The Newstalk National Line-up - What do you think?

Genghis

Okay, anyone who searches for any comment by me on these boards will find that I am a big fan of Newstalk. I am delighted they are going to be national, and I hope that they are going to be successful (not living in Dublin, just working here).

However, I think that they might be becoming a little stretched.

Crubeens has kindly posted a Press Release from Newstalk, issued last week and announcing the Autumn / National Schedule. (Read the full press release in this post - link). I had a look for it on their own website but couldn't find it (perhaps that is not the worst thing in the world - read on).

First off - this Press release must be the worst I've seen in a long time. Punctuation missing , inaccurate content, poorly phrased sentances and practically no structure, the piece doesn't exactly come across as the output of Irelands most exciting new news channel.

But leaving the style aside, let me examine some of the substance.

Ger Gilroy and Claire Byrne - a Big gamble. I actually think Gilroy does okay (for a 28-year old sportscaster), but he certainly has a touch of a superior complex to him. This will not play well down the country.

Claire Byrne, it has to be said, always did very well covering for Orla Barry (I had secretly hoped she would become Barry's permanent replacement), but coming from TV3 Byrne is definitely more a 'presenter' than an 'interviewer'. Live news radio demands a different skill set to reading scripted news.

I would say that overall the Breakfast team is very lightweight when compared to RTE's Morning Ireland. The concept reads as 'we couldn't get anyone else'.

While Newstalk is starting from zero, they can afford to play around with concept (they can't 'lose' audience share yet), Gilroy and Byrne are taking an enormous career gamble imho. Gilroy was perhaps better served taking the excellent sports show he has built up over 4 years nationwide, whereas Byrne might have had new opportunities with the new owners of TV3.

... the intelligent chat of Life! with Orla Barry ...

Oh, give me a break. The inane crap that comes out her first thing in the morning puts me in a bad mood. Just this morning good ole "OB" pontificated about the Popes speech (the one he made last Tuesday - thats 6 days ago).

Instead of referring to the actual speech, or even indicating why it was (or could have been interpreted as) controversial, she instead asks 'what was he thinking, etc'. Orla obviously had some time to catch up with the news (or more accurately ) the headlines over the weekend, and felt obliged to comment. Thanks for the meaningful discussion and detailed insight. Intelligent, indeed.

Life! with Orla Barry (with, or without the exclamation mark) is a bad show, and by no means an antidote to the national biggies G. Ryan, R. Tubridy and R. D'Arcy - not to mention the slew of local shows on other stations nationwide.

Lunchtime will be a fast paced news show providing analysis, reaction and updates on the main news stories

In other words - we have no clue who will be presenting the lunchtime show, and we hope no one notices (well, they might not notice in Dublin given that this particular slot has been gradually worn down in quality since Kiberd stood down (or whatever it was that he did)).

Granted, the rest of the daily schedule is much stronger: Montcrieff - good (though perhaps a little urban), Hook - excellent (their best shot, will definitely challenge Cooper and FiveLive, and has a natural Munster audience, I suspect) and Off the Ball (will be a real winner as it lacks any competition and is a truly innovative show).

I also think that the additional shows as announced (such as Norris and Fionn Davenport) stand a reasonable chance of succeeding, though they are unlikely to deliver huge ratings and perhaps portray Newstalk as a station interested mainly in the weekday audience.

Now for some questions.

A big omission from the schedule announcement is the Premiership programme they offer on a Sunday - is this in jeopardy with TodayFM, I wonder? What about other rights - such as Dublin GAA or Leinster Rugby?

A Dublin news station going national should really mention that they are appointing X number of hacks going to towns A, B and C ad trip over themselves establishing a national news network? Sky News Ireland, TV3 and TG4 made big news of their nationwide news presence - have these guys forgotten to? This is an ommission that doesn't exactly engender a non-Dublin bias.

Who forgot to check Calire Byrnes contract? It would be farcical if the new 'flagship' show goes nationwide on 2 December and Byrne joins in January.

