2022 (Everyone loves new jingle’s)

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

Here’s what happened

There are new jingles on air at RTÉ Gold. The new package, which has been created by Wisebuddah went on air this week. Aidan Leonard, Senior Producer at RTÉ Gold told Radio Land about the new package, and how RTÉ 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 RTÉ Gold

Personally I’m a fan of the new package. It’s upbeat and positive, and I think it fits the brand well. There’s 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 RTÉ Radio Player.

Listen to RTÉ Gold on our listen page here

Here’s presenter Rick O’Sheas tweet about the new package

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 don’t 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 it’s 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

Get the details here

Finally this week it’s 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 we’ve covered it in depth before, so if you need a refresher feel free to check out our past coverage.

Check out our past coverage here

The latest update is that the IBI (independent broadcasters of Ireland) have called for an inquiry into the conduct of Wexford County Council.

They’ve written to minister for local government Darragh O’Brien to ask what action he plans to take, and they’ve 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. We’ve 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 it’s certainly not done yet.

Read the story from the Irish Times here

Quick Bits

Newstalks new chief reporter has spoken about his new role and his favourite news story to cover

Tracy Clifford has said radio listenership doesn’t define her, and that she’ll always be a Perfectionist On Air

The company behind the Irish Podcast Awards has been sold

Classic Hits have crowned Irelands best Classic Hit, I don’t agree with their Choice but I’m in my 20s so whatever

Roz & Emma are filling in for the 2 Johnnies on 2FM while the boys film a show in the states

There was an interesting article about radio sessions in the Irish Examiner this week

Dublin South FM have launched a new community podcast studio in the Dundrum Town Centre

Newstalk helped a couple sort a wedding venue this week

Today is RTEs national day of creativity for young people

Irish Reddit had a rant about how awful Irish radio is, but thats hardly unusual at this point

Final tiny thing

You might have noticed that we’ve changed our title format slightly to include a subtitle, do you like the change? If so we’ll keep it, if not we’ll ditch it. You can vote on our Twitter now.

You can have your say here, thanks for your feedback

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 30/4/2022

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

Here’s what happened

The leader of the opposition, Mary Lou McDonald, is taking legal action against RTÉ.

The Irish Times are reporting details of the case, but we at Radio Land have not been able to verify their information. We don’t have any reason to doubt their reporting, but we want to be very careful as legal proceedings are ongoing.

This story has been well reported, so we’re going to provide links to a number of sources covering the story. The Irish Times has the most detail, but you might find it interesting for example to see how RTÉ are covering the legal action against themselves.

Here are a few of the reports:

The NUJ (National Union Of Journalists) have also commented on the situation. you can read that at the link below.

All we can really do with stories like this is wait and see what happens. Hopefully things can be resolved quickly.

Read the story about the NUJ response here

It’s got a backstory longer than Taylor Vs Serrano at this point, but the drama between south east Radio and Wexford county council has more updates.

Missed our previous coverage?

For a basic recap of everything check out instalment Three.

What’s the latest

The long and short of it is that the head of south East Radio, Eamonn Buttle, has asked for an independent enquiry into the matter. He has also asked for an apology after he feel’s he was defamed by David Minogue, Wexford county council secretary.

The apology request comes as a result of Minogue accusing Buttle of leaking emails to the press. Minogue now excepts this isn’t what happened, resulting in Buttle saying, “I await your apology in this regard.”

So, that’s one side of the story, the other side is the enquiry.

Minogue apparently reiterated his requests for a service level agreement with the station, a request that again received a strong rejection from Buttle.

Following Buttle’s email, Minogue, who is also the ethics registrar, forwarded on buttles complaint to the cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council as well as the council’s chief executive.

After Minogue forwarded the complaint about himself, The cathaoirleach of the council contacted Buttle to inform him that she was considering further action under the terms of the Local Government act 2001.

Buttle then requested the independent enquiry.

The amount of back and forth in this story is insane, but the Irish Times have done a great job once again covering the situation. While I have covered everything, I have had to simplify somewhat, so I’d recommend reading the Irish Times coverage for all the details.

This is a very serious story so it’s one we’ll continue covering as things develop. It’s not the kind of fun radio stuff that I enjoy covering, I’d much rather we were discussing jingle packages honestly, but being aware of this situation is very important.

Read the Story here

A new social networking platform has launched dedicated to those in the radio industry, or those with an interest in radio.

The Radio Space has been created by Nails Mahoney and Tracey Lee who some of you may know from OnAirCoach. The space is built on the Mighty Network’s platform and is already growing fast.

The reason we started The Radio Space is because, no matter how many Groups people join on Facebook etc, they never fully get to be ‘radio people’ on there. So, we figured – a place only for radio people. Where our terms are understood, our quirks are enjoyed and our knowledge is valued. This is social media for radio people. No one else! Also, with no algorithm, you get to see who and what you want..not what the site hands to you. That’s a big plus. We’re very excited for what this can become and also really thrilled at the amount of people who signed up at the launch. Radio is alive and kicking!!
Nails and Tracey from OnAirCoach/ The Radio Space – speaking to Radio Land

It will be interesting to see how this space grows over time, but I do think the concept has lots of potential.

