new Premium text rate number for Newstalk

Táck · 02-05-2006 11:00am #1

for regular listeners:

how do you feel about it? I have been talking to some regular listeners/texters and have to say nobody has said they are in favour. I always thought that the station revolved around peoples comments and they played a major part in the running of most of the shows. Mainly for example The Moncrieff Show but also Dunphy.

It started from yesterday and their new number is one of those five digit numbers beginning 53 – I presume its 53106 and each text costs 30 cent.

Listening to dunphy this morning he closed his show saying the following: we at the show feel that the constant input of texts is a major factor in producing the show. We had no say what so ever in the new text number and it has been enforced on the show. I can understand the many complaints this morning and the only thing I can say on the matter is that you, the listeners, aren’t wrong.

Well done eamo

Magic Pips · 02-05-2006 11:09am

Premium texting is the way to go for Radio stations... 104fm, 98fm are using one... i dont think today fm have started yet...

And eamo is just a bellend... an opinion on everything... what a waster:mad:

but seriously... premium texting opens up a new revenue stream for Radio media, if you feel strongly against it, dont use it... i would say even @ 30% response rate of previous it will be kept on.

Táck · 02-05-2006 11:15am

yeah but other stations don't use it as a way of interacting with their audience 15hrs a day. newstalk used it as a form of communication between listeners, presenters and guests or interviewees.

other stations use it as a means of getting songs played the "texter" requests.

the moncrieff show and the dunphy show, the two most powerful shows on newstalk, use the text service to the max to interact and use listeners comments and suggestions to fill the show.

Magic Pips · 02-05-2006 11:23am

i understand your frustration, but commercially i'd back the decision... huge pool of people who regularly interact with the station, take the hit on a drop in response rate for lets say 20 grand per month...

Táck · 02-05-2006 11:30am

yes obviously commercially its great but thats why i am annoyed. they tried it a while ago and there was fierce objection so they halted it. showing they did care about the peoples thoughts.

now they have introduced it, and not given the presenters (well dunphy anyway) to vent their fears. every morning he ends his shows with all comments good and bad. this morning all were bad and all complaing about text number. as he says "the listeners arn't wrong"

it will be interesting to see the results anyway. i for one, wont be texting as freely as i would of.

r3nu4l · 02-05-2006 12:35pm

Instead of using text messages, why not email your point? I know that not everbody has access to email but where you have the option it is worth considering!

That said...I have emailed the studio with various points only to have the emails ignored, perhaps it was the point I was making or perhaps it is to encourage people to use the text service?

Either way, premium text or regular text is a bit of a waste of money just to make a point over the radio! Stick to using Boards

segadreamcast · 02-05-2006 1:31pm

Magic Pips wrote:

And eamo is just a bellend... an opinion on everything... what a waster:mad:

Yeah. Imagine: A radio presenter with an opinion. Good lord, have him jailed.

FillSpectre · 02-05-2006 1:45pm

I'll never text again and I will oppose their national licence now

r3nu4l · 02-05-2006 1:53pm

FillSpectre wrote:

I'll never text again and I will oppose their national licence now

Why not go the whole hog? Pitchforks and burning torches at the ready. Follow me laddie, we'll burn 'em out!!

Seriously, why oppose a national licence? I'll bet that some of the other station board of directors are asking their station managers why they didn't come up with the idea first!!

Look at all the television shows where exorbatent text rates are charged just to vote (i.e. audience giving their opinion) for someone. This is pretty much the same so anyone who ever voted for Anna or Ray Shah or Brian Dowling on Big Brother cannot complain about this!

Táck · 02-05-2006 1:57pm

i think they were being sarcastic

r3nu4l · 02-05-2006 2:02pm

T&#225 wrote: »

i think they were being sarcastic

As too was I:D but the original poster/people complaining about the premium rate charge might agree with this and start some sort of petition :eek: and we all know how successful petitions are :rolleyes:

I do think it is interesting how sky-high charges for giving your vote/opinion to "reality TV" shows is completely and blindly accepted but when a radio station attempts the same capital generation people complain!

HelterSkelter · 02-05-2006 2:15pm

Well they won't hear from me by text anymore. I don't see why listeners should pay for the privelage of giving them input on their shows which they (allegedly) consider very valuable.

