Well to be honest I thought we were having a genuine conversation, but in typical fashion it all comes down to petty digs 
I had no idea that he had worked in Cork, even less so why that would make any difference,
But anyway…,
Breakfast radio makes gains but Ray D’Arcy and Liveline lose listeners
Morning Ireland stretches lead as most listened-to programme on Irish radio
BRENDAN O’CONNOR: LOST LISTENERS ON SATURDAY BUT GAINED THEM ON SUNDAY
LAURA SLATTERYBreakfast radio shows on national stations RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ 2FM, Today FM and Newstalk have all added listeners in 2022, but Radio 1’s The Ray D’Arcy Show and Liveline are among the afternoon programmes to see their audience shrink.
Their gains at breakfast and a positive performance in mid-morning meant Today FM and Newstalk, which are owned by German media group Bauer, were both upbeat about the latest Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) survey of radio audiences, which covers the 12 months to the end of June 2022.
Today FM has increased its market share of peak-time listening to 9.1 per cent – its highest in more than a decade – while Newstalk has reached a record share of 7.2 per cent. Radio 1?s share is at 21.3 per cent, while 2FM’s edged up to 5.8 per cent.
Head of Radio 1 Peter Woods said the broadcaster would wait until further figures are available in autumn to examine a drop-off in its afternoon listenership at a time when its morning shows are on an upward trajectory. “We are not 100 per cent sure on the afternoons, but we have seen a drift off from the end of News at One, and that peters out at the end as well,” Mr Woods said. Ray D’Arcy’s audience fell below the 200,000 mark to 197,000 for the year to the end of June. This has dropped from a 2020 high of 242,000 to what is the lowest full-year listenership for the slot since he took it over in 2015, shortly after rejoining RTÉ from Today FM.
Downward path
Liveline’s listenership, now at 332,000, has been on a downward path since its 2020 pandemic high of 404,000 Mr Woods said the phone-in show, presented by Joe Duffy, was “not seeing a drop-off” in communication from listeners and that the previous figures enjoyed by the programme, close to and above the 400,000 mark, had been “unsustainable”. Both Liveline and The Ray D’Arcy Show are still easily the biggest shows in their time slots. Morning Ireland comfortably remains the most-listened-to show on Irish radio with 473,000 listeners. After slipping last year from a pandemic peak of 491,000 in 2020, the audience for Radio 1’s news and current affairs flagship has been climbing again throughout 2022. Ryan Tubridy now has 369,000 listeners, with his show making gains in the past three surveys.
Today with Claire Byrne has 350,000 listeners, having risen above both its 2021 audience and the pre-pandemic figures seen before Byrne became host.
Radio 1 also had a number of strong performers on the weekend, with Sunday with Miriam climbing to 339,000 listeners and Saturday’s Playback now on 358,000 listeners.
Brendan O’Connor has lost listeners on Saturday but gained them on Sunday, with his audience for the two days at 346,000 and 341,000 respectively. Dan Healy, head of 2FM and radio strategy for RTÉ, said he was “very happy” with gains for 2FM Breakfast with Doireann, Donncha and Carl. Their show, which first went on air at the end of May 2021, rose to 123,000 listeners. Drive It with The 2 Johnnies, the drivetime show that began in a stop-start fashion in the spring amid a sexism controversy, has 122,000 listeners. While this is down from the 129,000 audience the slot had in 2021, when it was occupied by Jenny Greene, Mr Healy said his new hires were “flying it” and – like its breakfast team and weekend presenter Laura Fox – bringing in a different audience to 2FM.
Pat Kenny
On Today FM, Ian Dempsey now has 201,000 listeners at breakfast, up from 178,000 in 2021. On Newstalk, the biggest show is Pat Kenny, who has 184,000 listeners.