If you’d like, you can also now follow Radio Land on The Radio Space. We plan to experiment with posting our news posts to the platform over the next few weeks so why not give us a follow?

Very best of luck to the team with this new project, this will be really interesting to watch over the next few months.

Check out The Radio Space here

Quick Bits

Wireless Radio ROI LTD, who run 96FM, FM104 and a number of other Regional stations made a pre tax loss of €4,44 million

RTE won broadcaster of the year at the New York Radio Awards

The new Radiocentre Ireland website has launched

RTE’s Live Dawn Chorus is going to be simulcast with the BBC this weekend

Spin is the official radio partner for Longitude 2022

CSN student Tony Sayers won radio dj of the year at the student media awards

RedFM became EdFM to celebrate Ed Sheeran’s concerts in cork

Jennifer Zamparelli has said she has no problem sharing her sex life on radio

Rebel Prisoner, a new radio documentary airs tomorrow morning on Newstalk

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 16/4/2022

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

Here’s what happened

MEPs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly are taking legal action against RTÉ. As of now, it’s unclear what the case relates to and it’s unclear how RTÉ will respond.

The two MEP’s have taken seperate actions, but are both being represented by Dore & Co solicitors. Interestingly, Robert Dore has been involved in a legal dispute with RTÉ previously. Robert represented Fr Kevin Reynolds in his case against RTÉ a number of years ago, this case resulted in RTÉ apologising.

The MEP’s have been in the news in Ireland and abroad recently, mainly as a result of there opposition to the EU sending arms to Ukraine.

We’re just going to need to wait and see how this story unfolds over the next while.

Read the story from The Journal here

A new breakfast show has launched at Midlands 103, with Peter Dunne replacing Ann Marie Kelly in the slot. Ann Marie had been hosting breakfast for 10 years, and will now be hosting a late night show on Fridays.

I must admit, while I have heard many breakfast shows from both Ireland and abroad in my time, I’ve never heard the breakfast show on Midland’s 103. I actually haven’t heard much of the station at all over the years so it might be time to give them a listen.

It’s important when working in radio to listen to stuff all over the place, this can give you new interesting ideas on how you can improve your own radio work. So,, this week I’ll have a listen to the new midlands 103 breakfast show, and I’ll share my findings over on the Radio Land Twitter.

Very best of luck to Peter from us here at Radio Land, I look forward to hearing the show during the week.

Read the story here

Finally this week, we got an update on the dispute between Wexford county council and South East Radio. If your out of the loop on this one, have a read of last week’s Radio Land as that has all the details.

The update this week is that the Wexford County Council Secretary has apologised for the email he sent to South East Radio.

In short, he apologised to the councillors for worsening the relationship between the council and the station.

“I wish to apologise to the Elected Members and to my colleagues at Wexford County Council for the manner in which my well-intentioned efforts to rebuild a strong working relationship between the Council and South East Radio have given rise to public controversy. It would appear this is exactly what has happened in relation to my email of 25thMarch 2022 to South East Radio. My email and its contents were designed to improve the working relationship between Wexford County Council and South East Radio, not to damage it further as I appear inadvertently to have done.”
Statement from council secretary David Minogue

As with our coverage of this last week, I’d highly recommend reading the Irish Times article on this. They have done a fantastic job covering the story so well done to them.

As I said last week, I hope this can be resolved. A relationship between media and the council can benefit both sides, but any control over content can’t work.

Read the story here

Quick Bits

RTE News has announced John Kilraine as the new London correspondent

Shaun Doherty of Highland Radio has announced he’s training to become a priest

Sunday With Miriam is up for sponsorship. It’s €45,000 for 6 months or €75,000 for a year

Two new presenters have joined Clare FM

A new round of Sound And Vision has opened

Folk On One is a new Folk music show launching tonight on Radio One

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 9/4/2022

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

Here’s what Happened

The BAI have upheld in part a complaint against the Neil Prendeville show. The complaint, which was made by Louise Harrington on behalf of Cork Traveller Women’s Network alleged that an interview with cork City counsellor Ken O’Flynn had contained a number of inaccuracies. The complaint further alleged that the interview was not conducted in an Objective or impartial manner.

The complainant felt that not only did the views of the guest not get challenged, but that they were reinforced by a number of comments made by the presenter.

“I give up! I give up!”
“Ah, come here, are we mugs or what, like?”
“This is intolerable”
“Ok, I think people have a much clearer opinion now and a much clearer idea as to what is going on and also, we’ve corrected some of the numbers. Ken, thank you so much”

All this was sparked by a report from the ombudsman For Children’s Office, and focused on the resedents of the Spring Lane halting site

You can read the full details of the BAI’s findings at the link below, but here are the main bits.