Táck · 02-05-2006 2:40pm

the difference between sky-high charges for giving your vote/opinion to "reality TV" shows and a prmium rate number for newstalk is:

what once was free and a valuable contibution to shows on newstalk is now being charged. tv shows have always encurred these costs. before mobiles, it was premium rate phone numbers.

its not the 30 cent that annoys me. sure i've lost more and not looked for it. its the fact there was no need for a new service. the current system was working perfectly. its merely for financial gain, at the cost of their "valuable contibutors"

r3nu4l · 02-05-2006 3:35pm

Of course it's for financial gain! That is the whole purpose of NewsTalk and all other Commercial radio stations!

Believe me, if they thought they could attract the same number of listeners by having lower quality presenters and content then that's what they would do! It would save so much on the salary bills each month.

So the service was free before, they don't care so long as they get enough texts during each show to read out on air (they only need a few!). As I said already, if you don't want to pay the charge use email instead! If you don't have access to email well, just don't bother contributing, it's not as if every opinon offered is going to be so fundamental to the direction the show takes!

Edit:- and if there are not enough contributions to each show, they may reverse their decision - who knows?

Táck · 02-05-2006 4:09pm

if they thought so much about their listeners and contributors, as their presenters constantly ensist they do on a daily basis, then this goes against their own beliefs if not the thoughts and beliefs of these listeners and contributors.

as i said its not the cost itself that bothers me about the whole thing, but it is this cost that will restrict me from voicing my opinion as freely as i presently do. maybe if other regular texting contributors also halt their texting contributions then the chiefs will take note. but considering their financial gain will increase, i seriously doubt it will change anything

HelterSkelter · 02-05-2006 4:12pm

r3nu4l wrote:

...So the service was free before,...

Can you tell me how this is a service? What service are listeners getting in return for their 30c?

r3nu4l · 02-05-2006 4:36pm

HelterSkelter wrote:

Can you tell me how this is a service? What service are listeners getting in return for their 30c?

Ah, a pedant!;) The service that allows you to text a message to the radio show is provided (coincidentally) by the text message service provider. So that would be the service you are getting for your 30c.

The real problem I see with my previous comment is that I said it was free when clearly it was never free but instead cost you the standard text charges from your operator!

As for what service Newstalk provides you? Well you are getting airtime if your opinion is read to the public and getting your opinons out to the whole of Dublin (or that part of Dublin that is listening at any one time)!! I suppose if you don't want to pay 30c you could either not contribute or contribute to another radio station (RTE1 say, I know, not exactly NewsTalk!!).

Also I would suggest that if you are texting NewsTalk so much that the 30c is going to accumulate to a large sum then perhaps you should save that money and set up your own station so you can voice your many and wonderous opinions 24/7

Or go to the pub and voice them there instead!

The Muppet · 02-05-2006 5:39pm

r3nu4l wrote:

Ah, a pedant!;) The service that allows you to text a message to the radio show is provided (coincidentally) by the text message service provider. So that would be the service you are getting for your 30c.

Even if that were true how can you Justify a 300% increase in the cost of this "service".

Their service will suffer if there is a large drop off in texts, they are very important to 106s public perception, they must have short memories in there.It smacks of a decision made by the money men with little thought for the effect it will have on the on Air Service.

Táck · 02-05-2006 8:11pm

The Muppet wrote:

It smacks of a decision made by the money men with little thought for the effect it will have on the on Air Service.

first post, paragraph three

The Muppet · 02-05-2006 8:54pm

T&#225 wrote: »

first post, paragraph three

I heard Dunphy this morning, he was not happy camper. Someone should suggest he start a campaign to discourage people from texting. I wonder how that would go down .;)

Talk radio is completely different from Music radio as you are depending on audience participation to a greater extent . Anything that discourages the audience from participating is bad news for whoever is behind the mic.

Sizzler · 02-05-2006 11:17pm

In fairness this number has been in existence for ages on newstalk, some shows wouldnt accept any comments unless they came in that way....eg "off the ball"

r3nu4l · 02-05-2006 11:24pm

The Muppet wrote:

Even if that were true how can you Justify a 300% increase in the cost of this "service".

