The Pat Kenny Show

BuilderPlumber

alaimacerc wrote: »

It's a pity that RTE seem to have allow themselves to be "vehicle led" and decided to let the presenter determine the format, as opposed to picking the presenter for the format. I'm not sure whose "bright" idea the switch was, and perhaps Pat wouldn't have suited a direct replacement. Sees himself as "more chief than chairman", methinks, for a format that would involve shutting up occasionally and letting other people talk.


The "daytime TV" way it was staged suggests to my mind that they wanted nasty arguments. Q&A too staid and predictable, let's see some blood on the studio floor, says some cleverclogs producer after a (too) good lunch.


I think there's still mileage in Q&A, or a similar show. Admittedly, just changing presenters in-place would have invited "not as good as the last bloke" comparisons. Maybe reviving it some ways down the way is an easier sell to make.


I think it remains to be seen if his move was about TV minimisation, or cash maximisation.

True. I sometimes wonder what the inspiration for The Frontline was. So odd mix of Primetime, Q&A, The Late Late Show and Jerry Springer that did not work I'd say!!

John Bowman was a better chairman and was ideally suited to his role in Q&A. However, Bowman was actually not the original presenter of this show (that was Olivia O'Leary) but he made it his own. Kenny could easily have continued the show but he would need to have made it his own and at the same time respect the format that both previous presenters respected.

There is a saying if it's not broke, don't fix it! Programme brands like Primetime, Q&A and the like worked because they were well established and fulfilled a purpose. The Frontline on the other hand didn't: it came off as a half baked and inferior loudmouthed mess of a show obsessed with just one topic.

BuilderPlumber

alaimacerc wrote: »

He's a spoofer that's been bluffing his way with illusory "breadth", and remarkably, large numbers of people seem to have somehow failed to notice the utter lack of depth. Presumably including himself: he certainly has the self-regard to agree with your bizarre assertion.

I think it's a stretch (at best) to call him a current affairs presenter, much less the best such.

Pat Kenny on RTE was a jack of all trades and a master of some in my view. I would not call him a current affairs presenter per se either and he does not fit into light entertainment field either.

The Frontline, especially from 2010 on, was essentially poor. Other than the use of the same topic and its generally negative style, Kenny (after years seen as Kenny Live, Late Late Show and Eurovision presenter) was unconvincing in his role and was too long out of this game really. Kenny only worked a few years in current affairs (which is hardly either what Frontline really was either: Primetime is more that) but spent most of his time as a chatshow host. Frontline tried to mix the two concepts but poorly in my view.

mike65

No dedicated 11 am sports chit chat then. No harm!

Ah no Brian O'Driscoll.

Loafing Oaf

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

True. I sometimes wonder what the inspiration for The Frontline was. So odd mix of Primetime, Q&A, The Late Late Show and Jerry Springer that did not work I'd say!!

We're a bit off topic here, but Derek Davis did a similar show to the Frontline years ago that worked much better, largely because Derek is more of a natural with 'ordinary people'. But it wasn't really a current affairs programme so perhaps not a relevant model...

califano

Lapin wrote: »

Listen back online. Link

Programmes are usually put up on the site within an hour of finishing.

Thanks Lapin!

Skid X

This is like a Tubridy interview ... retirement, injuries, alzheimers.

He hasn't retired yet, talk about Rugby!

SEPT 23 1989

Thats no life:(

artful_codger

It's a pity she wasn't so forensic and careful when it came to family planning. Are we supposed to marvel at her for being frugal?

Lenin Skynard

artful_codger wrote: »

It's a pity she wasn't so forensic and careful when it came to family planning. Are we supposed to marvel at her for being frugal?

I'm sure she doesn't see having her children as "a pity". She seems to be able to manage very well on very little.

artful_codger

Lenin Skynard wrote: »

I'm sure she doesn't see having her children as "a pity". She seems to be able to manage very well on very little.

Obviously she doesn't, but her personal wish to have four kids must be weighed against the cost of feeding, clothing and educating them. Even before the recession, the notion of being able to provide, from your own pocket, for four kids in ripoff Ireland was fanciful.

