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

wnolan1992

crazygeryy wrote: »

What's with the typing in bold?do mods have to do that? Couldn't you just make your point without big black letters?

Love ray Darcy he's brilliant.

Some mods use it to differentiate between stuff said in their capacity as mod and stuff said as a regular poster.

hullaballoo

crazygeryy wrote: »

What's with the typing in bold?do mods have to do that? Couldn't you just make your point without big black letters?

Love ray Darcy he's brilliant.

It is used to differentiate between when we are posting as moderators and when we are posting as regular users. Similarly, users are asked not to type using all bold in case it is mistaken as a moderator's post.

It is not generally acceptable to query this sort of thing in-thread. If you have a query or complaint about moderator actions, use Help Desk or Feedback. Please bring this around to the intended topic.

sydthebeat

Anyone who has listened to the show from the start will recognise the absolute change in rays personality after he had kids. .... I'm not knocking it, it's a life changing experience.
However I think the fact he has kids later in life has turned him into a bad presenter. Everything now becomes about how things affect him or his kids lives. I couldn't tell you about Matt coopers family, about Ryan tuberty, Tony Fenton, Ian Dempsey. ... but i could write a thesis on rays. Everything on his show is about him and how it affects him.
Some people might like this degree of personal pitching, but it wasn't like that when the show started. Its just a pity because it was by far the best morning entertainment show, now it's so depressing .....

wnolan1992

I'd put up with kid talk (I enjoy Ray Foley talking about his kids for example because Foley delivers it in a fun, lighthearted way that you know is meant to be taken lightly). I'd put up with running talk. I'd even put up with the odd segment on healthy eating.

But for me, the biggest killer for the show in its current form is the drab, dreary feel that surrounds it. There's very rarely a day now that's all upbeat and happy, just Ray and whoever's in studio having a laugh. It's always some depressing misery-porn segment about cancer or depression or depression-induced-cancer. I'm sorry, that's just not what I want to be listening to first thing in the morning at work. I mean, for Jesus' sake there's enough crap to be worrying about in the world without Ray trying to add to it daily.

And I'm not even saying that serious topics shouldn't be broached. I'm just saying the balance seriously needs to tip back in favour of fun, upbeat, lite entertainment. It just seems to me that the see-saw has tipped in the wrong direction for the past few years and is gradually getting worse.

Take Anton Savage for example. When he's in, there's an automatic vibe to the show that says "We're having fun. The teacher's out today and we have licence to mess around." I know Anton's not everyone's cup of tea here, but surely even those that find him bland can see that there's more energy to the show when he's on.

I can also see this problem getting worse now that Mairead and Jenny are both gone. Jenny in particular always brought out the best in Ray when they were having one of those "having a laugh" days.

I dunno, maybe Ray's just not happy in the slot anymore and is only doing it for the paycheque, but while I was working during the summer the show was more like a black cloud of woe looming over the horizon as I came in each morning than a bright light beckoning and promising to get you through the first 3 hours of your work day.

CarrickMcJoe

crazygeryy wrote: »

What's with the typing in bold?do mods have to do that? Couldn't you just make your point without big black letters?

Love ray Darcy he's brilliant.

It feels as if they are shouting at you

I love Ray too....(just to avoid the bold letters).

lambayire

@wnolan1992.

Possibly the best summation that I have read about the woes of the show.

Very well said!

Zimmerframe

I think the Ray Darcy show is pretty good, except when he is not on holidays.

Frog Song

lambayire wrote: »

@wnolan1992.

Possibly the best summation that I have read about the woes of the show.

Very well said!

+1 Very well said and not an attack, exactly how I feel about it.

CarrickMcJoe

Bad as the show was,it's far worse since Ray came back, he's lost without the two belles.

Stepping Stone

lambayire wrote: »

@wnolan1992.

Possibly the best summation that I have read about the woes of the show.

Very well said!

Exactly how I feel about it. Well said!

JM Skipton

CarrickMcJoe wrote: »

Bad as the show was,it's far worse since Ray came back, he's lost without the two belles.

I have to agree with you on this one, it has been a bit flat this week. They could probably do with bringing Martin Maguire back to replace Will. I find that I can nearly predict what joke or double entendre Will is going to come out before he says it

Addle

Did he mention Mairead's move at all?

hullaballoo

Very well-put, wnolan - thank you.