Drivetime news and current affairs remains fiercely competitive across the national stations, with the latest figures showing Sarah McInerney and Cormac Ó hEadhra on Radio 1 have 216,000 listeners, The Last Word with Matt Cooper on Today FM has 174,000 and The Hard Shoulder on Newstalk, presented by Kieran Cuddihy, has 155,000.
Absolutely stunned I was
Like clockwork
1 Like
For the 2nd day in a row the national broadcaster has been updating us on the movements of Ms.Pelosi (Speaker of the House of Representatives) adding the rider that she’s second in command or similar guff to Sleepy Joe.
This is blatantly incorrect, surely this role is vested in the Vice-President Ms.Harris. I’m amazed that we’re being fed this balderdash by RTE.
The order of command is Joe, Kamala and Nancy in that order. A strongly worded missive needs to be published on the Presidential website.
@glenshane , kindly do the needful.
Shouldn’t be too hard to check but where did they get the idea that Nancy is second in charge?The new Washington correspondent perhaps🤷 Anyway this is the official line of succession should POTUS vacate the position suddenly.
1 Like
No, Whalen on the TV news has the pecking order right. Clearly Philip Boucher Hayes has a mole inside the forum here and has issued swift corrective memoranda. I’ll keep my ear tuned tomorrow.
1 Like
Ursula to win Dancing With The Stars 2023.
Think she’s pregnant right now so maybe 2024 is more realistic.
Sharon was looking radiant on the 9 o’clock news yesterday evening. She’s a Rolls Royce of a news presenter.
1 Like
Wil the judges give her wan wan
Sean O Rourke is back on the payroll I see?
Sorry I mean is being paid for his consulting services so he can avoid paying the same rate of tax as the rest of us.
Why not give new blood a chance? His pension is worth more than an entry wage at this stage ffs
2 Likes
They need to start the sport headlines with stories attributable to viewing figures…yes even to the detriment of gaa coverage.
The headline tonight was the Irish ladies rubgy team loosing to Japan. Now I’m all for fat housewives hobbies but don’t tell me the interest extended beyond two ould wans and a dog for that rubbish.
The same Day had a big premier League fixture list and a southern hemisphere male rugby championship fixture list well behind the girls disappointment and sad feelings.
…Possibly one for the mysoginy thread…
Edgy
It’s very forced alright.
2 Likes
2 pages on it in last week’s Sunday Independent.
Claire Byrne interview: ‘If I were RTÉ, I would probably regret losing the Claire Byrne Live brand’
August 28 2022 02:30 AM
Premium
The presenter was willing to walk away from her popular show for the sake of her family
2
Claire Byrne said she probably will be back on TV next year. Picture by Fergal Phillips
“My husband says and said very little about it. But he did say this one thing: ‘I don’t mind if you do 57 programmes a week, it’s entirely up to you. But we, here at home, have to write you off on a Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and then you are back with us on a Wednesday [when the workload of her Monday night TV show would slow down each week]. But, whatever makes you happy, go and do it.’
“I realised I could do the TV show five nights a week and my family would say ‘that’s fine’. But it means something. It changes the dynamic of your life.”
For seven years the presenter tried to ‘have it all’. She presented the TV show every Monday night in addition to her radio show, which continues to air every Monday to Friday from 10am-12pm. And she did it all while being a mother to three young children at home.
When we meet for coffee in Dublin’s Donnybrook, she outlines what would have been her typical working week: wake Monday to Friday before 6am to cycle from her home in Wicklow and arrive at her desk before 7am five days a week. Then spending family time on a Sunday “wound up like a tightly coiled spring” — “anxious” about producing the show the following night.
It was a ratings winner, regularly going viral and attracting a 30pc market share. But it came at a price.
“My children accept that I am gone every morning before they wake up. But my youngest never accepted that I had to walk back out the door on a Monday — having only spent an hour with them on a Monday afternoon.
“She cried every time I left the house on a Monday. Every time. It broke my heart. She is five years old and she is starting school next week.”
Claire decided to give an interview to the RTÉ Guide last November revealing her exhaustion. “I was letting people know something had to give.”
