2024 (quick, stop talking politics)

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

Here’s What Happened

As many of you know, broadcasters are not allowed chat politics on election day. In fact, all chat of campaigns and policies must stop from 2PM the day before any big national vote.

This restriction only applies to broadcasters, but the internet in all its glory is still a free for all. This has resulted in some risks, with broadcasters unable to counter false information spreading on election day.

⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩ took note of this and are currently running a public consultation to examine what should happen with this moratorium. Does it get scrapped or do we try to evolve it?

The commission have put a number of options on the table, one of which is to remove the restrictions completely. RTÉ have now voiced support for this option in a submission to the consultation.

This makes a lot of sense assuming all broadcasters are responsible, but will all broadcasters be responsible? We’ve seen a lot of politicians hosting shows on tv and radio in the UK, and while that’s not the case in Ireland at the moment, it’s definitely not impossible.

What’s to stop a political broadcaster showing up on Irish airwaves? While there are risks to having no moratorium, it makes no sense to have licensed broadcasters restricted while political parties can continue campaigning or even broadcasting online if they wanted.

What do you think? Let us know your thoughts on social media now.

Read RTÉ’s coverage on the submission hear

The IMRO award nominations are out boys and girls, it’s almost time to party.

The IMRO Awards is that one night of the year where radio people come together to celebrate the best the industry has to offer. This years nominations were announced on Wednesday, and already people are getting excited.

We’re not going to cover all the nominations here, but instead I’d recommend checking out the awards X account. All the nominations are covered over there, and there’s lots of reaction too.

Massive well done to everyone nominated. Even getting that far is a huge achievement.

Check out the awards X account here

Finally for now, a massive radio multinational is arriving on Irish soil, but they are not making radio here just yet.

SiriusXM are to open a base in Dublin, focusing on software development, analytics, and ad tech. The broadcaster provides satellite and internet radio services targeting the American market, with its most notable host being popular presenter Howard Stern.

As well as traditional radio, SiriusXM also owns the music streaming service Pandora, and claims to have a massive 150 million listeners.

The company will start by hiring 19 staff, with the Irish expansion being supported by the government through the IDA.

Who knows if we’ll ever see the business bring on some Irish staff in content focused areas, but it’s certainly an interesting move to keep an eye on.

Check out the SiriusXM story here

Quick Bits

RTÉ have launched their new season of TV and Radio

The Irish media and entertainment sectors are expected to grow by €1billion by 2028

Jennifer Dollard who previously worked at Today FM has been promoted at Acast

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.

This Week In Radio 24/8/2024 (bullying at Today FM)

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

Here’s what Happened

If you’re reading Radio Land then realistically you probably love radio. It’s never good when you hear of bullying in the industry, but it’s definitely important to talk about.

This week, Today FM presenter Phil Cawley spoke to the Sunday World about how he felt bullied during his final year at Today FM. He has also spoken about this on other platforms in the past too, with podcast clips doing the rounds on TikTok.

Phil now works for other broadcasters including South East Radio and Classic hits, and is set to host a new online dating show soon. Phil claims his Today FM pay went from €80,000 to €10,000 as he got moved to weekends, and claims he was given zero dignity when leaving the station.

He also claims that he “was at the receiving end of phone rants and horrible emails, getting blamed for stuff on the show that had nothing to do with him.”

As depressing as it sounds, workplace bullying is always going to be a thing, but Phil does raise some points that are unique to those working in media. looking at how we solve these issues is a worthwhile endeavour.

Eventually, no matter how good you are at your job, a time comes when you don’t fit a stations demographic. You’re not going to have a 60 year old presenting on the likes of Spin or Beat, even if they are a fantastic presenter.

What does that mean though for a talented presenter who has done nothing wrong and is just not in the demographic any more? In some ways Phil hit lucky with south East Radio and Classic Hits, but he also had to take a job doing deliveries for a time. That tells us quite clearly that radio isn’t a secure industry to work in.

That manifests in different ways. Many younger radio staff will eventually probably want to try get a mortgage, and can’t afford for a station to just say sorry, your on weekends now. How do we solve this?

How do we enable presenters to keep their dignity once they don’t fit a station anymore? Honestly I’m not sure of the answer here. It’s definitely worth considering though.

Phil says those involved in all of this no longer work for Today FM, but despite this there are probably lessons to be learned here. It’s important to discuss these things if we want to make radio a sustainable career for people going forward.