JonathanAnon

Mickey Harte and the Tyrone football team are still boycotting RTE over that John Murray "comedy" sketch three years back.

Skid X

The Newstalk headlines for the last two days are mainly "Things that were said on the Pat Kenny Show today"

It's a bit over the top, they should report the news rather than using it as a promotion for PK.

JonathanAnon

Ask him did God tell Sean Cavanagh to pull down Conor McManus

syklops

califano wrote: »

Are there radios where you can record one station while listening to another station!?. Id like to listen to Pat live and later in the afternoon when the trash radio starts listen back to Sean O'Rourke.

If you have Sky+ or the UPC equvalent, you can record it on the TV.

Or listen to the podcast.

JonathanAnon

Very mealy mouthed response from Mickey Harte. What Sean Cavanagh did was not in the spirit that sport should be played..

Amirani

Was flying yesterday so I missed Pat's debut. Listened in today though and felt it went well. It's a huge upgrade on the slot over Tom Dunne in any case.

Sunny!!

so many adverts on newstalk really off putting!!

thomas.frink

Its interesting Sean O'Rourke thread has 5 pages, and Pat Kenny thread something like 36 pages.

The ratings will be interesting when they come out to see if that ratio is similar.

IRE60

thomas.frink wrote: »

The ratings will be interesting when they come out to see if that ratio is similar.

I strongly doubt that, although I'm still of the opinion that PK could drag 80k-100k of his old buddies to the new station.
Good to see that the production values on the show were up to scratch - NT can sometimes have a moment or two (more than others).

What I found cringeworthy was the coverage the Indo website gave the debut show on N/T.

It's struck me as a direct edict from above - in both empires!

thomas.frink

I listened to PK on and off while working yesterday and today. I couldn't believe the Bono interview which was cringeworthy and so unlike normal PK, who let Bono talk, almost without drawing breath, about himself for half an hour. Otherwise what i heard was excellent.

For me, i am prepared to wait and see when the figures emerge, rather than doubting anything at this point.

I remember really nasty threads on here about gerry ryan, with guys saying that any fool could get an audience of 300000+ just by being on radio 2 in his slot. Its easy to think we are loyal to a frequency, whereas as Tubridy has shown what happens to an audience when the broadcaster is not up to it.

One of the reasons why I welcome PK going to Newstalk is that it will hopefully break the attitude that when one presenter leaves RTE, (GR or PK), RTE just shuffle the pack and up comes someone else. We have seen what that attitude has done to the former GR slot on Radio2, and competition will be very good for Irish Radio and for RTE.

Like many I flit about at various times, but find myself rarely listening to Newstalk with George Hook nowadays as whenever I find myself there, he is talking about himself, and the "beautiful Ingrid" and every subject is brought back to himself. I used to find him interesting, but now find he has little to say and what he has to say seems to be more about himself than anything else. which again illustrates the point that if he is not up to the job, there are competitors on other stations who might be.

I really find it hard to share the view that there are tens if not hundreds of thousands of listeners out there who can't be bothered re tuning ( these days it usually just involves pressing one button) to hear a program which they might prefer.

Competition is good for irish radio, and good for radio listeners.

Frankie Lee

I've found myself listening to PK slightly more than O'Rourke for the last two days but O'Rourke is the more impressive broadcaster and interviewer for me. I stayed listening to the Mickey Harte interview today more out of amusement than anything else, very strange man.

deekster

Can anyone find an rss feed for the show?

Nice and all though the layout below is, I just want to add it's feed to my podcast app.

http://newstalk.ie/player/podcasts/The_Pat_Kenny_Show

vitani

thomas.frink wrote: »

I really find it hard to share the view that there are tens if not hundreds of thousands of listeners out there who can't be bothered re tuning ( these days it usually just involves pressing one button) to hear a program which they might prefer.

I can well believe it. Radio isn't something you actively listen to in the way you'd watch a TV show - quite often, you'd just have it on in the background as you work or drive or do something else. A lot of people won't switch stations unless something about the show is annoying them and Sean O'Rourke doesn't strike me as someone that people would make a particular effort to avoid, especially if they're traditional Radio 1 listeners.

