RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

Tork · 01-09-2023 10:58pm

Today FM has taken on quite a few established names over the years - Ian Dempsey, Ray D'Arcy, Ray Foley (2nd time around), Tony Fenton. They're not in the business of giving new talent a go in their daytime slots. Dermot and Dave mightn't have been known to listeners outside of Dublin but they were an established act too. Whatever you think of Tubridy, he is an established name. And he'd be going to the private sector, where they're free to pay or not pay him what he wants.

bigroad · 01-09-2023 11:10pm

To the general public himself and his agent look like they have been robbing the general public.

NIMAN · 01-09-2023 11:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058247#Comment_121058247

What a ****.

To think he came out with that crAp all the while he was pocketing money under the counter to line his ready well lined pockets.

Fake care and concern from the self named Toy Man.

Tork · 01-09-2023 11:23pm

I don't disagree with you. But if a privately owned radio station is willing to take him on, that's a different story.

tom23 · 01-09-2023 11:59pm

wanted to smash the telly through the wall when he made that statement. i see turbridy and all he is saying is look at me me me me me

Damien360 · 02-09-2023 12:20am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058407#Comment_121058407

I honestly don't see the fit that Tubs has into TodayFM. Dempsey is very upbeat in the morning, almost annoying but Tubs doesn't fit the morning slot. After that it keeps going upbeat until Matt. Even Anton when he was there was upbeat. I miss his show. And tubs doesn't do current affairs very well so he ain't getting that slot. After that is music. So where is the fit ?

bigroad · 02-09-2023 12:29am

He is not anything ,at best he is a tea boy.

The Irish public deserve better .

He made his few quid ,so let's leave it at that.

ButtersSuki · 02-09-2023 12:37am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058636#Comment_121058636

It would require a tweaking style-wise from Tubridy; not wholly dramatic but a shift from the complete frivolity and a total banishing of death, misery, and cancer talk. Plus, crucially, Tubs could fill 90%+ of a 2-3 show with music, ads (there’s a lot of ads on Today FM remember), news, weather, and a caller quiz/competition etc. Keep it upbeat, lose the death and the banal nonsense for the rest of the show and I can see how it could work. He might only have to talk for 15 mins over 3 hours after all.

It would require a very strong producer to shall we say “put some manners on him” and make sure he sticks to the new formula. And it would require a music programmer, but that’s the norm for such shows/stations anyway. Left to his own devices musically Tubs would have “The Beatles Greatest Hits” on rotation. I’m sure he’d probably die a little on the inside playing some commercial rap and “Shotgun” every day for 6 months, but as long as the money is being paid I doubt ultimately he’d care that much….as we all know how much he loves money.

Remember where you heard it first……

ButtersSuki · 02-09-2023 12:47am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058247#Comment_121058247

Don’t forget there were usually 3 or 4 (or more) of such puff pieces every year. Written in-house as a press release and sent to every Entertainment journalist in the country, most of whom would publish it word for word.

i (and a couple of other posters) used to dissect these in the Radio Thread. They were embarrassing, laughable, and cringeworthy….and almost always got published. There were days when he’d say something on the radio before 9:30 and the Indo etc. would have an article ip before 10 with some daft headline like “Revealed: Ryan Tubridy’s favourite Jelly Baby colour!”

My favourite stories however were always the ones where Tubs was doing something “privately”…..but just “happened” to be photographed doing so. 🙄 Completely staged and designed to make him appear in a certain positive light, but the “journalists” published it anyway even though they knew it was all manufactured. At least I hope they knew…..

ButtersSuki · 02-09-2023 12:56am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058636#Comment_121058636

The “fit”, or at least the narrative that will be crafted by his agent/him will be that he’s a proven audience gatherer. As they say in finance ads however, “past performance is no guarantee of future returns”. Plus he’ll be on a different station with a younger profile, and without the foundation of Morning Ireland immediately before he takes to the air.

But look at it from their perspective….he’s a “name”. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, so what? They could start off with a year contract, though Tubs might be shocked to learn a year has 12 months, and not the 9 he’s been used to all his life. This is the station that had Al Porter and Mairead Ronan fronting shows on it after all….they have form in trying things other stations wouldn’t do.

Therell likely be a continuation of the PR battle until he returns the air with puff pieces appearing daily in pursuit of a rehabilitation. Some people’s minds won’t be changed on him with way no matter what happens going forward. Kelly, Tubs, and Today FM will be hedging their bets as to how big the pro-Tubs camp will be.

