The Ray D'Arcy Show Thread - Mod note Post # 1 Updated

Ash.J.Williams

Ray combat sport didn't just spring up on Monday morning!

“How do you feel about people paying money and rich people sponsoring the sport to watch you and another man fight?” asked D’Arcy.

connundrum

I was more embarrassed for him, than angry with him as the interview went on, but the final nail in the coffin was the very last bit where he said

"Will wants me to ask you about this dolphin thing..."

It felt as though they (collectively) couldn't show Pendred any less respect as it was, that they then had to ask him about his well documented and done-to-death show of heroism on the beach. Sounded like he was throwing him a bone, and patting him on the head for it after.

If I were Cathal in that studio, I'd have made the loudest clapping face palm sound possible.

Condescending and ignorant.

Chip Whitley

A lot of good comments underneath that score.ie article. He's had Katie Taylor on loads of times, don't remember him ever grilling her over battering people in a ring?

I'm a fan of the show for the last 7 years or so, but this is enough to make me tune out following on from the 'Spoilers' thing. Not to mention all the visual 'bits' they do that are pointless on radio.

Ash.J.Williams

connundrum wrote: »

I was more embarrassed for him, than angry with him as the interview went on, but the final nail in the coffin was the very last bit where he said

"Will wants me to ask you about this dolphin thing..."

It felt as though they (collectively) couldn't show Pendred any less respect as it was, that they then had to ask him about his well documented and done-to-death show of heroism on the beach. Sounded like he was throwing him a bone, and patting him on the head for it after.

If I were Cathal in that studio, I'd have made the loudest clapping face palm sound possible.

Condescending and ignorant.

Cathal was treated worse than one of those guests that are promoting a book on their lives of crime and murder...

ShagNastii

IMO I’m not sure it is his lack of research on Cathal himself that would be the bugbear for me. It was the fact instead of heralding one of our national heroes of the week, he called him out on MMA as a sport and how barbaric he thought it was. That sponsor line was a bit pitiful alright. They clearly invited Cathal as they knew listeners wanted to hear an interview with one of the guys from the hugely successful event at the weekend. Give the chap his moment in the sun without having to p*ss on his cornflakes by wagging your finger and judging his sport and the merits of his colossal achievement .

Different level OK, but Women’s boxing was debated extensively prior to its introduction to the Olympic games in 2012. I wouldn’t be 100% but I’d imagine when they had Katie Taylor in studio (post London) they were too falling over themselves to congratulate her as a "role model"/sport person/champion to go into the ins and outs of how brutal combat sports is.

TBP

Nearly as bad as the time he had Kevin Doyle (Doyle not having a club at the time and said he was in the middle of negotiations with a club whom he didn't want to name for obvious reasons) and D'arcy kept on and kept on asking him to tell him and the listeners who the club were. He's a ferocious fool who hasn't got a clue how to interview. He's aaahhhing and sighing every second word is annoying too.

kunst nugget

ShagNastii wrote: »

IMO I’m not sure it is his lack of research on Cathal himself that would be the bugbear for me. It was the fact instead of heralding one of our national heroes of the week, he called him out on MMA as a sport and how barbaric he thought it was. That sponsor line was a bit pitiful alright. They clearly invited Cathal has they knew listeners wanted to hear an interview with one of the guys from the hugely successful event at the weekend. Give the chap his moment in the sun without having to p*ss on his cornflakes by wagging your finger and judging his sport and the merits of his colossal achievement .

Different level OK, but Women’s boxing was debated extensively prior to its introduction to the Olympic games in 2012. I wouldn’t be 100% but I’d imagine when they had Katie Taylor in studio (post London) they were too falling over themselves to congratulate her as a role model/sport person/champion to go into the ins and outs of how brutal combat sports is.

I think when you listen to the likes of Moncrieff you really get a sense of how poor his interviewing technique is. Moncrieff will do the interview without giving his own view on the topic/book/guest at hand and always listens to the interviewee and asks questions that lead on from what was said before to have an interview that flows organically and is almost always informative. His thoughts on what was discussed usually comes through when responding to relating texts and if he doesn't have an understanding or knowledge of something, he'll hold his hands up. The only time I really heard him being confrontational was with an author who had written a history of the Jews and Israel iirc.

