2023 (Bye Bye BAI)

Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.

Here’s What Happened

This week marked the end of the road for the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. The BAI has now been dissolved,, and it’s remit has moved over to the new media regulator, ⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩.

In case your like me and haven’t a notion how to pronounce that, here’s an audio clip of one of the commissioners saying it.

I really do wish I was better at Irish.

Anyway, the new regulator takes all the media regulation stuff from the BAI, and adds on some online regulation to create one big regulator of all media. There’s still a lot we don’t know, but it’s an exciting time ahead. Will it change the industry for better or worse? We’ll need to wait to find out.

The new website CnaM.ie isn’t fully ready yet, so the old BAi site remains for now, but you can read a message from the four commissioners on the new site so it’s worth a look.

With all that said, the very best of luck to everyone at Coimisiún na Meán⁩. It’s a time of change in the industry so I hope that they do a good job in supporting radio in ireland.

Check out the new Coimisiún na Meán⁩ website here

Usually when we hear on air giveaways we expect cars, holidays, or cash. However, Midlands 103 are doing something that I’ve never heard being done before.

The station announced this week that they will be giving away a round of fertility treatment as part of a partnership with a company called first IVF. It’s hoped that the partnership will raise awareness, and of course it might, hopefully, change some lives.

The station do seem to be taking the sensitivity of this subject into account, and they don’t appear to be using the typical words you’d hear around radio promotion such as win or prize. The station haven’t said anything on this, so that’s purely an observation on my part.

I’d be really interested to hear people’s thoughts on this concept as it’s so different to what we’re used to. Is this radio at its best helping its listeners? Or do you think IVF treatment is something that shouldn’t be given away as part of a radio promotion? Tell us over on our Instagram story now.

Read the story here

Finally this week, a story that’s mainly related to television, but also brings up some interesting radio bits.

Ryan Tubridy is leaving the Late Late show. You knew that already though so I’m not going to bore you with the details, if you’ve no idea what I’m talking about then fair play, that’s next level living under a rock.

There are two interesting things about this from a radio point of view so let’s discuss.

We got to see Claire Byrne using a fancy new radio studio
Could the replacement lead to a shake up at RTÉ Radio?

Right, first things first, the studio

Wide shot of studio. Claire is sitting in a presenters seat on the right, while Ryan is at one of 3 guest seats on the left.

Guest camera which is focussed on Ryan Tubridy

We’ve discussed RTE’s new studios for Radio 1 before, but this is the first time we’ve seen them used to their fullest potential.

After RTÉ made their announcement, Ryan joined Claire for an interview in studio. Like a well oiled machine, the audio went up as a podcast on Radio Player, the video went out across all the main social media platforms, and an article went onto the RTÉ News app and website with a video version of the interview attached. it really showed how these new visual studios could be put to work to generate content that was useable across all platforms.

I do think the clip should have also gone to YouTube, but it was still amazing to see how much mileage they got out of 1 interview in the new high tech studio. hopefully they continue to take advantage of this incredible setup more going forward as it really is the way to go for a quality digital broadcaster.

The other interesting thing about Ryan’s move from a radio point of view is how it might impact the schedule on RTEs radio stations.

Many of the names that have been mentioned in connection with the job are radio presenters with RTÉ, and if they take on the Late Late they may decide to quit the radio show.

It’s fun to speculate on who’ll get the gig but we’ll need to wait for RTÉ to make there announcement in late summer.

Big changes over at RTÉ, but it’s all very interesting to follow. Best wishes to Ryan on his next adventures from us at Radio Land.

Read the story here

Quick Bits

Newsreader Pearse McCarthy has pleaded guilty to the sale and supply of drugs

Radio Nova found irelands best band as part of their Shamrock Referendum

Huge congratulations to PJ Gallagher who is expecting twins with his partner Kelly

Gareth O’Callaghan was injured in a serious road collision

How have the accents in Irelands radio ads changed

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.

This Week In Radio 11/3/2023 long live LiveLine

Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.

Here’s what happened

Niall boylan podcast banner reading, The Niall Boylan Podcast, They Told Me To Shut Up. The branding is on a blue and yellow background.

Niall boylan is moving on from his daytime show on Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio. He’s not leaving the station entirely though, as he’ll be sticking around to continue hosting at night.

Niall’s show was sometimes controversial, but he has said in the past that he doesn’t consider himself a shock jock. The show has had a lot of awards success at both the PPI/IMRO Awards, as well as the New York Radio Awards,

Classic Hits are reportedly extending the night time show, and dropping the daytime talk show at least for now. Trina Mara has had her show extended to fill the gap left by Niall.

Niall is now moving into podcasting, so it will be interesting to see how he stacks up in the digital world.

