2024 (get ready for some advertising)

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

Here’s what Happened

We touched on it in Quick Bits last week, but it’s one worth looking at a bit more. RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta is running ads.

This is the first time in its 50 year history that advertising will be heard on the Irish language service, with the station set to generate much needed revenue for RTE.

I listened to one or two shows on the station and haven’t heard an ad break yet, but when they do air all ads will be in the Irish language. Under recently introduced rules government agencies must spend 5% of their ad budgets on Irish language media, so RnaG will join TG4 in taking some of that cash.

Because the RnaG audience is comparatively small, this may provide a lower bar to entry to brands wanting to get into some radio advertising. I could certainly see large TG4 spenders like Ros Na Run sponsor XL Ireland buying a few ads to test the waters.

I wouldn’t expect this to be a massive revenue generator straight away, but it is good news in many respects. Every little bit of extra cash is of help to Rte right now, and this new small income may lead to RTE paying a bit more attention to RnaG, giving it a little more TLC.

It would be cool to see RTE Gold get the same treatment, as there really is no reason for RTE not to monetise their services. We are one step closer to a more sustainable RTE, so I think this is definitely a move in the right direction.

Read the story here

In an interesting move, a number of Bauer owned Irish stations broadcast the brit Awards as part of a licensing deal across Europe.

Today FM, SPIN south west, Spin 1038, 98FM, Red FM, iRadio, and Newstalk joined stations from a number of other European markets to broadcast coverage of the event across their platforms, showing the huge reach Bauer can bring.

This probably wouldn’t make sense for the Irish stations on their own, but having the European broadcasters offers a level of scale that simply can’t be competed with.

Between wireless Group and Bauer, it’s becoming a tough market for independent players, which is a really interesting situation to see. Multinationals buying up event and sports rights is an interesting prospect, and something we’ll probably see more in the next few years.

Read the story here

Finally for now, Former BBC and Rte presenter Nick Sheridan has passed away.

He was only 32, and died following a short illness. Nick had worked on a number of shows on BBC Scotland, but from an Irish context he was best known for hosting News2Day, an rTE news programme for kids.

Many people have paid respects to Nick in both Ireland and the UK, including the Scottish first minister, and many people from the world of broadcasting.

It’s a sad story, but Nick certainly achieved a lot with the time he had. May he rest in peace.

Read the story here

Quick bits

A 2004 jingle from Ocean FM became a Jingle of The Day this week

Eamon Fitzpatrick is the new group commercial director at Bauer

The final episode of RTE’s runaway Joe has been published

Jessie Maher is the new digital content producer at Beat

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 2/3/2024 (irish in the media)

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

Here’s what happened

There was a really interesting article in the independent this week discussing how Irish can be a massive help if you’re trying to get into media.

This week is Seachtain na Gaeilge, or specifically its Seachtain na Gaeilge right up to st Patrick’s day. It’s a great opportunity to celebrate the Irish language in all areas of Irish life, including media.

Aindriú de Paor has been one of the people speaking out on the benefits of Irish in media this week. Aindriú has hosted shows on Raidio na Life, RnaG and 2FM, hosting some shows with a blended approach of Irish and English.

The presenter said that “The extra skill really helps you stand out in the workplace, especially in the media”. he’s spoken about how it’s helped open that door a bit earlier, making it easier to get jobs.

This is a really interesting area to me. When you look at RnaG, TG4, and all the Irish obligations on other broadcasters, it’s easy to see how the language could be a big help.

This may become the case even more if that proposed Irish language youth radio station launches, and we’ve recently had increased requirements for Irish language ads and the launch of the full Cula4 kids tv channel.

All this is making Irish look quite healthy in media terms. I know I’d personally love to be fluent in Irish, as I can genuinely see how it would help in a media focused career.

Hope everyone enjoys Seachtain na Gaeilge, and gets a chance to speak a cúpla focal.

Read the story here

If you listen to a Wireless group radio station, you’ll be well used to the top of hour sequence at this stage. Yes you’ll have the news and the weather and all that, but one thing stands above all the rest. The jingle from Harry Corry. It’s like clockwork, on the hour, every hour.

Harry Corry, See what’s in store.