Let me finish my post with an illustration of the stations delusion. It is unlikely that anyone outside the station will really get too 'excited' about any advertising campaign - even if Newstalk have gone to all the trouble of including every boring details, and disclsoing the amount it is valued at.

PS 'cut-through' - you gotta love it. Anyone know what it means?

Newstalk’s national roll-out will be supported by an extensive and exciting marketing campaign valued at €1.3 million, which will include a national TV ad, nationwide 48-sheet poster and newsprint campaign, as well as extensive on-street activity and a supporting public relations programme. The campaign will deliver maximum awareness and cut-through for Newstalk and will run over a six-week period from the end of September.

RadioRetro

A former radio hack/presenter writes;

Excellent post and I agree 100% as those same points were worrying me. Living outside Dublin but travelling to it quite often due to work, I tune in every time I'm in the metropolis. Moncrieff and Hook will be big audience pullers I'm sure, but brekkie, OB and the lunchtime "fast-paced" news show with no presenters are risks.

The press release was ridiculous, wasn't it? I don't know how that got the okay to be released, it was exteremely shoddy work and destroyed any favourable impression the station had.

Regarding hacks about the place, methinks Newstalk will continue relying on INN and the local station reporters. Whether that will be allowed to continue with local station managements listening to their staff on a competitor I rather doubt so they may have to recruit regional reporters. More expense, as they''ll have to kit them out with mics and recorders as well as Vectors or similar so they can file, or email recorded audio.

Re. the Premiership prog; Today have the exclusive nationwide commentary rights and all local stations have update rights via INN (via IRN) for their licence areas, but I'm not sure if that applies nationwide, that may involve seperate negotiations with IRN and/or the FA.

Cut-through, if I remember correctly, is advertising that is noticed by the target audience even though other advertising is either side, be it radio ad, poster etc. Cutting through the other advertising, geddit? I think that's it anyway.

mickd

Interesting post I haven't listened to Newstalk but will pin back my ears when it goes nationwide. Have to say if the Gilroy show is anything like the dreadful Park Live on RTE I will be avoiding it. Then again he may be better suited to radio. Looking forward to the 2-4 slot as there is no competition to likes of Joe Duffy et al.

yamo

apparently eamon keane (ex Vincent Browne producer and Round Midnight presenter) is going to be their lunchtime show presenter.

personally, i think hook, off the ball and moncrieff will do well. brenda power is a good broadcaster, but that show will be hard to get going unless they put a really good team behind it....

as for local reporters, as far as I know, they have a couple of stringers around the country who'll feed in voicers and be available for 2-ways during the week.

on the sports front, now that they've gone national, they lose the rights to EVERYTHING. which is a bit of a disaster for the weekend shows. i'd say they'll try and do a deal with the premier league to allow them to hang on to the midweek/sunday rights with a view to tabling an increased bid for them at the next time of asking, but you never know. I've dealt with the Premier League before, and to say they are sticklers for detail would be the understatement of the century. newstalk also lose all local rights to leinster rugby, dublin gaa etc. still - the next gaa tender for rights comes up in january, so I'm sure they'll get some sort of rights out of that. and I'm sure they might try and negotiate some sort of interim solution....

White Horse

Will this be a national station covering nationwide issues or is merely the national broadcasting of a Dublin local station?

niteflite01

I wonder what is to become of the excellent Declan Carty?

DMC

The 10pm show will be the domain of Declan Carty, apparently.

Dub13

I would have liked Richard Aldous to get his own show,when he fills in he does a good job IMO.