She then had two meetings with RTÉ bosses, including the then managing director of news and current affairs Jon Williams.
“The answer I got back was that ‘the slot is the slot’. And I understand that argument. News and current affairs has three TV slots. That slot and the two Prime Time slots. And my head is not big enough to think that I can just take one of the other slots.”
She is magnanimous when reflecting on RTÉ’s side of the talks. “It wasn’t in their gift to change that just because it didn’t suit the presenter.”
Video of the Day
Dog is seen playing Keepie uppies with heart-shaped balloon
Video by: Getty Images
Could they not have worked something out? “OK you could argue that but they didn’t — and that is fine. So then I am left in a situation where I have to make a decision. And I decided not to continue. Big call.
“My guess is that it wasn’t expected in RTÉ. But I feel very strong and I feel like it took guts and courage. I feel like I took back my own power in making that call.”
Did she offer any alternatives?
“Not really. I couldn’t say Claire Byrne Live should go out at such a time on such a day. That was up to RTÉ to figure out. I felt as though there was no other place for it and I wasn’t getting anything back. Nobody was saying to me ‘well here is what we could do instead’.
Would she have continued if RTÉ had found a solution? “Yes I probably would have, being honest. I think it is a pity that RTÉ has lost the Claire Byrne Live brand. I do think that’s a pity. But I can’t influence their decision. I am not naive about how TV schedules work and I would be mistaken if I thought they were going to move something in order to save it and ultimately they didn’t and that’s how we arrived here.
“So what I am saying to you is that I was prepared for the outcome. I took complete ownership of my decision knowing what the outcome would be and I have no regrets. Whether RTÉ have is a question for them. I don’t know how they feel about it.”
A month after her decision, Williams announced he was leaving the station. Claire says she “doesn’t know” whether it might change the situation.
“If I were RTÉ I would probably regret losing the Claire Byrne Live brand. Because I do think it was a good programme and I think the audience liked it. So maybe there is potential for the programme to come back down the line in a different place or in a different way.”
Earlier this month tennis champion Serena Williams announced her retirement from sport saying she “never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family”. Williams said: “If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this. I would be playing and winning.”
I ask Claire if we would be having this conversation if she was a man. “I don’t know the answer to that. All I know is that I wanted to spend time with my children.
“My mother didn’t work and my upbringing was that my dinner was ready every day and she was there with the fire on when I came home from school. I am working [outside the home] but I want to do it to a certain extent.
“I don’t know what a man would have done in my position. But do you know this argument that women can have it all? I turned that over in my head all the time — ‘you have it all and you are walking away from it’.
“But now I think it is more important to have choice. The next generation coming up — women in their 30s — you don’t have to do everything. Do what suits and works for you.
“Because sometimes I think ‘having it all’ means doing everything that everyone else wants and expects you to do. I had to go through that period to realise I absolutely love my work and I loved doing the show but that regime wasn’t making me happy.”
It’s fitting that we are meeting on what would have been her father Tom’s 87th birthday. He died in June last year and Claire says when she wants to feel his presence, she goes home to Laois and sits on his bed, where they said their last goodbye. It was her father’s death that prompted her to rethink her life.
“Maybe after he died I felt a little bit more freedom to make the decision. I know he would worry about me walking away from something like Claire Byrne Live. He always worked hard. He never stopped. There was no question of being tired. What’s a holiday? He taught us all to work hard and in my family we are all a little like that. It’s no harm to realise you don’t have to push at 120mph all the time. You can also put your foot on the brake.”
Would she like to be back on TV next year? “I’d say I probably will be. But having made that big decision, I will be very considered so I don’t end up in the same situation.
“Some people would probably see me as just being a ‘current affairs presenter’ but on the radio show I do all sorts of things so I think there is massive scope there.”
There is a strong feeling the next presenter of The Late Late Show will be a woman. Is that something that might spark her interest? She says it is “kind of rude” to suggest you would want someone else’s job while they are still in the chair.
