RTE's digital radio stations to be "abolished"

Fair enough. I’m sure they have minimal listenership and cost money to operate and licence music.

It will all be official tomorrow, it's hard to see any of the digital services surviving , including RTE Gold imho.

Listening to Gold, after 4pm, the last few weels, has left an impression that it's a station winding down - a chaotic playlist,frequent gaps and low production values unfortunately.

Stations with no income (excl RnaG) are low hanging fruit when it comes to cost cutting .

Confirmed...

"The RTÉ Radio 1 Extra, RTÉ 2XM, RTÉ Pulse and RTÉjr digital radio stations will also close next year."

https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/1114/1416481-rte-strategic-plan/

Seems to me that stations like this are the future. Like anything, if you get people listening to these servicss early on you might have them for life or at least you’d be able to transition them through the brand as they grew older and tastes changed. I’d sooner go big and bold and close 2FM. I’d imagine the revenue vs cost relationship there is way more stunted than the digital stations. Promote the digital stations better. You’d barely know they were there really.

RTE Gold seems to have escaped the chop.

With 2xm gone, then that's basically no alternative music output from what's meant to be a public service broadcaster. That's not good enough.

Haven't heard Jenny Greene, but would have assumed (maybe wrongly?), that it's dance music. That wouldn't be for me. I thought the Dan Hegarty and Cormac Battle shows was 2xm content that was repeated on 2fm? Actually, not sure Battle's one is.

In recent times when it comes to alternative music, at least BBC 6 Music has being great for giving exposure for new Irish bands and solo musicians, by playing their music at peak times.

From the website:

The Greene Room

ON AIR • MON - THURS • 21:00 - 23:00, SUNDAYS • 22:00 - 00:00

Jenny curates a selection of the finest Indie & Electronic, including live chats with people from the world of music, film and entertainment.

8Radio.com is also good for playing Irish alternative rock acts.

I never knew that Pat McGrath presented a music show. Dave Fanning has done stuff on 2XM in the past.

RTE Pulse has presenters too. I do not know if they are employees of RTE though. So RTE will save on contractors there. Looking at the schedule, it looks like at least one may have been syndicated - Roger Sanchez.

I dont see why they kept RTE Gold unless they have plans to expand and improve it and maybe get it on FM.

i think reading the "plan" the new APP will be like BBC sounds a catch all with some of the axed stations having markers on the APP for Genres of music but no presenters...

According to the DG yesterday in an interview with Prime Time, the audience that the dropped stations were aimed at do not listen to them, but use other means for their music. I suppose RTE Gold is the odd one out there as it is aimed largely at a different older audience.

He’s likely right but RTE created this outcome on their own. The BBC are great at cross promotion. They play ads regularly for shows available on BBC Sounds and hype the platform as a destination for the stuff you want to listen to. They don’t particularly reference the underlying music station services as such thing they do mention radio 6 or radio 4 occasionally. In RTEland you’d swear that the digital services were rival stations. There is no cross promotion at all that I can see.

Im in my late 40s and feel that I’m probably the last generation where radio was a destination in and of itself and there were appointment shows. Streaming and alternative music services served to take over fairly quickly in my 20s. RTE Gold probably benefits from a legacy listenership who are determined to go and find well known presenters at their new home. I don’t blame younger listeners for going elsewhere and there are no efforts to try and keep them either.

RTE Radio 1 has a future. No matter who we are we all reach a stage where we tune in for the news and current affairs there at least. 2FM isn’t even keeping its head above water in its own demographic. If nobody is listening to Pulse or 2XM and 2FM isn’t washing their face then they have a wider problem there. Personally I’d turn 2FM into a serious hybrid electronic and indie music service, let go of the bloated overpaid on air presenters like Doireann Garihy, O’Callaghan, the 2 Johnnies, and any other crap. They’re evidently not working and listeners don’t seem to give a crap. You mightn’t change the world with a serious music focused station but you’ll have a dedicated listenership. Whether those are the people you want is another story. Exiting niche music digital spaces but keeping your flagship youth station on FM and digital doesnt seen like a strategy. Cut 2FM from FM and cut the silliness would be another alternative. .

It is probably the station/format with the most potential for commercial scale development. It also has some heavy hitter presenters on it, some of whom are or have been RTE staff or long term contractors. That aspect might also be a factor - maybe there is a significant cost of presenter disentanglement? It is by far the most costly of the digital station offerings to run, so you would have to think that it is either too complicated (staffing wise) to wind down, or they see some potential in it.

Moving Gold to FM would be an ecumenical matter for Comisiún Na Mean (the days of RTE popping services and transmitters on air at will, are gone) and as one loyal RTE Gold listener has often told me, if they turn it commercial (ad breaks) it will change a key factor of its current appeal.

As for closing down the other largely automated and practically volunteer run digital radio stations, I can't see a big cost saving there. Could it be that closing down the doomed digital radio stations and the + 1 TV services will reduce carriage costs on Saorview and streaming services, or allow for one of the Saorview mux to be shut down entirely, with all remaining services carried on one?

There are words but no cost saving details coming out about the announcements made, so far - too many questions and few answers, at the moment.