Newstalk 106 Nationwide?

mike65

As you may know Newstalk106 has hatched a plan to secure a quasi national licence in the next few weeks, if the BCI grants thier wish will this be a good or bad thing for the station?

I'll love to be able to listen myself but l'd like it to be a Dub station which I, a culchie can eavesdrop in on. One imagines if it gets the licence advertising will force it to be less Dublin and more national will that kill the essence of the station?

Mike.

flogen

Yeah, I wonder what changes will be made if they do go national; I mean they have plenty of non-dublin presenters, but would stuff like Hidden Dublin and City Edition get knocked on the head, would they open up regional offices or would they change their style completely.
I'd say some changes will be made, they're not going to operate a Dublin station for the whole country because that just wouldn't sell against RTE Radio 1; I just wonder if they'll phone it in (just put national stories first in the news, most of which they would have covered anyway and give the odd regional correspondant some air time) or will they go all out and change the face of the station completely with new shows, new presenters and new news formats.
I'd say they'll be keen to avoid a Dublin-heavy image but will also be keen to keep their growth in Dublin up, they can't do the first without changing their angle or the second without taking much of the Dublin-based stuff out of it; rock and a hard place IMO.

Then again, how expensive is it to broadcast in the main cities of Ireland compared to just Dublin? I mean, they might keep things almost the exact same, and any extra listenership from outside Dublin will be a bonus.

mike65

I was wondering how they are planning to get heard, is it by true broadcasting or through cable & MMDS (thats if MMDS allows FM radio).

Mike.

segadreamcast

Most questions should be answered here: http://www.bci.ie/licensing/radio/commercial_apps.html

shuushh

will be interesting have to say, city edition will have to go or be changed but i think they should be pretty much fine. of course the big change will be there going to have to get someone in after 10p.m. instead of just repeating the entire day during the wee hours

i think kibred would be good late evening, bit of a vincent browne type of show and then let orla barry do the lunchtime news maybe.

they have a very strong team though dunphy, kibred, hook,moncrief and a very impressive sports department, i think when they go national though they might need to get someone big in for the slow after dunphy.

the1andonly1

When will the decision be made with regards to the licence? And when would newstalk start broadcasting nationwide? The sooner the better I hope

byte

I think a News channel would be a good addition to the national channel lineup, national radio is sparse as it is.

I'd imagine it would make the station better, as it would have more diversity if covering the whole country. Like the other national channels though, it'll still probably be mostly Dublin-centric.

Táck

big newstalk listener but i would not be in favour of it going national. i personally like a dublin station and they do cover enough nationwide topics, for the culchi's in dublin, not to bore me too much.

i like hidden dublin, city edition, kidstalk with dublin accents, henry out n' about etc etc

they have a very strong team though dunphy, kibred, hook,moncrief and a very impressive sports department, i think when they go national though they might need to get someone big in for the slow after dunphy.

yes fully agree. imo she is the weakest presenter on the show. her and kiberds bogey jokes.

the sports show, especially kens newsround is one of the best shows in the country.

Genghis

Yeah, the OB show is fairly weak in comaprison to Dunphy. I think she is too feminist, too appealing to women. Nothing wrong with that, except that the station is currently listened to by male listeners (rightly or wrongly). I think she probably loses much of the Dunphy audience (which is very male in make-up).

If they went national, I think you would see Finucane back on air in the 9-11 slot, and imho I think she would give RTE a run for their money. She is a talented, experienced broadcaster with an ability to grow both the male and female listenership.

I would hope that a national market would allow Newstalk to extend their broadcast hours - a proper evening chat show, something editorially between Browne on RTE1 and Adrian Kennedy / the other guy on FM104 and 98FM could work. Am thinking of something like 5Live have at that time of night.

The quasi national licence structure would be perfect for local broadcasting - the 11-1 slot could work here for a Dublin / Limerick / Cork / Galway local shoe, though the costs may be prohibitive, and competition would be very intense, as that is the time many provincal stations do the exact same thing.

Newstalk also indicated that they would introduce some music to their line-up - I would hope this does not become a filler, and that it retains the speech ethos - something like Pat Kenny / Ryan Tubridy, where the music is very much secondary to the talk.

