Newstalk Megathread

deadhead13 · 19-05-2009 10:25pm

I find Conor Brophy very hard to listen to.

jack24 · 19-05-2009 11:49pm

alpha2zulu wrote: »

Was thinking the exact same, however if they keep the standards up I dont see why it cant do better than a half hour of Claire/Ivan "banter". Time will tell of couse if NT management give it time to bed down, because i think the Sunday business shows have deefinetly shown there is a appetite for that format.

It didnt sound quite like 'banter' between Claire and Ivan. Someone else suggested they sounded like they were in different studios in terms of the warmth between them. Maybe Claire's feeling threatened it may become a one man show again (while secretly hoping for a one woman show). The whole thing is a mess, can't say I mind Conor Brophy though, its streets ahead of the text in the biggest pothole sh1te that was the staple of recent times on Newstalk.

FergalBoards.ie · 20-05-2009 8:35am

While I like the Business Breakfast concept, I have to say I wasn't impressed.

An interview with some guy off of, was it MySpace Ireland?

And what was he talking about? Property.

It just adds to the feeling that no one really knows what they're doing in their main job and everyone is still obsessed with property.

Then he was asked his opinion about Eircom, and suddenly was all vague and non-specific basically saying "it's important". Well done Einstein.

This could have been a great chance to talk about recession guerrilla marketing, about the loss of the workday and corporate computer resources to Web 2.0, about reputation management.

None of the above.

tbh · 20-05-2009 9:53am

deadhead13 wrote: »

I find Conor Brophy very hard to listen to.

I quite like him, but then I don't have any real interest in the business world. One problem I do have, tho, and this kind of relates to Claire as well, is that the questions they ask seem to be trying to demonstrate how well they know the subject, rather than trying to clarify or explore something that the interviewee is talking about. They seem to be spending their whole time (Conor and Claire) trying to "catch people out" rather than having a discussion. For example, Conor was talking yesterday to someone from the ESRI (I think anyway) and while Conor was taking 5 minutes to ask a question you could hear the guy going "yeah, yeah, yeah" as if to say "Just get to the point!"

Dub13 · 20-05-2009 10:20am

How is Ivan and the teenage girl getting on..?I am off work the last week or so and have not been up to listen.

SEPT 23 1989 · 20-05-2009 12:20pm

I thought Gilmore was going to lose the head with her this morning

same stupid question over and over not letting him answer properly

not very professional

she annoys me

andrewk08 · 20-05-2009 12:33pm

I have been a listener of Newstalk since it started. However, I stopped listening to Hook's EGO about 6 months ago. Now that Ger has left the breakfast show, I have switched from that too (to RTE). Not sure who calls the shots at Newstalk, but the Breakfast Show is so full of Gafs from Clare; Ger brought some intelligence to discussions. Clare seems very nice, but she isn't the sharpest knife in the box and I just couldn't listen to that ex-TD/Bookie guy. Now the only show I listen to is Lunchtime and the weekend business program.

TarfHead · 20-05-2009 1:11pm

andrewk08 wrote: »

I have been a listener of Newstalk since it started. However, I stopped listening to Hook's EGO .. Now the only show I listen to is Lunchtime ..

George Hook ego BAD - Eamon Keane ego GOOD

?

JennyQ4496 · 20-05-2009 1:19pm

I cannot stand George Hook on radio or in person, He is obnoxious and full of his own self importance and loves the sound of his own voice! A*****e! I can't understand how anybody can listen to him, the tone of his voice even irritates the hell out me!:mad:

andrewk08 · 20-05-2009 1:38pm

If you listen to Hook on the rugby panels on RTE, he periodically talks over and bullys the other presenters until he gets the floor. His show was often an attempt to publicise himself, with outdoor broadcasts etc., it was like Parnell running around the country. The American election finished it for me, couldn't listen to him sucking up to so many and how did the editors allow so much time for it. Maybe if I lived in USA I might have that level of interest. Most people in work listen to matt cooper and I have joined their ranks.

Eamon Keane can sometimes can take some strange angles on stories, but at least he asks the hard questions. I would never expect to agree with a presenter all the time.

projectmayhem · 20-05-2009 6:15pm

For what it's worth, the only real reason I tune into newstalk is Moncrief...

humberklog · 20-05-2009 6:52pm

projectmayhem wrote: »

For what it's worth, the only real reason I tune into newstalk is Moncrief...

I was just looking at him earlier today while he was in the window of BT's.
I was eating a curly-wurly as he was interviewing some woman about cabbages.

Generally excellent show...pity I didn't catch a juicier piece of conversational action.

deadhead13 · 22-05-2009 1:55am

The difference in the quality of Drivetime's and The Right Hooks coverage of the Child Abuse Commissions report on wednesday, clearly demonstrated all that is wrong with Newstalk.