Quatre Mains

...a mixed bag IMHO. I wish Ger Gilroy had remained on 'Off The Ball' - altho the other presenters still do a good job he was made for that show. Still, as long as Ken Early stays on soccer they'll be fine. Claire Byrne - meh, she's been ok in the past on Newstalk but I think she'd be be better in the 9-11 slot than breakfast. Damien Kiberd is also a loss. On a side note, WTF has been happening lately with the news slots? They have started including ridiculous 2 and 3 word soundbytes when naming politicians speeches etc., dreadful! Broadcasting of the 9-11 5th anniverary for exmple went something like "President Bush recalled the firefighters bravery in his speech (roll tape)'our heroes', while Tony Blair also recalled the events (roll tape) 'a tragedy' ". Not the exact words but you get the gist. Even worse was their unlistenable self-congratulatory repeated 'exclusive' live coverage of Mary Harney's resignation. The news started with the usual announcement+ jungle, then the presenter exclaims how Newstalk exclusively got Mary Harney's speech live (roll tape), then announcement and jingle again and another newscaster starts - its the 5 o clock bulletin saying 'we;ve just got Mary Harney live'...it was like a bad LSD trip. I hope this TV3/Sky tabloid bull**** gets cut out pronto.
On the good side, David Norris is class. I am very happy to see one of Ireland's few real characters given a proper stage. To our country cousins I would definitely advise giving Newstalk a listen, especially Off The Ball. I do however think its lost some of its appeal lately with the introduction of the rip-off 30c texts(and the constant asking for them to be sent, ggrrr) and the afforementioned crap news editing.

RuggieBear

Johnnycabs wrote:

I do however think its lost some of its appeal lately with the introduction of the rip-off 30c texts(and the constant asking for them to be sent, ggrrr) and the afforementioned crap news editing.

Agree... i used to text all the time and get my views read out all the time. don't think i've texted once since they started charging 30c a pop for it.

Orla Barry is so annoying i want to head round to their office and burn the studio down. Aural pap is all her show is. ( I live next door...)

Not sure how it's going to go down in the country. A lot of what makes newstalk great, I can't see working outside Dublin...I absolutely loved the Hidden Dublin feature

Dub13

I also hate the Orla Barry show,what a waste of time that show is.

dRNk SAnTA

I wish Newstalk was staying local. I really like the dublin focus. I especially liked the City Edition show which I'll really miss. And whats worse is they are replacing it with, some phone in show! Come on.

I don't really like lunchtime as much anymore now that Kiberd is gone. The guy who does it now just doesn't as much enthusiasm and personality to it.

I don't think gilroy should be doing the morning show, Claire Byrne could be quite good there but gilroy should move back to where he was best - off the ball.

The biggest disgrace of all, as has already been mentioned, is that orla barry stays on the air! She can sometimes my blood boil, shes such a dry ****e.

I'm a dub so i'm biased, but would it really be that unpleasent to those outside the pale to have to listen to some dublin content, namely city edition?

mickd

I wouldn't care where it comes from so long as its intelligent and engaging.

FlutterinBantam

According to "Village" apparently a lot of RTE types were sounded out.... Only yer man Keane jumped ship.....Wonder why now????

Could it be that most of them are paid far more than they are worth and don't have trivia like shareholders to account for and very tight budgets to adhere to?

yamo

there was more than a little tapping up going on in rte alright.

i would imagine the salary wasn't an issue for anyone. If anything, newstalk would have had to stump up more money than they were getting in rte to get them to jump ship. joe duffy and his ilk would hardly take a paycut to join a new national station, especially as they would all be well aware what happened to radio ireland when talk radio didn't quite work out for them.

the tight budgets would have been an issue alright. and the staffing levels on programmes. newstalk shows are put together with a team that is normally at least 1/3 the size of an rte programme team.

also don't forget, a lot of the staff in our national public service radio station aren't exactly fans of change. look at the kerfuffle when anna leddy moved production teams around and tinkered with the schedule. if that got them upset, imagine having to move from the rte campus to the third floor of an office building that is only just in Dublin 4.....

however, i jest - I'd say most of them didn't care about salarys, shareholders or budgets - it's simply the case that they are on the top rung of the ladder when it comes to radio in ireland. they would be going from a station with the highest listenership figures, the best budgets, the most experienced staff etc to a station which is going to spend a couple of months at the least finding its feet on a national level.