“People think everyone has to aim for the Late Late but I think it’s better to invent something new for yourself rather than aiming for what already exists.”
Mother of Christ who cycles a bike 
3 Likes
Ryan Tubridy: ‘I’m not going anywhere yet, but I don’t see another 10 years on the Late Late for me’
August 28 2022 02:30 AM
1
Ryan Tubridy, who turns 50 next year, said the pandemic forced him to reassess his life. Picture by Fergal Phillips
Ryan Tubridy has said turning 50 next year will affect his decision on whether to continue as presenter of RTÉ’s Late Late Show.
The broadcaster was speaking ahead of his 14th year presenting the Friday night show. He took on the job after his predecessor Pat Kenny bowed out after 10 years in 2009. The late Gay Byrne had previously spent 35 years at the helm.
“I’m going to be 50 in May and that is important. That is going to feature in my thought process,” Tubridy said at RTÉ’s new season launch.
“This is my 14th year. I did five years on Tubridy Tonight so, yeah, I think I will be keeping an eye on everything in the next number of years. It won’t be today or tomorrow so I’m not going anywhere yet. But I don’t see a decade in it.”
Although he said he is “hungry” to continue presenting this season, “I think when the hunger stops, the game is over. I am still ambitious. The show still matters to me. I have something slightly more to prove to myself as well. I think I can be a little bit better and I hope to do that this season.”
But he said the pandemic had made him reassess his life: “It gave me pause for thought. I don’t want to be running on a treadmill as a much older person at all. I want to enjoy life as much as I do now. And when I finish on the Late Late Show I am going to pursue other projects. I play parlour game tricks on myself about what they might be but it’s all dreamland. I don’t want to be older and burned out. I want to be older and excited still.”
Reflecting on Gay Byrne’s admission of wishing he had spent more time with his family, Tubridy said his work was a “joy” but “it comes at a price”.
“Gay worked so hard. He gave so much of himself in a way that I have not done. I suppose he was lucky there were no mobile phones in his day so when he was off, he was off,” Tubridy said.
"But when I am off, I am still on. And that’s a hazard of the job. I roll with that. It’s fine. But there will come a time when I will put it behind me and once you are off the TV, you are off the radar and you become — I hope — this loveable relic.”
On the ways in which the pandemic changed him, he said the forced lack of social contact made him “more comfortable in my own company”.
When lockdown came, he said, he “would finish the Late Late Show on a Friday and there was no beer and no green room. I would go home and have a couple of beers — Heaney or Kinnegar — and I would listen to Fiachna Ó Braonáin on the radio — the most beautiful voice playing gorgeous Irish music — and think about it all. And, in all my days, I never thought I’d be able to do that. I thought I’d go mad in my own company. But I thought, ‘Ah this is quiet nice’ and I slowed down”.
Meanwhile, he also touched on the point that interviewers must tread carefully when asking questions in a politically correct world. “Probably. That’s the current climate we live in. How long will it last? It will last [until] people get bored. It will last as long as people feel the answers are becoming more sanitised and people can no longer be themselves. I think viewers and listeners and readers will eventually say ‘Enough. We want people to be themselves. Please stop censoring and sanitising.’”
In April, Tubridy landed in hot water when he asked Derry Girls actress Jamie Lee-O’Donnell her age, a question she felt was “misogynistic”. The 30 year old, who plays teenager Michelle in the sitcom, claimed Tubridy would not have asked a male actor the same question.
This weekend he said: “I think when you are an interviewer [the question is] can you go to sleep at night knowing that you asked every question fairly, with good reason and without malice and — if you can do that — you sleep easy. And I sleep easy.”
I imagine it’ll have a similar impact to when you lost the Sid Wallace brand.
But much less than when the Musgrave group made the disastrous decision to abolish the Superquinn brand. Fucking cunts.
3 Likes