Drivetime devoted almost the entire show to the issue. With informative analsysis of the report. Re-enactments of witness statement. Interviews with well informed contributors, including some of victums.

Hook on the other hand had two quests who didn't even appear to have read the summary of the report and frankly didn't really address the issues that it raised. The questioning was all over the place. George spent an inordinate amount of time telling us how he finds reading accounts of child abuse very difficult and upsetting.....it is not always about you George ffs.

You could point to RTE's vastly bigger budget...etc, but Newstalk's effort on this very important news item was just, very poor.

mal1 · 22-05-2009 8:36am

Did anyone hear Michael Woods call Pat Rabbitte 'Pat the Rabbit' this morning on Newstalk?

subway · 22-05-2009 8:49am

i do listen to it quite a bit, but the amount of ads is getting ridiculous.
ive stopped listening to the breaksfast show as i find claire to be very abrasive and abrupt with people. tough interviewing isnt about belittling guests.

i don enjoy george, but probably for all the reasons everyone else hates him!
i dont rate him greatly as a investigative broadcaster or interviewer, but do find him to be pleasant and to have, generally, interesting topics. iam finding myself flicking stations more and more these days however

robo · 22-05-2009 10:27am

I hear the Pat the Rabbit comment..hilarious!

But on George Hook - does anyone know why he has stopped twittering?? He was all go at it and then all of a sudden has stopped, anyone know why? Did he say anything on his show?

Dub13 · 22-05-2009 10:29am

robo wrote: »

But on George Hook - does anyone know why he has stopped twittering?? He was all go at it and then all of a sudden has stopped, anyone know why? Did he say anything on his show?

Maybe he realized twitter was crap.

robo · 22-05-2009 10:35am

I dunno, cos his 2nd last message said that he would explain why he was not on the site lately!

ntlbell · 22-05-2009 2:12pm

projectmayhem wrote: »

For what it's worth, the only real reason I tune into newstalk is Moncrief...

it's one of the very few reasons i turn newstalk off.

mobius42 · 22-05-2009 4:23pm

robo wrote: »

I hear the Pat the Rabbit comment..hilarious!

But on George Hook - does anyone know why he has stopped twittering?? He was all go at it and then all of a sudden has stopped, anyone know why? Did he say anything on his show?

He's too busy using his Sky+ box to have time to use Twitter.

CrowdedHouse · 22-05-2009 5:20pm

mobius42 wrote: »

He's too busy using his Sky+ box to have time to use Twitter.

...the same George Hook that wore a black armband on RTE when the Heineken Cup coverage was moving to ... er...Sky

Dub13 · 22-05-2009 8:06pm

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

...the same George Hook that wore a black armband on RTE when the Heineken Cup coverage was moving to ... er...Sky

Did he do that...?what a tool if he did.

deadhead13 · 23-05-2009 1:02am

Claire Byrne in the mail, on how she was taken aback by some internet comments from listeners when she first joined Newstalk.

"Some comments can affect me.......some of the comments were so destructive, so personal and so nasty for the sake of it. I don't really understand why people get so personal when they don't know you and they make assumptions about your level of intelligence and the colour of your hair. I just think it's pathetic"

Since this is the only place I have seen Claire's radio career being discussed, it fairly safe to assume that the above was directed at this forum and particularly this thread.

GhostInTheRuins · 23-05-2009 9:32am

Directed at this forum? Somehow I doubt that.

Correct me if I'm wrong but did anyone here mention the colour of her hair? :rolleyes:

mike65 · 23-05-2009 11:24am

It could be us and we are obessed with the failings of Newstalk tbf, radiowaves forum is in the ha'penny place by comparison.

Claire if you are reading then take on board some of our views - less personal opinion less
"the big I am" and more background reading for the topics you'll be covering the following day. The rest of the shows failings are the fault of production and managment.

deadhead13 · 23-05-2009 4:28pm

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

Directed at this forum? Somehow I doubt that.

Correct me if I'm wrong but did anyone here mention the colour of her hair? :rolleyes:

I disagree, but not enough to trawl back through the 2006-07 threads to check if the words Claire Byrne and blonde bimbo were ever used in the same post.

Firetrap · 23-05-2009 7:07pm

mike65 wrote: »

It could be us and we are obessed with the failings of Newstalk tbf, radiowaves forum is in the ha'penny place by comparison.

Claire if you are reading then take on board some of our views - less personal opinion less
"the big I am" and more background reading for the topics you'll be covering the following day. The rest of the shows failings are the fault of production and managment.

Yes, got to agree. Claire should concentrate more on being a professional radio presenter than being a "personality". I don't think any presenter of a current affairs program should be giving their opinion on things either. The breakfast show would be much better if they didn't try to be the radio version of The Sun

themont85 · 24-05-2009 1:57am

Have to agree,90% of the stations failings lie with managment of the shows and station.

robo · 24-05-2009 9:07pm

So is Ivan going to put his mark on the show...