RuggieBear

yamo wrote:

if that got them upset, imagine having to move from the rte campus to the third floor of an office building that is only just in Dublin 4.....

Actually it is just in Dublin 2 by about 300 feet:D

yamo

there's another reason for not moving!

is the canal the cutoff point for the postal district?

medja

yamo wrote:

however, i jest - I'd say most of them didn't care about salarys, shareholders or budgets - it's simply the case that they are on the top rung of the ladder when it comes to radio in ireland. they would be going from a station with the highest listenership figures, the best budgets, the most experienced staff etc to a station which is going to spend a couple of months at the least finding its feet on a national level.

In other words they might have to do some real work:D

yamo

aye - fewer shop openings/after dinner talks/private interviews - they'd never be able to afford that walk-in humidor.

the money that some people make from personal appearances makes their rte salaries seem like peanuts. some of the bigger names can get up to 8,000 to 10,000 for an appearance. i know of one prominent personality who got 5,000 for less than ten minutes work. madness...

White Horse

dRNk SAnTA wrote:

I'm a dub so i'm biased, but would it really be that unpleasent to those outside the pale to have to listen to some dublin content, namely city edition?

In short, yes.

People outside Dublin don't give a fig about local issues in Dublin.

Big Tone

Heard George Hook on that loop going on about how Newstalk will have "no music, no nuttin', just talk" ahem...George, didnt you get the memo..Newstalk have a MUSIC policy now!

BTW after listening to the looping tape over the last few days its sounds like a load of Newswaffle!
I hope the real thing isnt as bad.

RuggieBear

White Horse wrote:

In short, yes.

People outside Dublin don't give a fig about local issues in Dublin.

Unfortunately that includes our culchie TD's...hence the imposibility to get anything done in this town quickly and efficiently.

Oh and don't get me started on decentralisation...:D

White Horse

RuggieBear wrote:

Unfortunately that includes our culchie TD's...hence the imposibility to get anything done in this town quickly and efficiently.

The same is said about the lack of interest of Dublin TD's in issues outside of Dublin. People in hospitals in Dublin spend a lot of time on trolleys. In my part of the country they can bleed to death.

Which gets more attention? People on trolleys

RuggieBear wrote:

Oh and don't get me started on decentralisation...:D

Who actually wants this. Do people in rural Ireland want an influx of Dubs with their tacky football shirts and polished SUVs? I don't know of many who do.

Oh and don't get me started on bloody commuters and the effect on house prices :mad:

RuggieBear

White Horse wrote:

Who actually wants this.

Totally agree.
Nobody. I know heaps of civils servants who are leaving the service to avoid places like Cavan and Clonakilty.

Btw...not many civil servants can afford SUV's. At least they'll be able to listen to newstalk down the country now

DMC

Has Media Matters with Roger Greene on Sundays gone by the wayside??

Genghis

It seems to be. Thats a bit of a shame, it was a show that I always wanted to listen in to, but never could (outside Dublin at weekends).

Surely they could have give the show a 10-11 slot on Sunday (does the Wide Angle need three hours on Sunday, following two hours on Saturday?).

Take comfort, DMC, that you can now sample the delights of Roisin Ingle of a Saturday Morning.

Dub13

Anybody else think the Breakfast show was a bit rushed this morrning...?It just seemed rushed to me,not spending much time on any one segment.

Hornet

So today was the day! Newstalk is sending nationwide! Any idea why they had said that the 2nd of October is the launch but then start on the 29th of September?

Well, I am not sure if this nationwide thing will be a success! I can only speak for myself (living in Dublin) and I am NOT interested in traffic jams in Cork or Carlow or Galway in the morning and given the huge amount of traffic problems everywhere the consequence HAS to be that traffic problems in Dublin will be reported LESS than before.

Different to most of the other contributors here, I like Orla Barry. She has a certain quirkyness that makes her likeable. I miss the banter she had with Ross Golden-Bawn (sp?) - it was stupid but funny - but the chats on Fridays with Roisin Ingle is often infecting fun if you approach it without prejudice. Her topics? Well, I don't expect anything too sophisticated or intellectual. Not at that time of the day with the target audience that Live! has.

