This week in Radio 8/10/2022 (what a week)

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

Here’s what happened

IMRO Awards 2022 logo

Last night was the night that brings the whole radio industry to one big party, that’s right, last night was the IMRO Radio Awards.

I launched Radio Land on the night of the 2020 IMRO’s, so the site is now Two years old. Time flies when your having fun.

Anyway, enough about Radio Land. Who won stuff this year?

  • WLR have won local station of the year once again, making it their……wait for it….. 4th year in a row🎉 if your winning one of the biggest awards every year then your clearly doing something right. Well done WLR.
  • Red FM are the music station of the year this year. They have also won this award previously. people clearly still love music on Air, so well done to Red FM.
  • Finally in the big three category’s, Today FM won full service station of the year. Today FM have had a schedule shakeup recently so they’ll be delighted with this endorsement. Congratulations to all involved.

Well done to everyone who has played a part in making radio great over the last year. You can read a full list of winners in all categories by clicking the link below.

Notable Twitter Moments

We unfortunately weren’t at the event, so we were left to join the fun at home from Twitter. But as usual Twitter didn’t disappoint. Here are some of the key points from Twitter over the course of the night.

  • Newstalk need to give their social media team a raise. We teased them a bit, but they had tweets of their wins up before the IMRO Awards account at times. They even included fancy graphics. So the gold for fastest social media team goes to Newstalk🏆
  • Everything was so civilised that someone had to get salty. Lord Bill Badbody tweeted “Disgusted at #IMR022 for not awarding my radio showÉireann Your Views again this year. Obvious bias against radio hosts who tell it like it is. They’ll pay for this. Every single one of those bastards.”. Thankfully it was only an account from Waterford wispers having a bit of fun. So to Lord Bill Badbody, congratulations on winning gold for best salty tweet🏆
  • The gold for looking for a pay raise has to go to Ross Broun of Corks 96FM, he reminded his employer that he hadn’t yet signed his new contract, he pointed out that he could go national, and encouraged stations to get in touch. Ross might indeed get a raise though as he then went on to actually win a real gold award. Congratulations Ross🏆

It really was a fun night on Twitter, and I hope everyone at the event had a blast too.

Again, well done to everyone and thanks for making radio such an awesome little industry. I guess we’ll see you all again next year🎉

Read the full winners list here

BAI Logo

The BAI have rejected a number of complaints surrounding the Russia/Ukraine conflict. They also rejected complaints from the owner of a public sector news magazine.

Let’s start with the Russia and Ukraine stuff. Complaints were lodged against Prime Time, Brendon O Connor, and the Pat Kenny show. The exact details of the respective complaints differed, but all felt there was bias within the broadcasts.

The BAI rejected all of these complaints saying.

  • In relation to Prime Time “there was no evidence of the Prime Time presenter attempting to “nudge” guests into stating that NATO should become involved in the conflict”
  • Regarding Pat Kenny, “There was no evidence of any contempt in the presenter’s voice and the broadcast content did not support the complainant’s view that the broadcast could be described as racist,” the BAI also pointed out here that use of terms such as “the Russians” were common terms in the shows context
  • The complaint about Brendan O Connor took issue with some of the Russian talking points being argued on the show. The BAI rejected this too however. They said ‘discussion in general was managed appropriately by the presenter, who put forward suggestions and counter arguments to elicit responses from the panel and that the audience was not misled on the subject under discussion”.

The other set of complaints made related to a public sector news magazine. The Magazine was heavily criticised on LiveLine, leading to the owner lodging a complaint with the BAI about the broadcasts.

The problem here was that the complainant, John Hogan, claimed that joe Duffy shared his own views in the show as he “rang gongs like a game show host”. There’s quite a lot to this actually so I’d recommend reading the article linked below for the full details.

While the BAI did ultimately reject the complaints, they did agree that the show was very negative towards the magazine. They pointed out that this was often the case with shows where conversations are caller driven, and they also noted RTEs attempts to get someone from the magazine on the show.

As I said there’s a lot to this story, so if you want more details you can check out the linked article. That article also covers some other complaints that we didn’t discuss here.

Read more details here

GAA Logo, the logo is white on a blue background, the letters GAA sit above text that reads where we all belong

Finally this week, a deal between the GAA and the IBI has resulted in a community station in Kilkenny no longer being allowed broadcast GAA matches.

Community Radio Kilkenny City (CRKC) had always carried extensive GAA coverage, but they have been told to curtail this with immediate effect. The reason for this is that the deal with the IBI (independant broadcasters of ireland) has resulted in commercial broadcaster KCLR having exclusive GAA rights.

This has a number of repercussions for CRKC, as not only will they risk losing loyalGAA listeners, but they will also lose those commercial sponsorships that might cover a lot of costs.

Understandably, the station is not too impressed with this new deal.