BaZmO*

kunst nugget wrote: »

I think when you listen to the likes of Moncrieff you really get a sense of how poor his interviewing technique is. Moncrieff will do the interview without giving his own view on the topic/book/guest at hand and always listens to the interviewee and asks questions that lead on from what was said before to have an interview that flows organically and is almost always informative. His thoughts on what was discussed usually comes through when responding to relating texts and if he doesn't have an understanding or knowledge of something, he'll hold his hands up. The only time I really heard him being confrontational was with an author who had written a history of the Jews and Israel iirc.

Most of the defence for keeping Ray on the radio is that he's still getting the listeners. However, I reckon that's more to do with habit of the listeners and the station that he's on. I'd say Moncrief would do just as well in that slot on Today FM and if Ray went to Newstalk or even 2FM I couldn't see him taking all his listeners.

cloudatlas

I thought it was fair enough. These are questions that the ordinary folk who aren't mma experts would ask and the majority of d'arcy listeners will not be MMA sports fans.

If he can't answer those simple questions about the sport that he loves without getting all defensive and pissed off then perhaps he shouldn't be doing media interviews because it's not always a cosy chat and you don't get to set the pace a lot of the time.

kunst nugget

cloudatlas wrote: »

I thought it was fair enough. These are questions that the ordinary folk who aren't mma experts would ask and the majority of d'arcy listeners will not be MMA sports fans.

If he can't answer those simple questions about the sport that he loves without getting all defensive and pissed off then perhaps he shouldn't be doing media interviews because it's not always a cosy chat and you don't get to set the pace a lot of the time.

The guy is coming off the biggest win of his career at one of the most hyped sporting events of the summer in this country and then goes on a show with massive ratings where he ends up talking to someone who has done absolutely no research on the topic, makes ill-informed statements and calls him the wrong name several times. It was absolutely terrible radio.

Ash.J.Williams

cloudatlas wrote: »

I thought it was fair enough. These are questions that the ordinary folk who aren't mma experts would ask and the majority of d'arcy listeners will not be MMA sports fans.

If he can't answer those simple questions about the sport that he loves without getting all defensive and pissed off then perhaps he shouldn't be doing media interviews because it's not always a cosy chat and you don't get to set the pace a lot of the time.

it wasn't fair enough it was idiocy, what were the simple questions?

TBP

cloudatlas wrote: »

I thought it was fair enough. These are questions that the ordinary folk who aren't mma experts would ask and the majority of d'arcy listeners will not be MMA sports fans.

If he can't answer those simple questions about the sport that he loves without getting all defensive and pissed off then perhaps he shouldn't be doing media interviews because it's not always a cosy chat and you don't get to set the pace a lot of the time.

Why doesn't he ask the Rugby lads he has on every 2nd day the same sort of questions then? It would certainly make a change from what it sounds like him creaming his boxers every time he has one of them on.

He should have been asking Cathal questions like how or why did he take up the sport, what's next for him, his plans for the future etc. I and i'd imagine a lot more listeners would have been far more interested in the answers to those type of questions.

Once again he decides to make a balls of an interview and all because of his own thoughts or opinion on the particular topic or in this case the sport at the centre of things.

cloudatlas

kunst nugget wrote: »

The guy is coming off the biggest win of his career at one of the most hyped sporting events of the summer in this country and then goes on a show with massive ratings where he ends up talking to someone who has done absolutely no research on the topic, makes ill-informed statements and calls him the wrong name several times. It was absolutely terrible radio.

I think you guys are making the mistake of overestimating Ray Darcy's listenership and their understanding of the sport. If Cathal had been more savvy he would have done his best to show the sport in a very positive clear light. I can see why the interview was disappointing for his fans but the majority of Darcy's listeners are probably van drivers and house wives or house bound elderly.

kunst nugget

cloudatlas wrote: »

I think you guys are making the mistake of overestimating Ray Darcy's listenership and their understanding of the sport. If Cathal had been more savvy he would have done his best to show the sport in a very positive clear light. I can see why the interview was disappointing for his fans but the majority of Darcy's listeners are probably van drivers and house wives or house bound elderly.

