150KTubs - future career in Virgin Radio and other soulful pursuits **Mod: Read OP**

Bobson Dugnutt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121696507#Comment_121696507

No, I meant about there being a group of “Boardsies” who would ring up a show for prank purposes. Like the joke is on them tbh if it’s true (I suspect it’s not). Sort of thing a bunch of lads might do as teenagers (the lads in Father Ted on the priest line).

I mean do what you want to do, but I think a lot of people would find the behaviour to be sad and fairly tragic.

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121696538#Comment_121696538

A sort of cross between 'Oliver' and 'Jesus Christ Superstar'? Toyman asking Dee Forbes, "please, Dee, can I have some more?" :)

Regards...jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121696743#Comment_121696743

More? More?

Noel: Yes Dee, i won’t put you on ignore as it doesn’t suit my purpose although i will put same in my signature.

Of course Mr Kelly porridge will be in barter, now let’s sing a song by Cuntry Ray Robinson and we could win the Eurovision.….Er except it could cost us 😱

Neferteena

So I listened to the RT show one day last week, & for 2 hours today. Last week it was noticeable that the producer was actively diverting him from veering off the content of the prepared links (cue cards), with his own thoughts & giving an example of his experience on every topic.

I've noticed that there was 1 or 2 Uk based callers last week & none this week. All callers from Ireland today. I'm noticing a pattern in that a significant chunk of callers have had some previous dealings with him albeit vaguely. It sounds to me like they are pre-selected from a fan forum of some kind. At the end of one call today he said 'bye bye, love you, love you, love you, love you bye.

He's been trying to promote himself as a nerdy bookworm, but repeatedly references Harry Potter & Star Trek when referring to nerds. His book recommendations are over done & not engaging. So he's invented a little club for himself called 'the nerd herd' & asks ppl to call in telling him their nerdy interest & get a place on his 'nerd bus'. Anyone who is particularly intellectual gets short shrift.

He has plateau'd now in this role, & he is particularly jarring as he's insisting on being a content presenter & not a smooth DJ during links.

Re his longevity at Virgin, the immediate metrics from whatsapp & other digital platforms will show that he has very little engagement with a UK audience. 15 hours pw is a lot of broadcast time for such poor return. That doesn't bode well for noticing the next role

Also all the other presenters at Virgin Radio have other talents with an established fan base, be they they ex BBC, on TV, are former or existing musicians / comedians. They have another dimension to their stock in trade so to speak. I think if Paddy Power divert their money from his show, or to somewhere else in Virgin Inc, Virgin Radio would seriously have to consider reviewing that slot, as is.

alzer100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121700477#Comment_121700477

He is definitely not sticking to the format and I would think his callers are screened.

Content presenter ffs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121700649#Comment_121700649

I’d say all his callers are arranged by NK, who does t seem to have great UK connections by the looks of things 🧐

alzer100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121700743#Comment_121700743

Management at Virgin Radio are ruining the radio station's brand by having Ryan Tubridy on - other than as a once off passing guest maybe on Chris Evans breakfast show. Most of the other presenters still manage to be slick/competent at slick music presentation skills and self operating. Tubridy's clunky, ponderous, 53 thoughts a link, his on air links are a jarring listen outside of breakfast. No self respecting PD would allow this car crash to happen. Not to mention the rather terrifying Paddywhackery and over familiarity with listeners.

Bobson Dugnutt

I’d suggest the management at Virgin Radio know more about running a radio station and who to put in certain slots than some dude on the internet who loathes Tubridy anyway.

Just a strong hunch I have.

GSF

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121700980#Comment_121700980

But possibly not as much as an executive at Bauer or Global do. Otherwise they wouldn’t be a distant 4 runner in U.K. radio industry

just a hunch!

Bobson Dugnutt

I presume signing people like Norton, Evans and Tubridy is designed to increase market share. As I said, I’d trust the opinions and decisions of experienced business people with radio management experience over the opinions of lads on the internet who think hate listening is a good use of their time.

alzer100

I sympathise with listeners of Q102 who have had the tones of Tubridy put upon them. His voice really lacks that lower frequency weight that can blend into the mix and produce an overall sound that can be consistent yet dynamic. His erratic type of presentation married with what is lacking in the lower frequency register can really be off-putting to the listener. There is no distinct signature of vocal quality that was present with broadcasters such as Gay Byrne, Terry Wogan, numerous deceased and living professional pirate radio and independent radio presenters. I realise why some listeners of RTE Radio 1 turned off or switched to another radio station during his 9 o'clock morning slot.

Virgin Radio and Q102's mid-mornings' programming content may very well end up in radio doctor land if it is not addressed.

GSF

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121701039#Comment_121701039

Yeah but this is a radio forum. So what you are saying is nobody should comment on a radio station? I don’t quite get what your repeated postings of indifference are driven by?

Bobson Dugnutt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121701071#Comment_121701071

I’m not saying that at all. I’m just saying I’d trust the opinions of professionals with access to metrics, market research and so on over someone who knows very little about the radio business. Like how I would trust Klopp over some drunk lad in the pub when it comes to matters Liverpool FC.

GSF

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121701088#Comment_121701088

Am I’m saying Virgin radio is a distant 4 in a 3 horse market so I’m not sure why you are so confident

More Everton than Liverpool FC with respect to your supremely relaxed confidence

alzer100

Apparently Mike Cass, the PD of Virgin was fired from his Australian position.

This is Vauxhall conference league radio and not senior hurling!

Chris Evans knew he was on the way out at Radio 2 as he shed millions of listeners after taking over from Terry Wogan.