This move is particularly interesting as it brings another Daytime phone in show to an end. It’s really just LiveLine and Lunchtime Live fighting for those ears now, so we’ll need to wait to see if they receive a bit of a Boylan Boost.

Best wishes to Niall and his team on their new endeavours. Love him or hate him, you can’t deny his impact.

Read the story here

The Sound Of Ireland and Radio Ri Ra logos sit side by side above blue text announcing the stations are back

Some temporary stations are returning to the FM band in the next while. The Sound Of Ireland went back on air this morning, while Irish language service⁨ Raidió Rí-Rá⁩ is back on air from Monday.

The sound of Ireland is broadcasting on FM in Dublin as well as online, with Raidió Rí-Rá⁩ broadcasting in a number of counties.

It’s great to see smaller stations taking a shot at FM, as it can be a good way to promote online offerings. While Raidió Rí-Rá⁩ is already a well established brand with 7,135 Twitter followers at time of writing, The Sound Of Ireland is much smaller with just 82. It will be interesting to see how much The Sound Of Ireland can grow with a week on FM.

Right, time for the frequencies. Where exactly will these stations appear you might ask?

Raidió Rí-Rá⁩

Dublin/Baile Átha Cliath – 105.2fm
Cork/Corcaigh – 106.7fm
Limerick/Luimneach – 105.5fm
Galway/Gaillimh – 87.7fm

The Sound Of Ireland

As for the Sound Of Ireland, they are broadcasting in Dublin on 94.3fm. They went back on air at 7am this morning so you should be able to hear them now if you turn the dial a little bit.

Wait, what, you wanted to hear this mornings launch? Your sad because you missed it? Don’t be sad little one, I recorded it just for you.

It’s nothing fancy, it’s literally just an ad and top of hour sequence. Fair play getting a government sponsorship with 82 Twitter followers by the way, gives me hope that I can get Radio Land a sponsor some day. Worth noting that Christmas FM and The Sound Of Ireland are linked so those connections probably helped.

I recorded the first link too.

Go give the stations a listen and let us know what you think over on Twitter.

Very best of luck to both stations going back on air. A huge amount of work goes into bringing a station to the airwaves, so very well done.

Details for Ri Rá are here

Details for The Sound Of Ireland Are Here

Finally this week, beat 102-103 has been named the best place to work at the SFA Small Business Awards.

Radio can be a tough business, but it really is great to hear of a radio station genuinely caring for the mental well-being of its staff.

Beat did a lot that impressed the judges. Here are just some of the great initiatives that helped them win the award.

They appointed an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion champion.
They recognised a trade union. This is really interesting as outside of journalists this would be fairly rare in radio.
Sustainability initiatives at the broadcast Center.

“Everyone who comes in to The Broadcast Centre comments on the positive vibe and great work culture. It’s brilliant for the team to be acknowledged in this way so a big thank you to the Small Firms Association. We’re thrilled to be selected as winners alongside so many fantastic small firms in Ireland.”
Gabrielle Cummins, CEO at Beat

It’s great to see Beat supporting employees like this, but what’s it like across the industry? You can now anonymously share your views over on our Instagram story, so tell us how you feel.

Hopefully we see more good news like this again soon. Well done Beat, keep up the good work.

Read the story here

Quick Bits

Ronan Collins is now hosting a daily 3 hour show on RTÉ Gold

The BAI has published a review of its gender action plan.

Laura Fox has spoke about how pageant’s helped her get connections in media

There was a great article profiling three talented women in radio

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.

This Week In Radio 4/3/2023 (some good, some bad, it’s all inside this Radio Land)

Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.

Here’s what happened

Ian dempsey in front of a yellow today FM microphone

We recently covered Today FM’s big Busk for focus Ireland in Quick Bits, but they are doing something really cool that is worth looking at in more detail.

Today FM are looking for local business’s to bid for the opportunity to have the Ian Dempsey breakfast show broadcast live from their premises.

Bids start at €5,000, with all funds going towards Focus Ireland. Obviously brands pay for OB’s all the time but the fact that this is for charity ads to the whole event.

Will brands be willing to pay more knowing that it’s going to charity?, and that this will help brand image more than just a standard OB? We’ll need to wait and see. To me this is a fun unique way for radio to be used for good, raising vital funds for a worthy cause along the way.

Best wishes to all the bidders, I look forward to hearing the final bid amount.

Read the story here

Corks 96FM and C103 newsreader Pearse McCarthy has been charged with drug offences. He appeared before Bandon District Court this week on nine charges.

Pearse has been a newsreader on the station for many years, and has also filled in as presenter of the Arts House. Separately from the radio Pearse also hosts the 4Play podcast, where artists speak about the four songs most personal to them. He also works as a producer for TalkSport Ireland.

