Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s What Happened
Virgin Radio host Graham Norton has announced that he’s leaving his weekend show on the station.
It’s unclear what exactly his next move will be or where he’s going, but this weekend will be his last in his current slot. Graham isn’t leaving the station completely apparently, but that’s really all we know for now.
Graham joined from BBC radio 2 three years ago, but continues to host his tv chat show on the BBC. He also commentates on the UK coverage of Eurovision, and hosts the Irish version of the Last One Laughing format on Prime Video.
It’s an interesting move, and time will tell what’s next for Graham. Ryan Tubridy Recently Joined Virgin Radio, so the station still has Irish Voices on the schedule. Another Irish voice in the form of Angela Scanlon will cover the slot for the next few weeks.
A former 2FM presenter, Chris Greene, has withdrawn his allegations against RTÉ at the workplace relations commission.
The presenter claimed he was penalised as a whistleblower and subsequently sacked by RTE after he made allegations regarding sexual harassment in the workplace. The hearing was set to start this week at the WRC, but the parties reached an agreement ahead of this and the claims were withdrawn.
RTE were arguing throughout this case that Chris Greene was not an employee. If you want to read more about this story you can check out the link below.
Finally for now, a story I’m sure you’ve heard already. The chair of the Rte board, Siún Ní Raghallaigh, resigned this week following the minister failing to express confidence in her during a Prime Time interview.
The way in which this matter was handled has resulted in criticism for the minister, who is now set to appear in front of the Media Committee next week.
Siún Ní Raghallaigh reportedly told Cathrin Martin that the board of Rte had no involvement in approving recent exit payments. She then called the department on Thursday to correct the record in relation to this. The minister then went on prime time, saying that she had been misinformed. She also failed to express confidence in the chair.
Siún Ní Raghallaigh resigned just hours later, in a statement issued just before 1AM. In that statement she said that she had informed the department of the board approving the payments back in October.
It’s all a bit of a mess, and the drama continues. Hopefully we can see this whole thing come to an end soon as at the end of the day public service media is just getting weaker and weaker.
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.
Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s what Happened
A new website has been launched to track who owns what in Irish media.
The project is a partnership between DCU, Coimisiún na Meán and some international partners. The site has an incredible amount of detail and covers wider context on the background and other interests of media owners.
The site covers radio, television, print and digital media, and dives deep into the individuals and companies that own and control Irish media outlets.
You’d honestly be very surprised by what you’d find in some ways. as even on the radio side there are a lot of individuals holding significant amounts of control..
the media ownership monitor Ireland site will be updated for at least the next three years and I’d highly recommend checking it out. Well done to everyone involved, a fantastic resource.
RTE were back in front of the media committee this week for another grilling. Targets this time were the director of HR who got strongly criticised for signing off on an exit package that former director general Dee Forbes agreed with the broadcasters former CFO.
Meanwhile Kevin Bakhurst was challenged on the value of the Callan’s Kicks contract. Callan’s Kicks is made by a production company unlike most other shows on Radio 1. While it is true that some presenters have their own production companies, the shows on the prime time schedule are still made by RTE. As far as I can tell this isn’t the case with Callan’s Kicks. This means the fee for the show would also include all voice actor pay etc.
Other criticisms were aimed at Bakhurst too, such as those related to his decision to pause licence fee ads on other broadcasters. Kevin says this was done as it felt inappropriate to ask for payment at that point in time, and he also wanted to pause discretionary spending.
I’d be interested to know. Do you think Kevin Bakhurst was right to pause spending on Licence fee ads during the RTE crisis? Let us know your thoughts on our Instagram story.
Finally for now there was an interesting article about an Irish American radio Show published this week.
The Irish hour has been a family run radio show airing in Chicago for more than 70 years. It’s played a massive part in the lives of the family and the Irish community alike.
It’s incredible to see the longevity of some of these Irish American shows, especially considering they’re not heard much over here. If you’re looking for an interesting read check out the article linked below.
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.
Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s what Happened
It’s time once again to chat about JNLR numbers. Every 3 months we get a chance to see who’s up and down in the latest round of the radio listenership wars.
As always we can’t cover every station, but we’ll cover the main national players. Let’s get down to business.
Let’s begin with Irelands biggest radio station in the form of Radio 1. They seemed to have a generally good book this time, with only small dips in parts.
Morning Ireland had a really nice listenership jump this book and is up 23,000 to a huge 486,000. Could they cross half a million listeners? Time will tell.
343,000 tune into the 9AM slot which is down a small 4,000. This isn’t worth much concern for now as the slot just got a new host, and was up 13,000 in the previous book anyway.
Claire Byrne jumped 10,000 and now sits at 341,000. There’s an opportunity to grow that with the referendums in march, but time will tell how that plays out.