Táck

Genghis wrote:

If they went national, I think you would see Finucane back on air in the 9-11 slot, and imho I think she would give RTE a run for their money. She is a talented, experienced broadcaster with an ability to grow both the male and female listenership.

yeah but now with the smoking ban indoors, it might be a bit harder to get her back in the studio!!!

DublinWriter

T&#225 wrote: »

yeah but now with the smoking ban indoors, it might be a bit harder to get her back in the studio!!!

Hilarious! I like her as a person, but Chrisht, her voice just sounds like dry gravel these days.

And I *hate* the way sometimes when she's feigning surprise at something that she starts the sentance reeeeeeeeeeeallly high then goes all looooow.

It's like a steel claw on a blackboard to me.

Táck

but in fairness she would give tubridy and run for his money and rté

did you hear podge and rodge referring to tubridy the other night. classic!

DMC

Genghis wrote:

I would hope that a national market would allow Newstalk to extend their broadcast hours - a proper evening chat show, something editorially between Browne on RTE1 and Adrian Kennedy / the other guy on FM104 and 98FM could work. Am thinking of something like 5Live have at that time of night.

Yes, possibly. The original 5 Live up had a round table discussion after midnight, which had a different presenter each night. The late, great Vincent Hanna presented some of these shows.

Since then, the 2200-0100 has got worst. Nick Robinson (now BBC Political Ed.) was good, Matthew Bannister was bland as ****, and now that Anita Annand is just Anita Inane.

5 Live is too reliant on phone-ins, and I don't like them.

As for Orla Barry, 5 Live almost always had a woman in the 9-12 slot, Diana Madill, Fi (oh-I'm-so-smart-I-know-I'm-dead-funny) Glover and Victoria Derbyshire (always referred to as her initials on the internet), so they go for the industry norm on talk-radio. If OB was taken off, it would be too male dominant, same goes for 5 Live.

5 Live is a shell of its former glory, and of the station that launched 12 years ago this week. I have moved to Radio 4 on LW for the Today programme alone.

For Newstalk, an "Up All Night" type programme at 10pm would work best, imo. I think this was tried by at its launch, but it disappeared. Its still 5 Live's best programme, when Rhod Sharp presents it. Not with Dotun.

Genghis wrote:

The quasi national licence structure would be perfect for local broadcasting - the 11-1 slot could work here for a Dublin / Limerick / Cork / Galway local shoe, though the costs may be prohibitive, and competition would be very intense, as that is the time many provincal stations do the exact same thing.

This is my fear. When Newstalk gets its national licence, I fear that they will neglect the loyal Dublin audience it has built up over the past few years, and alienate them with provincial matters. That is why, at least for Dublin, an opt-out for a few hours per day is necessary. Dublin didn't have the "local radio mid-morning local current affairs" type programme that is de riguer down the country until Newstalk came along (I know Q102 and Lite FM try/tried.) Newstalk wants to build on its success that it has built up over the last few years in the Dublin market. It would be suicidal to kill that.

CiDeRmAn

Its when she calls it "The OB show" that grates with me, trying to draw parallels between her and Gaybo, more importantly I find her show is too tabloid in nature, she seems unable to deal with heavy issues and when she is doing a sensationalist piece she tends to push her own agenda, her own point of view over that of her guest, the only show turn newstalk off over.
Love the sport shows, and I am not a sports fan at all, Gerry and Oisin just make the topic interesting.
George is a legend though!

Bring back David McWilliams, actually he could present a show after Dunphy, give Orla her marching orders back to Cork.

Táck

yeah mc williams back i agree but not instead of dunpho

i hope, if they do go national, they dont neglect their loyal dublin listeners.

i dont want:
hidden dublin - hidden cork
ask the gp - ask the vet
money matters - farming matters
kids talk - culchi talk (actually that could be funnier)

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

mike65

Who is that tosser on right now, is Moncrief on leave?

Mike.

Táck

yeah he's doing that holiday show on rté. that's jerry o sullivan on now. he's more a sports presenter but he's good anyway imo

jesus that holiday show is one of the worst productions rté has ever done. its up there with the lyrics board

Táck

oh and anyone who has particular interest in seáns show don't forget to check out his very own listenerships website for all the regular texter inners!!!

http://unitedtexters.proboards80.com/

come join the family

DublinWriter

T&#225 wrote: »

i dont want:
hidden dublin - hidden cork
ask the gp - ask the vet
money matters - farming matters

Classic.

