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Wages at 2fm

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,118 ✭✭✭Expunge


    I saw that. He was invoicing them for 10 grand a month!

    Granted, he was on a national breakfast show but he was a very ordinary talent - local/regional standard to me.

    Instead of moaning to the press, Walsh should look back fondly on the days when he punched way above his weight.

    Also, that Head of 2FM is some clown paying out that kind of money.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 38 Jonathan2712


    e120k gross per year isn't all that much for the host of a national breakfast show. Its easy to be outraged by other peoples income, but put it in to perspective, its a fairly low amount for what by definition is someone at the top of their industry in this country. Like him or otherwise, hosting the breakfast who on national radio is kind of the pinacol of that sort of career.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,548 ✭✭✭KildareP


    I don't like RTÉ 2fm nor can I ever forgive him for the diabolical breakfast show with Joe Donnelly on Phantom 105.2.

    To put it into perspective, though, he was invoicing €10k a month as a contractor, that's the net final cost to RTÉ.

    Whereas if he were an employee, as well as his posted salary, RTÉ would be paying employer PRSI contributions on his behalf (8.8% on the first €441 per week and 11.05% on everything else) and possibly pension contributions too so his listed "wage" wouldn't be the net final cost to RTÉ.

    He's not going to have seen anything close to €120k in his pocket once he made all of the statutory deductions - employer PRSI (due on his behalf by his operating company), employee PRSI (deducated from his effective wage as an employee of that company), USC, PAYE, pension contributions, along with fees that you naturally incur as a registered company such as accountant costs, filings with the CRO and then 12.5% corporation tax on whatever is left at the end.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 656 ✭✭✭bureau2009


    There were 3 presenters on this show. 120k X 3 makes for a very expensive show.

    Especially a show that rarely troubles the JLNRs.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,831 ✭✭✭GSF


    I wouldn’t say Iain Dempsey is on €120k a year as a breakfast show host



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,118 ✭✭✭Expunge


    Well, the final net cost is about to rise by about 25,000 euro per year that he was contracted, if reports are accurate.

    Anyway, he was one of three on that show. The others had higher profile from their own outside activities and histories, if memory serves me.

    So, that 120000 becomes 360000 Euros at least. That's before we factor in costs of producers and other production staff.

    This is a service in receipt of licence fee money during this time.

    A sponsor may have offset some of that cost.

    I do take the point about the costs of employing these people, however.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 115 ✭✭furryvision


    A lot of money for a breakfast show that failed. Nevertheless, don't understand what keith walsh is crying foul about. He was well compensated for the fact he was a contractor. He's claiming to be speaking on the behalf of the people of Ireland about RTE overspending but also thinks he should have a job for life? One of the reasons RTE is broke is because they gave out jobs for life for presenters, that's why there's presenters on Gold earning more money than they should be

    He was offered the conditions and accepted, he also never spoke out while he was there. He knew the conditions all along but it's only a problem when his gig ends.

    Presenting never was, nor should it be, a job for life.

    Post edited by furryvision on


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,720 ✭✭✭Former Former Former


    Some pretty bitter comments from Keith there.

    Considering he was programme director at Phantom/TXFM when they absolutely decimated the presenting staff, it's a bit rich to be playing the doe-eyed innocent who can't understand why he's been let go.

    Hmmm.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,989 ✭✭✭Trampas


    Did he take the tax breaks and benefits as a contractor than a permie employee?

    He could have said no but didn’t and took the contract on offer.

    Crocodile tears if you ask me



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    Why are the department of social welfare saying that such presenters should be classified as staff? Pop Music/youth radio stations like 2fm have always had to reshuffle every few years to stay relevant, Speaking of which, Jen Zamperelli & Tracy Clifford are in their mid 40s now, the same age that Will Leahy & Rick O'Shea were when Dan Healy deemed them too old for primetime slots on 2fm a decade ago.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 476 ✭✭SodiumCooled


    I would assume he is on significantly more than 120k



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,694 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    Rte are paying crazy wages?

    Where have you all been for last 20yrs.