Damien360 · 02-09-2023 12:58am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058671#Comment_121058671

I can't see it. Anton when he was there had Pamela doing great music. The kind of music that Tubs wouldn't know. Anton could switch from current affairs to trivial in a moment and it worked. The fact he wouldn't allow the current "hits" on rotation was apparently why he was shafted.

Tubs has no personality and no music taste that can be discerned. You are talking about the current Dave slot after 9am. A critical slot for keeping people on station. Tubs has no affinity to any of the TodayFM demographic. Maybe a late night waffle slot after 9pm but I can't see it. It doesn't bring advertising revenue at that hour.

ButtersSuki · 02-09-2023 1:19am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058703#Comment_121058703

Hate to burst your bubble but Anton and Pamela would have had SFA to do with the music selection - that’s what music programmers are for.

To be clear, I’m not saying Tubs doing what he did on Radio 1 would work on Today FM because it wouldn’t. I explained in some detail the changes required to make him a success on Today FM.

seanrambo87 · 02-09-2023 2:33am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058775#Comment_121058775

This made me chuckle, good choice of picture.

IMO It wasn't, Gay Byrne laid the foundation for what could have been something special. RTE could have stood out as a world class broadcaster, but RTE didn't want that, RTE wanted to line their own greedy pockets. The difference was Gay produced his own show. Ryan Tubridy couldn't even produce a witty retort to a 14 year old muscle bound skinhead. The man is a liar. And he lost the room as soon as he slinked in. A liar and a cheat. I've stopped reading Noel's fluff pieces ehhh errrr I mean sunny dispositions posts. As regards Tubridy, I've more respect for a house breaker than this proven liar who's stolen from every home in the land.

jmcc · 02-09-2023 6:05am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058683#Comment_121058683

A lot of the Irish media depends on press releases to fill the space between ads. The "technology" sections were notorious for it as most technology journalists had no background in Technology or the business of Technology. (It is laughable how Irish technology journalists now seem to think they are experts on piracy (the dodgy box clampdown) when the same quotes and factoids from the press releases they are using show up across their articles in different publications and websites.) With the Tubridy press releases, that similarity with quotes from "sources" would probably have been a constant.

In entertainment journalism, the bar is even lower and press releases are free content for publishers. The only thing keeping Tubridy in the public eye at the moment is the flood of these puff pieces/press releases. Unfortunately for Tubridy and NKM, the public sentiment has turned against the formerly famous Tubridy.

Regards...jmcc

Oscar_Madison · 02-09-2023 10:08am

Today FM?

Its possible. Just as any other major commercial radio station is “possible” - I think no matter where he goes though, he’ll be doing more work for less money. So a two hour show for maybe 150k - we know he doesn’t have a USP so we’ll just have to wait and see just how good or bad his show will be. Whatever it is, it will be light and fluffy so I’m not really sure Today FM is the ideal station for that sort of schmaltz

HildaOgdenx · 02-09-2023 10:19am

If he and NK hadn't been so greedy, he would probably be still rolling on, pocketing extraordinary money for a very very mediocre job.

RTE seems to have got away for far too many years with claiming that the likes of Tubridy among others, would jump ship if not paid what were and are, astronomical fees, by any standard. We saw his desperation during the appearance at the committees. That told a story in itself.

This grubby set up with Tubridy brought a lot more stuff to light. Time will tell, I suppose, if the whole shoddy set up there, where public money was spent with impunity and there was no oversight in place of pretty much anything, can be or will be reformed.

Oscar_Madison · 02-09-2023 10:19am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058247#Comment_121058247

So in other words, Smyth’s toys are no longer part of the show so all the freebie toys we had in the past are gone - we’re too tight getting the toys from elsewhere as that would mean a reduction in our own pay so we’ve decided to invent this faux pity make you feel guilty “suffer little children” bullsh1t instead

Furze99 · 02-09-2023 10:34am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058849#Comment_121058849

You have to hand it to NKM though - they're keeping up the stream of RT press releases, though I do detect a slackening of the flow in the last week or so.

All face saving I guess and also more importantly to try and retain other clients that might slip away.