The BAI found that the presenter didn’t sufficiently challenge Ken’s views, and the broadcast didn’t reflect the views of those who contacted the show but didn’t want to go on air

“The bai felt these allegations and the manner in which they were treated in the broadcast presented stereotypical views about Travellers and showed no respect for the people who live in the Spring Lane halting site. They said the broadcast contained an inappropriate and unjustifiable representation of the residents of Spring Lane halting site and of Travellers generally and that the content amounted to a stigmatisation of Travellers,

There’s more stuff too but I’d recommend having a look at the BAI’s findings for more info.

It’s hard to know what to say about stories like this, but we can only hope that lesson’s are learned here and that this doesn’t happen again. It sounds simple, but just showing people a bit more respect could have avoided this issue.

Read the BAI’s complaints decisions here

Now it’s time to go back in time!!!

You might remember us previously covering the story about the chief executive of Wexford county council threatening to pull advertising from South East Radio. It led to a standards in public office investigation which criticised the chief executive, but eventually the counsel voted not to take any action on the report.

The last we heard of this story was the county manager getting a standing ovation over the incident. If you’ve missed our coverage of this you can check it out here.

Now though, back to the present.

It’s all happened again. This time the county secretary has asked south east radio to agree that presenters can’t share there views on air in exchange for advertising amounting to between €40,000 and €50,000

They also requested that the station keep all its audio for 2 years so that any dispute can be easily resolved.

The managing director of south east radio, Eamonn Buttle, has reminded the station of the recent investigation findings as well as pointing out that the BAI is the regulator of radio stations, and that the councel can’t become a “quasi-regulator” in exchange for advertising revenue.

The Irish Times have done some fantastic coverage of this situation which I’d really recommend you read at the link below.

This is a very messy situation unfortunately. But hopefully both parties can sort this out. For a local station like south east Radio council ads are essential, but any closer relationship is dangerous.

Read the article here

Finally this week, a number of Irish media organisations have come together to launch the Ireland For Ukraine fundraising effort. Those from the world of digital,tv, radio and print have all come on board to support the project with RTÉ and IBI involved from the radio side.

50% of the money raised will be split between a number of international aid agencies including Irish Red Cross, UNICEF Ireland, Concern Worldwide and Trócaire while the other 50% will be made available as grants to organisations supporting Ukrainians here in Ireland.

It’s fantastic to see collaboration in the media industry and especially when it’s for such a good cause. well done to everyone involved from us at Radio Land.

Check out the project here

Quick Bits

Red FM gave away a €15,000 wedding prize this week in their first dance competition

RTE News has been awarded a global journalism trust mark

BBC Radio Ulster’s the Nolan Show is causing controversy

Radiocentre Ireland are holding a launch event in the Aviva stadium

Rick O’Shea is taking a short break from RTÉ Gold. He will be back after Easter

The home of a Radio Éireann producer has gone on the market,

Will you shift my friend? Is a new podcast from Spin 1038’s Graham And Nathan

A number of Ukrainian women have started training at Radio Kerry

Clair Byrne was back broadcasting from her shed thanks to Covid

Cork City Community Radio received an interesting request this week

Mairead Ronan says she thinks a time will come when she regrets leaving radio

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 8/1/2022

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

Here’s what happened

The standards in public office commission has issued a report this week related to the chief executive of Wexford County Council allegedly putting pressure on South East Radio.

According to the Irish Times, the report found that Tom Enright put “unwarranted” pressure on a local radio station when he threatened to withdraw council advertising during a dispute over coverage

Mr Enright however has said he believed the findings were “flawed and disproportionate” and he was taking legal advice.

I’m unfortunately not going to be able to include all the details of this story here, but I would highly recomend the Irish Times article linked below as they have gone into fantastic detail.

While the dispute is and should be the main focus of this story, it has also led to some interesting financial numbers being seen in public.

In an email to south east radio, Mr Enright wrote: “Wexford County Council is currently reviewing our commercial relationship with you. We have spent over €160K with SE Radio in the past 18 months, he also said that this is “A lot of money to a radio station that facilitates inaccurate and damaging commentary on positive initiatives that the council and others are trying to achieve in order to make Wexford a better place.”
According to the head of south east radio, the council spent a total of around €63,000 on advertising in 2019
That number was down to about €46,000 in 2020, despite the pandemic

These are interesting numbers for sure so make of them what you will. As I said I can’t provide as much detail here as the Irish Times so I’d really recommend you read their work on this story.

Read the story from the Irish Times here

Waterford’s WLR has announced that their Christmas Appeal has raised a massive €101,349 for St Vincent De Paul in the county. This is great news and something we should hopefully see more of in the coming weeks as Christmas FM announce how much they’ve raised.

Well done to the many stations who raised money over Christmas, it really makes a massive difference.

Read the story here

Finally this week, RTÉ have announced the shortlist for their Choice Music prize album of the year. The winner will be announced live from an event at Vicar St, Dublin, with the event also airing live on 2FM

Tickets for the event on the 3rd of March can be purchased now through Ticketmaster

Check out the shortlist here

Quick Bits

Radio Nova has started playing Vinyl

There was a great article in the Farmers Journal this week on how media has evolved

Tara Duggan has left her role as head of news at Classic Hits and is moving to a new job with Bauer

2FM have aired a 4 part documentary on dance music in 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.