Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Has Today FM Gone Down The Toilet?

  • 05-11-2023 9:57am
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,905 ✭✭✭


    I don’t listen to terrestrial radio much these days apart from maybe Radio 1 during with hours. While I was waiting in the car yesterday morning however I did tune into Today FM. The music wasn’t too bad but the presenter was woeful. Putting on a voice and basically his entire poster was “Ok, it’s the weekend! Come on! Contact us, tell us what you’re being up to! It’s the mystery year, contact us and tell us what brings you back to hearing these sins! Here’s a few facts about the mystery year “. Then he posted some WhatsApp messages from callers.

    I remember when TodayFM launched and even the Radio Ireland days it was fairly series about music but also had a great lineup of presenters that wiped the floor with 2FM. It was a great station and I couldn’t think of many presenters I didn’t like. Maybe time has moved on and I’m no longer the target demographic and you can’t judge a station on one 20 minute snippet but other quick listens I’ve had recently don’t trashy entice me to listen. It’s starting to sound like Spin’s older brother.



Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 898 ✭✭✭radiotrickster


    You would have been listening to the Classic 9 @ 11 which has run for donkeys years. The premise is that the hour is themed around a certain year and you guess which year it is.

    The presenter would be Stephen Daly who isn’t putting on a voice. You can see from his social content that that’s just how he talks.

    I would argue he’s one of the better presenters at the station. He plays the music and doesn’t try to do content for contents sake.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6 Pricy Doze


    Using WhatsApp voice notes from listeners is happening across the board on music radio stations for some time now. I remember when radio stations brought in SMS texts around 2000, a lot of "longtime listeners" hated it but the SMS went on to define the most successful Irish Radio show of the 00s, The Ray D'Arcy show



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,207 ✭✭✭✭Quazzie


    You were very fortunate to avoid the relentless reminders to throw your money at them for the "Cash Machine"


    Ian Dempsey in the morning is like a robot he is that formulaic. A simple 2 minute segment dragged out across a half hour and several ad breaks.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,905 ✭✭✭squonk


    Yeah I’m surprised Ian is still doing his thing. I stiffed listening arid 2010 regularly I think and he was getting a bit stale by then I’d thought.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6 Pricy Doze


    To answer your question, No, Today FM has had a jnlr renaissance since Bauer took control. The low point for Today FM was under previous management in the mid to late 10s when they were going down the 2fm road of not playing any music over 5 years old.



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,905 ✭✭✭squonk


    It wasn’t so much that the WhstsApp messages bothered me, it’s just that some were brainless and they could have been reading a segment from the Gettysburg Address for all the acknowledgment from the host. Back in the day Ray and the crew would discuss the texts or take the pi$$ at times.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6 Pricy Doze


    Yeah I can't disagree about voice notes, the odd times that I've heard them, you always get folks putting on Joey from Friends type accents, how YOU doin



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,905 ✭✭✭squonk


    I guess that’s why I stopped listening when I dud. The music changed. They were great early in with lots of indie stuff and then you had Tony Fenton in the afternoons with some cheese and an older style selection.



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Dave needs Dermot, completely useless without him. The music master thing is robbed straight from the BBC. Ray Foley needs to be told to leave also.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,531 ✭✭✭✭MEGA BRO WOLF 5000


    Pretty much all Irish radio is terrible outside of Dublin, there's f-all choice.

    In limerick I can get 2fm and todayFM which when it comes to music are interchangeable apart from todayFM has a talk show in the evening.

    Beat/Spin, both identical, child presenters who speak with American accents and play the exact same 15 songs over and over. I know it's aimed at the younger generation but it's awful.

    4fm/classic started out as a banger of a station with their selection of classic rock and great 80s hits, now their classic songs are Beyonce and Natalie Imbruglia.

    Newstalk, fantastic sports station.

    But as for music, it's all absolutely terrible.



