Marian Finucane - je ne regrette rien

mike65

article

This talk of documentary-making will fuel a certain caustic view that she’s a presenter on half-a-million a year for four hours’ work a week, so why wouldn’t she find the time for extra-curricular activities. What does she do from Monday to Friday ? There’s a sigh of resignation. “Well, Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be my days off – and I try and do a lot of the Africa work then – but they usually start with a series of emails and texts which start: ‘Sorry to bother you on a Monday but . . .’ I’m on air about the same as I was during the morning show. It’s changed the working time but it hasn’t changed the work. So I work seven days actually. The job is not just walking in, hanging up your hat and presenting a programme. I listen to the radio from 7am until the close of Drivetime. I’m in constant communication with the producer from Wednesday. People think you just go in and present a programme. Look, if I were in the building in RTÉ, I’d be doing the same as I’d be doing at home. Because of email, I can do an awful lot from home. If I were in RTÉ, I’d be chatting to somebody over a cup of coffee.”

As for the salary, she’s apologising to no one. “From my perspective it was what the market was, because I’d had offers from other stations . . . I always said that Century Radio did me the biggest favour of anybody in the world [by trying to poach her from RTÉ].” Plus several serious offers since, which RTÉ somehow got wind of. “And anyway – why shouldn’t the girls get it if the boys are getting it?” She has no agent. Kieran Corrigan of Merlin Films negotiates her contracts. “We have become great friends and he is very skilled at what he does, so it means I’m not involved.”

I like the way she washes her hands at the end. :rolleyes:

JonathanAnon

“And anyway – why shouldn’t the girls get it if the boys are getting it?”

So, she's raping the state cos she's a feminist? She realises herself, with those stupid and simplistic answers, the folly of her being paid such a large amount of money for four hours a week... which she barely does any more ANYWAY, as Rachael has been covering at least the last four consecutive weeks, and will cover more before the year is out.

I listen to the radio from 7am until the close of Drivetime

So do I. Should I be sending RTE an invoice ? Her show breaks down as follows:

Saturday:
first half - interview with somebody, and reading texts from callers about the interviewee.
second half - current affairs and the day's sport.

Sundays:
first half - discussion of the papers, which inevitably always ends up in a discussion about NAMA or the economy.
second half - Dave Fanning reviewing the week's TV and movies.

Listening to the radio doesnt really constitute working towards this program, except maybe the current affairs stuff.

Kieran Corrigan of Merlin Films negotiates her contracts. “We have become great friends and he is very skilled at what he does, so it means I’m not involved

If I could find someone that would get me that much money for that little work, I'm sure I would consider him a "great friend" as well.

Lenny Lovett

I blame whoever is in charge of doling uot the vast sums to these grossly over paid people at RTE. If someone's dft enough to give it why wouldn't she take it... I would!

FlutterinBantam

As I have said many times before, a hierarchy system has evolved out there.

Kenny Tubs would be at the top of the pile and the others get a contract which is measured by what the top two get.



Now you will hear plenty of guff and crap about how that's not true, but that's the way it works and no one out in the cattery has the balls to bust up the cosy arrangement which is funded by the taxpayer and outrageous ad costs.

Goan is on the way out, so maybe the new appointment will do something.

What that place needs is,like the banks, a new broom, someone from the outside with no baggage

Will that happen..... don't hold your breath.

Someone like Mueller in Aer Lingus.

goose2005

Lenny Lovett wrote: »

I blame whoever is in charge of doling uot the vast sums to these grossly over paid people at RTE. If someone's dft enough to give it why wouldn't she take it... I would!

But RTE bosses know that if the "talent" are on 10,000 a week, their 3,000 a week will seem smaller.

rebeve

In fairness to MF the competition is very poor in rte at the moment.Too many journeyman presenters.

Rubik.

Eoghan Harris replied to Finucane's interview in The Sindo yesterday - it "...showed that her sense of entitlement had brought her perilously close to having a Pee Flynn foot-in-mouth moment"

He went on to say - "Even more disturbingly, we found out that Finucane spends her working week at home, Monday to Friday, listening to RTE radio. In short, Finucane spends her week listening to her friends. And that can't be good."

I wouldn't the Senator Harris's biggest fan, but at least someone in the media is taking notice of how absurd it all is.

mike65

Ironic as he was the man who first spotted her I think.

Rabble Rabble

rabble rabble.

Do we know her net cost. If she earns more in advertising then she is not an actual cost.

FlutterinBantam

Rabble Rabble wrote: »

rabble rabble.

Do we know her net cost. If she earns more in advertising then she is not an actual cost.

What are you on about.

'If she earns more in advertising'?

Who gives her the prime slot?
the studio
the transmission network
the backroom team.
The running and electricity costs

She merely facilitates or presents the show, for crying out loud when will people like you get sense.:mad:

mike65

FlutterinBantam come on now play fair, if she wasn't on air from 11am-1 pm twice a week literally noone would be listening and the ad revenue plunge would be catastrophic. Marian Finucane is in fact keeping Radio Eireann viable

FlutterinBantam

Sorry Mike, bit kettled here , of course you are right.

Marian single handedly and without any back up or facilities,such as marketing, advertising,production input, technical expertise,studio, sound staff,lighting,heating,rent or rates security, admin, is totally responsible for all the ad revenue gained by RTE between 1100-1300 Sat and Sun.

Nobody else ,I say nobody else could do it.


Sorry Mike, how could I be so thick as not to realise that.

