Lots happens in the radio industry each week so hereâs a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Hereâs what happened
Campaign group Why Not Her have published findings this week which suggest that women and artists of colour are under represented in the music playlists of Irish stations.
The group, who have also published similar findings in the past, have got some really fascinating stats about the industry. letâs look at the stats first, and then weâll return to the main point.
In the top 100 songs on Irish radio, 26% were by women, 59% by men, 14% were collaborations, and 1% were by non binary artists.
Bad habits by Ed Sheeran was the most played song, with Giants by Dermot Kennedy the most played by an Irish artist.
Irish artists made up 18% of the top 100, with Irish female artists making up 3%
Today FM and 7 regional stations had just one female artist in their top 20 lists. RaidiĂł na Gaeltachta flipped the script with 80% of its top 20 being female.
RTE Pulse was the most diverse station, with 8 artists from the top 20 being artists of colour. 2FM also play a higher percentage of artists of colour, while spin 1038, Spin South West and WLR also did relatively good.
Now that weâve seen the numbers thereâs a question to be asked. Do we bring In quotas? For the Why Not Her group that answer is yes. The Irish Times report that the group will meat ministers on the 7th of July to propose updated broadcast legislation to improve diversity in playlists.
The government dismissed the idea of Irish music quotas in a statement to Radio Land in the past, but would diversity quotas be a different question? Weâll need to wait and see. Let us know what you think over on our Twitter @RadioLandIRL
The Irish edition of the Times, not to be confused with the Irish Times, is closing. the news brand is owned by News Ireland who also operate the Irish wing of wireless group. They run 96FM, C103, Q102, FM104, LMFM and Live 95.
In total there will be 4 job losses, all of which are editorial positions. The remaining staff will move to co working spaces at the groups radio stations.
Itâs always a shame to see people losing their jobs, especially in the tough world of media. Hopefully everyone can land on their feet from this. best of luck to everyone impacted.
It will be interesting to see how this impacts things on the radio news front, as it would seem there will now be more resources dedicated to that.
Finally this week, the BAI have put a notice in a national newspaper, seeking expressions of interest for commercial broadcasting licences.
None of the licenses are new, but it will be interesting to see if new companies compete for these licences, and if all the current licence holders want another few years.
The licenses up for grabs areâŠ
WLR
Clare FM
Tipp FM
RedFM
Midwest Radio
Shannonside/Northern sound (under a single licence for two services)
LMFM
South East Radio
East Coast FM
KFM
FM104
98FM
This is the first time in a while that so many commercial licenses are up for grabs, so who knows what the future might bring.
It might seem like a tiny change, but Radio Land has moved to a .ie domain. We wanted to do this for a few reasons.
To give us a more authentically Irish brand
So that we perform better in Irish search results
We were never an organisation, so the old domain never really suited us.
The old URL still works so you shouldnât experience any major disruption at all.
Thanks to everyone for supporting radio land over the past 2 years, and thanks to the amazing team at WordPress Support who gave me considerable technical help with the transition.
We are radioland.ie
Thatâs it
And thatâs the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio newsđ» and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for extra stories.
Lots happens in the radio industry each week so hereâs a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Hereâs What Happened
Corks Red FM ended up in the spotlight this week, and it was all over some brown sauce.
Before we begin I just want to clarify that our version of events is based on the story as told by the pub. At time of writing we donât have other responses, but itâs always good to take these things with a pinch of saltâŠ.. i meanâŠ.. a squirt of brown sauce.
As soon as the pub realised their mistake, they contacted the customer. They apparently offered him a free sandwich on his next visit as an apology. The customer then said that he had a pub himself, he understood that these things happen, and it seems the whole thing was sorted.
But it wasnât over. The customer sent the receipt to Red FM who posted it on social media, without providing the context above. The pub understandably got ripped to shreds for charging for brown sauce and this resulted in the new member of staff who made the error becoming upset.
Who knew brown sauce could cause so much drama.
So hereâs the question, should the radio station contact the pub to ask about the situation before posting, or should the image of a receipt be enough. Red FM got some criticism on social media as a result of this, so Iâm interested to see what you think.
On the one hand reaching out is clearly a better option, but on the other it takes a lot of time and resources to check every little post. So, what you think?
Wireless Group have launched a new radio station as a collaboration with a number of LGBTQ+ organisations. The station, known as Pride Vibes, is available on the apps of all the existing Wireless Group broadcasters, and on PrideVibes.ie
The station is sponsored by Voltarol, and has BeLonG To on board as charity partner. The station has live presenters, good quality production elements, and basically everything youâd expect from a good quality internet station.
The stations launch comes just over a week after the falling out between RTĂ and Dublin Pride. It seems that pride organisations are taking much more of an active involvement in their media strategy now, but thatâs just speculation really.