Read the story about Phil’s experience here

RTÉ’s director of content Jim Jennings will leave the organisation on the 31st of August in a deal agreed with the support of the Workplace Relations Commission.

Jim has had many different roles at RTÉ over the course of a 40 year career, but has been out of work in recent times on health grounds.

RTÉ were reportedly looking into an exit package in the region of €400,000 earlier in the year, but it’s unclear if that relates to Jim. Under the terms of the WRC process the amount can’t be disclosed.

RTÉ have however said that the amount will be reflected in its accounts next year, so it will probably be worked out at some point.

RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst has wished Jim the very best of luck for the future. Jim’s role has now been split in two, with directors for Audio and Video.

Read the details from RTÉ here

It’s always good to point out some great examples of public service content. This week I stumbled across a really cool project from KCLR, so I wanted to share it.

Guest Editor is funded by ⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩ under the Sound and Vision scheme, and is produced by Úna Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh. It gives local community representatives the opportunity to tell their story, with a 13 part radio series.

Covering everything from youth issues to poetry, the show can be heard on the KCLR Website. This kind of content is extremely important, so it’s great to hear it on air.

Well done to everyone involved in this production, we need more of this kind of work in radio.

Listen on the KCLR site here

Quick Bits

Joseph Hoban has been appointed RTÉ’s new head of communications

All the broadcasters want to get into Politics

Rising Time is looking for a sponsor, with 12 months costing €80,000

Winners were presented at the best of cork awards from 96FM

This Week In Radio 17/8/2024 (the ups and downs of JNLR)

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 that time one and all, the latest JNLR listenership numbers are here. Everything’s still moving along nicely, but let’s take a look at who’s going up and down with Irelands main stations.

Click here to skip the JNLR news

RTÉ Radio 1

Overall a good book this time for Radio 1. They didn’t have a great time in the last book so this will be a relief.

486,000 are tuning into Morning Ireland. That’s up 17,000 from last time which is really healthy.
336,000 tune in to Oliver Callan, which is a boost of 6,000.
Claire Byrne gets a boost of 3,000 for a total of 344,000. It’s not a massive jump but it’s a good steady increase.
221,000 tune in to Louise Duffy. That’s also a boost of 3000.
News at One has had a drop in its first book without Bryan Dobson. The show is down 6,000 to 295,000
Joe Duffy is holding on nicely above that 300,000 mark. He now has 302,000, a jump of 1,000.
The Ray D’Arcy Show had a great book, increasing 10,000 to reach 191,000. The show climbs ever closer to that 200,000 figure.
Drivetime goes from 220,000 to 224,000, which is, you guessed it, a 4,000 listener increase.

This was a good book for Radio 1. While nothing has exploded in terms of numbers, nothings had big drops either. The News at One is obviously going through change, but time will tell how it all plays out. Definitely better luck than last time,

RTÉ 2FM

2FM has had so much change over the past while that it’s probably not worth super deep analysis until things settle down a bit. however, let’s take a look at the current state of play.

149,000 are tuning in to 2FM breakfast each morning which is a boost of 6,000
141,000 are tuning in to Laura Fox, which is also a 6,000 listener jump.
128,000 are listening to Tracey Clifford, who is probably the most consistent voice on the station. She’ll be happy as that’s a boost of 7,000
157,000 are tuning in to 2FM Drive at the moment, which is a jump of 6,000

These are all super numbers for the station, but 2FM is on the verge of some of the biggest changes to its schedule ever. Dan Healy spoke about some of those changes in a press release.

We are in the middle of a process of discovering the next new radio talent for Ireland, almost 140 people are coming through 2FM over the next two weeks. We are meeting incredibly talented people from all walks of life.

Off the back of this strong book we look forward to building on these gains and bringing a new breakfast and evening drive show for the audience over the next few months.

This is really interesting stuff. The next year for 2FM is looking really exciting for sure.

Today FM

Things could definitely have gone better for Today FM. the station suffered a decrease in listeners on much of its daytime schedule this time around.

Ian Dempsey now has 210,000 listeners, a decrease of 6,000 tuning in each morning.
Dave Moore has 223,000 tuning in which is a drop of 5,000
131,000 tune in to Louise Cantillon, which is an 8,000 drop
155,000 listen to Ray Foley which is down 6,000. This breaks a streak of great gains for Ray.
Matt Cooper is down 10,000 and now has 171,000 listeners. Still very respectable but obviously not ideal

You’re always going to get bad books, but this really isn’t ideal for the station. Time will tell if they can reverse course.

