2024 (no Google Translate on RnaG)

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

Here’s What happened

RTE have started running ads on Raidió na Gaeltachta and are encouraging brands to ensure a high standard of Irish in their adverts.

Listen to an ad break on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta

RnaG listeners are passionate about Irish, and even though someone’s phonetic pronunciation might sound right, a native speaker can tell when someone’s bluffing. As such, RTE is providing support and advice to advertisers to get this right.

They recommend that scripts should be drafted in Irish, saying “Automated translators/ Translation software don’t understand the tone and intricacies of the language.” In short, don’t use Google Translate.

They also say that a VO artist should have a level of Irish to enable them to appear as a contributor on Raidió na Gaeltachta. This should ensure a level of quality in the output.

RTE’s sales team will be running a webinar on the subject in July too, so they really are trying to ensure that their listeners do get high quality ads in Irish. Don’t think I’ll be able to voice any Irish ads for the station anytime soon unfortunately.

Quick Bits

Russell Crowe has shared his thoughts on Ryan Tubridy’s situation

Nova are airing a documentary on Christy Dignam

Raidió na Life wins Radio Station of the Year at the Celtic Media Awards

Cork Mid Summer Festival have an online pop up radio station now

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 8/6/2024 (€10 million? Irelands Classic Hits? The 2 Johnnies? Let’s talk about it)

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

Here’s What Happened

So the owners of Classic Hits Radio (Bay Broadcasting) have written to the minister and the RTE DG, offering to buy 2FM for €10 million.

They state in their letter that they feel the service should be privatised, but RTE are fighting back saying that 2FM is not for sale. Kevin Branigan, who runs Bay Broadcasting has also said he’d be open to chatting with the 2 Johnnies if he purchased the station.

Bay broadcasting seem to be desperate to get a slice of RTE recently, but this trend isn’t new. They were talking about offering Ryan Tubridy a job last year, and a number of years back they wanted to take over the RTÉ DAB multiplex to take Nova National.

The question of privatising 2FM is an interesting one, and Bay Broadcasting seem to want it. Bauer would almost certainly like a slice too. Time will tell if this goes anywhere, but I’d doubt it. This to me feels more like marketing than a serious push to buy 2FM, but who knows.

Host Brian Dowling is taking a break from 98FM over the summer as he and husband Arthur Gourounlian prepare to welcome their second child.

Brian hosts alongside Suzanne Kane on 98FM, as well as having a large social media audience. Another popular social media creator and tv presenter is joining Suzanne for the summer, as James Patrice is set to cover with Suzanne in the slot.

The show airs 10am to 1pm on the Bauer owned station. James has filled in for Brian before, but it’s always interesting to see how a pairing goes on a longer term basis.

Best wishes to Brian and Arthur on the new baby, and to James and Suzanne with the show.

Quick Bits

Irish Presenter Ronan Keating is leaving Magic Radio Breakfast

License fee payments for the first 5 months of the year are down a reported 15%

Paul Byrne has left Virgin Media, he’s previously covered on Red FM in Cor

This Week in Radio 1/6/2024 (2FM aren’t the only ones making changes)

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 the new summer schedule from 2FM yesterday as promised, and there are some names rising up the ranks.

Aifric O’Connell is joining 2FM breakfast replacing Doireann. She’ll be hosting alongside Carl and Donncha so 2 thirds of the existing team are staying on board to keep the ship steady.

Aifric is no stranger to 2FM breakfast shows as she’s previously hosted alongside Carl on weekend breakfast. Carl then jumped over to the main breakfast show, and now Aifric is joining him on weekdays. In recent years she’s been hanging out with the 2 Johnnies on drivetime.

2FM Breakfast with Carl, Donncha & Aifric starts Tuesday, when we’ll get a chance to hear if they evolve the show much.

In the drive slot we’re getting a bit more of a shakeup as Lottie Ryan and David O’Reilly take over from the 2 Johnnies. I’ll be interested to hear this show and see if it leads to anything. Lottie has covered lots on the station and has been an entertainment news reporter in recent times, while David has been a station contributor.