Pearse faces three charges of possession of drugs, three charges of having drugs for sale or supply, and one charge of having drugs worth more than €13,000 for sale or supply. All these alleged incidents are from 2017. He also faces 2 charges from 2021.

MR McCarthy has been released on €5,000 bail. He is subject to certain conditions, such as signing on at a Garda station three times a week, not applying for replacement travel documents, and being contactable by Gardai. He has already surrendered his passport.

If you want more information on this story you can check out the link below.

Read the story here

Finally this week we’re sticking with Cork. Red FM is now officially part of Bauer. The deal has now gone through, and we’re already seeing changes, Jesus Bauer, slow down a bit.

The changes started last week before the deal had even went through. The Red FM mobile app was updated with a new look. it now has a much more modern design.

The station has also been added to GoLoud, which really is the signal for the start of changes at RedFM. We haven’t seen new imaging or anything yet, with no mention of Goloud or Off The Ball in RedFM’s branding so far. It’s likely things won’t all change instantly, but we would expect to see things like Cash machine arrive in Cork over the next few weeks and months.

We’ll need to wait and see how all this plays out, but it’s going to be interesting to watch over the next while.

Do you think Bauer buying RedFM is good news? Let us know over on our Instagram story now.

Read the story now

Quick Bits

TODAY FM DJ Declan Pierce is making a full recovery after suffering a brain hemerage

DJ Frankie Beats, who hosted a show on Kiss FM in the Algarve was in court this week for harassing a Garda and a hotelier

Brian Dowling is joining Suzanne Kane on the 98FM Daytime show

Irish Music month gets underway on the 12th of March

Redacted Lives from The Journal won best podcast at last nights Spider Awards (I was at the event and it was a fantastic night, well done to all winners)

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.

This Week In Radio 25/2/2023 (the digital shift continues)

Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.

Here’s what happened

Broadcaster Dave Fanning is moving over to the digital side after a long career on terrestrial radio. He’s starting a new podcast on RTÉ Radio Player, and will also be hosting a new show on RTÉ Gold.

This follows a similar announcement from Ronan Collins, who finished up on Radio 1 before Christmas for a move to gold. We’ve spoke a few times now about RTÉ building on Gold as a digital brand, so bit by bit it’s getting closer to being in a position where it could carry ads and become a new income stream for RTE.

I noticed when researching this story that Dan Healy has a new job title. this might seem insignificant, but hold up. In press releases this week, Dan has been referred to as Head of RTÉ Digital Audio and RTÉ 2FM. He used to be referred to as Head of RTÉ 2fm and RTÉ Radio Strategy. This suggests that Dan now has a specific focus on digital audio stuff, basically podcasts, digital stations, and anything on Radio Player.

We’ll probably start seeing the likes of Gold and maybe even Pulse getting some TLC now, which really is the way to go in the digital age.

It will be great to hear Dave and Ronan on a station that more closely suits their formats, and it will also be good to see RTÉ really up their game on the huge opportunity that is online and Digital audio.

Best of luck to all involved with these new ventures from us at Radio Land.

Read the story here

The BAI have announced a number of funding awards under their sponsorship scheme, as well as funding allocated under their sectoral learning and development programme.

In total, over €500,000 has been announced between the two schemes, with €167,500 being spent on the sponsorships and €360,000 going on sectoral development.

Some of the projects to receive funding included the IMRO Radio Awards, Choice Music Prize, The National Student Media Awards (SMEDIAS), Learning Waves, and CRAOL. This just scratch’s the surface, with tons of awards, learning programmes, and initiatives receiving funding. You can see a full list of funding recipients at the link below.

“I would like to congratulate all the successful funding recipients this year. The BAI is delighted once again to support such a range of representative groups and quality initiatives that help to promote diversity and plurality for audiences, and enhance innovation and sustainability for the broadcasting and audiovisual sectors. Both programmes have been of great value to the BAI and have made a notable contribution to the delivery of the BAI’s strategic objectives over recent years.”
BAI Chief Executive, Celene Craig

Best of luck to everyone involved in all the projects receiving funding, we look forward to covering some of your events and programmes over the coming months

Read the story here

Finally this week, Nikki Hayes, who is probably best known for work on Irelands Classic Hits Radio, has been accused of laundering €15,000 in criminal proceeds through her bank account.

Eimear O’Keeffe, who presented shows under the sudoname Nikki Hayes, aledgadly commited the offence in 2020, and was in court this week arising out of the incidents.

A detective from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau told the judge he charged the accused before the court sitting, and she made no reply when charged.

There are 3 accusations, that Nicky received €2,400 and €2,600 on the 5th of November, and €10,000 on the 6th. Nicky has not made it clear how she intends to plead.

The accused has been granted free legal aid as she has no assets and is on social welfare. The case will be before the court again in April.