I don't have to justify the cost as I'm not the one charging 30c

:

Táck · 03-05-2006 9:25am

Sizzler wrote:

In fairness this number has been in existence for ages on newstalk, some shows wouldnt accept any comments unless they came in that way....eg "off the ball"

no, they only did that for the competitions. standard number applied for listeners contributions.

dunphy still reading out the complaints in the morning. some are very in depth, finely worded complaints. Rip-Off Ireland is right

ronbyrne2005 · 03-05-2006 4:15pm

for the idiots saying its commercial station bla bla bla,do you not realise that the large amount of feedback/interaction that the station gets from listeners actually increasing the popularity and quality of shows and hence increases listeners and the resultant revenue from advertisers. if they didnt have large numbers of txters many shows would'nt work as well as they do and the station would have to hold focus groups with listeners,no radio station i know charges extra for a call to voice your opinion especially if they are a news station where listener feedback is critical to success.
in short cheap texts (many people get cheap text bundles or send free from internet) increases success of station at a lower cost than other forms of marketing/market research/feedback.

HelterSkelter · 03-05-2006 4:18pm

It's equivalent to Adrian Kennedy introducing a 1550 number for his phone show. Although that would be a good thing in my book as it might get him off the air due to no callers!

Táck · 03-05-2006 4:28pm

they can feickin forget about "Beat the Clampers" now!

your on your own PAL!

gilroyb · 03-05-2006 10:34pm

When Newstalk first started, the number was a meteor number, so meteor customers got free texts to all shows all the time. They changed to a normal O2 number which was fair enough, seeing as how few meteor customers are out there.

I used to really enjoy Newstalk, but it seems to be going downhill, and I think charging for texts will just decrease the pool of contributors, making the programmes the preserve of the uninteresting who have no other outlet for their opinions. Of those here on boards who text in regularly to Newstalk, what nickname do you use on your messages?

Newstalk is built on commuters. Hence not really able to email from their computer. On the other hand, many phones have an option to send a message as an email. Does anyone know how much that costs? Perhaps you can just as easily email off your phone for a standard text price.

I have found myself turning off Newstalk more often recently, and I believe this will happen more and more as a result of this change.

r3nu4l · 04-05-2006 9:00am

I realise that people like to have their say and that is what Newstalk has been good at since the station began but to be honest, it's only ever the occasional listener comment that is really insightful to the issue being discussed, I really don't have much interest in listening to the kind of drivel that a lot of the texts contain (and that's not a personal insult to anybody) as most of it is "man in the pub" type stuff.

I'm sure a lot of people are interested but I'm not. Everybody's different and if a 30c charge forces people to think before they text and produces more salient and intelligent texting then I for one am in favour. It might keep the banal chatter or "funny" texts to a minimum

As gilroyb pointed out, email is the way to go (unless they find a way to charge you for that!). Other than that, if they stop texting and you will probably see a sudden reversal of the decision to charge

Dave! · 06-05-2006 12:32am

HelterSkelter wrote:

It's equivalent to Adrian Kennedy introducing a 1550 number for his phone show. Although that would be a good thing in my book as it might get him off the air due to no callers!

I agree with this... Bloody appalling.

Cork · 07-05-2006 2:57pm

RTE TV also uses premium text numbers. I find it pretty sad offering crap prizes like cds with premium text numbers.

I think ordinary phone numbers are better.

I hope News Talk gets the Quasi national licence because talk radio at is limited outside of Dublin.

Joe Duffy, Niel Prenderville, Victor Barry etc?

Big Balls · 07-05-2006 4:24pm

A 53*** number is 20c normally, certainly that is what the other Dublin stations charge so if Newstalk are charging 30c then they are really milking it.

One thing to remember though, to even post on a radio forum, you have more of an interest in radio than a 'normal' listener and to them, it doesn't matter.

Where I work, a 53*** number has been used for quite a while now and the amount of texts to the station are UP as people find a 5 digit number a lot easier to remember.

Don't forget, from a Vodafone prepaid phone, your text costs 13c including VAT anyway.

new Premium text rate number for Newstalk

Comments