When I was in college (03-07), I used to love to listen to Ray, Jenny, Mairead and Will on the long bus trip into UCD. It always put me into a good mood listening to them having a laugh and it was one of the first shows that promoted listenership engagement through text/email without being a phone-in show. It was always good to get your message read out. It was just exactly what light entertainment should be to pass the morning.

I had a period of time when I wasn't available to listen to the radio between 9 and 12 so I missed a couple of years, but when I went back to listening to him, there was a very clear change in the tenor of the show. The recession had kicked most people in the face by then so yes, lots of people were angry. But Ray picked this up and ran with it, the show went through a phase of being very shouty and righteous, attacking the man left, right and centre. It may have been the order of the day but the populist aspect of the show drove me away. I was feeling the pressures of the recession and trying to see a way past all that. I wasn't going to subject myself to rants and doom and gloom stories all morning, while trying to remain positive about the economic outlook.

Then the doom and gloom government bashing started leaning towards human interest stories. Now we're in magazine show territory. Not light entertainment anymore. Stories about people with horror lives, awful conditions, human tragedy and misery. It's difficult to listen to that stuff as a once off, but it was every week.

I haven't listened to the show more recently than that apart from occasionally when I happened to be in the car and after they messed up the 98fm schedule with those two lads who shout and then get other shouters to ring them to shout at each other and then everyone's shouting and angry. It's not safe to drive while that show is on. Anyway, Ray now talks about things that are so alien and irrelevant to me that I found myself daydreaming while his show was on - completely tuned out. The music has gotten very easy listening as well, not always my cup of tea. That's kind of a side issue.

It's a shame because for a long time, it was about as good a show as any on Irish radio. Now I have to listen to Spin, which is mostly brain floss but at least it doesn't make you want to either ram your car into the ignorant taxi driver cutting you off or go into dreamland, where the same could happen.

This post was not supposed to be so long.

TL; DR: well said, wnolan.

redbuck

hullaballoo wrote: »

Very well-put, wnolan - thank you.

When I was in college (03-07), I used to love to listen to Ray, Jenny, Mairead and Will on the long bus trip into UCD. It always put me into a good mood listening to them having a laugh and it was one of the first shows that promoted listenership engagement through text/email without being a phone-in show. It was always good to get your message read out. It was just exactly what light entertainment should be to pass the morning.

I had a period of time when I wasn't available to listen to the radio between 9 and 12 so I missed a couple of years, but when I went back to listening to him, there was a very clear change in the tenor of the show. The recession had kicked most people in the face by then so yes, lots of people were angry. But Ray picked this up and ran with it, the show went through a phase of being very shouty and righteous, attacking the man left, right and centre. It may have been the order of the day but the populist aspect of the show drove me away. I was feeling the pressures of the recession and trying to see a way past all that. I wasn't going to subject myself to rants and doom and gloom stories all morning, while trying to remain positive about the economic outlook.

Then the doom and gloom government bashing started leaning towards human interest stories. Now we're in magazine show territory. Not light entertainment anymore. Stories about people with horror lives, awful conditions, human tragedy and misery. It's difficult to listen to that stuff as a once off, but it was every week.

I haven't listened to the show more recently than that apart from occasionally when I happened to be in the car and after they messed up the 98fm schedule with those two lads who shout and then get other shouters to ring them to shout at each other and then everyone's shouting and angry. It's not safe to drive while that show is on. Anyway, Ray now talks about things that are so alien and irrelevant to me that I found myself daydreaming while his show was on - completely tuned out. The music has gotten very easy listening as well, not always my cup of tea. That's kind of a side issue.

It's a shame because for a long time, it was about as good a show as any on Irish radio. Now I have to listen to Spin, which is mostly brain floss but at least it doesn't make you want to either ram your car into the ignorant taxi driver cutting you off or go into dreamland, where the same could happen.

This post was not supposed to be so long.

TL; DR: well said, wnolan.

THIS sums it all up!!

messy tessy

Addle wrote: »

Did he mention Mairead's move at all?

Not as such. I listened back to his first intro after the hols, on the website and it was something like "Alot happened in my absence, lost a few people" or something like that.

I found it odd she didn't pop back to say goodbye or even to recognise it in someway!