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,573 ✭✭✭Shoog


    It was good back when John Kelly was on, I remember the week he left when he was practically having a nervous breakdown because they were trying to turn him more mainstream. The slot after him also used to be good but now it's all dreadful. Couldn't listen to a single thing before 5pm, real knuckle dragger territory.

    The only thing worth listening to is the drive time slot in the evening which is better than the insufferable Radio One news slot.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,206 ✭✭✭timmyntc


    Weekend breakfast has the exact same playlist week after week. Same tired early 2000s songs, again and again.

    John Kelly on Today FM - that must be 20 years ago surely!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,573 ✭✭✭Shoog




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 715 ✭✭✭TheBMG


    from what I know TodayFM are enjoying the best ratings they’ve had in several years (even in Dublin which used to be a tricky market for them). Can’t imagine they’ll be changing stuff much!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,295 ✭✭✭Kaybaykwah


    If it makes anyone feel better, FM radio is the same old drivel everywhere.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,555 ✭✭✭✭dxhound2005


    Is that 15 songs today and a different 15 tomorrow. Or the same 15 every day?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,303 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    You tend to hear the same collection of songs on music stations if you listen all day. Whoever picks the playlists get all the most popular ones, and get them played ad nauseum.

    So you get Sia, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Dermot Kennedy, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo etc...plus the new golden boy, Cian Ducrot.

    The thing that I'd find annoying about that, can give you 2 examples.

    1) when we had Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush in the playlists due to Stranger Things. We had every dj tell us how amazing she was, they played the song to death. Then few weeks later, gone. And haven't heard another Kate Bush track since on Daytime radio.

    2) basically same as above, this time for Sinead O'connor. She died and they fell over themselves to say how she was a once in a generation singer songwriter, how she changed irish music. They talked and talked about her for a week, played a lot of her great catalogue of music. Couple of weeks later, gone too. Haven't heard her played on day time radio much since.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,573 ✭✭✭Shoog


    I listen to Paradise Radio a lot at the moment, great internet station with good mix. I used to listen to a lot of 6Music but that got very repetitive - now only listen on the weekends.

    Irish FM is a wash out apart from evening on LyricFM.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,555 ✭✭✭✭dxhound2005


    One of the most popular stations in Dublin, Sunshine, has a varied playlist. And just one Ed Sheeran song in the last couple of hours. I would like to know how people can listen to dozens of stations for hours every day to come up with the stuff which is being claimed here?

    https://irishradiolive.com/sunshine-106-8/playlist



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,779 ✭✭✭pappyodaniel


    I turned off the dial when Ray Foley reappeared. If I'm driving and I hear his voice on the radio, I just get this uncontrollable urge to swerve into oncoming traffic.



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 898 ✭✭✭radiotrickster


    I would have said its one of the least varied playlists. Sunshine a year ago sounds the same to Sunshine today. The same Michael Buble, Ed Sheeran, Adele songs on repeat.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,117 ✭✭✭rolling boh


    I would think with channel hopping so easy and people maybe driving around a lot it's easy to tune in and out of several stations in a short enough time .I do it myself as a driver and do hear the same or two on different stations within a short enough time.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,555 ✭✭✭✭dxhound2005


    You must be a dedicated listerner. They know a good formula, similar to BBC Radio 2.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,555 ✭✭✭✭dxhound2005


    If you could put a link to the playists from those stations, it would be helpful.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,531 ✭✭✭✭MEGA BRO WOLF 5000




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 898 ✭✭✭radiotrickster


    You might hear a few of the same songs every 2-3 hours but it’s not that repetitive that if you hear a song at 9am, you’ll hear it again at 10am.

    Beat and Spin aren’t made to be listened to for hours on end either. If I remember hearing correctly, music stations like that would expect people to listen for the length of a car journey which is assumed to be 10-30 minutes. So if they play the same songs every three hours, it doesn’t matter because they don’t assume the same people are listening three hours later.



  • Registered Users Posts: 37 Neg10


    This post feels a bit personal to me. You don’t listen to the radio, but just did for this guy? And then hated on it?