Louise Duffy gained 1,000 listeners which is the same as last time. She now has 214,000 tuning in each day.
News at One with Bryan Dobson has 306,000 listeners, which is 3,000 up from last time.
Joe Duffy gained 1,000 and now has 303,000 tuning in each day.
186,000 tune into Ray Darcy each day. That’s a 1,000 listener drop
221,000 listen to drive time. That’s up 2,000
Rte saw good weekend performance for Radio 1 also, so in all not a bad book. People tend to turn to Rte for big referendums and elections so maybe RTE can benefit from that, but we’ll need to wait and see.
Over on the young people’s station also known as 2FM, there were a few small drops. Everything is holding steady though so it’s nothing too concerning.
2FM breakfast is down 3,000 and now sits at 146,000. They had an incredible streak for a while and gained 11,000 in the last book, so this really isn’t too bad.
Jennifer Zamparelli hasn’t had any change from last time and now sits at 136,000 listeners
113,000 tune into Tracy Clifford, also unchanged from last time.
The 2 johnnies had a small dip, but are still doing great. they lost 1,000 and now have 150,000 listeners. That’s still the most listened to show on the station.
2FM had an exceptional book last time so this is standard enough. They had good weekend performance so all in all it’s a grand book.
Now it’s over to Bauer, which has become the most listened to radio group in the country thanks to its recent purchase of Iradio. Even though RTE had a great book across the board, Bauer now has a larger presence in the market.
Today FM are doing very well and are closing in on the 1 million weekly listeners mark.
228,000 listen to Ian Dempsey each morning. That’s up 3,000
There’s a glitch in the system for Dave Moore’s slot. Back in November Bauer, Goss, and ourselves here at radio land all reported a figure of 227,000. The new figures from Bauer claim an audience of 230,000, and a book on book jump of 2,000. The maths are wrong somewhere, but it’s not currently clear where.
Louise Cantillon has an audience of 140,000, that’s up 8,000
Ray Foley is down 1,000 and now has 163,000 tuning in
It’s up 4,000 for Matt Cooper who now has 186,000
Today fm was tough to calculate this time as they didn’t generally compare books. When they did it revealed maths errors somewhere along the line. All in all though things look healthy with that weekly reach of 1 million now looking very achievable.
It’s good news for Newstalk, with listener gains across the schedule. There’s really nothing to give out about.
149,000 Listeners tune into Newstalk Breakfast, which is a jump of 5,000.
The Pat Kenny Show had another incredible boost with an extra 11,000 tuning in. He now sits at 216,000
Lunchtime Live now has a very respectable 113,000 Listeners and is up 6,000
Moncrieff has 115,000 listening each day and is up 5,000. There appears to be an error in the Newstalk post about these numbers, but the 115,000 seems to be correct. Don’t undersell yourselves Newstalk☺️
More maths issues for the hard shoulder so I’m just going to use Newstalk numbers. 153,000 listeners which they say is up 6,000. They said he had 148,000 last time.
Things look good across the board for Newstalk so I’m sure they will be happy enough. They like Radio 1 have a chance to gain listeners with referendum and election coverage, so the next few books will be interesting.
Other stations
Here are a few links so you can look at other coverage. All in all it seems like the industry continues to tick along nicely.
Coimisiún na Meán have announced the details of two new rounds of the Sound And Vision funding scheme.
Both will be open rounds and will provide funding for culturally valuable broadcast content. The rounds will also be open to broadcasters and producers looking to make shows in the Irish language.
It’s unclear if the recent drop in licence fee revenue will impact these rounds, but it will likely be something we see have some influence at least. It’s a shame in many ways, as Sound and Vision has traditionally resulted in some hugely valuable pieces of public service broadcasting.
Round 53 will open on the 9th of April and close on the 30th of may. Decisions for that round are expected in August. October 15th will see the opening of round 54, with it set to close on the 28th of November. if Christmas fm is on air, your too late. Decisions for round 54 are expected in February 2025.
Best of luck to those applying, hopefully we’ll get great content out of it.
Finally for now, Joe Duffy is not leaving RTE. Everyone can calm down.
Reports in the press this week stated that Joe Duffy had not asked for a new contract. This turned into Joe might leave RTE. It was all a bit of a fuss over nothing, as joes contract isn’t up until next year.
Joe had stated last year that his most recent contract renewal might be the last negotiation he has with RTE. He did not announce his departure or anything like it.
It’s amazing how a simple comment can turn into such a storm. For now at least you can continue to enjoy Joe on LiveLine, and we’ll see what happens next year.
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.