I will not miss Declan Carty, he often came across as a whining and whinging wuss, but City Edition I will miss.

As I never liked "Off the ball" and always changed to another station after the Right Hook, anything in that slot OR after doesn't attract me too much. However, an Irish language program (now after Off the Ball) is TOTALLY lost on me and would be a further reason to stay away from Newstalk in the evening.

Brenda Power's phone in Show? Well, let's give her a chance. I don't expect much from it or from her.

Thankfully Sean Moncrieff and George Hook are still there. Pity that Damien Kiberd has disappeared but I heard it was for health reasons, which is sad. He was brilliant.

I didn't mention Ger Kilroy (he is quite good) and Claire Byrne (don't like her) but that is because I stopped listening to the Breakfast Show (at least regularly) when mumbling Dunphy took over. Maybe I should give them a chance again.

By the way does anyone else get annoyed by the Wide Angle presenter, Karen Coleman, when she seems to READ every bit she says and even then can't say it properly withoiut making mistakes? The most "wooden" and unprofessional presentation style I have ever heard.

In general, I think that Newstalk will LOOSE a lot of its attractiveness for the current listeners. They will have to spread themselves now to thin with this nationwide thingy.

But then, the additional advertising and more 30c SMS (GRRRR!!!) will help with the finances and that is more important anyway than content etc.

--Hornet

mike65

In Waterford area its on 107.2

Mike.

White Horse

As a new listener I thought I'd let you know my first impressions.

The breakfast show was poor, but I gather it is new so it might take time to get it's feet.

Orla Barry is not my cup of tea but was listenable. It is chick radio, I suppose?

Brenda Power I liked. She wasn't afraid to give her opinion, and I liked her voice.

Lucnhtime programme was a little stuffy and slow.

Moncrief was good, best of the day.

George Hook was also good and I could get used to him.

Overall my impression was quite positive. However, I was disappointed at the poor coverage of agricultural affairs. Nothing from the ploughing championships; the biggest international sporting event in Ireland this year.

There also should be coverage of the various cattle markets so that we know what prices are being reached.

My brother listened to it on the trawler but there were no weather forecasts for fishermen. The status of traffic on the M25 in Dublin is not much use if you are at sea!

RuggieBear

lol

Our man in Havana

Radio 1 is the place for the shipping forecast tbh.

CrowdedHouse

Dub13 wrote:

Anybody else think the Breakfast show was a bit rushed this morrning...?It just seemed rushed to me,not spending much time on any one segment.

Have to agree with you there,wasn't really impressed with it.

The status of the M25... lol

DMC

White Horse wrote:

There also should be coverage of the various cattle markets so that we know what prices are being reached.

My brother listened to it on the trawler but there were no weather forecasts for fishermen. The status of traffic on the M25 in Dublin is not much use if you are at sea!

Ok, but only two radio stations in these islands do shipping forecasts. No commercial service do that, so it was not something I or certainly anyone expected on Newstalk.

A lot of the local stations focus on farming issues, and indeed Radio 1 does it in Drivetime. A farming programme at the weekend would be too much for the Dubs who've been listening since day 1!

Dub13

The ploughing championships a sporting event....:eek:

billy the squid

Had a good listen to the station yesterday, and some of the presenters seem like fish out of water.

Poor Roisin Ingle was on the "Life" programme reading about events going on around the coutnry, her brain couldn't handle Limerick's 6-digit phone numbers and she chose to add an extra digit to one or two of the venues beint talked about.

That harry character, the guy wearing the builders hat during the riot, was sent down to the ploughing championships to ask farmers loaded questions like "Will farmers be attracted to these cows" and "are you aroused by this tractor." The little two seater car he was driving got bogged down in tullow, county Carlow and had to be dug out of the muck.