JonathanAnon

mike65 wrote: »

FlutterinBantam come on now play fair, if she wasn't on air from 11am-1 pm twice a week literally noone would be listening and the ad revenue plunge would be catastrophic. Marian Finucane is in fact keeping Radio Eireann viable

ah come on Mike, she hasnt been there for the last two months, so I dont think the argument about millions of switching cos she is not there off is not realistic. I agree to a certain extent that she "brings her own crowd", but she IS on the national broadcaster with all the audience pull that it brings.

11am-1 pm twice a week literally noone would be listening and the ad revenue plunge would be catastrophic. Marian Finucane is in fact keeping Radio Eireann viable

If it was not subsidised by the tax payers, and RTE was a profit making organization then you could make this argument. RTE is not a profit making organization.

She is imo worth about 100k for the hours she puts in, given her experience... on that basis, that's approx 500k that could be better used in health, education, social welfare etc etc. It is immoral. She is soooo greedy that she would take this extra money and justify it on the basis that "it's what her agent negotiated for her". If you sent RTE management to sell a cow, they would come back with magic beans..

Offer Marian 100k a year, she is a private contractor after all so they have NO allegiance to her, and if she is not happy with that tell her to gtfo..

mike65

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

Sorry Mike, bit kettled here , of course you are right.

Marian single handedly and without any back up or facilities,such as marketing, advertising,production input, technical expertise,studio, sound staff,lighting,heating,rent or rates security, admin, is totally responsible for all the ad revenue gained by RTE between 1100-1300 Sat and Sun.

Nobody else ,I say nobody else could do it.

Sorry Mike, how could I be so thick as not to realise that.

JonathanAnon wrote: »

ah come on Mike, she hasnt been there for the last two months, so I dont think the argument about millions of switching cos she is not there off is not realistic. I agree to a certain extent that she "brings her own crowd", but she IS on the national broadcaster with all the audience pull that it brings.

Woooooooooooosh! :pac:

washiskin

JonathanAnon wrote: »

ah come on Mike, she hasnt been there for the last two months, so I dont think the argument about millions of switching cos she is not there off is not realistic. I agree to a certain extent that she "brings her own crowd", but she IS on the national broadcaster with all the audience pull that it brings.



If it was not subsidised by the tax payers, and RTE was a profit making organization then you could make this argument. RTE is not a profit making organization.

She is imo worth about 100k for the hours she puts in, given her experience... on that basis, that's approx 500k that could be better used in health, education, social welfare etc etc. It is immoral. She is soooo greedy that she would take this extra money and justify it on the basis that "it's what her agent negotiated for her". If you sent RTE management to sell a cow, they would come back with magic beans..

Offer Marian 100k a year, she is a private contractor after all so they have NO allegiance to her, and if she is not happy with that tell her to gtfo..

Even 50k would be stretching it in my book.
What rival station could afford any of the primadonnas in Montrose?
Why they haven't been told to sod off to their "other offers" when it comes to the end of their contracts is beyond me.

sundaypapers

I believe this is what is known as a Pee Flynn moment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8T0Q03oJSc

JonathanAnon

Just gone through my podcasts and this shows who has been presenting the "Marian Finucane Show" for the last few months..

7th/8th August - Rachael English
31st July / 1st August - Rachael English
24th/25th July - Rachael English
17th/18th July - Rachael English
10th/11th July - Rachael English
3rd/4th July - Rachael English
26th/27th June - Marian Finucane
12th/13th June - Marian Finucane
5th/6th June - Marian Finucane
29th/30th May - Rachael English
22nd/23rd May - Rachael English
(John Murray also filled for at least one weekend in earlier in the year)

For approximately €12,000 a week, Marian is only expected to splutter her way through four on air hours, but apparently this is too much..

From a revenue point of view, if she is gonna be missing for that number of weeks every year, then the advertising revenue is affected in one of two ways..

i) The advertiser recognises that the queen hardly ever presents the "Marian Finucane Show" and decide NOT to advertise on the show in the future.

ii) The advertiser continues to advertise as they consider it is the format of the show that (and not the name Marian Finucane) that is attracting listeners. If this is the case, she is being hugely overpaid for a job Rachael can do better than her.

Either way, RTE loses out..

Lenny Lovett

So per hour on air, she must be the highest paid radio presenter in the British Isles... right?

mike65

British Isles? No such thing in broadcasting but I'd say Chris Evans and Moyles are on more myself.

Lenny Lovett

Chris Evans is on half a million a year for his radio shows based on a five day week 44 weeks per year.

mike65

Really? Wow he should move over, he does have family here.

Rubik.

Pat Kenny's salary dropped from 950,976 euro to 630,000 euro (including the 10% across the board cut) when his contract was re-negotiated towards the end of 2008. You have to assume the same thing is going to happen to each of the top 10 earns when their current contracts are up.

It will be interesting to see if any of them will jump ship as a result, I suspect not. Pat certainly didn't, even when faced with losing 1/3 of his income. Thereby, debunking this notion that are being paid these vast amounts to ward of the competition. A competition that doesn't really exist.

JonathanAnon

Rubik. wrote: »

Pat Kenny's salary dropped from 950,976 euro to 630,000 euro (including the 10% across the board cut) when his contract was re-negotiated towards the end of 2008.

As far as I'm aware his pay was dropped when he gave up the LLS... and the amount was lumped onto that FF pr1ck.

Rubik.

JonathanAnon wrote: »

As far as I'm aware his pay was dropped when he gave up the LLS... and the amount was lumped onto that FF pr1ck.

I don't think so, his contract was being re-negotiated just before his last Late late Show season started. There were rumblings in the papers at the time that he was unhappy about how things were going and we now know why.

I would also have my doubts about this one million euro figure that Tubridy is supposed to be on.