For now we have a new high quality internet station on air, what the future holds as far as LGBTQ+ media relations goes is anyones guess though.
Finally this week, RTEs head of news and current affairs is stepping down from his role. Jon Williams will leave RTĂ at the end of July, when the current season of the Six One news ends on RTĂ Television.
This will probably result in some changes over the next while as Jonâs replacement makes his or her mark, but itâs really impossible to predict what the future holds for RTĂ News. My only hope is that Jonâs successor continues to produce content with high standards of journalism, and continues to push forward on the digital front.
I know we said last week weâd look more at the ladâs leaving Spin this week, but basically thereâs nothing to report.
Thatâs it
And thatâs the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio newsđ» and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for extra stories.
Lots happens in the radio industry each week so hereâs a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Hereâs What happened
There really is no other place to start this week.
Before I begin I need to make a few things clear. This story has been absolutely huge, and so many people have commented about the situation over the course of the week. There have been comments from RTĂ and Dublin Pride, but there have also been statements from politicians, Trans rights groups and many more.
As much as Iâd love to cover everything, unfortunately thatâs not possible. Iâm going to cover the most important parts but there will be significant parts of this story that I simply wonât have the time to research and include.
If I donât get to cover a side of the story that you feel is important please donât feel ignored. I will link to as much coverage as possible at the end. Thanks for your understanding.
Okay, With that all said, letâs talk about RTĂ and Dublin Pride.
Dublin Pride ends partnership with RTĂ
Over the last while, there have been discussions on Radio 1âs Liveline programme which caused upset for some members of the transgender community, as well as wider members of the LGBTQ+ community.
This led to a statement being issued by Dublin Pride, in which they announced that they were ending there media partnership with RTĂ
Dublin Pride is announcing the termination of our media partnership with RTĂ. Over the past three years, we have worked together with the national broadcaster to increase positive representation of LGBTQ+ people on TV, radio and online, and to see the good work of so many people undone is saddening in the extreme and negates much of the efforts made to date. It breaches trust with our community and causes untold hurt. Dublin Pride is both angered and disappointed by the recent unacceptable, triggering and extremely harmful anti-trans “discussions” that have been given a platform on Joe Duffy’s Liveline on RTĂ Radio 1. As an official media partner of Dublin Pride, but more importantly as Ireland’s national broadcaster, we expect better than for RTĂ to stoke the flames of anti-trans rhetoric. We are proud members of Trans Equality Together, a new coalition led by TENI, LGBT Ireland and BeLonG To, and we are committed to accepting their lead in this issue. At their request we have not made a statement until now, but have remained in close and constant contact with them throughout the last few days to ensure that any actions taken by Dublin Pride respect the voices and feelings ofthe trans people in our community. RTĂ is our national broadcaster. LGBTQ+ people and our allies make up the majority of people in Ireland We are the majority shareholders in RTĂ, and we have a right to hold it accountable for its actions. We expect a response on how they will make amends for this situation and are committed to continuing the fight for equality, fairness and respect for all members of our LGBTQ+ family.
Statement from Dublin Pride
This understandably caused a lot of media coverage and it was clear that a response from RTĂ was on its way. The following morning, it arrived.
How RTĂ responded
RTE posted a statement to the Press on Wednesday morning, the morning after Dublin Pride ended there partnership.
RTĂ is disappointed with the decision to end a partnership we had developed together with a range of bodies over the last three years. Standing with the LGBTQ+ community, during Pride month sends an important signal that RTĂ is here to serve everyone, and over the last three years RTĂ has sought to include these communities and extend understanding through a range of specially produced content, campaigns and partnerships. Public discussion â sometimes uncomfortable, difficult, and contentious â is central to RTĂâs prescribed purpose. RTĂ is acutely aware that discussions on issues such as gender and identity are deeply personal to many. It is important we listen to them, their families and those close to them, and it is also important that we allow our audiences engage with and understand the issues involved. RTĂ will, consistent with its statutory obligations, respond to any formal complaints concerning the broadcasts. RTĂ will continue to stand with our LGBTQ+ staff and the wider community during Pride month and beyond. In time, we hope that we will once again get the opportunity to continue to develop our partnership with Dublin Pride.
RTEâs statement
From here it was basically up to the public to pick their side. On one hand you have people who feel that the rights of trans People and those in the LGBTQ+ community should be a given thing that isnât up for discussion in the 21st century, and on the other hand you have those who believe the media should have the right to discuss all points of view, including those which some people may find distasteful.
Where you land on that spectrum is something you need to decide for yourself.