The Ivan Yates Show

Newstalk's newest presenter has denied rumours that he asked station bosses to change the name of their breakfast programme to The Ivan Yates Show.

Speaking after his first week on the programme, which he co-hosts with Claire Byrne, Yates admitted that while the title was still under review, he had never asked for it to be re-branded to include his name.

"There is a flexibility for the management at Newstalk to review the programme's name," said the former agriculture minister. "But I didn't want it to be called The Ivan Yates Show at any stage. All I can say is that we looked at a number of programme titles including Sunrise, Daybreak and Agenda and the jury is still out on that so it might be renamed something other than Breakfast which is what it is called now."

Radio insiders had claimed that it was an impasse over the title of the programme which resulted in Yates only agreeing to an initial three-month summer stint.

However, the Wexford businessman denied this. "I didn't want to have a contract which would go too far and sour relationships. I didn't want to get involved in that sort of a contract and Newstalk didn't want to restrict themselves so we came to an agreement where we would do a contractless deal. I have other irons in the fire. It's somewhat experimental but that doesn't mean I am not committed and not going to give it my best shot but I'm not asserting that it will be a success."

The former politician admitted that the early-morning schedule was already taking its toll and this had prompted him to consider whether the job of an early-morning radio host was something he wanted to do long term.

"I will do it for a period and I will give it my best shot but I do not see myself doing this in five or 10 years' time," he said. "Have you heard of zombie banks? I'm a zombie broadcaster. If I go to bed at 8pm, I can't go to sleep and if I try and sleep in the afternoon, I can't get to sleep."

Koloman · 25-05-2009 4:25pm

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

...the same George Hook that wore a black armband on RTE when the Heineken Cup coverage was moving to ... er...Sky

I forgot about that! Thanks for jogging my memory. The word hypocrite comes to mind where George is concerned.

tbh · 25-05-2009 4:31pm

Firetrap wrote: »

Yes, got to agree. Claire should concentrate more on being a professional radio presenter than being a "personality". I don't think any presenter of a current affairs program should be giving their opinion on things either. The breakfast show would be much better if they didn't try to be the radio version of The Sun

in Claires defense, she's obviously been given a brief, and you would have to imagine that she's sticking to it. In our defense, that is, the defense of those of us who care enough about radio to post in a forum dedicated to it, we had hoped for so much more from Newstalk. To use the oft-quoted example, you'd never hear John Humphries passing comment. And isn't that the standard we should hope for?

Claire, if you ever want RTR on this forum, contact me and we'll facilitate it.

Slaygal · 25-05-2009 5:09pm

I've listened to The Breakfast Show on Newstalk since David McWilliams hosted it. I listened to Eamon Dunphy, I listened Ger Gilroy, I listened to Claire and Ger.
I tuned in this morning and it was awful. I've had enough.
It's Morning Ireland for me from now on. Well done Newstalk on driving your listeners away.

LostinBlanch · 25-05-2009 11:24pm

Slaygal wrote: »

I've listened to The Breakfast Show on Newstalk since David McWilliams hosted it. I listened to Eamon Dunphy, I listened Ger Gilroy, I listened to Claire and Ger.
I tuned in this morning and it was awful. I've had enough.
It's Morning Ireland for me from now on. Well done Newstalk on driving your listeners away.

I listened from the start as well but gave up months ago when I got tired of the Claire and Ger shtick. Haven't missed a bit of it. can't see myself going back either.

The best thing on newstalk apart from Off the ball (and Moncrieff from time to time) is Culture shock with Fionn Davenport and even that was dropped in favour of some right on immigration / asylum seeker issues led radio programme* which must really have pleased the advertisers as it is now gone. Whoever is in charge of the station should be sacked. We were crying out for a serious talk station to cover stuff that RTE isn't. What did we get? lowest common denominator radio that would make even the tabloids embarrassed.Talk about missing an open goal! If Newstalk continues like this then I won't be sorry to see it go. A pity as they brought some good programmes presenters through at the start, but there you go.

*Not saying that such programmes shouldn't get airtime, but this was another example of bad choices by management.

robo · 26-05-2009 9:02am

Just listening to the Breakfast show and the interview with Sr Marie Anne O'Connor from Cori about the Ryan report- and it was as if Claire and Ivan were interviewing her from different angles - like one was for one party and the other from another, and not from the same place. Ivan was pussy footing around, thanking her every second line for coming on and acknowledging how difficult it is for her to talk, and then Claire would come in, and ask why their phone lines were not open longer, like others. Then Ivan would come back and say thanks for coming on here.
It was like a game of tag - you be the good guy and I will be the bad girl and ask the questions that you are afraid to ask.

