RTÉ to axe Vincent Browne show

Tabnabs

according to today's Irish Times after 11 years on the air, the Vincent Brown Show will be dropped by RTE. It was a good show and I think it's a great shame to see it go. Apparently it's all down to listenership numbers. Quantity over quality...

FlutterinBantam

Hmmmm ...wouldn't QUITE go along with that.

Too much tribunal stuff... Browne definitely biased in favour of whoever he got on with... Mary O'Rourke....Shane Ross... Sean Ardagh...could have been a lot cleaner and meaner and fast moving.

Came the heavy on the poor dudes who could do nothing and gave an easy ride to those who were in power and did nothing... MARY O'ROURKE

I kinda liked it... with some reservations.

Now.. Browne won't be worrying as he will no doubt,negotiate a slot with another station noooo problem...!!!!

mike65

The man's a blight on clear concise broadcasting!

That said the fact he is being given the boot over ratings is worrying, at 10pm during the week RTE should not be chasing numbers.

I await the news about the replacement - "...and now Derek Mooneys Night Owls, 60 minutes of chat and musical craic based around the theme of back-garden nature".

RUN! :eek:

Mike.

DublinWriter

mike65 wrote:

That said the fact he is being given the boot over ratings is worrying, at 10pm during the week RTE should not be chasing numbers.

Now do you believe me about political interference over the cancellation of Scrap Saturday and Bull Island when they were pulling-in peak audiences?

Honestly Mike, get the tin-foil hat on!

VB was a marked man after he tore Bertie a new one at the pre-election FF press-conference over the supposed US Dollar lodgements.

One thing is sure...VB won't go gently into that good night.

mental07

Apparently he's off to Newstalk:

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/browne-heads-for-newstalk-after-rte-scraps-his-show-955829.html

crybaby

massive massive coup for Newstalk, they should may consider giving him an early show, maybe even put him on breakfast?

mike65

Breakfast??????? Ger Gilroy is quite bad enough. Anyway I doubt he'd be one for getting up at 4.30 am.

DW you could be right but until I hear your thoughts confirmed by a seperate source I'll keep an open mind RTE are funny, bunch esp this last couple of years. They swing an axe like a drunken hurler totterring along the apex of a pub roof.

Mike.

SligoBrewer

I know I'm only young but i always enjoyed to VB..
He's a brilliant political analyalist and loved the way he showed Bertie up during the pre-election contest to sow what Bertie really is.

Will listen to his new new show on Newstalk whenever its on.

Badabing

SligoBrewer wrote:

I know I'm only young but i always enjoyed to VB..
He's a brilliant political analyalist and loved the way he showed Bertie up during the pre-election contest to sow what Bertie really is.

Will listen to his new new show on Newstalk whenever its on.

What the most succesfull politican in 50 odd years?:)

popebenny16

This isnt the first time the show was dropped though. Remember After Dark with Rodney Rice back, oh, six seven years ago?

Put Vincenzo in with Ulick in the Snug every night at 10 on Newstalk. That would be fun.

UrbanFox

No harm.

In the early days the programme was consistently good.

Of recent years the quality has been variable. Browne's adoption of the RTE imperative to interrupt everyone and to stamp on their contributions has made for a poorer programme overall.

This is a real pity because because Browne is so well informed and has an unerring capacity to nail gob****es and wafflers.

Better to kill off a programme like this rather than see it decline in to mediocrity.

I suppose the replacement programme will also follow another of the new RTE radio standards namely cheapness and a deepening lack of talent.

bbability

UrbanFox wrote:

No harm.

I suppose the replacement programme will also follow another of the new RTE radio standards namely cheapness and a deepening lack of talent.

Maybe Adrianne Kennedy is en route:D

spank_inferno

If he does move to Newstalk where would they put him?
I reckon a like-for-like swap for the after 10pm show hosted by Declan Carthy.
That would be a shame though for Carthy because I think he's a good broadcaster,

flogen

DublinWriter wrote:

VB was a marked man after he tore Bertie a new one at the pre-election FF press-conference over the supposed US Dollar lodgements.