    I think today fm leaves a lot to be desired, but you sort of made it sound like one guy is a problem imo.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,303 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    If only radio stations played 15 songs per hour. Would mean there would be no inane djs to listen to.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,125 ✭✭✭50HX


    But you secretly.............."love the show ".....eh 🤣

    He is awful tho...fully agree with your urge to swerve into traffic

    I usually turn switch to moncrieff or else turn off radio



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,176 ✭✭✭amacca




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,261 ✭✭✭✭josip


    If anyone is bored, or just open minded, install the Radio Garden App and using the map listen to any Radio station from anywhere in the world.

    I have a soft spot for Italian pop or US college rock, but it can take a few taps before I find a station playing them.

    As regards the OP's Today FM topic, Matt is the only one I'd listen to during drive time. Although I still miss Eamo from that slot and it took me a while to accept Matt.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,905 ✭✭✭squonk


    Not in the least personal. I don’t know who the DJ is. He’s doing the job his employer requires of him and good luck to him. I have no personal grudge towards the guy. I already said you can’t judge a station on a snippet but I’d listened to other pieces of other shows on occasion and the station seemed to have changed from what k remember. Earlier when the station launched there was a passion about the presenters and the music being played. I haven’t heard this lately. It’s not aimed at any one presenter or show so you’re wrong.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,245 ✭✭✭Declan A Walsh


    @josip - good call on Radio Garden. There is a great variety there, including some good online Irish stations.

    @squonk - not sure why you did not put your original post on the existing Today FM thread, rather than opening a new thread.



  • Registered Users Posts: 900 ✭✭✭IUA14


    Ah well many more turned the dial back to Today FM so it all worked out.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,325 ✭✭✭DBK1


    Someone from today fm must be reading boards!

    I made about 4 trips in the car yesterday and twice I heard Sinead O’Connor songs on today fm.

    Post edited by DBK1 on


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,426 ✭✭✭ofcork


    Used to be good when you had dempsey darcy ray foley tony fenton and phil cawley there.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,667 ✭✭✭its_steve116


    I'm under the impression Pam Joyce doesn't want to continue with radio at all. Today FM is a national station so they could have easily let her do a show from a Galway studio.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,946 ✭✭✭JDxtra


    They have some old songs on heavy rotation. Examples include Madonna "Hung Up" and The Killers "Somebody Told Me". These get played most days and it's getting quite annoying.

    It's like listening to a jukebox with 100 old songs in it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,295 ✭✭✭Kaybaykwah


    The radio down the toilet isn’t the issue.

    It’s the flushing that is too short to improve the sound of it.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,714 ✭✭✭tinytobe


    I think lot's of people in Ireland don't listen to terrestrial radio anymore. Smartphones offer more, DAB+ was sort of "banned" or badmouthed in Ireland and FM isn't enough for today's audience and interest.

    Also, ever noticed the absence of adverts for radio stations? Remember when on Dublin busses, there were ads for FM104, 98FM, Q102, Today FM and sometimes Spin FM? All gone.

    It's possible there is no money anymore to be made in radio as it's more and more limited.



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,946 ✭✭✭JDxtra


    Why can Today FM not get the audio levels correct for those giving traffic or sports reports? Drives me crazy that that their voice is so low when they first come on air and then is gradually increases.

    It sounds like they are Harry Potter working under the stairs trying to keep quiet.

    “Ahh sure, leave it to the audio processor to take care it” seems to be the approach taken. Has been happening for months if not longer.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 658 ✭✭✭cheese sandwich


    John Kelly followed by Donal Dinesen - halcyon days (and nights).

    Dont think Ive listened to Today FM in about 15 years



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,667 ✭✭✭its_steve116


    I still see ads for 2FM and Today FM. And PJ and Jim on Radio Nova. And 98FM.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,714 ✭✭✭tinytobe


    I haven't ever since I've been back to Dublin. They used to be on Dublin busses, I remember. Now, I haven't seen any.



Advertisement