Is RTE Radio 1 too dominant ? time for change ?

The Parish Priest.

RTE Radio 1 is extremely dominant in the ratings, everytime the radio ratings come out 18 or 19 of the top 20 most listened to programs in the country are on RTE Radio 1. As the channel gets 17 million per year of tax payers money, should it be required by law to broadcast more public service type shows like The history show, Countrywide and Arena during peak time hours ?

padd b1975

I think other stations should consider hiring proper Djs/journalists instead of flavour of the month celebrities and print hacks.

Red Kev

And if Newstalk wasn't such an opinionated mouthpiece for the presenters and the interests they serve I'd be more inclined to switch over.

RTE has its issues when it comes to politics but it's still the best and most neutral out there.

Lovely Bloke

RTE R1 is by far and away the best News outlet in the country, and so absolutely should be broadcasting Morning Ireland and Drivetime at the times it does, there are no two ways about that.

Newstalk and TodayFM are unreliable, due to being controlled by [redacted], and basically being opinion pieces.

neris

dont listen to drivetime and listen to bits of morning ireland and normally listen to news at one & sean ororurke which are fairly decent shows compared to what else is on at that time. they do however pump out tripe between 145 & 430. dont think its domination just people not being bothered switching from 1 pile of crap to another

Infoanon

The Parish Priest. wrote: »

RTE Radio 1 is extremely dominant in the ratings, everytime the radio ratings come out 18 or 19 of the top 20 most listened to programs in the country are on RTE Radio 1. As the channel gets 17 million per year of tax payers money, should it be required by law to broadcast more public service type shows like The history show, Countrywide and Arena during peak time hours ?

Ray Burke suggested something similar in relation to 2FM in the 90s......

Ursus Horribilis

The other radio stations should be upping their game, not dumbing down. Not everything Radio 1 broadcasts is to my taste but they do a lot of things right.

end of the road

radio 1 is dominant because clearly for the most part it is good. changing it around dispite the fact it is mostly working, not only may bring a ratings loss, but it would frankly be ridiculous and would be change for the sake of change. if the other stations can't compete that is their problem and it's not the job of the public service broadcaster to dum down. the commercials either up their game or shut up.

twinklerunner

I think that as a publicly funded National station it should be different to the privately operated commercial stations.

The whole area of sponsoring is something that grates with me and makes it sound just like any other station. Listening to Morning Ireland, it’s embarrassing to hear the sponsor ad for the weather.
Likewise with sponsorship for traffic reports and shows such as Marian Finucane, Ray D’arcy, etc.

I also believe that interviewing people on the radio via a mobile phone should stop. More often than not, the quality of the line is shockingly bad and I would love to see RTÉ set itself higher standards.

Harry Palmr

Complaining about aretayeeeee being too dominant is like saying the same about BBC Radio four in the UK talking radio market - they are the legacy stations who have been on air uninterrupted since the 1920s with the backing of the state to varying degrees. of course they dominate. The only pity is that in RTE's case they do not use their position more constructively - pretty much wall to wall "open mic" radio between 7 and 7 is a bit tedious in terms of variety.

FrKurtFahrt

I listen to RTE Radio 1 on Sky, and I don't know if its possible to get Irish radio stations other than the RTE ones on Sky. For that reason I mainly listen to RTE 1 except when driving, when I get the chance to vary a little. Having said that, the competition to RTE Radio 1 is dreadful.

Faugheen

twinklerunner wrote: »

I also believe that interviewing people on the radio via a mobile phone should stop. More often than not, the quality of the line is shockingly bad and I would love to see RTÉ set itself higher standards.

I don't get this.

What should they do? Give every single possible guest a roaming ISDN?

Infoanon

FrKurtFahrt wrote: »

I listen to RTE Radio 1 on Sky, and I don't know if its possible to get Irish radio stations other than the RTE ones on Sky. For that reason I mainly listen to RTE 1 except when driving, when I get the chance to vary a little. Having said that, the competition to RTE Radio 1 is dreadful.

Newstalk is on Sky - Newstalk does offer an alternative to Radio 1 and has top presenters eg Pat Kenny but it struggles to get listeners to 'make the switch'

twinklerunner

Faugheen wrote: »

I don't get this.

What should they do? Give every single possible guest a roaming ISDN?

Quite simple - get them on a land line.

Ursus Horribilis

twinklerunner wrote: »

Quite simple - get them on a land line.

Not always possible or practical

Faugheen

twinklerunner wrote: »

Quite simple - get them on a land line.

And if they're not in a position to use a landline?

twinklerunner

Faugheen wrote: »

And if they're not in a position to use a landline?

Major stories should not be covered by contributors on mobile phones.

FrKurtFahrt

Infoanon wrote: »

Newstalk is on Sky - Newstalk does offer an alternative to Radio 1 and has top presenters eg Pat Kenny but it struggles to get listeners to 'make the switch'

How do I get Newstalk onto my Sky list?

Conservative

FrKurtFahrt wrote: »

Infoanon wrote: »

Newstalk is on Sky - Newstalk does offer an alternative to Radio 1 and has top presenters eg Pat Kenny but it struggles to get listeners to 'make the switch'

How do I get Newstalk onto my Sky list?

Pretty sure it's there by default. Try 0210 on the remote.

Pat Kenny 9-12, Moncrieff 2-4, and personally enjoy George Hook 12-2.

Many complain about its biased agenda but those 3 represent a broad range of views in my opinion.

Anything to avoid Ray D'arcy!!

iseegirls

Similar to how RTE1 goes, some older people would just have the same tv channel and radio station on all day. When the radio goes on, they wouldn't even know where the 'dial' is. You could move the whole of Radio1's presenters to NewsTalk, and replace R1 with new presenters - and more than likely (if they were decent), the audience will stick with it. Similar to when Pat Kenny left.

FrKurtFahrt

Conservative wrote: »

Pretty sure it's there by default. Try 0210 on the remote.

Pat Kenny 9-12, Moncrieff 2-4, and personally enjoy George Hook 12-2.

Many complain about its biased agenda but those 3 represent a broad range of views in my opinion.

Anything to avoid Ray D'arcy!!

Thank you for that! I never realised it was there as it didn't show up on the list of channels.

Conservative

iseegirls wrote: »

Similar to how RTE1 goes, some older people would just have the same tv channel and radio station on all day. When the radio goes on, they wouldn't even know where the 'dial' is. You could move the whole of Radio1's presenters to NewsTalk, and replace R1 with new presenters - and more than likely (if they were decent), the audience will stick with it. Similar to when Pat Kenny left.

100% correct. My mother is 60 and has never heard of NT

Conservative

FrKurtFahrt wrote: »

Conservative wrote: »

Pretty sure it's there by default. Try 0210 on the remote.

Pat Kenny 9-12, Moncrieff 2-4, and personally enjoy George Hook 12-2.

Many complain about its biased agenda but those 3 represent a broad range of views in my opinion.

Anything to avoid Ray D'arcy!!

Thank you for that! I never realised it was there as it didn't show up on the list of channels.

You are welcome. I would love to hear your feedback if you have time to listen good or bad.

Conservative

FrKurtFahrt wrote: »

Conservative wrote: »

Pretty sure it's there by default. Try 0210 on the remote.

Pat Kenny 9-12, Moncrieff 2-4, and personally enjoy George Hook 12-2.

Many complain about its biased agenda but those 3 represent a broad range of views in my opinion.

Anything to avoid Ray D'arcy!!

Thank you for that! I never realised it was there as it didn't show up on the list of channels.

You are welcome. I would love to hear your feedback if you have time to listen good or bad.