LOTs happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s What Happened
Radiocentre revealed how much the industry made from advertising in 2023 this week, and the numbers are growing which is good to see.
Simple spot advertising revenue was up by a small 1% and hit €127.2 million. That’s a nice chunk of change.
€29.5 million came from sponsorships and partnerships, which is a jump of a really healthy 9%. Seems brands really want closer relationships with specific content now.
It was a 33% jump for digital audio revenue, which brought in €7.2 million. It’s a big percentage jump but still a small slice of the overall pie.
The total amount earned came to €163.9 million which is up 4%. That’s expected to be better than overall growth of 2% in the ad industry, so a good result for radio.
It’s good to see the industry getting a boost like this. Motors, pharmaceuticals, travel and transport as well as business-to-business were the biggest contributors to growth in 2023, but there was a notable drop in government advertising.
In some ways I guess government agencies could spend more to support public service content, but all in all it seems like a good set of numbers.
Projects like the Cash Machine have meant the income for the industry is more diverse now, but we still need that ad revenue.
RTE released their 10 highest earning presenters list this week. It feels a bit less exciting than other years as it’s had all the fun and debate sucked out of it, but here’s who earned what.
Top of the list was Ryan Tubridy who earned €515,000 in 2022. That was for hosting The Late Late Show and his radio show.
Joe Duffy earned €351,000 for hosting LiveLine and various TV shows.
Claire Byrne was paid €320,833 for her radio show as well as a few months of Claire Byrne Live
€263,500 was paid to Miriam O’Callaghan for PrimeTime as well as her radio work.
Ray Darcy earned €250,000 in 2022 for his afternoon radio show.
Brendan o Connor was paid €245,004
€209,681 was paid to Bryan Dobson who announced his retirement last week.
€197,643 was paid to Mary Wilson
€184,501 was paid to sports presenter Darragh Maloney
George Lee is the last person on the list, earning €179,821
RTE will be releasing these numbers annually going forward, so we might get the 2023 numbers in this years annual report. Time will tell.
Finally this week, three radio stations have renewed their broadcast licences.
Coimisiún na Meán posted on X this week to share that Shannonside FM and NorthernSoundFM had renewed their broadcast contract for another 10 years, with Tipp FM also signing a new 10 year contract earlier in the week.
In some ways these broadcasters don’t get as much attention as those owned by big players like Wireless and Bauer, but it’s good to see broadcast contracts being renewed for these local services.
Best of luck to all those involved. Hopefully we’ll be hearing some exciting radio in the years ahead.
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.
Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s what Happened
Brian Dobson has announced his plans to retire from RTE at the end of April this year.
Bryan has worked at RTE for 37 years, hosting a wide variety of shows for the public service broadcaster. He currently hosts News At One on RTE Radio 1, but has also hosted Morning Ireland on the station. He’s hosted the TV shows One O Clock and Nine O clock news, as well as RTE’s flagship Six One. In short, the man’s done a bit of everything.
Bryan is unique in that he is an RTE Employee and not a contractor. His last known salary was €209,282, so his replacement will probably take a serious reduction. Bryan will still be around for the coverage of the upcoming referendums in March, but that will likely be his last big gig for the broadcaster.
Many people in Ireland grew up watching Bryan host Six One, and his name will be synonymous with Irish broadcasting for a long time to come.
Best wishes to Bryan, may he enjoy a well earned retirement.
Dobson wasn’t the only one leaving their role in the radio industry this week, as Des Whelan has announced he’s stepping down as CEO of WLR.
Des will be replaced by the current programming and operations director Michael Byrne. Michael will take up his new role as CEO on the 22nd of February.
WLR has seen huge success in recent times, winning IMRO station of the year for 4 consecutive years. That’s an incredible achievement that deserves massive recognition. The CEO has also been involved in Beat, Red FM, Newstalk And Nova, so has had a very successful radio career over the past 45 years.
Very well done to Des and best wishes for his next adventure, and good luck to Michael stepping into the CEO position. Big changes in the South East.
Radio Today had a great tribute to Des which you can read below.
Finally for now, Christmas FM have announced their fundraising total for 2023. In all the broadcaster raised €324,000, bringing the stations total funds raised to an incredible €3.5 million.
That’s an absolutely incredible achievement, and one the station should be super proud of. Between rTE’s Toy show Appeal and Christmas campaigns on stations like WLR, the broadcast industry made a massive difference over Christmas.
Irish radio does a lot for charity with many stations also taking part in Radio Bingo. which supports a number of different charities on stations across Ireland.
Well done to everyone involved in fundraising on radio over Christmas, and all throughout the year.
Do you think Bauer would have more cash machine entries if 50c from each text went to charity? Let us know over on our social media. Just search Radio Land Ireland.
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.