However yesterday everything changed. Harry Corry became the new sponsor of LiveLine on Radio 1, and they ditched the jingle. Let me repeat that, they ditched the jingle.

The new 1 year deal is Harry Corry’s first with RTE, so it looks like the Rte People might have snatched one of the biggest spenders from Wireless group. Financial terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but a deal was previously advertised with a 12 month sponsorship cost of €210,000. A nice chunk of money.

While the jingle might have been deemed a bit too much for LiveLine, it’s cool to see the Harry Corry team spending more in the radio industry.

I cannot tell you how relieved I felt when I heard the jingle in the top of hour sequence on 96FM this afternoon. It’s become a cue to news for a whole generation of radio presenters, so it’s good to know that the great tradition of the Harry Corry jingle will continue, even if it’s not on LiveLine.

Logo on 96FM

Logo on LMFM

Logo on Q102 Provided by Patrick Hennessey

Read the story here

The sound of Ireland is planning to return to FM broadcasting in Dublin around St Patrick’s day, but RadioToday are reporting that they’re still awaiting licence approval.

Despite this, the station has secured a primary sponsor, with the Department of Foreign Affairs backing the broadcaster once again this year.

They are also giving away €5,000 in free advertising to deserving businesses across Ireland. This is a really cool initiative, so hopefully the station gets its licence in time.

I love good Pop Up stations, so will be interested to have a listen. The station returns on march 11th for an 8 day run, subject to licence of course.

Read the story here

Quick Bits

RnaG will carry ads for the first time

Simon Delaney has a new show on lyric FM

Red FM are looking for a producer to join the Neil Prendeville show

Mari Hurley is RTE’s new Chief Financial Officer

The Radio 1 Folk Awards have taken place

A 98FM presenter who made history interviewing the Taoiseach in drag at government buildings was told to kill himself by online trolls

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This Week In Radio 24/2/2024 (everyone’s leaving their roles)

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

Here’s What Happened

Virgin Radio host Graham Norton has announced that he’s leaving his weekend show on the station.

It’s unclear what exactly his next move will be or where he’s going, but this weekend will be his last in his current slot. Graham isn’t leaving the station completely apparently, but that’s really all we know for now.

Graham joined from BBC radio 2 three years ago, but continues to host his tv chat show on the BBC. He also commentates on the UK coverage of Eurovision, and hosts the Irish version of the Last One Laughing format on Prime Video.

It’s an interesting move, and time will tell what’s next for Graham. Ryan Tubridy Recently Joined Virgin Radio, so the station still has Irish Voices on the schedule. Another Irish voice in the form of Angela Scanlon will cover the slot for the next few weeks.

Read the story here

A former 2FM presenter, Chris Greene, has withdrawn his allegations against RTÉ at the workplace relations commission.

The presenter claimed he was penalised as a whistleblower and subsequently sacked by RTE after he made allegations regarding sexual harassment in the workplace. The hearing was set to start this week at the WRC, but the parties reached an agreement ahead of this and the claims were withdrawn.

RTE were arguing throughout this case that Chris Greene was not an employee. If you want to read more about this story you can check out the link below.

Read the story here

Finally for now, a story I’m sure you’ve heard already. The chair of the Rte board, Siún Ní Raghallaigh, resigned this week following the minister failing to express confidence in her during a Prime Time interview.

The way in which this matter was handled has resulted in criticism for the minister, who is now set to appear in front of the Media Committee next week.

Siún Ní Raghallaigh reportedly told Cathrin Martin that the board of Rte had no involvement in approving recent exit payments. She then called the department on Thursday to correct the record in relation to this. The minister then went on prime time, saying that she had been misinformed. She also failed to express confidence in the chair.

Siún Ní Raghallaigh resigned just hours later, in a statement issued just before 1AM. In that statement she said that she had informed the department of the board approving the payments back in October.

It’s all a bit of a mess, and the drama continues. Hopefully we can see this whole thing come to an end soon as at the end of the day public service media is just getting weaker and weaker.