    Ray D'Arcy just got handed another €1mill contract, and he's useless.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,258 ✭✭✭✭Losty Dublin


    Because, Shan, the employment terms under which they are/were contracted are potentially illegal.

    RTÉ have employed a lot of staff on terms that are effectively full time employment contracts on one hand yet coming without the Legal and State protections that such contracts should afford employees from their employer. There are other sectors who took the mickey in the same manner (Construction to name but one.); however RTÉ are arguably the highest profile example.

    And while it is hard for many of us to feel pity for the likes of Keith, it should be pointed out that they also employed newsreaders, producers, technical crews, makeup artists, set designers, presenters; even admin staff on such terms. And between us and the walls, lower profile staff were working for far more modest wages and on far poorer terms and conditions.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,381 ✭✭✭✭end of the road


    the problem is that the gaps that would have once required reshuffles are becoming irrelevant as the gaps between generations in terms of music as an example are being wiped out.
    the same is happening with other content as well slowly but surely.
    so while even a decade ago it might have been important to reshuffle someone in their 40s because they may not be as relevant to the target audience, it's not necessarily the case now because someone in their 40s may very well be relevant to the target audience.

    I'm very highly educated. I know words, i have the best words, nobody has better words then me.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,360 ✭✭✭Declan A Walsh


    I am not going to get involved in the main topic of debate here. I just want to touch upon Keith Walsh's radio career in relation to Phantom prior to his arrival at 2FM. Firstly, the article in Evoke referred to his previous radio career without mentioning his time with Phantom immediately before 2FM. Instead it said he was with Today FM. I don't think he was. Secondly, while it is true that he did a stint as PD with Phantom, he had left before the changes leading to TXFM. He left Phantom in December 2013 and the big station changes took place in the spring of 2014.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    I can't remember him on Today FM either but perhaps he filled in between 7-midnight while at Phantom? I can remember Michelle Doherty filling in for Paul McLoone/Donal Dineen an odd week while on Phantom.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    I get what you are saying, being 35/40 years of age today isn't the same as being that age in 2004 for a lot of people so to speak.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    Walsh is back in the papers today, the fact that he was so desperate to hang on to a job, any job at RTE and the fact that no other Radio station has snapped him up the past 4 years indicates to me that 120k was not the market rate for his services. https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/she-said-theres-no-such-thing-as-a-job-for-life-ex-2fm-dj-keith-walsh-on-his-desperate-plea-to-dee-forbes-to-keep-his-job/a127854407.html?fbclid=IwAR3w-SWpfPp2c98oCX_LO4sAgLRdCO3N15SNaS663lo-B-rZikr3NU3tpO8&utm_campaign=seeding&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,808 ✭✭✭Clo-Clo


    2FM should have been dumped years ago, this is another reason why



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,066 ✭✭✭gym_imposter


    I guess he couldn't rely on virtue signalling on twitter for his living



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,218 ✭✭✭bobbysands81




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    Yes but the difference is that his breakfast show is making substantial profits for the stations owners and plenty of other stations would be interested in his services.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,720 ✭✭✭Former Former Former


    while it is true that he did a stint as PD with Phantom, he had left before the changes leading to TXFM

    Sorry, no. He may have been gone when the rename from Phantom to TXFM happened, but he was absolutely on board when the substantive change, i.e. the takeover by Communicorp, happened and he was a senior member of staff when people were being exited.

    Walsh got the PD after Ger Roe and Simon Maher got the bullet, and he was there when the weekend presenters and support staff were culled. He got his job in 2fm two months before another raft of redundancies, which was fortuitous timing for sure, I'm not sure anyone else landed on their feet quite so spectacularly and quickly.