This isn't about the listener's understanding of the sport, it's about Ray's inability to conduct an interview properly. A bit of research on his part before the interview would have clued him in and made him realise that what he was saying about how dangerous the sport is were completely wrong. I'm sure if Cathal thought the interview was going to be almost about how supposedly dangerous the sport is as opposed to the victory he had just achieved, I'm sure he would have prepared himself accordingly. Instead he had to contend with someone who was ill informed, scaremongering and unable to remember the name of the person they were interviewing. I think that would throw off most people in that situation.

cloudatlas

kunst nugget wrote: »

This isn't about the listener's understanding of the sport, it's about Ray's inability to conduct an interview properly. A bit of research on his part before the interview would have clued him in and made him realise that what he was saying about how dangerous the sport is were completely wrong. I'm sure if Cathal thought the interview was going to be almost about how supposedly dangerous the sport is as opposed to the victory he had just achieved, I'm sure he would have prepared himself accordingly. Instead he had to contend with someone who was ill informed, scaremongering and unable to remember the name of the person they were interviewing. I think that would throw off most people in that situation.

I'm not saying that Ray is a very intelligent guy. Not at all. My point is that his listeners would assume that MMA fighting is dangerous so he is ultimately serving his listeners assumptions by posing those questions. That doesn't make his assumption true but Cathal did not ably dispense with those assumptions. Whether he likes it or not he is representing the sport as he is a high profile Irish fighter he should be able to take this kind of misunderstanding and probing in his stride. When you are dealing with the media you have to be prepared for everything. Who is representing Cathal they should give him media training.

Ash.J.Williams

cloudatlas wrote: »

I'm not saying that Ray is a very intelligent guy. Not at all. My point is that his listeners would assume that MMA fighting is dangerous so he is ultimately serving his listeners assumptions by posing those questions. That doesn't make his assumption true but Cathal did not ably dispense with those assumptions. Whether he likes it or not he is representing the sport as he is a high profile Irish fighter he should be able to take this kind of misunderstanding and probing in his stride. When you are dealing with the media you have to be prepared for everything. Who is representing Cathal they should give him media training.

Most interviewers would state that it's "not for the feint hearted" and move on...Ray based his opinion on switching over from peppa pig to the final seconds of mcgregor's bout.

TBP

cloudatlas wrote: »

I'm not saying that Ray is a very intelligent guy. Not at all. My point is that his listeners would assume that MMA fighting is dangerous so he is ultimately serving his listeners assumptions by posing those questions. That doesn't make his assumption true but Cathal did not ably dispense with those assumptions. Whether he likes it or not he is representing the sport as he is a high profile Irish fighter he should be able to take this kind of misunderstanding and probing in his stride. When you are dealing with the media you have to be prepared for everything. Who is representing Cathal they should give him media training.

D'Arcy is the one that could do with the media training.

Cathal did a good job under the circumstances by replying with some interesting stats re: the safety of the sport etc to what were pretty idiotic questions.

nc6000

kunst nugget wrote: »

The guy is coming off the biggest win of his career at one of the most hyped sporting events of the summer in this country and then goes on a show with massive ratings where he ends up talking to someone who has done absolutely no research on the topic, makes ill-informed statements and calls him the wrong name several times. It was absolutely terrible radio.

This unfortunately seems to have become the norm with Ray recently. He never appears to have done any preparation for interviews and he's more than happy to give his own opinion on everything.

Add in the frequent mistakes with the equipment etc and it gets hard to listen to. The show used to be much much better.

I guess their listener figures are still high because there isn't much of an alternative in their slot.