Newstalk

Newstalk might have lost its managing editor, but it’s not losing listeners. The station had a really good performance this book.

Newstalk Breakfast has gained 11,000 and now sits at 168,000 listeners
Pat Kenny had a super book adding 15,000 listeners, now landing on 244,000
137,000 are listening to lunchtime live. That’s an incredible leap of 19,000 listeners. Super stuff
Moncrieff gets a respectable 3,000 listener increase and now has 108,000 tuning in.
The hard shoulder is up 7,000 and now sits at 155,000

If Bauer were upset by the numbers at Today FM they’ll be able to at least smile with the results for Newstalk. A brilliant book for the station no matter how you look at it.

The ups and downs continue

Well done to everyone who gained listeners in these books. For those who didn’t, just keep at it. Radio is a game of ups and downs. There are exciting times ahead in the Radio industry for sure with 2FM in particular looking quite interesting. time will tell how everything plays out.

More JNLR info can be found at the below links.

In other news

Bank Of Ireland has signed a new partnership with Off The Ball for rugby coverage.

The new deal agreed with Bauers Media Central will see bank of Ireland have a presents on OffThe Balls main radio show, as well as across the brands digital channels. It is set to run for 12 months under the current agreement.

This isn’t a full show sponsorship, with the deal instead focusing on Rugby. It just goes to show that OTB is a full brand now, capable of attracting multiple big name sponsors for different elements.

Sports is big business and Off The Ball is definitely one of the bigger sports focused media outlets in Ireland. The show on Newstalk is just one slice of the pie now which is interesting to see.

Read about the new deal here

And finally for now, RTÉ Midlands Correspondent Sinead Hussey is organising a bake sale to raise funds for charity.

This follows the sad death of CJ McCann, who died following a battle with an aggressive brain cancer called an Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumour (ATRT). CJ died at just 21 months old.

The family have been fundraising for vital cancer services that helped them on their journey, and have already raised over €150,000.

Usually stories like this end up in our Quick bits section, but I think it’s important to recognise people’s amazing generosity. Well done to everyone involved, and hope the upcoming fundraisers go well.

Read about the upcoming fundraisers here

Quick Bits

Presenter Brian Dowling has criticised Ireland’s surrogacy laws

A bursary is being set up in memory of broadcaster Gerry Anderson

Peadar Breathnach is reportedly joining RTÉ

98FM is hosting a big summer safari at Dublin Zoo

Laura fox has got engaged

This week in radio 10/8/2024 (Bauer officially own beat)

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

Here’s what happened

Bauer Media have officially taken control of Beat, after purchasing the south east station from The Irish Times.

The cash machine is already airing on Beat, with players now being encouraged to text Beat to 57557. It really is wild how quickly stations can be integrated into the group like this.

Now that Bauer have stations in many of the main markets it’s interesting to think about what’s next. Do they develop one central brand? Try expand further? With Bauer also owning ad sales company Media Central they really don’t have any major competition outside of Wireless group or RTÉ.

Beat seemed to do well with The Irish Times, so it will be interesting to see how Bauer decide to shake things up.

Beat was tightly linked with WLR in the past, so WLR is out on its own now in some ways too. WLR remains part of The Irish Times.

Interesting times ahead for sure. Let’s hope all goes smoothly down in the South East.

Check out the Beat Cash Machine

Radiocentre Ireland have shared earnings for the radio industry for the first half of 2024.

In short, things are moving along nicely. In total the industry had advertising revenue of €77.9 million for the first half of 2024. That’s a jump of 2%.

There has been some errors with these numbers in some articles, but the break down seems to be as follows.

€59.5 million came from regular spot revenue, which remains flat.
€14.8 million came from sponsorships, partnerships, and other forms of branded content. This is an area getting consistently healthy growth growing 9% this time around
€3.5 million came from Didgital revenue. This really is insanely low when you look at the money that can be made with digital content, but it is up 8.3%

All in all these are healthy numbers. The radio industry could definitely be doing more in the digital space if it wanted, so hopefully they try double down on that in time.

Check out the details from Radiocentre here

Finally for now, Ryan Tubridy is smashing it on Virgin Radio in the UK.