I think former Tom Dunne show listeners are more likely to avoid Pat Kenny than Pat Kenny listeners are to avoid Sean O'Rourke.

alaimacerc

vitani wrote: »

A lot of people won't switch stations unless something about the show is annoying them and Sean O'Rourke doesn't strike me as someone that people would make a particular effort to avoid, especially if they're traditional Radio 1 listeners.

That's true, especially given that the two have been next-but-one slot neighbours for a long time. Granted, SOR didn't used to have his name in the title of the News at One, and Ronan Collins has been "buffering" the two, and would surely annoy many people -- certainly me included.

But although the folk wisdom on this thread is how PK is SRS current affairs broadcast, and weaker on the "fluffy stuff", his show had plenty of fluffy stuff. If SOR goes more serious in tone, or tries the same mix and is seen to be really fluffing the fluff (as it were), that might lose some listeners. Over and above "brand loyalty" losses from PK's Cult of (Lack of) Personality.

alaimacerc

thomas.frink wrote: »

I remember really nasty threads on here about gerry ryan, with guys saying that any fool could get an audience of 300000+ just by being on radio 2 in his slot.

It's an understandable mistake to make, though. Gerry Ryan's show was utter crap, and he was paid a king's ransom for it. It just happened to be crap that the listening public had a huge appetite for. (I don't get the appeal myself, though I know otherwise-sensible people who were utterly smitten by him as a broadcaster.)

Lapin

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Mickey Harte and the Tyrone football team are still boycotting RTE over that John Murray "comedy" sketch three years back.

Harte was already boycotting RTÉ before that "comedy" sketch over what he perceived to be the demotion of Brian Carthy from the commentary team following the retirement of Micheál O'Muircheartaigh. A decision that had fúckall to do with Harte.

The so called comedy sketch on the John Murray Show was a cheap and snide response from the national broadcaster to Harte's decision and done in extremely bad taste.

Neither party came out of it looking good, (although Harte has every right to decide who he talks to and who he doesn't).

I've never been a great fan of Harte and I haven't listened to the John Murray Show since.

alaimacerc

Skid X wrote: »

The Newstalk headlines for the last two days are mainly "Things that were said on the Pat Kenny Show today"

It's a bit over the top, they should report the news rather than using it as a promotion for PK.

What's the point in getting a private media monopoly unless you're willing to us it, no?

alaimacerc

syklops wrote: »

I completely disagree.

Well, that was informative.

As a comparison, who would you consider a good current affairs presenter?

Oh, where to start...

It begs the question of what you mean by "current affairs". As distinct from the news? And investigative journalism? And actual politics? Just radio, or including TV? In terms of the actual News and Current Affairs unit at RTE, if the standard is "good", the answer would be "many", and if the standard is "better than Pat", the answer is "most". But "as distinct from actual current affairs" is what the "Pat Brand" is: fluffy magazine programming with nuggets of (relatively) "serious" content. If that's what you have in mind, we have entirely conflicting expectations and definitions of "current affairs".

Frontline was a disaster. If you compare it with the excellent programme it replaced, then (as already noted) . He stunk up the place on PrimeTime: literally any of its other presenters have done it better -- and considerably cheaper, to boot. I would offer the obvious comparison with his "slot successor", were that not to do a grave disservice to the latter.

thomas.frink

alaimacerc wrote: »

It's an understandable mistake to make, though. Gerry Ryan's show was utter crap, and he was paid a king's ransom for it. It just happened to be crap that the listening public had a huge appetite for. (I don't get the appeal myself, though I know otherwise-sensible people who were utterly smitten by him as a broadcaster.)

Whether the content appealed to you or not is really not the point.

thomas.frink

alaimacerc wrote: »

Over and above "brand loyalty" losses from PK's Cult of (Lack of) Personality.

It's kind of amazing to me that you are concerned about his "personality". His ability to deliver an audience is what is important, and whether you judge him to lack one thing or another seems of little import.

I remember the vitriol on threads here some years ago regarding gerry ryan, and it never ceases to amaze me how some get really exercised about radio presenters.

What is important is his ability to deliver an audience, and not our individual guesses as to what personality flaws he has.