The Big Reactions
The most notable reaction is probably from government. RTE were originally called for a committee appearance to discuss the issue, but the Irish Examiner are now reporting that this wonât happen. Politicianâs are reportedly happy for RTĂ and Dublin Pride to discuss the issue themselves, and they feel this is a better outcome compared to a committee appearance.
There have been other reactions too, such as the reported 1000 complaints received by RTĂ, or the numerous comments from individual politicians. Weâll link to as much coverage of all this as possable below.
More to come
Iâm sure this story will continue for a while considering the scale, but weâre going to leave things here for now. Feel free to check out the links below and see what you think.
This week we got the 2022 Reuters digital news report, which was published by the bai.
There are loads of interesting facts, but no major surprises. Well, there was one surprise, but Iâll get to that in a minute.
So what did we learn? The BAI compare us to other countries a lot in the report but Iâll focus just on Ireland here.
More people get their first news in the morning from smartphones compared to radio. 35% check the phone, while 31% listen on radio. Interestingly, 15% get their first news on TV in the morning, I didnât expect such a high number for morning telly honestly considering itâs just the news channels and Ireland AM providing TV news in Ireland.
57% of Irish people said they were either extremely or very interested in news, but this is a big drop of 13% from last year. This might be covid related but we canât be sure.
Most people still trust news, with 52% either agreeing or strongly agreeing that they feel you can trust most of the news most of the time.
83% of people said they check the news on a daily basis
RTE is still Irelands most trusted news brand, followed by the Irish Times
There is so much info in this report so you can have great fun flicking through all 78 pages. The main thing that surprised me was older audiences have more of a desire to consume climate change related content, I didnât expect that at all.
Iâm sure the report will raise questions about radio stations competing more on smartphoneâs but itâs good to see that things are still doing relatively okay.
Finally this week, the presenter of Country Roads on Midlands 103 has been fined for driving at twice the speed limit. Joseph Cooney contested his fine in court as he says he didnât see the sign, and that the sign could cause an accident.
Cooney brought significant evidence to court, but the judge felt that she had to apply the law based on the facts. She didnât increase the fine, and left it at âŹ160
If you want to read the detailed coverage of proceedings, you can do so at the link below.
Mr Cooney is working with a councillor to have signs added to ensure this doesnât happen again.
And thatâs the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio newsđ» and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for extra stories.
Lots happens in the radio industry each week so hereâs a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Hereâs what happened
There are new jingles on air at RTĂ Gold. The new package, which has been created by Wisebuddah went on air this week. Aidan Leonard, Senior Producer at RTĂ Gold told Radio Land about the new package, and how RTĂ are continueing to support the Gold Brand.
The New Imaging package has been created with the same company that produced the last package over 4 years ago. Shane Freeman who is our Creative Audio Manager here in RTE worked with our team and with Wisebuddah to deliver a new package for the Summer of 2022. This relationship has proven to be a successful one for all concerned and Wisebuddah’s partnership with RTE Gold first time round a few years ago meant that we were more than happy to go back to them again for the updated package which we started running just over a week ago. This new package has allowed us to freshen and strengthen our Imaging and while there is some specific imaging created for the Summer and for our Weekend schedule the rest of the package is being used across all strands. We are really happy with the new sound as it is a perfect match and compliments our output on RTE Gold. Finally, I am happy to confirm that RTE continues to support the brand in every way that it can. The introduction of this new Imaging supports this.
Aidan Leonard from RTĂ Gold
Personally Iâm a fan of the new package. Itâs upbeat and positive, and I think it fits the brand well. Thereâs no public demo of the package online yet, but you can here the new elements in use on air now Via the Radio Land Listen page or on RTĂ Radio Player.
Learning Waves are giving journalism graduates the chance to work and train in a radio station for 5 months. 10 graduates will get to work in independent stations around the country and learn how to produce their own content.
Applications close on Monday 13th June, so people donât have long to apply. The placement will get underway on the 20th September 2022. Radio stations can also apply to participate in the programme.
This is a fantastic opportunity for graduates trying to get into the industry. Speaking from my own experience I know itâs a tough industry to break into, so these projects are important for giving people the much needed foot in the door.
Best wishes to everyone taking part from us at Radio Land
Finally this week itâs time for a quick update on the ongoing story between South East Radio and Wexford County Council. This story has been going on for ages and weâve covered it in depth before, so if you need a refresher feel free to check out our past coverage.
The latest update is that the IBI (independent broadcasters of Ireland) have called for an inquiry into the conduct of Wexford County Council.
Theyâve written to minister for local government Darragh OâBrien to ask what action he plans to take, and theyâve also sent the letter to the minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin.
The letter has also gone to the Taoiseach, who has already commented on the issue a while back. Weâve gone through his comments in our previous coverage.