On behalf of itself and its listenership, Community Radio Kilkenny City is extremely disappointed by the position it is placed in by the GAA/IBI agreement. Community Radio Kilkenny City will continue to provide extensive reports of Kilkenny GAA games on Sunday and Monday evenings, and we will also continue to provide extensive sports coverage on our other weekend sport (and music) programmes. The same level of restrictive coverage will also apply to Community Radio Kilkenny City in relation to Kilkenny intercounty games at all levels. Since Community Radio Kilkenny City commenced full time broadcasting five years ago, the station has given unrivalled coverage to club games at all levels in Kilkenny. The same applied to the inter-county scene plus schools and colleges games. It is worth noting that Community Radio Kilkenny City was often the only Kilkenny broadcast media outlet at many of those games. Community Radio Kilkenny City is proud of what it has achieved to date, and more especially as all the Sports Team work as volunteers. Community Radio Kilkenny City is fortunate also to be able to call on numerous other volunteers around Kilkenny who provide match reports on a regular basis.

Statement from CRKC, source Kilkenny People

There are literally so many possable reactions to this story. Is this the IBI screwing over community stations? Is the GAA being perfectly reasonable by following the audience and the money, should exclusivity deals for a national sport like GAA be banned? There are so many possable ways to look at this. Go vote on our Instagram story now and tell us what you think.

Go vote in our poll here

Read the story here

Quick Bits

The IBI have called for the broadcast levy to be scrapped

2FM breakfast presenter Doireann Garrihy is taking over hosting Dancing With The Stars

Radio Nova’s PJ Gallagher and Jim McCabe are doing a charity random cycle

Spin has a new weekend schedual

A number of broadcast contract renewals are being fast tracked

Lyric FM is celebrating Black History Month

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 6/8/2022 (who will get the gig)

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

Disclaimer

Just a quick note to say that I’m on holidays this week, so Radio Land won’t be as detailed as usual. We’ll be back to having a fully detailed post next week👍 thanks for understanding.

Here’s What Happened

The boss at RTÉ Radio 1 has said Clare Byrnes TV replacement has big shoes to fill. Speaking this week, Peter Woods said Clare would be a tough act to follow, he also went on to praise her work ethic.

RTE is expected to announce Clare’s successor at their autumn launch this month, with Sarah McInerney, Grainne Seoige and Sharon Ni Bheolain all reportedly in the running.

You can read that story here

KCLR have announced the death of former presenter Johnny Barry. Johnny presented shows on the station since 2005, and more recently had been the stations Irish language ambassador

May he rest in peace

Read the story here

In late April 2005, Cork journalist Martin Barry died by assisted suicide in Zurich. The night before he died, he asked his partner Laura McDaid to complete one task for him, to find his birth mother and give her a message

That story has been told in a BBC Radio 4 documentary series called the last Request. It aired this week and is now available on BBC sounds.

You can hear the documentary here

Quick Bits

Here are the details for the Oireachtas Media Awards

There’s a new director of external affairs at Radiocentre

Ray Darcy was live from Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2022 this week

Premier League Live returns today on Talksport Ireland, sponsored by Harvey Norman

Support

If you’ve been affected by any of the topics discussed in this weeks radio land, you can visit the website linked below for information and support

Find supports for those impacted by suicide here

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 7/5/2022

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

Here’s what happened

The green and white logo of the broadcasting authority of ireland

A total of €10.5 million in additional funding for the sound and vision scheme has been announced this week. The funding is split into a few categories, and should fund some quality content over the next few months.

For those of you who don’t know about Sound and Vision, it’s an awesome scheme from the BAI allowing independent producers to seek funding to assist them in making content for radio and television. It’s usually funded by 7% of the Licence Fee, but the funding announced this week is in addition to that.

So, here’s the kind of stuff that can get funding over the next while.

  • €5 million is for programming in relation to climate change. I’m really interested to see how radio stations use this potential funding as I’m sure there are some quite creative climate change projects that could work on radio.
  • €2 million is for live music broadcasting productions. Last year we saw initiatives such as Irish music month get BAI funding. Hopefully we might see some collaboration again this time.
  • €2 million has been allocated for Irish language programming. It’s exactly what it says on the tin. An Mhaith
  • Finally there’s €1.5 million for general sound and vision stuff. Always handy to have. (Apparently some of this general funding was used already in round 42, but it’s only been acknowledged this week)

I’m personally delighted with this news. Any additional funding going towards quality broadcasting is a good thing in my book, hopefully this funding can be put to good use delivering great content for viewers and listeners.

The plan is for the BAI to announce details of the sound and vision climate change round in late may, with the Irish language and live music rounds opening during the summer. Keep reading Radio Land as we’ll include the details when they’re announced.

Read all the details here

A new report from learning waves has found that independent stations played an important role in debunking misinformation during the pandemic.

According to the report, almost 100% of stations surveyed said they made it their responsibility to combat the spread of misinformation and educate the public by sourcing credible and qualified contributors and challenging contrary views. It’s interesting to see them use the word almost here as that would indicate to me that one station didn’t indicate this, I’d love to know what station, but ultimately that’s just me being nosy.