David Co hosts the any news podcast as well so does have presenting experience, but time will tell how that translates to radio.

I can definitely imagine Lottie and David working well together, but it will be a very different show compared with the 2 Johnnies. Best wishes to all involved.

Read about the 2FM schedule here

2FM might have got all the attention this week but I actually think there was a much more interesting scheduling announcement from RTE that didn’t get any attention.

As of Tuesday, RTE Gold will be on air with a full schedule as it introduces a new drivetime show. Breakfast and mid morning shows have been airing since 2017 and Ronan Collins extended the schedule when he left Radio 1, but now Carol Moran is launching a new drivetime show on the service. this means the station has presenters on air from 7AM to 6PM on weekdays, as well as a full schedule on weekends too.

It’s cool to see an internet only station from RTE finally go for a full schedule. I would hope RTE use this as an opportunity to promote the station heavily and eventually bring in some extra revenue with a few ads. stations like Classic hits aren’t going to have the same style as RTE Gold, so this competition in the industry is much needed.

RTE Gold has been moving in the right direction slowly but surely in recent years, so this is great to see. Judging from the online reaction Gold listeners are happy with the news and it’s rare enough rTE gets praise these days. Best wishes to all involved. Hopefully we’ll hear the station generate some revenue for the public broadcaster soon too.

Read the announcement from RTE Gold here

Three people stand with Giving for living Radiothon branding

Radiothon has been airing on Corks 96FM once again, and has raised €409,178 for cancer charities in Cork.

I love pointing out radio being used for good, and the long running Giving For Living Radiothon is one of my favourite examples of this. the event has been running in Cork for 16 years now and has raised over €6.5 million over the course of its run.

There’s not a whole lot more to say on the subject other than to acknowledge that this is fantastic. Anything media can do to support charities is a good thing and deserves to be praised.

Well done to everyone involved in Radiothon once again this year, this really is fantastic stuff.

Quick Bits

Broadcaster Adrian Kennedy has revealed that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer

Pride Vibes is back on FM

Rachael English is taking over the News at One on RTE Radio 1

There was an opinion piece on local radios use of digital

Angela Scanlon has spoken about suffering with an eating disorder

This Week In Radio 25/5/2024 (what a week at 2FM)

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

Here’s What Happened

What a week it’s been over at 2FM. They’ve now lost presenters for their three main shows, and station boss Dan Healy ended up joining Claire Byrne for what can only be described as an epic interview.

So, let’s summarise. Doireann Garrihy is leaving 2FM breakfast, Jennifer Zamparelli is leaving her mid morning show, and the 2 Johnnies are leaving Drive It, the stations drivetime show.

Dan Healy has already confirmed Laura Fox is taking over from Jen. She’s a strong presenter that’s performed well on the weekends, so this is a good move.

That leaves breakfast and drivetime. The bosses at 2FM aren’t rushing into anything and have decided to give the station what seems to be a temporary summer schedule, before presumedly launching a full new schedule later in the year. we’ll find out more about the summer schedule on Friday.

While all this was going on, 2FM boss Dan Healy popped over to the Radio 1 studios to have an interview on Today With Claire Byrne. Dan was well fired up and the interview is well worth a listen.

I’ve got to agree with Dan in many ways that the future for 2FM is exciting. If they can nail the line up with strong presenters and a good content strategy, they can definitely hit their goal of 14% share of 15-34s by 2025.

2FM have a chance here to really think digital. How do you compete with the Spins, Beat and IRadio when they’re all owned by Bauer and have got the power of the cash Machine helping in JNLRs.

If I was Dan Healy, I’d be putting a 20 min game show format on Laura’s show each Friday. Give it a brand, make it flashy, it’s live radio, but it’s treated as a podcast. Then if it works convert to telly and sell as a format. Give it a visual set, throw it on YouTube. Shoot in a TV studio, do stuff Bauer won’t do.