Furze99 · 02-09-2023 10:37am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058671#Comment_121058671

More like Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby you mean surely?

hawley · 02-09-2023 10:40am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058683#Comment_121058683

His persona of the Toyman was invented in NK's offices. Even a lot of his comments look like they were part of a script. My opinion is that NK came up with the Toyman in order to make Tubridy unsackable. He saw that the audience numbers were dropping on all the LLS episodes outside the Toy Show, so they put all their eggs in the Toy Show brand. You were one of the first ones to point out the fakeness behind his Toyman brand.

TokTik · 02-09-2023 10:44am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121055694#Comment_121055694

The Viper and the Shligo bois.

bigroad · 02-09-2023 10:46am

It's very true,the toyshow was a one show only out of a full year.

But yet he reminded us on nearly a daily basis,self promotion all the way.

He wasn't even a one trick pony as all the toyshow was crap.

hawley · 02-09-2023 10:51am

TV’S Brendan O’Carroll has defended Ryan Tubridy after he was sensationally sacked by RTE, insisting: He did nothing wrong. The Mrs Brown’s Boys star believes Tubridy, 50, got a raw deal from Montrose chiefs and has been made a scapegoat for the secret payments scandal.

“(It looks like RTE are saying) ‘We f****d up, so we are getting rid of you’. That’s what it looks like. I simply can’t work out what Ryan did wrong? To me it looks like Ryan made a deal with RTE, he kept up his side of the bargain. Where RTE gets the money from, is not really his business. As long as he did the job and they paid him. That it! It’s RTE that had to be looked at rather than Ryan Tubridy."

“I don’t know what they picked on Ryan and I can’t work out why Ryan is gone from RTE.

"Ryan did nothing wrong. And frankly I think Ryan Tubridy is a massive loss to RTE.”

Dubliner Brendan revealed he had not been in contact with Tubs since the RTE scandal exploded. But the Agnes Brown star plans to text the ex-Late Late Show host his support. Brendan told us: “Ryan was always a pleasure to deal with. If you wanted to look at the range of Ryan’s talents you only had to watch the Toy Show each year."

'WE ARE SPOILT IN IRELAND'

He said: “I know a DJ that will do five days a week for €50. But if you want Joe Duffy, you have to pay Joe Duffy rates. A pro like Joe with a depth of talent that can get the answers out of people when you need to hear them. Any radio station in the world would pay to have that. But if you want someone cheaper, it’s there, just don’t complain.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thesun.ie/tv/11271875/brendan-ocarroll-mrs-brown-emphatic-ryan-tubridy-rte/amp/

Advice from Brendan to the public; just keep your mouth shut and don't complain about having to fund these big stars.

TokTik · 02-09-2023 10:51am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058733#Comment_121058733

We listen to Today FM in my office. If Tubridy took the Dave slot we’d change channel, and I don’t think we’d be the only ones. And I don’t mean we’d change it for the Tubridy segment, we’d just listen to a different station all day.

Sheep breeder · 02-09-2023 10:55am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058311#Comment_121058311

That will be the death of Today fm in the morning if the turd ends up there, Dave is doing a good job and is well liked by the listeners and there will be no change.

mistersifter · 02-09-2023 11:05am

His original bullshit spiel was that the Toyman moniker came from some child he met on one of his merry adventures.

The only person who ever seriously referred to him as Toyman was Ryan himself. He rammed it down people's throats but it never stuck with the public. Pathetic stuff.

amacca · 02-09-2023 11:08am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121059355#Comment_121059355

Hilarious Claptrap...a pro like Joe that can get answers 🤣🤣🤣

Jaaysuus! He does have one thing right, the rest of what's going on in RTE needs to be looked at but

We are spoilt because we have Tubridy et al......dear God...it must be a pisstake, his comedy game is evolving 🤣

HildaOgdenx · 02-09-2023 11:10am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121059415#Comment_121059415

It's definitely not going to happen now 😁 (I'm referring to the 'stop trying to make it happen' meme)

Tow · 02-09-2023 11:56am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121059295#Comment_121059295

I saw Tubs on the front page of one of gutter papers this morning. Brendan O'Carroll said he was a good lad!

NK and his PR man Ray Gordon are working overtime.

yagan · 02-09-2023 12:08pm

The RT problem is that he and his allies don't understand that hosting is a two way street. Toyman thought he was the show, and then Tommy Tiernan has a smash hit because he has to listen.

I've always liked Paddy Keilty and as his own brand without a safety net he knows he has to read the room, listen for the mood.

RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

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