Graham Norton got a better offer and moved, yet he knew Helen Thomas was making sweeping changes.

Tubridy had nowhere else to go bar hospital radio.

Apparently the MD of News UK, Scott Taunton who brute forced this NKM Deal in overriding Virgin and Q102 management is known for being tone deaf and making unpopular decisions that are later needing reversing.

Oops!

GSF

Getting away from Tubridy what are Virgin trying to achieve in the 10-1 slot? James O’Brien does speech radio better than anyone and forced Talkradio to do several reshuffles in the same slot and still getting nowhere. Times radio in that time slot in very political Westminster bubble. Meanwhile GHR with Ken Bruce are going great guns and BBC radio 2 are refocusing on a younger post Bruce audience

what if anything is Virgin radio’s strategy

and don’t reply it’s better than having a drunk from some boozer running it. Try setting the bar a bit higher

Has anyone seen anything of how the indigenous & naturalised English audience are responding to him anywhere on social media? I can’t seem to find any comment at all 🧐

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121700980#Comment_121700980

A strong enough hunch for a paddy power bet?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121701054#Comment_121701054

I sympathise with those who don’t know that you can either switch off a radio or change the channel. Yes that’s you I feel sorry for

GSF

Evans doing some defensive spinning this morning ahead of the Rajar’s for Q4 that get released at midnight to the public

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121702118#Comment_121702118

They are losing listeners just on the hint of Tubridy appearing on the station? :) Seriously though, Replacing Eddy Temple-Morris with Tubridy may not have been a good idea but it will be the next RAJARs and JNLRs that will show the preliminary impact of Tubridy.

Regards...jmcc

Morgans

It's like there is a concerted campaign to let people know that they can switch their radio channel. if there wasn't such a campaign the thread would have died a natural death. Guess everyone is struggling to get by.

GSF

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121702279#Comment_121702279

I don’t think Tub’s is really the story unfortunately for all the folks who passionately don’t care about him or vice versa. The wider problems are with the Evans effect stagnating and the high cost of him and Norton relative to the audience they deliver and listeners to the 2 stars aren’t sticking around for the rest of the day

The only reason I’d read this sub forum is that it’s where all the old radiowaves posters migrated after it folded. Still has the radio jobs sticky at the top of the folder too

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121701039#Comment_121701039

Perhaps they were sold a pup? On paper, signing Tubridy sounded like a no-brainer. They were taking on an experienced broadcaster who had reached the top of his profession in Ireland. Somebody who wouldn’t have become available if external forces hadn’t done their thing. I don’t hate Tubridy as a person but have always had an issue with how overpaid RTE presenters are. I honestly thought he’d do a much better job than he has been doing. I listen occasionally just to see if he is getting better or adjusting to a British audience. He isn’t, which is startling on a number of levels. If he’s such a great radio presenter, why are the vast majority of people interacting with him back in Ireland? Why aren’t British listeners taking to him? Why is there feck all trace of him in online chatter? By that, I don't mean this thread. The opinions of a handful of boardsies isn't going to make one bit of difference to how he fares in the UK, no matter what your paymasters think.

GSF

Virgin radio weekly reach down from 1.5 m to 1.4m in Q4. For comparison GHR now at 6.8m weekly reach. Magic radio at3.4m reach. LBC reach at 3.0m. Absolute radio weekly reach at 2.4m.

Evans reach at just under 0.9m is clearly the main reason why anyone is listening to Virgin radio.

these are all pre Tubridy. In Tubridy’s slot JO’B on LBC has 1.3m, Ken Bruce now at 3.8m. Vernon Kaye at 6.8m on Radio 2. Virgin was doing something like 100-200k in that slot

00s anorak

Since it launched in 2016, this version of Virgin has had a tiny audience, Even Chris Evans has less listeners than Atlantic 252 had in it's final day in 2002. I'm not really sure why rich owners like Rupert Murdoch are propping up all these digital stations with no audience, TalkTV and GB news are other examples of it. The bubble will have to burst someday. As for Tubs, I could see him coming home to Ireland in a year or so(saying he misses the family & Conamara too much) but staying with the Wireless group and doing a syndicated daily show on Q/96/95/LMFM, it wouldn't be mid-morning as that's kept for local pothole talk on most stations but perhaps breakfast (The Full Irish v2) or late afternoons. He is popular with Irish women aged 55+ so there is a market for him here,

TheBMG

Purely anecdotal but my barbers have played Q102 for as long as I’ve been going there (lad in his 50s so it’s diminishing returns each time) ..

went in yesterday at 11am and they were playing Nova.

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121701643#Comment_121701643

The odd comment of Social Media have been somewhat negative. Others are from people baffled at him replacing Eddy Temple-Morris. Even VR's own Alan Partridge joke in its advertising (the king of mid-morning) is a very subtle jibe. It is like Tubridy is being greeted with a left-handed handshake.

Regards...jmcc

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121704621#Comment_121704621

That kind of shift would be deadly for Tubridy iand Q102 etc n the JNLRs because a large part of the audience hears radio stations and programmes as background noise rather than by directly selecting radio stations on their own radio. This isn't a single listener being lost. It is the set of customers for the duration of Tubridy's timeslot.

The effect on advertising would be worse as these places and shops are where people are more likely to hear radio advertising. I think that one of the reasons that people listen to their own local radio stations is that they don't want to listen to RTE. Imposing Tubridy like this may not work out well and there has been significant pushback in Cork.

Regards...jmcc

tobefrank321

Did I read or imagine I read in his last Mail column that he goes to a laundrette to wash his clothes? Surely his apartment has a washing machine at least?