Read the story here

Quick Bits

Beat hosted their first podcast recording with an audience

Fm104 are giving away €20,000 in a Quid Games competition

2FM are playing Take Me To Taylor, where listeners need to here two swift tracks in a row to be in with a chance to make the final

Jen Larke has a new show on Classic Hits Radio at the weekend

A defamation case related to media ownership was before the court this week

This Week In Radio 17/2/2024 (who owns what?)

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

Here’s what Happened

A new website has been launched to track who owns what in Irish media.

The project is a partnership between DCU, ⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩ and some international partners. The site has an incredible amount of detail and covers wider context on the background and other interests of media owners.

The site covers radio, television, print and digital media, and dives deep into the individuals and companies that own and control Irish media outlets.

You’d honestly be very surprised by what you’d find in some ways. as even on the radio side there are a lot of individuals holding significant amounts of control..

the media ownership monitor Ireland site will be updated for at least the next three years and I’d highly recommend checking it out. Well done to everyone involved, a fantastic resource.

View the website here

RTE were back in front of the media committee this week for another grilling. Targets this time were the director of HR who got strongly criticised for signing off on an exit package that former director general Dee Forbes agreed with the broadcasters former CFO.

Meanwhile Kevin Bakhurst was challenged on the value of the Callan’s Kicks contract. Callan’s Kicks is made by a production company unlike most other shows on Radio 1. While it is true that some presenters have their own production companies, the shows on the prime time schedule are still made by RTE. As far as I can tell this isn’t the case with Callan’s Kicks. This means the fee for the show would also include all voice actor pay etc.

Other criticisms were aimed at Bakhurst too, such as those related to his decision to pause licence fee ads on other broadcasters. Kevin says this was done as it felt inappropriate to ask for payment at that point in time, and he also wanted to pause discretionary spending.

I’d be interested to know. Do you think Kevin Bakhurst was right to pause spending on Licence fee ads during the RTE crisis? Let us know your thoughts on our Instagram story.

Read the story here

Irish American siblings who host a Radio show in Chicago

Finally for now there was an interesting article about an Irish American radio Show published this week.

The Irish hour has been a family run radio show airing in Chicago for more than 70 years. It’s played a massive part in the lives of the family and the Irish community alike.

It’s incredible to see the longevity of some of these Irish American shows, especially considering they’re not heard much over here. If you’re looking for an interesting read check out the article linked below.

Read the story here

Quick Bits

A pub in Croke Park wants a radio station to broadcast live from their bar

⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩ take on their new role as an online safety regulator as of today

Podcast series runaway Joe has been topping the charts

World radio day took place this week

Linda Coogan Byrne from Why Not Her has criticised radio stations for not playing music from Bambie Thug

This week in radio 10/2/2024 (it’s JNLR time again)

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 time once again to chat about JNLR numbers. Every 3 months we get a chance to see who’s up and down in the latest round of the radio listenership wars.

As always we can’t cover every station, but we’ll cover the main national players. Let’s get down to business.

Click here to skip the JNLR stuff

Let’s begin with Irelands biggest radio station in the form of Radio 1. They seemed to have a generally good book this time, with only small dips in parts.

Morning Ireland had a really nice listenership jump this book and is up 23,000 to a huge 486,000. Could they cross half a million listeners? Time will tell.
343,000 tune into the 9AM slot which is down a small 4,000. This isn’t worth much concern for now as the slot just got a new host, and was up 13,000 in the previous book anyway.
Claire Byrne jumped 10,000 and now sits at 341,000. There’s an opportunity to grow that with the referendums in march, but time will tell how that plays out.
Louise Duffy gained 1,000 listeners which is the same as last time. She now has 214,000 tuning in each day.
News at One with Bryan Dobson has 306,000 listeners, which is 3,000 up from last time.
Joe Duffy gained 1,000 and now has 303,000 tuning in each day.
186,000 tune into Ray Darcy each day. That’s a 1,000 listener drop
221,000 listen to drive time. That’s up 2,000

Rte saw good weekend performance for Radio 1 also, so in all not a bad book. People tend to turn to Rte for big referendums and elections so maybe RTE can benefit from that, but we’ll need to wait and see.

Over on the young people’s station also known as 2FM, there were a few small drops. Everything is holding steady though so it’s nothing too concerning.