The report also highlights other important stuff, such as the financial hit to radio stations during the pandemic, as well as the impact that it has had on those working in the sector.

Do you think the radio industry did enough to debunk misinformation throughout the pandemic? Or could we have done better? You can let us know in our Twitter Poll.

Read the story from Radio Today

Check out the report here

Just so you know, our final story this week is subject to some reporting restrictions. While we often desire to know every detail of a story, sometimes it’s fairest for some information, in this case the names of the accused, to remain private.

With that said, here’s what we know.

Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh, who is most well known for her work on a number of RTÉ TV shows, has alleged she was sexually harassed and victimised while working for the broadcaster.

She has lodged a discrimination complaint under the Employment Equality Act, and the matter is now before the workplace relations commission.

Mairéad McKenna BL, who was representing RTÉ at a preliminary hearing said, “We absolutely deny all allegations against RTÉ,”

For more detail’s on the proceedings, I’d recommend you check out the linked article from the Irish Times. That provides a bit more information about the situation.

Read the story here

Quick Bits

Alan Tyler is RTEs new Group Head of Entertainment and music

Radiocentre ireland had its first big event this week

96FM are looking for responses on their music pannel

Muireann O’Connell has said Losing her Today FM gig was the best thing that ever happened

Here’s an article about the Donegal man who won silver for a podcast production at the New York Radio Awards

Kathryn Thomas has a head cold, and she’s filling in for Ray Darcy next week

KCLR turned 18

New stations

We don’t normally cover community radio, but it’s worth knowing that the BAI are looking for applicants for two new community radio licences.

The BAI are looking to grant a License for a community radio station in Athlone

And one in South Dublin

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 19/3/2022

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

Here’s What Happened

Kclr’s light blue logo

KCLR have launched a Ukrainian information service. The new service aims to provide support and info to those who have arrived in Ireland from Ukraine following the Russian invasion.

The service is being led by Tetiana Kuschyk, who herself arrived in Ireland only recently. Tetiana has previously worked as an interpreter and has qualifications in linguistics, so she’s more than qualified for her new role.

It’s been great to see the media trying to help out with this situation, little things like TheJournal.ie posting information in Ukrainian or the fundraising carried out by so many stations has been great to see.

The team over at Radio Today cover this story in detail so check out their coverage below. Very best of luck Tetiana, welcome to the Irish radio industry.

Read the story here

IRadio launched a new dedicated Irish music stream, following the lead of some other stations such as Today FM.

The ILove Irish station launched just before Paddy’s Day and will have music from loads of Irish artists. it’s available using smart speakers and the IRadio App.

I’d love to know the listenership of services like this as it seems trendy to launch streams of specific genres or decades. it’s obviously good that more Irish Music is getting played, but I think increased airplay for Irish artists on the main stations is also needed in some cases.

Read this story here

Finally this week, Ireland has a new hub for fact checking information. While this isn’t a radio specific story, I think it’s important to be aware of it as disinformation and misinformation are issues on all media platforms.

The new service, known as the EDMO Ireland Hub will be based at DCU, and brings together experienced fact checkers, social media experts and various academics in an attempt to try reduce misinformation and disinformation in Ireland.

We’ve been lucky that radio hasn’t been hit too hard with misinformation, but hopefully this new service will benefit all media outlets going forward. Even though radio hasn’t been hit too hard, I can think of examples of misinformation making it’s way onto the airwaves so this is certainly important.

Read the details here

Quick Bits

Honestly, with it only being a half week, there wasn’t that much interesting stuff happening. Everyone played a few Irish tunes on St Patrick’s Day, not much happened that’s worth chatting about outside of that.

So, only 2 stories in quick bits this week. Hopefully next weeks a bit more interesting. If you have a story to share at any time be sure to email news@radioland.org as we’d love to hear from you.

Cillian Doyle is taking over the Beat Takeover

Christmas FM are supporting the Sound Of 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.

Committee meeting on The Challenges Facing the Broadcasting Sector as a Result of COVID-19

floating logo of the I B I. Independent broadcaster’s of ireland

The Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media yesterday heard from John Purcell who spoke about the difficulties facing broadcasting as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

You can watch the proceedings below or if you don’t have 90 minutes to burn you can read this summary from the team over at The Journal.

Important Info

  • The video below won’t show up if your seeing this in an email. There’s nothing I can do about that unfortunately but direct you to our Website. If your already on the website, congratulations, your all good.
  • This is a video of the entire session so you’ll need to skip to around 15:07 to get to the broadcasting stuff. Sorry about that.
  • Finally I’m required to tell you the following. “streaming is provided by the Houses of the Oireachtas Service. © Houses of the Oireachtas

We’ll have your radio news roundup as usual here on Saturday so check back then for all the latest.