So really just know that the story continues to move forward. Who knows when and how it will end, but itâs certainly not done yet.
You might have noticed that weâve changed our title format slightly to include a subtitle, do you like the change? If so weâll keep it, if not weâll ditch it. You can vote on our Twitter now.
And thatâs the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio newsđ» and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for extra stories.
Lots happens in the radio industry each week so hereâs a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Hereâs what happened
Radiocentre Ireland has published a breakdown of advertising revenue in the radio industry for 2021 and Q1 2022. The data has been sourced from all Irelands radio operators, so this is probably as detailed and accurate as it gets.
So what did we learn from this? Well letâs split this into two categories, the main stuff, and the unreported but still interesting stuff.
Main stuff
This stuff has been posted in the main press release, so you may have already seen these numbers on Radio Today or some other publication.
Total radio advertising revenue in 2021 was âŹ145.1 million. This is more than previously thought which is a good sign for the industry
âŹ117.3 million of that came from regular ad spots. Meanwhile, all the more fancy stuff such as sponsorships and other branded content partnerships brought in âŹ24.2 million which is smaller but still a big chunk of the market.
âŹ3.5 million came from digital stuff. Clearly a lot of growth potential here.
things grew in q1 2022, so hopefully this years full numbers will also be quite healthy. 21% higher spot revenue, 24% higher branded content stuff, and a great 48% digital boost.
So all in all not bad. That digital number is much lower than Iâd like and even though it looks to be the fastest growing segment, itâs clear a lot could be done to grow that. Overall though, theyâre not bad numbers.
The unreported but still interesting stuff
This is stuff that didnât make the cut for the press release, but is still stuff I find interesting.
âŹ39,663,782 came as a result of direct relationships with brands, but a massive âŹ105,412,161 came from agencies. This really shows how reliant radio is on its bigger advertisers.
While all areas of advertising tend to grow in the run up to Christmas, spot advertising increases more than other categories. Between July and September 2021, agencies spent âŹ20,804,763 on spot ads while direct relationships brought in âŹ7,747,215 in spot revenue. This grew big time from October through to December though. âŹ27,791,817 came from agencies while direct relationships brought in âŹ10,135,306 worth of spot ads in that period. Really big jumps there.
January to March was the worst performing period in all categories with just one exception. Agencies spent more on digital ads in this period than they did between April and June. âŹ587,227 in q1 Vs âŹ570,059 in q2. This is the only point at which q1 spend is bigger than q2 spend, and this is only seen with agencies and not with direct relationships.
Thereâs loads of interesting stuff in the report so feel free to have a look at the link below. It would be great to get more detail such as sponsorships Vs OBâs or podcasts Vs stream pre rolls, but this is certainly a great step forward in transparency for the industry. Great job Radiocentre.
Do you have an interest in the business side of radio or are you only into the on air stuff? Let us know over on our insta story.
Now itâs time for the one off radio land quiz of the week. Itâs the quiz of the week that happens for one week only.
Iâll give you the clue and all you have to do is give the answer, itâs simple. Youâll get the idea.
Ready?,,, okayâŠ. This is a large building. There’s one in Mountjoy, there’s one in Castlerea, and there’s one in Clover Hill. What is it?
Think closely. Have you got your answer?
The answer is of course, an Aldi. Or at least thatâs the response Galway Bay FM got when they asked that question as part of their breakfast show quiz this week.
That wasnât the only wrong answer either. from pool tables having six balls to racehorses with stripes in Africa, this poor woman really just wasnât having a great day.
Unfortunately for her, the moment has now gone viral on Twitter with over 69,000 views at time of writing. Maybe it might be worth another shot in a few months.
Finally this week, RTĂ JR Radio have released a new podcast series called the neighbourhood. The series consists of 9 stories which are narrated by Oscar-nominated actor CiarĂĄn Hinds.
Itâs far from the first RTE childrens podcast, with podcasts on everything from art to zombies. They attract big names too, CiarĂĄn Hinds starring in The Neighbourhood, and Ryan Tubridy showing up in Cereal.
So, is The Neighbourhood any good?
Itâs not as good as Cereal, but that podcast was next level. Itâs certainly well written and well edited, I think the sound effects budget could probably have been higher, as a lot sounded like your typical royalty free sounds. That said though, the music choices and general sound design was good.
Itâs important to remember though that Iâm a man in my 20s listening to kids podcasts with an adults mind, and kids will obviously respond differently to this than I will. I donât think your 5 year old cares too much about royalty free sounds, and if they do your definitely raising them well in my opinion.
Great job RTĂ on the kids podcasts lately, itâs great to see our public broadcaster embracing new forms of kids entertainment in this way.
And thatâs the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio newsđ» and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for extra stories.
