The big news to come out of radio land in the last few weeks is surely the fact Pat Kenny has jumped ship from RTE to Newstalk to join Captain Denis O’Brien and ship mates Moncrieff, Hook &Gilroy.
Never short of doing things dramatically Kenny has a history of going out with a bang.
In 2009 Kenny – after presenting RTE’s flagship chat show, the Late Late, announced ON AIR after a 10 year run that he was to step down.
Kenny wanted something more in line with his interests – cue the Frontline.
The Frontline was the RTE’s replacement for Questions and Answers and sticking with Kenny’s history the show had its fair share of controversies.
The most critical moment in the life span of Kenny’s career and the Front line’s life span was the now in famous presidential debate.
Then presidential hopeful Sean Gallagher was seemingly a shoe in to become the next president but his appearance on the current affairs debate show was a nail in the coffin of which his campaign lay.
Pat Kenny has also bore the brunt of some viewers on the Frontline over the years but what he has become known for – in radio terms – was his radio show “Today with Pat Kenny” which became one of the most listened to shows in Ireland pulling in 328,000 listeners at the last count .
This effectively will what Newstalk will be after – last count their incumbent show – Tom Dunne – pulled in 55,000 so they will be looking to Pat to increase this.
Newstalk will need the new Today with Pat Kenny to get the ball rolling very quickly for this move to work especially if RTE recruit someone of similar calibre to take on the Pat Kenny machine.
The options RTE have are slim but here is a breakdown of the options:
Ryan Tubridy:
Not the most loved of presenters of late with his listenership taking a hit of late having lost 16.1%.
His listenership now stands at 156,000 – which isn’t bad in the wider scheme of things – but after taking over from the late Gerry Ryan’s slot on RTE 2FM he hasn’t done as well as he would have liked and his talent would be able to achieve.
Tubridy followed in Kenny’s footsteps once before when he took over the reins at the Late Late from Kenny – at that stage however Tubridy was RTE’s answer to the youthful face needed for their shows.
Tubridy – however – didn’t shine at first.
He has taken time to become RTE’s golden boy but the national broadcaster might see this as the final move for him. This would have a domino effect on RTE 2FM but drastic measures need to be made to save face for RTE.
Claire Byrne
The other contender – unless RTE go outside to look for a replacement – is Claire Byrne.
Byrne is seen as the new force in Irish television after picking up experience everywhere from BBC right around to TV3 she got her big break alongside Kenny and Miriam O’Callaghan hosting Prime Time – the revamped format after Frontline finished.
Byrne has previous experience in Irish national radio alongside Ivan Yates and Ger Gilroy in Newstalk so she will have first-hand experience of how to add something new to the Radio 1 stations.
PROGRAMMING
Of course we’re purely speculating on an issue that only RTE’s programming director will know what the answer is. On purely what difference the move will make to the Irish radio landscape then we need to look at the figures.
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The above table – as reported by ilevel.ie predicts a loss of listenership to spill over onto Ronan Collins show – bearing in mind that this is all if RTE keep to the same schedule. The most interesting part of this move – and table – is the what if’s for the news @ 1.
The flagship radio show led by Sean O’Rourke could be another listenership target for the Newstalk ship especially if Captain O’Brien can muster up something to add to the misery of RTE.
Whatever happens we can only be guaranteed two things – Drama & Excellent radio
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