Today FM Megathread Mod warning post #1 / #1401

Declan A Walsh

Brock Turnpike wrote: »

As soon as I saw their portfolio I had a feeling they would move Today FM in that direction

I'd say Ian is next. He doesn't fit the "content creator" genre.

Are we to expect statements from various individuals to the effect that they have "decided that this is is a good time to devote more time to other projects"?

flazio

ILikeBoats wrote: »

What are they doing.
Ridiculous.
I'm really annoyed!

Unless Ed requested it?! Hardly

Looking at Eds instagram story, doesn’t look like he wanted this.

Yoghurt87

Ed played ABBA’s Thank You for the Music at the end of last Sunday’s show. I thought at the time it was a bit ominous. Unbelievably ****ing stupid decision from Today FM.

10pm is just too late for me much and all as I love Ed. Hopefully he’ll keep putting his playlists on Spotify as I play them throughout the week. Nothing left on the station for me to tune in for now.

ILikeBoats

flazio wrote: »

Looking at Eds instagram story, doesn’t look like he wanted this.

Just watched it, no he doesn't seem too enthusiastic

Mr.Prodston

I actually quite like the last 20 minutes of Pamela Joyce early in the morning.....

BUT!!!

Ed's Song's of Praise is a national f*cking treasure!!! At least leave Sunday night alone

Man, that's just so stupid! Ed Smith is class, and now I'll never hear him cos realistically 10pm and beyond is a pretty niche graveyard

God!

RINO87

Ah jaysus......

Paul McLoon's show was excellent, especially the Sundays when it followed Songs of Praise (which I'll admit I did find a bit samey, I've said it here before, but still a shame to see him get shafted too).

Has Claire Beck been booted from Saturdays now too?

Declan A Walsh

RINO87 wrote: »

Ah jaysus......

Paul McLoon's show was excellent, especially the Sundays when it followed Songs of Praise (which I'll admit I did find a bit samey, I've said it here before, but still a shame to see him get shafted too).

Has Claire Beck been booted from Saturdays now too?

Ever since the demise of TXFM in October 2016, Claire has been given various gigs on Today FM, often filling in. She never seemed to have a specific timeslot in the schedule for any lengthy period.

Gremlinertia

Jaysis can't believe P McLoone gone just like that, gutted, surely ed shouldn't be in a later slot though perhaps it's a precursor for the end of him too. After being my station of choice for a long time I might feck off to youtube now. A shame.

Declan A Walsh

Gremlinertia wrote: »

Jaysis can't believe P McLoone gone just like that, gutted, surely ed shouldn't be in a later slot though perhaps it's a precursor for the end of him too. After being my station of choice for a long time I might feck off to youtube now. A shame.

The cynic might say that there is a logic to moving a show to more of a graveyard shift for reasons such as:
- they can get rid of the presenter a year down the road on the basis that they are not getting much of a listenership in their newer slot.
- they can wait for the presenter to leave because they are not happy with their new slot.

TaurenDruid

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Paul came back to Today FM in late 2005/early 2006 as producer of Tom Dunne's weekday show at 7pm called Pet Sounds, following a request by the latter. When Tom moved to Newstalk in August 2008, Paul took over as presenter. This became The Paul McLoone Show in September 2008. It was moved to a 9 to midnight slot in June 2012. A few years ago it was trimmed to start at 10pm. This is the slot that Ed Smith is now getting.

It was Pet Sounds that got me into listening to Today FM originally. Tom, then his show was followed by Dave Couse's Lighthouse, IIRC - great music! Then we got Paul, Ed, Claire, Kelly-Anne Byrne - I would never have pictured myself ever being into dance or disco music, but the latter two (and Dec Pierce) hugely widened my musical tastes over the last couple of years.

I'm guessing (hoping?) we're not going to get yet another "bantz" show late on a Sunday evening and I can only hope Pamela Joyce's own musical tastes differ significantly from what the daytime playlist is.

JoeA3

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

- they can wait for the presenter to leave because they are not happy with their new slot.

Yeah that's how I see it. A passive-aggressive dismissal really.

channelsurfer2

deise man wrote: »

Looking on twitter the decision has gone down like lead balloon

well they have shut down access to their own twitter account.. cant get it if you search now

JoeA3

Also interesting that they released new cheesy promo videos / adverts this week featuring the main presenters and Ed is not in them.

floyd333

Stange decision. I loved ESOP and PMC was a great lad for promoting new Irish Indie bands. I'm pretty much done with Today FM now. It's a station for kids who want to listen to generic pop music played by annoying influencer type presenters.

Tork

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

well they have shut down access to their own twitter account.. cant get it if you search now

I can see it

I'm disappointed but not surprised to see that they've started messing around with the evening schedule. It has been a schizophrenic sort of station for a long time, catering for one sort of audience during the daytime and a different one in the evenings. I've no doubt that "they" will continue to homogenise the station until it's nothing but wall to wall "content creation" and the same 20 songs on rotation. The audience they're burning off here is the one no radio station seems to want anyway - people in their 30s and 40s. It will be interesting indeed to see how long The Last Word survives. I'm still convinced that it's only there because the BAI still wield some sort of power over the station owners. Another interesting one to watch will be Ian Dempsey - how long can his reputation save him for?

Declan A Walsh

Tork wrote: »

I can see it

.................................. Another interesting one to watch will be Ian Dempsey - how long can his reputation save him for?