Then another thing that I found odd, was, the interview started around 8:40am and Ivan said that there was loads of time for the interview, and that she can take her time...I have never heard this said before, should this not be said off-air? Is it now that Newstalk can't get the guests to fill their show? Or is it with Ivan's interviewing skills, they need more time?

mike65 · 26-05-2009 10:08am

Well maybe cos its an important issue (one thats going to change this county by the time its fully played out) they actually decided to give an item more than 3 mins before the next ad break/txt read out?

robo · 26-05-2009 11:38am

Mike - I agree with you, this should be given as much time for all to talk about on the airwaves. I just found the way that they dealt with it and well I find Ivan so unprofessional as an interviewer, it is frustrating to listen to. There is no flow or professionalism in this programme and it is now a farce. I love when you have 2 people interviewing and they work well together, and I know it is only one week, but they are just not gelling on air - I don't have examples, but when one of them makes a comment (supposedly funny), the other ignores and it just doesn't feel like they are working together to present an informative and entertaining current affairs show. Surely the Breakfast show is getting worst rather than better? Morning Ireland...here I come!

mike65 · 26-05-2009 11:49am

Well true enough, I don't think Yates is going to last beyond the 3 months he has signed up for (the early starts are killing him appartantly) and I have a feeling Claire Byrne is not the easist co-host in the world!

tbh · 26-05-2009 11:52am

mike65 wrote: »

Well true enough, I don't think Yates is going to last beyond the 3 months he has signed up for (the early starts are killing him appartantly) and I have a feeling Claire Byrne is not the easist co-host in the world!

Claires latest on twitter:

Ger's wedding pictures are doing the rounds. You're not allowed to see any of them.

Nice.

mike65 · 26-05-2009 11:54am

Are you an avid follower

tbh · 26-05-2009 11:58am

They gave out to me before Mike. They asked "why is it so quiet this morning"

I replied "Everyone is listening to Morning Ireland".

The reply:
we were wondering about the twitter-calm... MI ain't worth the effort...

that was me telt!

DMC · 26-05-2009 12:19pm

Maybe Morning Ireland are busier... um... presenting a decent news programme to worry about tweeting.

Just a hunch.

robo · 26-05-2009 1:33pm

Well the GerandClaire twitter page is now closed, there is the IvanandClaire page and Ivan has been trying to get used to twittering :rolleyes:

I like the fact that they twitter about topics that are going to be discussed, but yesterday, the page was all about Claire losing her Iphone at Ger's wedding!

TBH - great twitter to them on MI!

tbh · 26-05-2009 1:50pm

robo wrote: »

Well the GerandClaire twitter page is now closed, there is the IvanandClaire page and Ivan has been trying to get used to twittering :rolleyes:
!

Is that a spoof? what's with the er er stuff?

edit: yep

it's a spoof

http://twitter.com/account/profile_image/ivanandclaire?hreflang=en

robo · 26-05-2009 1:52pm

Well I thought it was Ivan taking the pi55 out of his 'Err's' but now that you mention it, it maybe a spoof!

Also I noticed now the picture is the one of Claire & Ger, with Ivan's head replacing Ger's! So yes it is possibly a spoof.

deadhead13 · 26-05-2009 3:12pm

From what I heard this morning , even at this early stage, Newstalk must know they have made a mistake. Something, or more to the point someone, is going to have to give.

It reminds of the early 90's when Ian Dempsey left the 2fm breakfast show and Maxi took over. She did the collective heads of the nation in to such an extent that Ian was promptly brought back.

mike65 · 26-05-2009 6:25pm

Anyone catch the self aggrandising promo for Keanes programme? Spare me.

GhostInTheRuins · 26-05-2009 7:45pm

Yeah. I really, really can't stand that little man.

thebigcheese22 · 26-05-2009 9:55pm

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

Yeah. I really, really can't stand that little man.

Hey! He's a rare example of an annoying little man...

The rest of us are nice :pac:

FlutterinBantam · 26-05-2009 10:33pm

DMC wrote: »

Maybe Morning Ireland are busier... um... presenting a decent news programme to worry about tweeting.

Just a hunch.

You have something there DMC.

Howssoeverananyways!!

What do the IT nerds of today and their ilk want.??

Check the aviation forum, once the IFE is good they don't give a fcuk.

The chattering classes want all this shíte so don't dismiss the Newstalk emphasis on useless dross that only the chavies are interested in.

they are aiming at a specific target market, and it's not the punters who listen to MI;)

SUN, Star Mirror merchants .. thems the people they wants;);)

Uhmmmmm

Dub13 · 26-05-2009 10:55pm

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

they are aiming at a specific target market, and it's not the punters who listen to MI;)

SUN, Star Mirror merchants .. thems the people they wants;);)

Whoever they are aiming at they are not doing a good job as their figures are crap.

Newstalk Megathread

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