Chip Whitley

I've been listening to Ray for at least 8 years now, and I don't have anything to really add to what wnolan and hullaballoo have said so well, but I would just agree with what they have said about show changing tone. I couldn't pinpoint exactly when it happened, it started after Kate was born for sure, not sure when the running and healthy thing came in, but I definitely remember that it was only once a week, a Thursday iirc, when they would do a sob story.

It was the kind of thing that would make you feel lucky that things weren't so bad in your own life and made you appreciate the people in your life or the situation you were in. Now though... it's almost scare-mongering. The sad stories are on almost every day. And with all due respect to the people involved, they are depressing as ****. On top of that he starts every day with a round up of 90% depressing news stories from the papers which he pontificates on and the fact he rounds it off with a good news/silly story doesn't make up for the fact that he's already put a downer on the listener.

I like Ray, I like Will and I liked Mairead and Jenny. I think they all have/had something to contribute to the show in their own way, but the show is becoming a total chore and if the Callan's Kicks sketches haven't made them stop and think about what they are doing, then there is no hope. Once Ray is beating Tubridy (and handily) Today FM won't do anything about it.

JM Skipton

There have been some extremely well made, fair and balanced points made by the posters above about the show however this thread (although hugely entertaining and engaging...most of the time) is but a tiny fraction of listeners to the Ray D'Arcy show and until 200,000 or so start to have similar feelings to those on this thread,then there will be very little change.

Addle

messy tessy wrote: »

Not as such. I listened back to his first intro after the hols, on the website and it was something like "Alot happened in my absence, lost a few people" or something like that.

I found it odd she didn't pop back to say goodbye or even to recognise it in someway!

Very strange.

Cork_chick_94

JM Skipton wrote: »

I have to agree with you on this one, it has been a bit flat this week. They could probably do with bringing Martin Maguire back to replace Will. I find that I can nearly predict what joke or double entendre Will is going to come out before he says it

Martin Maguire was made head of Today Fm a couple of months ago.

lambayire

Cork_chick_94 wrote: »

Martin Maguire was made head of Today Fm a couple of months ago.

head of programming, just to clarify.

CarrickMcJoe

Had to switch off today, with no one to rein grumpy Ray in now, he's just grumbling on about the government and religion again. Even his sigh's are more pronounced.

wnolan1992

Only caught a brief snippet of the show today where the woman was on talking about women prisoners after 10. Thought it was a pretty interesting subject.

hufpc8w3adnk65

CarrickMcJoe wrote: »

Had to switch off today, with no one to rein grumpy Ray in now, he's just grumbling on about the government and religion again. Even his sigh's are more pronounced.

Why don't you just switch off fully and stop constantly giving out?

CarrickMcJoe

MrMac84 wrote: »

Why don't you just switch off fully and stop constantly giving out?

Because I live in a free country where I can give out if I want! Oh, I did switch off fully too, as in, the ON/OFF was at OFF.

The Davestator

Where did Mairead go?

statto25

The Davestator wrote: »

Where did Mairead go?

New producer on Ian Dempsey's show.

Vorenus400

The Davestator wrote: »

Where did Mairead go?

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/radio/women-should-only-be-on-air-if-they-have-talent-says-mairead-farrell-30564052.html

Maybe she took the advice in the headline. Most of the article is a puff piece about her child and fiance.

Her move is very strange as Darcy usually makes a fuss about someone moving from the show. You wouldnt expect something like when Jenny left but maybe some little acknowledgment

neris

Vorenus400 wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/radio/women-should-only-be-on-air-if-they-have-talent-says-mairead-farrell-30564052.html

Maybe she took the advice in the headline. Most of the article is a puff piece about her child and fiance.

Her move is very strange as Darcy usually makes a fuss about someone moving from the show. You wouldnt expect something like when Jenny left but maybe some little acknowledgment

she must have a very good buddy in the independent group theyve been fawning over her the last number of weeks now recycling the same rubbish about her and her love life and child.

Twas Not

neris wrote: »

she must have a very good buddy in the independent group theyve been fawning over her the last number of weeks now recycling the same rubbish about her and her love life and child.

There needs to be a good investigative piece in the farce the show has become. Someone needs to connect the dots.

redbuck

This mum dollar thing has to be a BS email.