95 has announced a new charity partner for the next two years.
Down Syndrome Limerick have been selected for the partnership, after over 20 applications were received from non profit organisations.
The new partnership will result in significant promotion for the charity and the work they do, as well as a focus on their fundraising activities.
I’ve always been a fan of promotions like this, so am delighted to hear of radio being used for good. We need more examples of radio stations working to support their local community, so hopefully we’ll have more stories like this soon.
Read about the new partnership here
Quick Bits
Newstalk have launched Younified, a new diversity podcast hosted by Mamobo Ogoro
The Cash Machine has given away €200,000 once again
The Digital News Report has been published
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.