    So for him to be crying now about the injustice of it all is rich to say the least.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,989 ✭✭✭Trampas


    Did he use his company to pay for mileage or buy a company car to get him from newbridge to Donnybrook everyday he was in? All these contractors in rte had no problem getting a few extra quid to compensate them for job status they had. Do they expect every tv and radio person to be a full time employee. Even thinking of that he knows it’s bs.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,360 ✭✭✭Declan A Walsh


    Point taken. I was referring to the latter changes though, when he had left, and, in particular, that he was not part of TX FM. I was just going over my post and the other big point I was making was that Evoke did not even mention his time with Phantom at all.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 900 ✭✭✭doc22


    I still think a significant gap is there, Ask any 40-year-old how familiar they are with Irish top 20 ten chart and they'd struggle to know the artists and songs . Like radio 1 and 2 in the UK, generic presenters need to be moved on when aged out of demo, 2fm is no different



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 461 ✭✭Kingslayer


    Radio 1 can put them out to stud on Radio 2 when the reach a certain age. Do 2fm have anywhere to send their older presenters?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 900 ✭✭✭doc22


    Do 2fm have anywhere to send their older presenters? I don't know, I don't enjoy 2fm currently and I'd be right in the middle of their demo. Would any of the current crop get into today fms schedule…..



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 224 ✭✭Chun the Unavoidable


    RTE Gold has plenty of room for them.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 461 ✭✭Kingslayer


    Would anyone know how much Pat Courtenay would be taking home a year at Nova?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,690 ✭✭✭paddyisreal


    He is chancing his arm. if he was a full time employee he would off being on a much lower salary and rte would of fulfilled his prsi, tax etc but he was a contractor and got the benefits of it. he wants his cake etc . I think he is trying to put himself on the same footing as some of the fair city cast ( another shitshow, i wonder if all the eastenders, brookside etc are classed as full time employees).



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,258 ✭✭✭✭Losty Dublin


    Back to the Self Employment debacle once again.

    The issue here is that some employers are refusing to give their staff work unless they opt into these contractor basis. While it has some benefits when it comes to enabling them to offer salary terms to their big names, this alone doesn't always make it legal or sound or above board. RTÉ have been shown to be a serial offender in using these contracts for many many years and have been exposed and caught up with by Dept Social Welfare for same. The fact that somebody was paid €120 a day or €120,000 a year doesn't really come into it, whether Keith is liked or not.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,690 ✭✭✭paddyisreal


    In fairness huge difference between someone on 10 euro an hour and rte abusing the contracting laws then someone on a 100k whos knows exactly what he is entitled to. He's acting the bollocks tbh



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    Walsh tells an number of untruths In the below podcast and he also doesn't know the difference between Gold and Lyric https://tortoiseshack.ie/1237-keith-walsh-vs-rte-part-1/



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 603 ✭✭✭Shan Doras


    A few years ago, the employment tribunal ruled that Ruth Scott was self-employed and had no entitlement to more work/money once the boss wanted to change the schedule, so why would this Keith Walsh guy be entitled if Ruth Scott wasn't?



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,720 ✭✭✭Former Former Former


    And now he's moaning that he's not invited to the Oireachtas committee.

    Absolutely shameless.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,470 ✭✭✭JoeA3


    this guy 🤦‍♂️ The levels of delusion are off the scale! He was a very middling presenter of no great distinction and his show got canned. Happens all the time.

    I don’t think he’s doing his future employment prospects much good either with this nonsense. Love him or loathe him but contrast this carry on with Fergal D’Arcy for example. He got dropped. He kept the head down, kept his counsel, because he knew mouthing off like this would be more harm to his future prospects than good.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,258 ✭✭✭✭Losty Dublin


    We can't say for sure unless you know what conditions and terms were in the agreed work contract, or how it was applied, durations etc etc. Ruth clearly hadn't the ties that other staff had, although you'd wonder what they'd have said had she worked on a rival station mid week.

    The divil is often in the detail with these things but there are other factors at play. I've heard of some well know air staff in Montrose who were employed as pensionable permanent contracts; others who were on full time fixed term contracts (Often very short term.) and others again who are on the bogus self employed terms. All doing the same thing.

    Mind you, I also know of somebody who was with a private group for a long time and was forced to be a self contractor, so it's not unique in the trade.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,646 ✭✭✭California Dreamer


    Not just D'Arcy, plenty of radio people get walked all over by bosses and continue to take it and then when they get pushed out continue to keep the head down. Radio is far too small in Ireland and your 'radio rival' today can be you colleague tomorrow and vice versa. Then we will all have a pint at the IMROs and b1tch about the station you used to work for all while chatting to your former PD about how bad the new place is!!!!



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