There’s so many fun bits like this they can try to compete in the youth space. It’s probably one of the most exciting stations now because they effectively have a blank space to build whatever they want, hire whoever they want, run the station however they want. I genuinely get why Dan Healy is so excited by that.

Time will tell if they can make it work, but we’ll just need to wait and see. Bring on next Friday.

Watch the Claire Byrne interview here

The cash machine was in overdrive this week as the team at Bauer had a guaranteed €100,000 up for grabs.

No matter what you think of the cash Machine, there’s no denying that it’s good business for Bauer and can give you great radio moments at times. yesterdays winner had just baught a house and received the keys Thursday, but had no money to do it up. He now has €100,000 to solve that problem.

In work during the week a colleague mentioned that Today FM had €100,000 to give away. No other radio competition can create that buzz. When 2FM shared a TikTok of someone winning €5,000 on their Autotune fortune it was being called a tiny amount and getting compared to the Cash Machine in the comments.

The reality is smaller players can’t compete. Increasingly Irish consumers are exposed to large giveaways, so smaller money is seeming less and less significant. With huge money from Mr Beast on YouTube to TikToks of Heart UKs Make Me A Millionaire, prizes of €5k, €10k, or even €20k don’t excite audiences any more.

It’s a fascinating change, and one we’ll probably see more of in the coming years.

Check out the video of yesterdays Cash Machine win here

Finally for now a fascinating story from the international radio world, specifically from the BBC.

Both BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 music are leaving x and Facebook behind, ending posts on both platforms. The two stations are instead going to focus on content for TikTok and Instagram.

The accounts will remain open and users can still tag them if they want to reach the studio, but all new posting will stop.

This is a fascinating story to me. Is it time to move on from older social networks? Will we see more of that in the next few months? BBC does have a big presence on these platforms, but the primary accounts over on X are BBC News for example. Traditionally it was the case that every station had a presence on all the main platforms, but this new selective approach does seem interesting.

We’ll need to wait and see how this evolves in the next few months and years, but this likely isn’t limited to just the uk market.

Let us know over on our X, do you think we’ll see Irish stations leaving the platform? Just search Radio Land Ireland.

Visit the poll on X now

Quick Bits

Mark McCabe is joining the weekend schedule at 98FM

Moncrieff has been on air for 20 years

Pamela Joyce has spoken about leaving Today FM

Waterford Wispers report that 2FM is to become just a late night slot on RTE Gold

The justice media awards shortlist was announced this week

Ryan Tubridy was back hosting his show in Dublin from the Q102 studios

Radio Nova are airing a documentary on a Scottish band

This Week In Radio 18/5/2024 (latest listenership from JNLR

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

Here’s what happened

New JNLR numbers came out this week so let’s take a look and see how things are going for the countries main stations.

Skip the JNLR stuff by clicking here

RTE Radio 1

It was a mixed bag for radio 1 this time around, but things didn’t look great on weekdays for sure.

Morning Ireland took a dip in this book after a major jump last time. The show now has 469,000 listeners, down from 486,000 in the last book. That’s a drop of 17,000 which isn’t great, but it doesn’t undo its gains from last time so could be worse.
330,000 listen to The Oliver Callan Show. that’s a 13,000 drop, and the second drop in a row for the slot. I wouldn’t panic just yet, but definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Claire Byrne didn’t have any change this book and still has 341,000 tuning in.
It’s up 4,000 for Louise Duffy, who now has 218,000 listeners. She’s gained 1,000 in the passed 2 books, so the last 3 bring her up 6,000.
Bryan Dobson leaves the news at 1 with 301,000. That’s a 5,000 listener drop, but the show is still in a healthy place over 300,000. It will be interesting to see if Bryan’s retirement has much of an impact.
Joe dropped 2,000, and now sits level with news at 1 on 301,000
5,000 left Ray Darcy who now sits at 181,000. Rays show has traditionally benefited from the significant promotion of Operation Transformation, so time will tell if the show can find something else to attract an audience.
220,000 now listen to Drivetime which is down 1,000. Nothing too bad really.