I dunno - RTÉ Radio 1 has been chasing numbers a lot more lately, so I'm thinking that really was the deciding factor in the decision.

My prediction - a once-weekly weekend show on Newstalk.
Newstalk need it to put a strong name on their weekend schedule and Brown would go for it as it would free up his time to focus on his Haughey biography, columns and most importantly, the salvation of Village.

FlutterinBantam

Ana Leddy did a big clear out recently, read about in in the Indo.

Shook the kip up, cleared out all the backroom teams and re-assigned them out of their comfort zone.

Yer man Padraig Breanach got the heave from the arts programme at 2300 which was always a "Flutther Favourite":cool: :cool:

mike65

Whoa Breanach was quite good, he has a "late nite" voice.

Mike.

FlutterinBantam

Andy O'Mahony is very under used in there, he's the man for that slot imho.

As we mention arts,Ihear Dungan a lot recently .

Is he doing some new arts /history programme with an American theme.. Highway 101 or something like that??

mike65

Yep.

Mike.

vorbis

have to say I was never a big fan of Vincent Browne. My aunt used to listen to him religiously and his voice just kept droning and droning.

FlutterinBantam

That horrible pleghemmie cough you used to hear at regular intervals must have got to him!!

mike65

Tom McGurk to get late night discussion prog. V-sigh-B out T-GMGM-McG in makes no particular sense to me.

Mike.

FlutterinBantam

No way.. he wouldn't change his name to Tom GNGN McGuirk.

raven136

vb's show was something different to drivetime,hook and matt cooper who all discussed the same topics in the same way.
the traveller show he did recently was excellent public service radio.

May i ask why is rte 1 chasing numbers,isnt ten o clock at night a perfect time to provide decent radio for arts/politics/documentary etc.isnt the license fee for all this stuff?

tak

Mc Gurk is better on arts.
Has problems concealing his disinterest in sport and serious current affairs.

But maybe they're just trying to give him the push by cutting into his social life.

FlutterinBantam

irish_bob

glad hes gone , he,s what i call the worst kind of liberal , a champagne socilist , like mary robinson or ivan bacik
his views on everything from travellers to islamic fundies were completely at odds with mine and the majority of common sensed irish people

homah_7ft

This is indeed worrying news for a Browneite like myself. I wonder if it has anything to do with his clear disdain for the new RTE impulse to make all shows, "Interactive". I personally love how he doesn't spare the feelings of members of the public who text in with clearly stupid statements. I can understand how he is one of those types that you either love or hate but removing him from RTE smacks of more dumbing down to me. Here's hoping he gets a good slot on Newstalk

FlutterinBantam

irish_bob wrote:

glad hes gone , he,s what i call the worst kind of liberal , a champagne socilist , like mary robinson or ivan bacik
his views on everything from travellers to islamic fundies were completely at odds with mine and the majority of common sensed irish people

Well Said IB, exactly my sentiments. You could throw a fair few other names in there too

mountainyman

I hated his long drawn out sighs, his incredible self importance and his knee jerk liberalism (I am a knee liberal but he always seemed to be putting it on).

MM

UrbanFox

homah_7ft wrote:

I wonder if it has anything to do with his clear disdain for the new RTE impulse to make all shows, "Interactive".

The new RTE idea of "interactive" is to interrupt every interviewee after five seconds. It is now the same throughout the RTE news and current affairs output on both radio and television.

RTE may think it is smart. I am sick of this new style as it is actually corrupting our abilities to hear a point of view.....

Cork

It was good radio. Good analysis.

But it too focused on boring tribunerals. Night after night.

Same old stuff on a nightly basis.

It also dropped the newspaper slot at the end - big error.

FlutterinBantam

Fair play there.

I reached the same conclusion at post #2