2FM breakfast is down 3,000 and now sits at 146,000. They had an incredible streak for a while and gained 11,000 in the last book, so this really isn’t too bad.
Jennifer Zamparelli hasn’t had any change from last time and now sits at 136,000 listeners
113,000 tune into Tracy Clifford, also unchanged from last time.
The 2 johnnies had a small dip, but are still doing great. they lost 1,000 and now have 150,000 listeners. That’s still the most listened to show on the station.

2FM had an exceptional book last time so this is standard enough. They had good weekend performance so all in all it’s a grand book.

Now it’s over to Bauer, which has become the most listened to radio group in the country thanks to its recent purchase of Iradio. Even though RTE had a great book across the board, Bauer now has a larger presence in the market.

Today FM are doing very well and are closing in on the 1 million weekly listeners mark.

228,000 listen to Ian Dempsey each morning. That’s up 3,000
There’s a glitch in the system for Dave Moore’s slot. Back in November Bauer, Goss, and ourselves here at radio land all reported a figure of 227,000. The new figures from Bauer claim an audience of 230,000, and a book on book jump of 2,000. The maths are wrong somewhere, but it’s not currently clear where.
Louise Cantillon has an audience of 140,000, that’s up 8,000
Ray Foley is down 1,000 and now has 163,000 tuning in
It’s up 4,000 for Matt Cooper who now has 186,000

Today fm was tough to calculate this time as they didn’t generally compare books. When they did it revealed maths errors somewhere along the line. All in all though things look healthy with that weekly reach of 1 million now looking very achievable.

It’s good news for Newstalk, with listener gains across the schedule. There’s really nothing to give out about.

149,000 Listeners tune into Newstalk Breakfast, which is a jump of 5,000.
The Pat Kenny Show had another incredible boost with an extra 11,000 tuning in. He now sits at 216,000
Lunchtime Live now has a very respectable 113,000 Listeners and is up 6,000
Moncrieff has 115,000 listening each day and is up 5,000. There appears to be an error in the Newstalk post about these numbers, but the 115,000 seems to be correct. Don’t undersell yourselves Newstalk☺️
More maths issues for the hard shoulder so I’m just going to use Newstalk numbers. 153,000 listeners which they say is up 6,000. They said he had 148,000 last time.

Things look good across the board for Newstalk so I’m sure they will be happy enough. They like Radio 1 have a chance to gain listeners with referendum and election coverage, so the next few books will be interesting.

Other stations

Here are a few links so you can look at other coverage. All in all it seems like the industry continues to tick along nicely.

RTE

The Independent

Ad World

In other news

⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩ have announced the details of two new rounds of the Sound And Vision funding scheme.

Both will be open rounds and will provide funding for culturally valuable broadcast content. The rounds will also be open to broadcasters and producers looking to make shows in the Irish language.

It’s unclear if the recent drop in licence fee revenue will impact these rounds, but it will likely be something we see have some influence at least. It’s a shame in many ways, as Sound and Vision has traditionally resulted in some hugely valuable pieces of public service broadcasting.

Round 53 will open on the 9th of April and close on the 30th of may. Decisions for that round are expected in August. October 15th will see the opening of round 54, with it set to close on the 28th of November. if Christmas fm is on air, your too late. Decisions for round 54 are expected in February 2025.

Best of luck to those applying, hopefully we’ll get great content out of it.

Read the story here

Finally for now, Joe Duffy is not leaving RTE. Everyone can calm down.

Reports in the press this week stated that Joe Duffy had not asked for a new contract. This turned into Joe might leave RTE. It was all a bit of a fuss over nothing, as joes contract isn’t up until next year.

Joe had stated last year that his most recent contract renewal might be the last negotiation he has with RTE. He did not announce his departure or anything like it.

It’s amazing how a simple comment can turn into such a storm. For now at least you can continue to enjoy Joe on LiveLine, and we’ll see what happens next year.

Read the story here

Quick bits

Beat 102 103 have launched a fantastic new media literacy programme

Rachael English has said she still needs income from her radio work despite being a successful author

Today FM have teamed up with ESB to give away tech to schools

An eir giggly bits ad had a complaint upheld this week, with a TG4 documentary having its complaint partialy upheld. All good on radio front though