This book looks rough for Radio 1 in parts although the weekend lineup did perform better. One needs to wonder if all the recent controversy has driven some listeners away, but there’s no way of saying that definitively.

No need to panic yet, but certainly could have gone better.

RTE 2FM

Tracey holding up the fort nicely here, with the 2 Johnnies and Game On also getting a boost.

Ahead of the big shake up, 2FM Breakfast with Doireann, Donncha, and Carl has 143,000 listeners. That’s down 3,000. The show has lost 6,000 in the past 2 books combined but the show has had an incredible run overall. It’s going to be very interesting to see what RTE do in the breakfast slot here.
Jennifer Zamparelli is down 1,000 and now sits at 135,000. Still a very respectable number.
Tracy Clifford is a highlight for 2FM this book, up 8,000 to 121,000
The 2 johnnies continue a great run on the station adding 1,000 to sit at 151,000. That’s a good number.
Interestingly, Game on is up 5,000 listeners and now has 37,000 each evening.

Overall it’s an okay book for the station. Some small losses are mostly offset with some nice gains. Definitely could be worse.

Today FM

There’s no other way to say it. This wasn’t a great book for Today FM.

216,000 tune in to Ian Dempsey, that’s a drop of 12,000.
228,000 tune in to Dave Moore, based on Bauers numbers that’s a drop of 2,000.
Louise Cantillon is down 1,000 and now sits at 139,000. Still a good performance though.
161,000 tune in to Ray Foely that’s down 2,000
Matt Cooper completes the schedule with 181,000. That’s down 5,000, meaning Bauer lost listeners for all daytime shows.

Things really could be better for Today FM, but this is the first bump in a series of good books. Is the appeal of the cash machine decreasing? We’ll need to wait and see.

Newstalk

Things were a bit better over on Newstalk with some nice listenership gains in the morning at least.

157,000 listen to Newstalk breakfast, a really nice increase of 8,000.
13,000 extra listeners tune in to pat Kenny, who now has 229,000.
Lunchtime Live moves from 113,000 to 118,000 this book for a jump of 5,000. Can’t really complain about that.
Moncrieff is down 11,000 landing at 104,000. Could be worse, but certainly not great in an otherwise good book.
147,000 tuning in to the Hard shoulder. The numbers here were a mess last time, but appear to be down 6,000.

Bauer will definitely be happy with the first half of the day here. Second half could have gone better, but it’s not a disaster either.

Overall

As always a mixed bag, but no disasters. You learn quick enough that individual books aren’t important. Trends are what really matter, and there’s nothing concerning here for now at least.

Check out coverage from other sites below.

Radio Today

AdWorld

Independent

In other news

It will come as no surprise to anyone that RTEs reputation has been badly damaged, but just how bad is it?

In a study exploring the attitudes to 100 companies and agencies by Irish consumers, RTE ranked 99th marking the biggest fall of any organisation.

The only brand with a worse reputation was Elon Musk owned social media platform X which came in the 100th slot. RTE has dropped from 67th place in 2010, so it just goes to show the true scale of the damage.

In terms of the top 3 this year, that went to credit unions, Lidl, and Boots, with An Post ranking highest on average over the past 15 years. The highest scoring media brand was the Irish Times, which came in at 53 on the list.

RTE is going to have a tough job rebuilding their reputation, and it’s going to take a lot from both the broadcaster and the government. They seem to be on a strategy of avoiding risks right now, as their controversial health event Operation Transformation was ditched this week despite high engagement. RTE share rights to that show in the international market too, so it seems they are willing to make hard decisions to try satisfy the audience.

Things like the licence fee will likely be a roadblock to improving reputation, but time will tell if they can pull it off.

Quick Bits

There’s a rumour that 2FM could swap the 2 Johnnies to the 9AM slot

2FM gave away €5,000 with the Autotune Fortune this week

Pat Kenny’s media company made a profit of €99,415 last year