2fm - New schedule coming

ford fiesta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122175217#Comment_122175217

Paul Russell has been with 2FM since the mid 80s

Shan Doras

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122179197#Comment_122179197

What does himself and Danny boy actually know about programming youth/chr radio tho? All these weekend fill-ins who are being touted by Healy as the next big thing have two links, what are you doing for the weekend? & Text me 51552.

JP Liz V1

Has James Kavanagh and Baz Ashmawy or Davina Devine any radio shows already, could be in contention?

ford fiesta

the last time there was this a mass of 2FM presenter exits in the same week or so, was in april 1999 when liam thompson revamped the weekend schedule with more focus on dance and new music. presenters Alan Corcoran, Peter Collins, Lorcan Murray, Michael McNamara (and i think suzamne duffy) left the station over a weekend. it was big news at the time.

Shan Doras

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122180166#Comment_122180166

I presume Liam Thompson was to John Clarke what Paul Russell is to Dan Healy? Curiously Thompson wasn't replaced when he left in 2002 and John Clarke then took full control of programming.

its_steve116

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122180126#Comment_122180126

Baz definitely has.

lisasimpson

I've seen Baz name mentioned few times now. Didn't 2fm give him the boot years ago over a traffic offence before he hit the big time with his mammy

its_steve116

What I think the new weekday daytime schedule will look like is changing over time, but at the moment I think it will be Tracy, Donncha & Carl, followed by Laura Fox, followed by one of the weekend presenters, followed perhaps by Jenny Greene reinstated on drivetime. I would have said Laura Fox would be the new female host of the breakfast show, but she's taking over Jen Z's slot instead.

bureau2009

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122180373#Comment_122180373

Baz and Lucy had a weekend breakfast show on 2FM. It was hugely remarkable - remarkable for it's AWFULNESS! Very possibly the WORST EVER on RTE! Eventually it was dropped. I remember saying at the time it should be studied on media courses as how NOT to present radio!

And then Baz goes off and gets an Emmy!

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122180386#Comment_122180386

I am guessing Game On will go.

Dave Redmond

Baz and Lucy replaced me, I pretty much had a qtr hour of 90k on Saturdays 7 to 9 and 72k on Sundays 7 to 10. I had 9 increases in a row on JNLR. John MC Mahon replaced John Clarke.... He, John Mc told me he wasn't renewing my contract. " I need your show" I questioned it pointing out the success of the weekend breakfast. He told me "around here your JNLR means nothing" within 3 months the weekend breakfast day part had lost 45k listeners........ with management like that is it any wonder that the good ship 2FM is still taking on water. John MC had turned 2fm into a national community station overnight. No disrespect but, the man was clearly out of his depth, whoever decided he was the one for the position as head of 2FM should be reprimanded too. Oddly given his poor performance he still works in RTÉ. RTÉ have let go many great jocks over the years because of agents getting their way.

John Clarke had ideas that would have put the station at the top. His hands were tied.

Radio bosses nowadays, the ones that have a qualification in accountancy and never sat in a studio are too distracted by social media. They fear it and think that putting an "influencer" behind a mic in a radio studio is the solution to gaining a larger audience. Radio as we all know here is a different animal. Intimacy, friendship and a one to one conversation. "how are all of "yous" today? that doesn't cut it…...

Shan Doras

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122180969#Comment_122180969

At least you can be proud of the fact that 14 years on, nobody has ever matched your figures on the slot and nobody has lasted more than a wet week doing that show either since you left. It's no wonder Alison Curtis on Today FM has such high JNLRS

Shan Doras

Some very queer programming choices were made during the John McMahon era, such as a two hour sports talk show on Saturday afternoons which was followed by a Dave fanning chat show, he also dropped the chart show iirc.

Dave Redmond

Yup..... He hadn't a notion what he was at.

Shan Doras

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122181104#Comment_122181104

What exactly happened with John Clarke getting demoted as pd? Did he get the blame for Colm and Jim Jim not setting the country on fire ?

Expunge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122181104#Comment_122181104

The management tier of RTE seems to be infested with this type. All failing upwards.

Dave Redmond

The book very shortly after Marty Whelan was taken off showed an increase to 192k listeners, they didn't let his show bed in, it was turning around.….... Gerry Ryan was losing listeners brekki got the blame..... in my opinion Gerry in his time had gone from drinking pints of larger in 89 to drinking 50 year old brandy and smoking cigars rolled on the thighs of a Cuban virgin (to quote Alan Partridge) ..…what I'm saying is, he lost his connection with the ordinary Joe and Josephine. Too high brow for 2fm

XabiAlonso22

Will Leahy should be brought back for ye afternoons

Coolcormack1979

when Gerry Ryan died,2fm died with him.it never recovered and 14 yrs later the 9-12 slot still called the Gerry Ryan slot

bureau2009

Laura Fox the future of broadcasting? Er…

dulpit

You really have to question what the point of 2fm is in it's current guise. Who are they targeting? I don't understand the appeal of music radio anymore, everyone has Spotify and uses that, so who is rushing to the radio to hear the latest songs?

An interesting thing I saw on twitter the other day, I think it was Oisin Langan, ex Off the Ball suggested that 2fm become a proper sports station. Gavan Reilly (I think) commented that because of the quirks of licencing, they can do that without any outside approval needed.

There seems to be a gap that could be exploited there. There is a lot of live sport not covered on irish radio. I'm thinking of Saturday Premier league. The fa Cup. European football. League of Ireland doesn't get a look in. Smaller sports like Irish basketball, AIL rugby stuff like that. Because none is broadcast in Ireland, you'd imagine the rights are not going to be pricey, and you could possibly use world feeds for the bigger events and justify costs for smaller events as public broadcasting. You'd also have the usual Saturday and Sunday sports which are currently on radio 1.