Pure speculation here: a new weekday breakfast show launched in autumn with Ian Dempsey moved to an early morning breakfast show slot on weekends?

Larbre34

You have to hand it to Today FM, their ability to kill off the diverse, distinct and different knows no bounds. I hoped for better under Bauer.

Those of us of the Phantom / TX generation who like actual music have few if any homes now on commercial radio.

TaurenDruid

RINO87 wrote: »

Ah jaysus......

Paul McLoon's show was excellent, especially the Sundays when it followed Songs of Praise (which I'll admit I did find a bit samey, I've said it here before, but still a shame to see him get shafted too).

Has Claire Beck been booted from Saturdays now too?

Actually no, I don't she has - looking again, Ed's new slot is Sunday to Thursday 10pm to midnight, so that still leaves Claire on Saturday nights.

Limerick91

So for someone who used to like Today FM, Tom Dunne, Anto Savage, ESOP etc. what options are there now.

Doesn't need to be Irish and can be online. Cheers

swine

I can't believe ESOP is no more. I listen via playback online weekly. I don't understand why they can't give a longstanding program like it a send off sorts for a week. Considering Ed had made a point of the Indie Disco becoming monthly, this can't prompted by him.

Gutted for him, and for the program. Some weeks 3 hours would pass in no time. Will give his new show a go of course too, but it looked like it had moved in the right direction with the 3rd hour returned.

swine

Limerick91 wrote: »

So for someone who used to like Today FM, Tom Dunne, Anto Savage, ESOP etc. what options are there now.

Doesn't need to be Irish and can be online. Cheers

I've started listening to John Creedon. It's very eclectic, which is not a bad thing, (but might not be to everyone's taste) and has certainly exposed me to more musicians and genres I would listen to. You can listen back to the previous week's shows online - https://www.rte.ie/radio1/john-creedon/.

Never did find a replacement for Anton Savage :-( Perhaps he could take Dave Fannings slot on his eventual retirement from 2FM since he's already a weekly contributor.

amlinopta

RINO87 wrote: »

Ah jaysus......

Paul McLoon's show was excellent, especially the Sundays when it followed Songs of Praise (which I'll admit I did find a bit samey, I've said it here before, but still a shame to see him get shafted too).

Has Claire Beck been booted from Saturdays now too?

I wonder what Paul will do now? Best part of 20 years with the station with a short break included. I think Ed used to produce Paul's show and isn't too happy based on the tone of his tweet earlier. Iano turned 60 earlier in the year, has had the 5.00am alarm calls for a long time at this stage, will be interesting to see if he's next for the high jump. Bit of a mess the whole thing.

Waccamacca3

Hopefully it's mairead next out the door.... Can't see iano going at all biggest breakfast show in Ireland. Sure Paula is also on the new advert so I'd say that's all the changes for awhile. Pamela Joyce was always going to get her own show was next in line as she was covering a lot for mairead and fergal. If shauna hadn't cleared off I'd say she would have had Pamela's slots on Sunday to Thursday

siblers

JoeA3 wrote: »

Also interesting that they released new cheesy promo videos / adverts this week featuring the main presenters and Ed is not in them.

Pamela is in it isn't she?

nomoedoe

Gutted that songs of praise is no more every Sunday since it started I made time to listen to it ,it was a perfect time to sit down and relax to some great music presented by a genuinely nice guy Ed would put you in a good mood and I’m more gutted for him ,I listen to Pamela a few mornings a week and she’s decent enough but no replacement for Ed and no way will I be tuning in to her show ,Dec Pierce is all I’ll be listening to on TodayFM now.

nc6000

siblers wrote: »

Pamela is in it isn't she?

She is.

ghostdancer

Larbre34 wrote: »

You have to hand it to Today FM, their ability to kill off the diverse, distinct and different knows no bounds. I hoped for better under Bauer.

Those of us of the Phantom / TX generation who like actual music have few if any homes now on commercial radio.

Dan Hegarty on 2FM https://2fm.rte.ie/2fm-shows/dan-hegarty/
Cian O'Ciobhain on RnaG https://www.rte.ie/rnag/an-taobh-tuathail/
Tom Dunne on Newstalk https://www.newstalk.com/shows/tom-dunne-show-234868

Unfortunately all 3 are on at 10pm weeknights, but luckily can listen back to each the next day online.

No tracklists for Tom Dunne's show, but tracklists put up for the other two after each night's show.

There's also 8Radio and Dublin Digital Radio for internet radio all day too.

The Princess Bride

Easily one of the daftest decisons ever made on this station.
If it's not broken, don't fix it!

ESOP was one of a kind, perfect Sunday night music.
And PMcC? Senseless.

They'd better not mess with BRB and Dec Pierce, but at this stage, nothing would surprise me.

Itssoeasy

Not shocked in the slightest because they decided to go a direction that doesn’t have staying power and some of the radio talent they’ve run off is a disgrace but why would those at the top in today fm care though lads ? I think I last listened to today fm with any regularity in late 2016/early 2017 and RTÉ gold is a breath of fresh air. The annoying thing is today fm had a great station and yes people will come and go but they made several IMO bad decisions which they’ve doubled down on.

crazy 88

They should have gotten rid of Tom Dunne instead. I presume this crowd are doing a shakeup of both Newstalk and today FM. When it comes to alternative, McCloone is so much better. Tom Dunne is supposed to be an alternative slot also but he plays borderline pop stuff