RADIO REVIEW:IF 2FM has failed in recent years to capture the zeitgeist, its endless search for an identity shows that it too must contend with the biggest dilemma faced by many young people today. 2FM is hungry for love and attention, but it still doesn't know what role it should be playing in life.
Like many tweens, teenagers, twentysomethings – and even some thirtysomethings I know – it keeps looking in the mirror and asking, “Who am I?” As the station prepares to change its line-up and move away from targeting 15-34 year olds in favour of 25-44 year olds, veteran rock groupie Dave Fanning will move back there from his early evening slot on Radio One. The decision to woo an older crowd may turn 2FM into a kind of repeat school for mature students. That said, like Gerry Ryan, Fanning will always be a bigger star there.
The king of easy listening, John Creedon, presented The Dave Fanning Show(RTÉ Radio One, weekdays) while Fanning was on holiday. Unlike Fanning, Creedon doesn't hang with the cool kids, but nor does he feel the need to. As a result, he has an easy likeability that is all his own. Creedon was recently spotted by listeners fishing on the Aran Islands. "I had a whale of a time!" he said on Wednesday. Make that the king of cheese.
Tubridy, a self-styled young fogey, has the opposite problem to Fanning. He did not have an easy transition when he first arrived at his current daily radio slot on Radio One. The Tubridy Show(RTÉ Radio One, weekdays) too often sounds like a filler between Morning Irelandand Today, and his constant references to the Mad MenDVD boxset have already become passe. He would do better with a two-hour flagship show on 2FM. The RTÉ website's description of The Tubridy Showas "the nation's debating parlour" evokes an awkward pastiche of doilies, gossip, hair nets . . . and a man-about-town who loves to talk about the joy of baking.
As he prepares to take on The Late Late Show, Tubridy appears to be assuming the persona of a man 30 years his senior. On Monday, Tubridy was again trying to capture the zeitgeist and asked listeners to "twit" him on Twitter. He's best when not trying to be so self-consciously cool and using words like "chillax". He talked to Corina Gaffey and Orla Rapple, a familiar voice on 2FM, about internet addiction. Rapple had a soundbite she prepared earlier: "I think I'm addicted to information."
Gaffey said she uses Bebo for “self-promotion of the magazines I work for and of myself”. That’s what makes social networking sites unbearable, but at least she’s honest. “Is this all about validation for you? Please read my blog? Please read my Facebook? Is this the age of techno narcissism? We need to be seen, to be heard . . . to be ultimately validated?” asked Tubridy, the radio/TV personality and regular magazine cover boy.
Former Labour Leader Pat Rabbitte co-presented The Breakfast Show(Newstalk, weekdays) with Claire Byrne on Friday. Rabbitte did a smooth job as host, though there were a few bumps with the links, which led Byrne to remark: "Pat, it's over to you. You're in charge!"
“The most troubling story is the Aer Lingus story,” Rabbitte said, reviewing the papers. “Are we looking at a winter of industrial action?” Byrne asked. That was a cue for Rabbitte to launch into a party political broadcast on how the government needs to better communicate its message. Government spin doctors must have been spinning in their beds.
American conservative talkshow host Michael Graham was also a lively and fluent presenter on The Right Hook(Newstalk, weekdays), but is there no local talent to showcase? There is plenty on other stations.
The Spin(Spin 103.8, weekdays) is a fast-moving and smart lunchtime show. Clare McKenna and Jonathan McCrea don't sacrifice their journalistic credentials in order to keep the show young and fresh. McCrea asked DJ Shona Ryan if she'd watched The Rose of Traleethe night before. "No, I was at The Script because I'm so much cooler than that," Ryan replied. McCrea said The Script's lead singer Danny O'Donoghue was spotted in Penneys buying "pants". No-one seemed sure whether this meant trousers or "socks and jocks". Alas, it's not always easy being so up-to-the-minute.
qfottrell@irishtimes.com