It may seem a bit of a no-brainer for them to go National, but certain little subtle things make them very Dublin and I don't think they'd go down as well as they'd expect beyond the pale.

Could you just imagine the average Corkonian's reaction to Henry?

I think that's why OB is so universally disliked, partly because of her accent.

Certainly they could tighten up their evening/night time programming a hell of a lot. It might was well be dead-air for all that they're doing with it. A Vincent Browne or late night phone-in show is what they need. They also need to have a business related programme, maybe aimed at talking to/profiling people starting up for themselves.

They could also do things like serialise classic Irish fiction at night. Wouldn't be too expensive if they chose something out of copyright and hired in a couple of out of work thesps.

Táck

henrys moped would never get down to cork!!!

DublinWriter

T&#225 wrote: »

henrys moped would never get down to cork!!!

He could always jog!

I'm just bitter at them for rejecting my "DublinWriter drunkenly rants for an hour and gets paid for it" programme pitch.

Táck

yeah it could of been like a kidstalk section

besty

From a selfish point of view, I don't want Newstalk to go national. I really love the current structure of the station and for me, the fluidity and general appeal of the station in it's current guise might be lost under a national format.

Táck

agreed

BrianD

Well the public presentation will give them an opportunity to expand on how they plan to operate the service. We do need a Dublin talk station. Perhaps if Newstalk goes national in ethos, DCAL FM could step up to the challenge?

Táck

if newstalk do leave their dublin basis, then their is definetly a niche in the market for a dublin talk station.

david mc williams back for the mornings to start!

gilroyb

If you listen to them for the day though all the shows repeat the same topics. I think a national station may be too broad for them, but perhaps a Leinster view would have been perfect for them. A few more stories with the same type of focus.

Dave!

they got the national license. gwan Newstalk

DublinWriter

DaveMcG wrote:

they got the national license. gwan Newstalk

O Christht no. Does this mean they'll have to include livestock reports as part of their 5-7 programming? *shudderage*

Mossy Monk

DublinWriter wrote:

O Christht no. Does this mean they'll have to include livestock reports as part of their 5-7 programming? *shudderage*

but it will be good for you to know these things

personally i am looking forward to being able to freely listen to it

Táck

i suppose being able to freely listen to it will be good when i venture outside dublin.

but i liked it being a dublin talk station. who had a biased toward dublin topics and dublin issues.

time will tell...

besty

I have a mixed reaction to the news of the national license to be honest. I hope they can maintain the current structure of programming (especially The Right Hook and Off the Ball). I do know that Declan Carty is being moved to host a phone in show at 10pm. I just hope it can be a bit more high brow than the competitors.

Mossy Monk

wonder if the 5 live football commentary will be affected. that would be good

Genghis

Yeah, well done Newstalk. I live about 20 miles outside its furthest reliable reach, so for me it is all good. I just hope I live in the 'quasi-national' part of the country!

I think that the line-up will change. Already Declan Carty has been mentioned as a mover - that is good news, as I think he would be good for the 10-1 slot. I think they will need to have an early morning show before Dunphy - if only because many of their listeners (like me) will be on the road before he is on the air. That could be one of the shows with 'some' music content - a Maxi style wake-up show with soft music, newspaper reviews, etc.

I think Dunphy, Hook, Gilroy and Montcrieff will stay on. As I mentioned before I see Finucane in the 9-11 slot (or perhaps the 11-1 slot), a local opt-out going into the 11-1 slot. There may be scope for an afternoon local news slot at 4:30, also feeding local news on each bulletin through the drive show.

The weekend will probably see a lot of changes too. I would hope that they add a couple of specialist music shows during the weekend evenings.

I notice that OB is making sure to include herself in the celebrations, noting that for her, having worked so hard over the last 3-4 years that it means so much to her. That her listeners have made it so important, etc, etc. I think she is a weak point, and may be moved to either the Dublin or Cork mid-morning local programme.

Mossy Monk

when will Newstalk be going quasi national?

this year? next year?

DMC

Later this year. Its not as if they have to get studios or staff, just get transmitters up.

Dave!

I think they mentioned October