As another turbulent year draws to a close, RTÉ management must be wondering if the Montrose radio centre is built on the proverbial Indian burial ground or, at the very least, a particularly vindictive fairy fort. While 2023 saw Radio 1 roiled by the fallout from the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal, this year it was the turn of sister station 2FM to come apart at the seams. In May a confluence of expected departures, mysterious absences and abrupt exits led to 2FM abruptly losing the presenters of its three flagship shows in one week, an exodus so chaotic it made the last chopper out of Saigon seem like a dignified withdrawal.
Taken separately, the decisions by the 2FM Breakfast presenter Doireann Garrihy, the mid-morning host Jennifer Zamparelli and the 2 Johnnies drivetime duo to leave the station were probably manageable setbacks. Together they amounted to a calamity. Garrihy’s long-flagged exit left her cohosts, Carl Mullan and Donncha O’Callaghan, without their more charismatic colleague. (The departure of O’Callaghan, the former Ireland rugby international, later in the summer didn’t help either.) And while the loudly laddish pair of Johnny “Smacks” McMahon and Johnny “B” O’Brien initially yielded as many PR headaches as new listeners, they had apparently settled into their slot, so when they quit – with not much more than a week’s notice – it came as a blow.
Zamparelli had been off air (or “on leave”) for several weeks before the announcement that she was gone for good. But given her mainstream TV success, Zamparelli was arguably 2FM’s biggest name. The resulting impression was a station in meltdown.
Seven months later, the schedule still looks somewhat patched together. Laura Fox has done a creditable job in Zamparelli’s absence but lacks her predecessor’s outsized persona; the 2FM stalwart Aifric O’Connell has joined Mullan in the morning, but the previous chemistry is missing; while the drivetime show has gone through several hosts, and as yet lacks any discernible identity. The afternoon presenter Tracy Clifford remains a bright spot, but she can’t buoy an entire station.
The whole fiasco has reignited the question of RTÉ's ownership of 2FM. That the national broadcaster owns a channel that is just one of many similarly youth-oriented pop stations has long been a puzzle. But with RTÉ still in extreme financial straits, holding on to an asset swamped by crisis is growing more difficult to justify, even if the logistics of hiving it off are daunting. On the upside, if 2FM’s ratings have taken a battering, they haven’t completely collapsed, begging the question of whether dealing with ostensibly stellar presenters is worth the hassle.
Tubridy’s programme hasn’t catapulted him back into the big time – his Q102 figures are one-tenth of his Radio 1 numbers – but he sounds happy with himself anyway
Radio 1 has had a year of welcome stability in comparison, the standard caveat about RTÉ’s fiscal woes notwithstanding. The most significant development – the appointment of Oliver Callan as Tubridy’s permanent replacement – has been a notable success. Callan has not only fine-tuned his talkshow persona but also shown himself to be an unexpectedly deft interviewer, confining his satirical impressions to his weekly Callan’s Kicks show. He now has more listeners than his predecessor did during his final year at the station.
Otherwise, Radio 1 maintained its position as the nation’s biggest station, with Claire Byrne and Brendan O’Connor proving particularly reliable performers despite their contrasting styles, Byrne solid and safe, O’Connor curious yet mischievous. But beneath such steadiness lurk signs of audience ennui, with Morning Ireland recently suffering a noticeable drop in numbers. Perhaps more significantly, the equally venerable Liveline is showing signs of staleness that appear increasingly irreversible.
True, Joe Duffy’s phone-in provided a vital platform for once-silenced survivors after the scoping inquiry into sexual abuse at schools run by religious orders, which in turn led to a weeks-long thread on the often barbaric corporal punishment historically meted out to pupils. But alongside the usual human drama and consumer complaints there seems to be an uptick in fond reminiscences about the good old days, aided by Duffy’s affectionate nostalgia, which doesn’t seem the basis for growing an audience. It’s premature to write off the canny and compelling broadcaster – this writer has made that mistake before – but his show urgently needs to be freshened up.
Elsewhere, Ryan Tubridy made a much-trumpeted, less-listened-to return to radio, albeit from London. His new morning show for Virgin Radio UK, which is transmitted in Ireland on Dublin’s Q102 and other local stations, is presumably aimed at English audiences, but there’s little obvious change to his spiel: even The Late Late Show is obliquely referenced when the presenter recalls celebrity encounters. Tubridy’s programme hasn’t catapulted him back into the big time – his Q102 figures are one-tenth of his Radio 1 numbers – but he sounds happy with himself anyway.
The main story in the commercial sector was the ongoing strength of Bauer Media’s two nationwide stations, Today FM and Newstalk. The latter in particular continued to sail serenely through the airwaves, with the evergreen Pat Kenny remaining the station’s most popular presenter. After nearly 50 years on Irish airwaves, he shows no signs of flagging, bringing a keen eye and idiosyncratic brio to his current-affairs magazine.
After a period of eye-catching growth, Newstalk’s ratings have plateaued and even slightly dipped, but from Newstalk Breakfast to Lunchtime Live and The Hard Shoulder there’s an air of confidence and energy across the schedule, with few conspicuous weak spots. That said, with Anton Savage having consolidated his weekend berth, a return to weekday radio may beckon, eight years after he lost his show on Today FM. That station, meanwhile, continues to rely on tried-and-trusted hosts, with the veteran morning DJ Ian Dempsey (just) overtaking his colleague Dave Moore to reclaim his status as top dog in the listenership stakes.
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Away from the big players, the quasi-national Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio saw the sparky morning duo of Colm Hayes and Lucy Kennedy expand their appeal, while the nocturnal phone-in host Niall Boylan returned to his show after a strong if unsuccessful European Parliament election bid as a right-wing populist, a venture that only underlined his unimpeachable shock-jock credentials.
Amid the ups and downs of the various stations, it’s easy to view the overall picture as healthy as ever. But while huge numbers continue to tune into Irish radio, the online sphere looms as a disrupter, with podcasts increasingly the audio choice for younger people in particular. (Just look at Joe Rogan’s impact on the US election.)
Broadcasters are well aware of these potential upheavals: Newstalk and Today FM supplement their offerings with a robust podcast presence, while RTÉ has appointed the former Bauer executive Patricia Monahan as director of audio, indicating radio’s changing place in the media hierarchy. Radio in Ireland remains a vital and vibrant medium, but, in an uncertain future, the difficulties at 2FM may one day seem quaint.
