Newstalk part company with Off The Ball team

IRISHSPORTSGUY

Presenters Eoin McDevitt, Ken Early, Ciaran Murphy, Simon Hick and Mark Horgan have resigned. Hopefully they have just been poached by a 'bigger station'...really enjoyed listening to them for years.

Amirani

What bigger station?

homerjay2005

any reason for this and is it immediate effect?

NiallSparky wrote: »

What bigger station?

assume he means RTE or Today FM, with 98FM and FM104 also "big".

IRISHSPORTSGUY

NiallSparky wrote: »

What bigger station?

One that writes bigger pay cheques

IRISHSPORTSGUY

homerjay2005 wrote: »

any reason for this and is it immediate effect?

http://thescore.thejournal.ie/off-the-ball-818471-Mar2013/?utm_source=shortlink

NEWSTALK HAVE TODAY parted company with the team behind the award-winning Off The Ball programme.
Presenter Eoin McDevitt, Ken Early, Ciaran Murphy, Simon Hick and Mark Horgan have resigned according to the station.
A statement issued to TheScore.ie reads: ”Ger Gilroy, Newstalk Sports Editor, who devised Off the Ball in 2002, will be joined by mainstays of the Newstalk sports team – Cian Murtagh, David McIntyre and Joe Molloy – in taking over the running of the show, starting tonight.
“Newstalk would like to thank Eoin, Simon, Ken, Ciaran and Mark for their contributions to the station and wish them luck in their future endeavours.”
The incredibly-popular nightly sports show has been running for almost a decade.
More to follow

Aidric

I am in mourning. The best show on radio.

The_Kew_Tour

Bollocks.

Really was great show.

KevIRL

Pity alright, hopefully they pop up elsewhere before long and hopefully Newstalk keep the time slot for a sports show long term too

deisedude

I doubt they have been poached. Presenters wouldn't go with immediate effect because of that.

applehunter

Presume they have been approached by RTÉ.

Kylo Ren

Feck sake.

Coillte_Bhoy

:(:(

Neil3030

Wait!! Wait!!!

<looks at calendar: Not 1st of April>

Awh...

Amirani

homerjay2005 wrote: »

assume he means RTE or Today FM, with 98FM and FM104 also "big".

Yeah, I assumed so. None of them really have dedicated sports shows at the moment though.

Today FM can perhaps be ruled out because they have the same owner. FM104 wouldn't really be a good fit IMO. RTÉ/2FM are the only possibilities that stand out for me.

theoneeyedman

Best radio sports show by a mile. I hope they don't go to RTE as they won't be given proper time and editorial freedom as they obviously enjoyed at newstalk. RTE do a lovely line in dated cliched analysis so hopefully they won't go down that road.
Does this effect the weekend shows or is this a completely different team

Leiva

my money was on Today FM til I realised they (Newstalk) are owned by the same Co.

Banjaxed82

The arse is going to fall out of Newstalk. Morning show gone to sh!te. And now the best radio show is gone too.

Disaster. I can only imagine the plunge in listeners will be staggering. The advertisers won't like this.

Neil3030

Same owner but presumably Today FM and Newstalk have separate budgets? May well turn up there. God I'd hate to hear them on RTE.

Jax Teller

Never listened to it live . Always downloaded the podcast even though I can't stand Ken Earley .

BOHtox

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N493CQgQ_Hk

starviewadams

Really pissed off at this,listened every night without fail and attended a few of the roadshows over the years.Far less puerile then most sports shows,and had nice little features on interesting stories that I otherwise would never have heard of.Plus it had Ken's weekly arguments with Graham Hunter!

RTE have that new sports show so they'll probably end up there unfortunately,no other viable alternatives really.Can't see FM104/98FM being able to afford hiring the whole team,or dedicating 15 hours a week to a sports show either.

Doubt Today FM would be a goer either seeing as they are also owned by DOB and operate out of the same studios as NT.

greendom

Maybe they're off to 2FM - they've just started a nightly sports show I believe

BOHtox

They never had enough LOI on it anyway...:cool:

jive

ahhh what the shít. my quality of life just dropped 10 fold... those long journeys up and down the country will now be spent looking at hedges only now my car won't be filled with joy and laughter, it will be filled solely by a callous, indifferent and very bored young man.

Chucky the tree

Seems very strange for them to up and leave so quickly.

8-10

The decision came after the crew requested to take an hour off the George Hook show and go on the air at 6.00pm but that was turned down by the station.

It’s thought station chiefs felt this did not make sense commercially and would also affect audience figures.

Insiders said the Off the Ball team also turned down the opportunity of an extra Saturday morning slot.

From the Indo...

Francie Barrett

No loss, I can't stand Ken Early.