Maybe they should have jumped to 2FM a few years back, it may have freshened it up a bit.

bruschi

cloudatlas wrote: »

I'm not saying that Ray is a very intelligent guy. Not at all. My point is that his listeners would assume that MMA fighting is dangerous so he is ultimately serving his listeners assumptions by posing those questions. That doesn't make his assumption true but Cathal did not ably dispense with those assumptions. Whether he likes it or not he is representing the sport as he is a high profile Irish fighter he should be able to take this kind of misunderstanding and probing in his stride. When you are dealing with the media you have to be prepared for everything. Who is representing Cathal they should give him media training.

Cathal sounded far more media trained than Darcy did. He spoke very well and relevant figures and stats to back up his points.

Main argument being though, is he shouldnt have had to defend himself. If Darcy doesnt like the sport or doesnt agree with it, and if, as people are saying, the majority of his listeners dont know or follow MMA, then why the hell did they ask him to come on their show?

I dont follow or particularly like MMA, but I thought Cathal did very well. I thought Darcy was awful in every aspect of the interview, from poor questions, wrong names and cringing nervous laughter.

BPKS

It was back to vintage D'arcy again today.

He was interviewing some woman, with an incredibly annoying fake laugh may I add, and was talking about her doing a naked photoshoot. She said something like "My daughter asked me".... and straight away D'Arcy was in with "What age is she".

I have to laugh then when he takes the p1ss out of Liveline, when his show is quickly becoming a Morning Liveline.

cloudatlas

bruschi wrote: »

Cathal sounded far more media trained than Darcy did. He spoke very well and relevant figures and stats to back up his points.

Main argument being though, is he shouldnt have had to defend himself. If Darcy doesnt like the sport or doesnt agree with it, and if, as people are saying, the majority of his listeners dont know or follow MMA, then why the hell did they ask him to come on their show?

I dont follow or particularly like MMA, but I thought Cathal did very well. I thought Darcy was awful in every aspect of the interview, from poor questions, wrong names and cringing nervous laughter.

I didn't say Ray did a good job but he was asking a question that like it or not the majority of his listeners are most probably thinking. Is MMA too dangerous? Cathal is naive if he thinks that all encounters with the media especially non-sporting media will be enjoyable. He has to learn from this and find a way of turning these questions to his advantage.

Meangadh

cloudatlas wrote: »

I didn't say Ray did a good job but he was asking a question that like it or not the majority of his listeners are most probably thinking. Is MMA too dangerous? Cathal is naive if he thinks that all encounters with the media especially non-sporting media will be enjoyable. He has to learn from this and find a way of turning these questions to his advantage.

As far as I can see, Cathal did just that though and came out of the interview very well- he defended his sport well and made it sound more like a discipline and much more skilled than it might seem to those unfamiliar with it. Ray just came across as very rude and obnoxious whereas Cathal came across as knowledgeable and well spoken. Not just an athlete but a very good spokesperson for his sport.

And I'd like to point out that I do not get the whole MMA/UFC thing at all- I watched the McGregor fight the other night and was just puzzled by the whole thing- a pub full of people enthralled by it and I couldn't understand what was enjoyable about watching it to be honest. It wasn't that I found it overly violent, just kind of "eh, is that it?" But despite that- I completely respect that other people do enjoy it and that the likes of Cathal and Conor put huge amounts of hours training themselves both physically and mentally to prepare themselves for these fights. And they deserve respect, praise- and at the very, very least, manners- when being interviewed about the job that they do. Ray was completely out of order.

McBain11

He is an embarrassingly poor interviewer. Add to that his obnoxious and holier than thou attitudes on almost everything, I really don't know how people listen to him day in day out. I was a fan of Ray back in the day but the shift in his personality a few years back was stark to say the least.

Disgraceful that he didn't know the lads name in the interview - incredibly unprofessional. Also, in that long an interview to just continually proceed with the same nonsense personal agenda of his own was pitiful. He is a truly cringeworthy radio dj at this stage.

Just to finish - huge kudos to Cathal. He defended his profession brilliantly, really made D'Arcy sound like an amateur. When he mentioned the amount of injuries suffered in the likes of Skiing in comparison, D'Arcy couldn't utter a word. When he mentioned how few serious injuries there are in UFC in comparison to the likes of rugby, D'Arcy hadn't a clue how to respond.