We don’t normally look at things in the UK, but there is significant Irish interest in this specific case. Ryan now has 503,000 listening on Virgin, not including Q102.

When Ryan was with RTE he was bringing in between 300,000 and 400,000 listeners, so in many ways despite the chaos of last year tubs is doing better than ever.

When you think that Ryan was ready to return to RTÉ for a daily radio show as well as a podcast for €170,000 a year it’s clear that RTE really did miss out.

Anyways, RTÉs loss is Virgins gain. Fair play to Ryan on the success, and all the best for the future.

Check out Ryan’s listenership here

Quick Bits

Irelands Classic Hits are promoting their next listener party in Dublin

RTÉ are looking for a Time Checks Sponsor for Radio 1

The Today FM Sound Garden stage is back at Electric Picnic

Opinion: how do we fund public service content on commercial broadcasters?

This week I wanted to do something slightly different for Radio Land. Your regular news summary will be back next week, but for now i wanted to take a deep dive into a topic creating a lot of talk in recent weeks.

Should local radio get state funding?

Ever since we heard that RTE would be receiving secure funding for the next three years, every other broadcaster has also wanted money. Who could blame them? All broadcasters definitely do provide a huge public service, so arguing they should get funding does make sense.

It’s not just limited to radio either. In the TV space, both Virgin Media and TG4 have also been looking for more cash, so basically everyone in media wants money right now.

While all of these broadcasters do provide a valuable public service, only RTÉ and TG4 are true public service broadcasters. Most of the others are commercially owned, often by billionaires.

With that in mind, how do we fund them? Handing money to a commercial entity like Virgin or Bauer with no strings attached clearly seems like a bad idea, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t put some money on the table to keep high quality public service content on these stations.

How much money do we offer to commercial broadcasters? And what are they willing to give us in return? Maybe we already have the answer…

The Sound and vision scheme is actually kinda cool.

Most readers here will be aware of the Sound and vision scheme from ⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩. Basically a production company or broadcaster pitches a public service show or format, and then ⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩ partly funds it. This is actually a great system.

Fantastic high quality content ends up airing on independent broadcasters, and we’re not just handing over money with no strings attached.

The more I think about how to fund independent public service content, the more I think an expansion of sound and Vision is the answer. So, here’s my pitch for how we evolve local radio funding and how we ensure the listeners are the ones who benefit.

1. New obligations for broadcasters

If we’re going to be funding broadcasters with tax payer money then it’s fair to expect high standards.

This also gives us an opportunity to deal with some of the criticisms regularly levelled at the Radio industry.

A minimum of 25% of music played must be from Irish artists
Stations must have a minimum 4 minutes of news at the top of each hour. This news can not be networked between 7am and 8pm
Irish language news bulletins must air for 4 minutes every 3 hours
A transcript of all news bulletins must be made available online to ensure accessibility for those who are hard of hearing.
A report dealing with revenue and prizes for text to win contests must be published monthly to ensure transparency.
Networking can’t take place in prime time, between 7am and 8pm.

There are other requirements I think stations should need to follow, but let’s not be too greedy.

2. Reforms of Sound and Vision

The Sound and Vision Scheme really isn’t too bad as it is. It just needs more funding. However, there are some small changes that would be nice.

⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩ should review funded content to ensure that it met its public service obligations.
Content funded through the scheme must air in prime time.
The scheme should expand to include digital media. (Full transparency, I work on public service digital content for my day job)
Funded content should be shared online and there should be a central repository.
A report each year should state how much funding was given for content on each broadcaster.

Other than that I don’t see a whole lot that needs changing. Sound and Vision is a really good scheme, and I think it’s the best way we can find high quality public service content without just handing money to broadcasters in a free for all.

Conclusion

Look, every broadcaster would love a free for all, and I know many will say an expanded Sound and Vision isn’t good enough.

In some ways they’re right. I’m honestly not too concerned about wireless group or Bauer, but I do wish there was a better way to support those smaller local broadcasters.

We’ve seen huge change in the media industry in recent years and I think now is the time to ensure that listeners get high quality content wherever they listen. Just handing over money isn’t the answer, but perhaps an expanded Sound and Vision scheme with stricter public service obligations for broadcasters might be the winning approach.

What do you think?

How should we fund public service content on commercial radio? Should it be funded at all? Share your thoughts now on our social media.