2023 (it doesn’t take long)

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

Here’s What Happened

Iradio has been officially purchased by Bauer Media, giving the German company an even bigger presence in the Irish market.

Bauer immediately started to make their mark, launching the IRadio Cash machine. You can now text yes to 57557 at a cost of €2.50 for your chance to win. Other stations use phrases like win, spin and red so that Bauer can track what stations are bringing in the cash.

It’s crazy to see how quickly Bauer can integrate a station into their network after a purchase. The deal went through on Monday and the station has basically been integrated within a week.

The GoLoud network now consists of Iradio, Red FM, OTB sport, Newstalk, today fm, 98FM, Spin 1038, spin south west, as well as a number of GoLoud branded stations and main brand spin offs. Bauer also operate various ad companies such as sales house media central and digital platform AudioXi.

The scale of the company is crazy to think about, but ever since buying Communicorp they’ve been incredibly committed to expansion.

Best of luck to all at Iradio on their new journey with Bauer.

Read the story here

There’s a brand new lunchtime show coming to today FM in 2024. Louise Cantillon will be taking over the 12-2 slot on the station from the 8th of January.

Louise has hosted lots of shows in the Irish language, and in recent years has been a host on the selection show for Irelands junior Eurovision entry on TG4. It’s unclear if there will be Irish language elements in the new show, but it would be a lovely touch.

Louise takes over from Pamela Joyce, who recently left Today FM. It’s a big show with a large listenership, so it’s a massive move for Louise.

Best wishes to Louise on the new gig from us at Radio Land.

Read the story here

Finally for now, Wexford county council and South East Radio are at war again. It’s an insane story, so let’s try go through the basics.

About 2 years ago, in a dispute over coverage of Wexford County council, it was alleged that the councils chief executiveTom Enright threatened to pull advertising spend from South East Radio. South East Radio felt this was a threat to press freedom, and long story short there was a standards in public office investigation that criticised mr Enright. The councillors voted not to act on this.

The county secretary repeated history by asking that presenters wouldn’t share their opinions in exchange for between €40,000 and €50,000, and that also caused a falling out between the parties.

And don’t forget about the time the two sides fell out over an online clock. you can read about the entire backstory here, but in short the relationship between Wexford county council and South East Radio is extremely extremely messy.

What’s happened now

Remember Tom Enright, so he’s now been banned from the premises of South East Radio following what the station called an unprovoked verbal assault on presenter Alan Corcoran. The incident took place following an interview at the station, and South East Radio say Alan Corcoran had to be sent for a medical assessment following the incident.

Tom Enright has denied these allegations.

Lawyers have been engaged on both sides it seems, and the whole thing is nothing short of a mess.

The Irish Times cover this story in way more detail, so I’d encourage you to give their article a read.

Read the story here

Quick bits

Q102 are swapping their schedule around a bit when Tubridy starts

The Labour Party have asked the government to look at the effectiveness of a €1.1 million ad spend on social media to consider if it could be better spent on local radio

Rónán Mac Aodha Bhuí obituary from the Irish Times

Bauer has got a new logo

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 17/6/2023 (this controversial clock is actually kind of important)

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

Here’s what happened

KC is leaving the breakfast show at Corks 96FM to return to rival station Red FM. The move marks Bauers first presenter shake up since buying red FM earlier this year.

As part of the deal, KC will also have occasional hosting duties on Today FM, which is also owned by Bauer. KC has hosted on both stations before, starting with the Red Rooster in Red FM’s early days. he then moved to Today FM, before returning to Red FM for the KC Show with KC and Jay.

96FM poached the KC Show before eventually rebranding it to KC and Ross in the morning, and now Red FM have poached KC back. That’s some radio journey.

96FM are moving Loraine to host alongside Ross on breakfast, so it’s going to be an interesting few weeks ahead.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Bauer Media family and returning to Cork’s Red FM, the station that kick-started my radio journey. It feels like coming home. I cannot wait to bring Cork our brand-new breakfast show which will be filled with messing, music and chats with listeners who have been incredibly supportive throughout my career.”
KC’s statement following the news

Very best wishes to KC and everyone making moves as part of the deal. It’s going to be fun to see it all play out.

Read the story here

Wireless group owned radio station Pride Vibes has launched on FM for the first time after receiving a licence from ⁨Coimisiún na Meán⁩.

The station launched as an online only service last year, but is back this year with its first run on FM. McDonald’s, Dalata and Voltarol are all on board as sponsors showing their support for the LGBTQ+ community.

Presenters on the service include Sean Munsanje, Shivani Dave, Crossy, Stephen Byrne, Vicki Blight and Brian Kennedy. Sean Munsanje is also taking on the role of station manager.

We’ve seen a lot of temporary stations on air recently, with The Sound Of Ireland, Classic Hits 80s, and freedom FM all having temporary FM broadcasts in recent times. We’ve also heard talk of a permanent Irish language youth station coming down the road, so it looks like there’s exciting times ahead.

Best of luck to everyone involved in Pride Vibes, it’s cool to see stations popping up like this.

You can listen on the following frequencies, Dublin 105.2FM, Cork 106.7FM and 88.7FM, Limerick 105.5FM, Galway 87.9FM, North East 104.2FM and South East 103.8FM. The station is also available nationwide on http://www.pridevibes.ie.

Read the story here

A countdown timer showing 0 days, 0 hours and 0 minutes, with text underneath saying this is a matter of life and death

South east radio has been criticised over a clock showing the time the emergency department at Wexford General hospital has been closed.

A fire at the hospital saw the emergency department close for months, leading the radio station to put a clock on its website counting how long it had been closed.

Right next to the play button, a clock said “WEXFORD A&E IS NOW CLOSED FOR: ……time.….. THIS IS A MATTER OF LIFE & DEATH”.

A simple protest, but not everyone was approving of the clock. In a speach thanking everyone for their hard work, Fianna Fáil’s New Ross councillor Michael Sheehan took aim at South East Radio saying “I hope our public broadcasters will be a little more understanding now and won’t be carrying on with this ticking time clock now that we have a date.”

Leaving aside the fact that South East Radio isn’t technically a public broadcaster, the point was still clear. Michael Sheehan didn’t like the clock. South East Radio has had a rough relationship with Wexford County Council in recent times, as their were threats made to advertising spend due to perceived negative coverage.

While it’s easy to look at this and dismiss it as a politician not liking a clock on a website, it’s a bigger deal in the context of press freedom. It’s a messy situation and one that’s worth being aware of.

I’d highly recommend you check out our previous coverage on the South East Radio Council dispute, as it will give you important context for this story. Our coverage of that situation can all be found here.

You can also get more details on the whole clock incident below.

Read the story here

Quick Bits

A pop up station will launch in august to commemorate Irelands first commercial radio station 2BP

The Why Not Her Campaign have released a new report covering airplay for female artists and artists of colour

Here’s an article and podcast about the impact GAA on radio has for Irish people living abroad

Dave Macs case has been covered in phoenix magazine

RTÉ presenter Aidan O’Hara has died aged 84

The Reuters Institute Digital News Report has been published

This Week In Radio 11/6/2022 (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.