Definitely time for Today FM to liven up that slot with new faces and voices.

Ash.J.Williams

cloudatlas wrote: »

I didn't say Ray did a good job but he was asking a question that like it or not the majority of his listeners are most probably thinking. Is MMA too dangerous? Cathal is naive if he thinks that all encounters with the media especially non-sporting media will be enjoyable. He has to learn from this and find a way of turning these questions to his advantage.

That's where some research would have helped. If he raised his concerns 20 years ago when UFC was sanctioned, he may have had a point! To suddenly question the safety of a sport that's been running for that long is stupid.

Ash.J.Williams

What the hell was that this morning about the dog/beach/tannoy......Sounded like something Tubridy would have done years ago!

Twas Not

It's a strange one alright. He lauds participants of a sport where they are basically engaged in boxing the tits off each other yet obviously has massive issues with UFC.

Ash.J.Williams

Twas Not wrote: »

It's a strange one alright. He lauds participants of a sport where they are basically engaged in boxing the tits off each other yet obviously has massive issues with UFC.

He based his opinion on the final 5 seconds of Mcgregors fight. That's all he saw.

cloudatlas

Meangadh wrote: »

As far as I can see, Cathal did just that though and came out of the interview very well- he defended his sport well and made it sound more like a discipline and much more skilled than it might seem to those unfamiliar with it. Ray just came across as very rude and obnoxious whereas Cathal came across as knowledgeable and well spoken. Not just an athlete but a very good spokesperson for his sport.

And I'd like to point out that I do not get the whole MMA/UFC thing at all- I watched the McGregor fight the other night and was just puzzled by the whole thing- a pub full of people enthralled by it and I couldn't understand what was enjoyable about watching it to be honest. It wasn't that I found it overly violent, just kind of "eh, is that it?" But despite that- I completely respect that other people do enjoy it and that the likes of Cathal and Conor put huge amounts of hours training themselves both physically and mentally to prepare themselves for these fights. And they deserve respect, praise- and at the very, very least, manners- when being interviewed about the job that they do. Ray was completely out of order.

We're just going to have to agree to disagree. Cathal was rattled afterwards as he posted about it on social media. You can't let that show through I'm afraid, you can't let a poxy interview get to you like that. Even though the sport has been going for 20 years the majority of people in Ireland your common man, woman on the street don't know about it and assume it's dangerous. Ray served his listeners. Cathal did attempt to set some of that right by comparing MMA to rugby but he let did let it get to him. Even when Ray called him 'Conor' it was a dick move on Ray's part but I could hear Cathal getting annoyed and he can't let that show. I'll end it there. The media can be a bitch.

Greyjoy

"Rattled" is a ridiculous exaggeration of Pendred's reaction. He was annoyed at how poorly the interview went and in my view was perfectly justified in venting that annoyance on twitter. He was far more patient with D'Arcy in that interview that I could have been.

If Ray had posed the questions in a neutral manner I would completely agree that he was simply 'serving his listeners' but his tone & replies to Cathal's points showed that he was letting his personal bias cloud the interview. Ray wasn't looking for answers in order to educate his listeners - he wanted to wag the finger and pontificate at Cathal about how 'dangerous' the sport was.

BaZmO*

cloudatlas wrote: »

We're just going to have to agree to disagree. Cathal was rattled afterwards as he posted about it on social media. You can't let that show through I'm afraid, you can't let a poxy interview get to you like that. Even though the sport has been going for 20 years the majority of people in Ireland your common man, woman on the street don't know about it and assume it's dangerous. Ray served his listeners. Cathal did attempt to set some of that right by comparing MMA to rugby but he let did let it get to him. Even when Ray called him 'Conor' it was a dick move on Ray's part but I could hear Cathal getting annoyed and he can't let that show. I'll end it there. The media can be a bitch.

You're going to have to agree to disagree with more than just one person in fairness.