Could such a venture with a smaller, but targeted audience be a runner? Makes way more sense to me than a rudderless general music station.

XabiAlonso22

Laura Fox just won't get the numbers that Dave Moore gets, not a fan of his but seems to be the new women's favourite in the morning all the women love him. Laura Fox was a panic appointment for the morning slot.

Im not actually sure what the Laura Fox show is really Jennifer was terrible but just felt like anytime I briefly listened to it was the presenters talking self indulgent nonsense Cormac Battle being the lead on that.

Could Nicky Byrne and Jenny Greene get back together they were good in the mornings.

Fitz*

To be fair, Laura Fox has worked her way up a long the ladder of radio. She started off in local radio in Galway before moving to Dublin and getting some online radio gigs covering weekends and early breakfasts in RTE Pulse before eventually getting some part time slots at the same time in RTE 2FM and then moved her way into covering weekday slots and now has her own radio show.

Is that not the exact thing that national broadcasters should be promoting, and broadcasters in general? Giving young people a chance to work their way up along and have a stab at it?

She didn't get handed a slot because she went on a reality tv show and was a big name, or be a retired sports player, or someone who made a living by doing silly faces into a Snapchat filter, or have a rich daddy who can fund her becoming 'famous'.

People giving out about Laura Fox getting the gig but if people like Laura don't get the gig, then the future of radio is just going to be more Doireann & Greg O Sheas. Who exactly do ye want to get that slot and how did they get their experience to deserve that?

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122182898#Comment_122182898

No 2FM afaik cannot just change complete direct under the Broadcasting Act 2009, under section 103 RTÉ would need to apply to the minister for such a change in its output.

Also Sport is cover extensively on Radio and via Broadcaster Podcasts, this is a small market a full time Sports Radio station would fail and would not be in the interest of public service broadcasts.

1. RADIO 1 and Newstalk at the weekend have massive coverage of sport
2. OTB on Newstalk and 2FM's Game On give a total of 3 hours if not for every week day
3. Local radio also provides massive coverage to Sport
4. Even RnaG does
5. RTÉ Sport have weekly podcasts for GAA, Rugby and Soccer.
6. That is not to mention FTA TV sports coverage

Sport is well covered.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122182910#Comment_122182910

She sounds/acts. like a hyperactive teenager when i heard her weekend show and from her social media, nice person but rabbiting on about tik tok/celebrities….could we just have music instead of banal nattering

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122182910#Comment_122182910

I was think that Dave would see a drop in his audience after Dermot left, but keeping the same numbers as before.

Unless Laura is terrible I don't think she will dent Jenny Z's audience. IMO.

ford fiesta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122181104#Comment_122181104

He got rid of nikki hayes when she was on weekend afternoons (after being demoted from weekday afternoons). She was told just after she ended her Sunday show.

Funnily enough John Mac's wife is long term RTE staffer evelyn o'rourke who as the newly appointed RTE News Entertainment correspondent, is reporting on the current 2fm exits !!!. you couldnt make this up.

I liked your early breakfast weekday show Dave....but im not sure was that when Marty Whelan or when Colm and jim jim were on brekkie?

squonk

I know it was mentioned earlier the Laura Fox worked her way up the ladder like the sort of people who used to work in 2FM long ago who started in they’re garage and came up through the pirates but, though I haven’t listened to her, doing a Quick Look up on who she is, it looks like yet another social media person with a podcast now finally getting the prime time gig. I just find this concerning as it seems to buy into the current style of presentation along the lines of “reach out on WhatsApp/X and tell me about your mad weekend!”

Where I’m coming from is listening to 80s 2FM. times were different I know and phoning the hotline and maybe getting on air with Tony was as cool and immediate as it got but you had otherwise DJs who knew their music, knew their equipment and had a bit of personality. I still remember the odd sly remark from a dh after playing a song that kind of let you know they thought it was shít or that a band was taking the piss rereleasing a song now they’d had a big hit in the interim. You listened because the DJ was having the craic or was playing stuff you wanted to hear. Now radio sounds like a Spotify playlist interjected by some muppet telling you that you need to provide the craic.

You need a big population for the “WhatsApp me with your craic” schtick. It’s something I think Sara Cox does particularly well but she has a big listenership. She also doesn’t rely on it completely. Here we just seem to put people in studios who can’t present a show by themselves without caller input making up a lot of it. If the jock is good at their job then the listenership will come. Talking shîte and not back announcing music for 2 hours doesn’t do it.

Dave Redmond

Early show was with Marty.... For about 7 months. Moved to weekend brekki then

Fitz*

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122183939#Comment_122183939

Do you think that that social media persona is put on in order to 'get your name out there' (perhaps by RTE 2FM bosses), almost as a directive to gain attention so that people will tune in?

Agree, I remember when radio DJs used to be the people to bring you new music and herald the new releases of up and coming bands. Not afraid to push the boat a bit at times and chance something out of the ordinary. For someone who talks about being this big metal head, Dave Moore wouldn't be someone to go and even think of playing a new track by Inhaler or Fontaines DC. I'm sure that someone like Dave Fanning played it in his evening slot, but the first person that I can remember playing Arctic Monkeys on daytime Irish radio was Ryan Tubridy! Imagine that genre-breaking decision nowadays! It's the main reason why I've completely deserted Today FM now. Their music selection is gone to sh1te and in my not-so-long time of 2FM, they seem to have somebit of a more diverse song list. I can't remember any of their 'DJs' playing something new in a long long time. Fair enough, play your Stick Season, but it doesn't need to be played 8 times a day, every day. Throw in some diversity.

Laura's weekend show did have a new artist of the week, often accompanied with an interview with the new artist. I hope she keeps something of that ilk up.