Jax Teller

Probably said we'll resign if you don't give us what we want & Newstalk called their bluff .

Full link from the Indo
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/entire-newstalks-off-the-ball-team-resigns-29107988.html

SickBoy

Oh Noes

starviewadams

Who owns the indo?that story doesn't wash with me at all!

The OTB lads aren't stupid,I'd doubt they'd resign en masse over a scheduling issue.

jaykay74

Disaster for my daily commute

:-(

Fromthetrees

RTE should pick them up and they can continue on the show. It'd be a shame if the show was lost for good.

Havermeyer

Gilroy, McIntyre et al does not inspire much confidence.

Doubt I'll bother my arse listening anymore. The replacements have very little personality between them, imo.

Iang87

Francie Barrett wrote: »

No loss, I can't stand Ken Early.

He was primarily on it for an hour. There was 2 hours where his input was minimal

IRISHSPORTSGUY

IRISHSPORTSGUY wrote: »

Presenters Eoin McDevitt, Ken Early, Ciaran Murphy, Simon Hick and Mark Horgan have resigned. Hopefully they have just been poached by a 'bigger station'...really enjoyed listening to them for years.

Devastated isnt the word. I particularly enjoyed Richie Sadlier's piece of a Tuesday night. But i dont think we've heard the last from the lads tbh. 5 leaving together is a sign that they have been poached.

That said i cant help feeling Newstalk allows its presenters that little bit more creative freedom then the rest. Only my opinion but i cant imagine the stiffos on RTE being too pleased if they used the likes of Paul Kimmages 'He does and his B**lcks' as part of their intro jingle

The lads are brilliant though. They are 3 lads you'd gladly let into your home every night of the week to have a natter about sport and thats what effectively listeners were doing. There was real listener involvement and the lads are just brilliant, knowledgeable and seemingly extremely down to earth guys. Ken's football newsround with the cheesy music every night is another highlight ill miss.

jack presley

What are we going to do without Murph's Country Pages?

Banjaxed82

Banjaxed82 wrote: »

The arse is going to fall out of Newstalk. Morning show gone to sh!te. And now the best radio show is gone too.

Disaster. I can only imagine the plunge in listeners will be staggering. The advertisers won't like this.

Im still laughing at the Knorr stock cube plugs from a few weeks back or Richie Sadliers dog.

LuckyLloyd

Neil3030 wrote: »

Same owner but presumably Today FM and Newstalk have separate budgets? May well turn up there. God I'd hate to hear them on RTE.

Keyzer

homerjay2005 wrote: »

any reason for this and is it immediate effect?



assume he means RTE or Today FM, with 98FM and FM104 also "big".

Today FM, newstalk and 98FM are all owned by the same person...

leakyboots

Deleted User wrote: »

Ken's football newsround with the cheesy music every night is another highlight ill miss.

Cheesy? That's Herbie Hancock!!

Coillte_Bhoy

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I presume it's because they wouldnt have the same editorial freedom maybe?

LuckyLloyd

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

I presume it's because they wouldnt have the same editorial freedom maybe?

If they were able to transport their show whole to 2FM I'm not sure it would be a problem. RTE are the biggest game in town lads.

Keyzer

This sucks monkey gonads.

I fricken love this show. Gilroy and the mercenaries brought in to keep it going dont have a patch on the lads.

Seriously, a sad day...

leakyboots

leakyboots wrote: »

Cheesy? That's Herbie Hancock!!

Ohh?? i actually didnt know tbh. Whats the name of the music? Herbie slightly before my time

SEPT 23 1989

RTE will sanitise and destroy them

LuckyLloyd

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

If they were able to transport their show whole to 2FM I'm not sure it would be a problem. RTE are the biggest game in town lads.

RTE will stifle the sh*t out of it though although Gerry Ryan tbf had unbelievable freedom it must be said for a 9am slot. I think he was the exception as opposed to the rule though.

wandatowell

Ya Ken Early's voice wrecked my head but his opinion wasn't usually too idiotic

eagle eye

Like others this is going to make my commute from work in the evenings a lot more boring. Really loved the show.

Just thinking there that if I had a dream job, i think it would be working with the lads. I mean think about it, meet up every night to talk about sport and get paid and have the craic with the boys. There is few better jobs i could think of


Apart from actually playing professional sport (which involves the hardship of training and fitness) i think working with them lads would be the next best thing.

limpdd

wandatowell wrote: »

Ya Ken Early's voice wrecked my head but his opinion wasn't usually too idiotic

Need to listen more closely :-) I can still remember him arguing with Graham Hunter that center half was not a specialised position in top level soccer

willowthewisp

Got way too big for their boots, pity though that we'll have to hear more of Ger Gilroy now.