The morning presenters were treating text messages from the other side of the M50 as though they were coming from Austrailia.

I think it will take a while for this lot to become used to the fact that they are no longer an exclusively dublin station.

Overall my impression was quite positive. However, I was disappointed at the poor coverage of agricultural affairs. Nothing from the ploughing championships; the biggest international sporting event in Ireland this year.

I got the impression that it was the only thing outside of Dublin they covered!

mike65

Listening a bit this morning, the news presentation at 9 am reminded me of something more appropriate to a fast-paced music station. The newsreader was gabbing along at 20 to the dozen with no pause for breath.

Wide Angle supposedly an international news programme was a low-budget dissapointment. I guess it was inevitable it would be based on studio chat and phoneline discussion. Quality costs.

Mike.

billy the squid

They are really going after the female audience aren't they.

Roisin Ingles has her own show, the more i listen to it, the more i dislike her.

Mossy Monk

listened to it on the way into work this morning. very good i thought. better than what was available and Moncrief yesterday was excellent

i am impressed

mike65

Roisin Ingles has her own show, the more i listen to it, the more i dislike her.

Yep second that! All very fluffy and I don't want to know what the producer is whispering/screaming in her ear!

Mike.

CrowdedHouse

mike65 wrote:

Listening a bit this morning, the news presentation at 9 am reminded me of something more appropriate to a fast-paced music station. The newsreader was gabbing along at 20 to the dozen with no pause for breath.


Mike.

Dead on there Mike,I was thinking the very same thing.

Another thing is it just me or do their ads and promos seem to go on excessively long ?

RuggieBear

this presentation of the news is new. It's only started in the last week and it's irritating as hell.

I don't need lots of ****ing jingles and faux ****ing urgency. Just read me the ****ing news and leave the breathlessness at home

CrowdedHouse

Well at least they seem to have dropped the faux time signal with the news.

Obviously no one there realised that it's meant to mark an exact time.

Rosser

I think Róisin Ingle did well for her first show (magazine = fluffy), switched over to Marian on RTE1 for a moment and she was doing a car crash of an interview with one of the guys who nearly died doing that drug test last year...

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006450306,00.html

byte

Listened to it as much as possible yesterday. The highlight of what I listened to yesterday was Sean Moncrieff's show, I thought it was good.

fly_agaric

White Horse wrote:

However, I was disappointed at the poor coverage of agricultural affairs. Nothing from the ploughing championships; the biggest international sporting event in Ireland this year.

There also should be coverage of the various cattle markets so that we know what prices are being reached.

My brother listened to it on the trawler but there were no weather forecasts for fishermen. The status of traffic on the M25 in Dublin is not much use if you are at sea!

hahaha. That's a fantastic bit of bit of wind-up/trolling! Kudos!

Have you got your trigger-finger all ready to give newstalk some hell for its Dublin Bias?:)

Alan Smith

What do I think?
Absolute rubbish who cares about a restraunt that charges 46 yo yo for a starter
The ordinary person doesn't give a ****e


Very Very Boring in my opinion.

Would rather watch paint dry myself

vallo

Not a fan of Newstalk going national overall - I loved it the way it was.
While I can put up with hearing about traffic jams that are 200kms away or gigs that are on on the other side of the country, I CAN'T put up with Roisin Ingle's complete drivel show.

This morning's show was the worst radio I have ever heard.

daisyplant

Have been listening to Newstalk for about 3 years and relly enjoyed it. Listened on Friday and thought it was a bit countryfied but in a contrived uncomfortable way. Hope it doesnt change too much as it was fab the way it was! Agree about the Rosin Ingle show on Saturday......I have never heard such bad Radio in my life either............She blew Orla Barry out of the water:D

Kwekubo

Turned on the radio at noon to tune in to Media Matters, only to find that it seems to have been done away with in favour of a marathon session of The Wide Angle. A real shame, they brought up a lot of stories that I wouldn't have heard about otherwise. Has Hidden Dublin gone along with City Edition?