Read the story here

Quick Bits

2FM has a new weekend schedual

Seán Moncrieff spoke a bit this week about his experience of new media

Ray Darcy has been acknowledged for his work around mental health on his radio show

TikTok creator Miriam Mullins is taking over presenting Red FM’s Red Hits

Jennifer Zamparelli spoke about JNLR’s and not wanting to be on RTEs top earners list

Today FM are looking for buskers to take part in a big busk for Focus Ireland

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.

This Week In Radio 18/2/2023 (might ireland get a new station soon?)

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 an interesting insight into earnings at RTÉ this week, as they released the earnings of their 10 highest paid presenters.

Some of the names on the list you’d probably expect, but others perhaps not so much. Let’s take a look at who’s earning what.

For this list we’ll look at the 2021 figures as they are the latest, and we’ll compare with 2019 to give an idea of how things are changing over time. If you want to see 2020s numbers you can find them at the link below.

Ryan Tubridy earned €440,000 in 2021, down €55,000 from €495,000 back in 2019
Joe Duffy takes second place with €351,000, he’s down from just over €392,000. That’s a drop of around €41,000
Claire Byrne is doing well after taking over the today slot on Radio 1. She earned €350,000, that’s up from €250,000 in 2019. It’s important to remember Claire was hosting her highly successful TV show in both these years, so her earnings are probably down a bit now considering she stepped down from that show.
Ray Darcy had a big cut, going from €450,000 down to €305,000. That’s down €145,000. His Saturday night TV show has ended which likely explains these cuts. It’s unclear if D’Arcy has a contract renegotiation on the way, but if he does he could see earnings fall further due to underwhelming JNLR numbers in recent books.
Next up, we have Miriam O’Callaghan. Miriam earned €263,500 in 2021, that’s down from €320,000 back in 2019, a drop of €56,500
Brendan O’Connor earned €245,004 in 2021, I’m sure that €4 at the end there was very important in negotiations. That’s a whole breakfast roll, and you wouldn’t be the dry one to refuse the lad his breakfast now would you? He’s up from €220,000 back in 2019, a boost of 25k and a breakfast roll.
Bryan Dobson got €209,282 in 2021, this is the same as his earnings from 2017 and 2018, but it’s up slightly on 2019 when he earned €196,961
Mary Wilson had earnings of €196,961 in 2021.
Darragh Maloney received €183,738
And rounding out the top 10 we have George Lee on €179,131.

It does seem RTÉ are sticking to their plan of reducing salleries of the biggest presenters. This does mean we might see some Pat Kenny style poaching attempts , but we’ll need to wait and see.

It’s interesting that no 2FM presenters made the list, it would be fascinating to compare these salleries with the likes of Today FM or Newstalk.

All that aside, these numbers are interesting to see. Hopefully we get numbers for 2022 soon.

Read the story here

Is Ireland about to get a new radio station? The minister signaled her support this week for the launch of an Irish Language youth service.

This follows the BAI doing research into the concept, which resulted in interesting findings.

35% of young people would be likely to listen to an Irish youth station at least once a week. This goes up to 70% when content feels relevant to the audience.
15-34 year olds are increasingly digital only content consumers
People felt there was a lack of Irish language content for young people. It was felt that this was a gap in the market.

It’s an interesting idea to think about. Could this be a project for RTÉ or TG4? Is this Ri Ra’s moment to shine? It could be cool to have a new station on air, especially one that is clearly providing a service to an underserved market.

Who knows if it will happen, but let’s wait and see. Let us know what you think over on our Twitter, @RadioLandIRL

Read the story here

The IMRO Awards took place this week, no, seriously.

We’re not talking about the IMRO Radio Awards now, these are just the IMRO Awards. The no radio in the title IMRO Awards took place at Radio Days this week and saw some awards for broadcasters. Let’s take a look at who got what.

The awards focused on those who had shown great support to the Irish music sector. Those receiving awards were

Corks Red FM
Claire Beck of Today FM
Ronan Collins from RTÉ
Ray Colclough who’s with WLR
Louise Tighe at FM104

IMRO also gave special recognition awards to the founders of Hot Press Magazine, Niall Stokes and Mairin Sheehy.

Finally, the IBI presented an award to the former chief Executive of the BAI Michael O’Keeffe. This was for his services to Irish broadcasting since the beginning of legal independant radio in ireland.

Congratulations to all those recognised, keep up the good work.

Read the story here

Quick Bits

An Entertainer has been charged with defilement of a child, reporting restrictions are in place so this person can’t be named at the moment

Mayo Community Radio has a new manager

Broadcaster and author Deirdre Purcell has passed away aged 77

Profits are up at a company representing many big Irish broadcast names

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.