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TODAY MARKS 20 years since Radio Ireland first went live across the country. The station rebranded to Today FM after just nine months following a dismal start.
Forged as a talk radio station, the original plan didn’t quite work out with the first JNLR figures for the station revealing it had captured just 1% listenership.
It became known locally as ‘Radio Direland’ and scathing reviews meant advertisers didn’t want anything to do with it.
For a time, Eamon Dunphy’s The Last Word was the only show bringing in cash with 80% of the station’s advertising coming from it. It was also to be the only slot that survived the rebrand.
The station launched with 150 staff on 17 March 1997 but the headcount was whittled down to just 50 three months later.
Fast forward to 1 January 1998 and Radio Ireland became Today FM.
The second iteration was, obviously, markedly more successful.
Twenty years on, we talk to Eamon Dunphy and Radio Ireland’s then-sales manager, Eamon FitzPatrick, about those first nine months on air.
‘Lots of razmataz’
“There was a big glitzy opening in Jervis Street shopping centre – there was a lot of razmataz,” says Dunphy of the hype and expectation around the new station.
After his stint as sales manager at Radio Ireland, Fitzpatrick went on to become sales director and, later, commercial director.
“It wasn’t a very-well thought out schedule,” he admits now when reminiscing about Radio Ireland.
We were giving a lot of first timers their chance. Even [though] people who went on to be really successful (like Philip Boucher Hayes), there wasn’t the programming knowledge or the background to make it work.
He cites Gavin Duffy and Emily O’Reilly’s covering the morning schedule as an example.
“You would have thought on paper ‘fantastic’ but it didn’t work, the chemistry just wasn’t there.
“Our target was to wedge ourselves in between the older 2FM listener and the younger Radio 1 listener but they felt the way to do that was mimic RTÉ Radio 1 but it wasn’t. What was needed was what became Today FM – intelligent, well produced, informative and a bit ballsy.”
It was “very apparent” after just one month that Radio Ireland wasn’t working, according to Fitzpatrick.
It was a commercial station so it was live or die by revenue and the revenue for the first couple of weeks was actually brilliant and then it went really poor because the critics slammed it.
“They put it up against Radio 1 and it didn’t bode well. The music quality wasn’t tight. Commercial radio is much tougher… you might have four producers for Marian Finucane – you’d have one for three hours on this. It was a tougher gig and because of that, the output wasn’t as good as it should have been.
“We actually hit our targets at the time for the first month. March was actually a good month but public perception and the media actually killed any chance of what it had.
Everybody wanted to be on it at the start but when they saw the reaction to it, everybody bailed. The advertisers bailed very quickly.
“We needed to rebrand because there was such negative sentiment towards it. It was easier and cheaper to rebrand it than to relaunch it.”
‘Radio Direland’
“What happened with Radio Ireland is that very quickly the press called it ‘Radio Direland’ and you couldn’t shake it.
“Nobody was listening to it but everybody had heard about it. You couldn’t shift perception.
I remember selling 25 ads for £1,000 and the person that we sold it to said, ‘That really worked’ and I said, ‘Oh so do you want to do some more’ and she said ‘No, I don’t really want to be associated with the brand … The people inside are giving me stick for being on it.’ That is how hard it was.
“I collected the first JNLR book for Radio Ireland and the general manager called me and said, ‘What’s the story?’ and I said, ‘It’s 1%.’
“That was every headline and that just killed revenue.
Things settled down but people actually started listening because there wasn’t so many ads on it. Looking back it’s funny, but jesus at the time.
“When we closed the doors of Radio Ireland, we knew we had about 9% listenership. It was gathering traction so when we launched Today FM we knew there was an audience there, but we needed a JNLR book.”
You’re fired
“It was brutal, brutal. It was brutal for everybody.”
That’s how Dunphy describes the atmosphere in Radio Ireland as shows began to fold.
You were going in and bodies were going out everyday and it wasn’t just presenters, it was producers, researchers and everybody connected with a programme.
“So programmes were disappearing which meant producers and researchers and presenters were gone. So it was extremely volatile.
It was carnage and it was horrible.
Fitzgerald added, “It was horrendous, you could meet somebody in the morning and say we’ll pick that up after lunch and have a meeting scheduled with them in the afternoon and after lunch they’d be gone.
“There were 120 people there in March and I’d say by June there was 50.
You literally just kept your head down and you did what you could. You’d try to sell everything you could literally to pay light bills and keep the place going.
“We could sell Eamon. Eamon was our saving grace. We could always sell ads for Eamon Dunphy.”
‘Nowhere else to go’
Describing how The Last Word became a success, Dunphy said it was down to the work of his producer Stuart Carolan, who went on to write Love/Hate, and his researcher Eimear Bradley, who is now Pat Kenny’s producer in Newstalk.
“The producer is usually the boss but I said I’m going to be the boss because I had the most experience – I was 51. With no newsroom to resource us and no correspondents out in the field, we survived by desperation. We all wanted to work and had nowhere else to go.
We were hungry, we were hungry fighters. We were permanently scarred, we lived on the edge for about 18 months but we were the only show to survive.
“We did in-depth items and Stuart did comedy – and the comedy element in among the serious stuff was brilliant and I think people loved it.
“Harry Browne from the Irish Times gave the show a little bit of praise which convinced the bosses our show was worth sticking with.
We built up an audience extremely slowly … and then we kind of hit critical mass and the show was very successful. Everyone wanted to advertise on The Last Word and all that money was routed through the other programmes.
“I think some people thought we were standoffish because we were in the office all day with the door closed. We were actually working. There’s nobody less standoffish than me but when you’re working, you’re working.”
Dempsey to the rescue
Fitzpatrick said the people left in the station knew they could turn it around.
“We knew quite early we were going to relaunch it because it had to happen. We didn’t know what Today FM was going to be but we knew it had to happen.
“So we were working behind the scenes on a rebrand, so there was no stage where you lost hope.
“That’s what would have kept people going. We knew we had to negotiate with the BAI, we knew we had to do all those things. We knew it was coming and that’s what kept people motivated and going.
“It was great fun even though it was stressful and tough.”
While Dunphy salvaged what he could for Radio Ireland, Fitzpatrick puts Today FM’s success down to another man – Ian Dempsey.
The reason Today FM became such a success was because Ian Dempsey joined. There’s no doubt, the revenue trebled in a month.
“Up to the time Ian joined, Eamon was 80% of the revenue. When we got Ian – it allowed us treble the rates on Eamon and treble the rates we were getting for breakfast.
“We went into operational profit within a month of getting Ian.
You got Ian, you got Ray (D’Arcy), you got Tom Dunne, you got Tony Fenton. He led the whole thing not by going out and getting them but because people thought ‘If he’s there – I can go there.’
‘Happiest years’
Dunphy said there was a lot of pressure for Today FM to work as a commercial station.
“It was the second commercial licence given and the first one, Century Radio, had gone ‘whoops’. It was essential this work because it was the only competition to RTÉ.
Century crashed and burned after weeks and a couple of million was lost. So the imperative for Today FM to succeed was massive.
“It was a breakthrough for the commercial sector and our programme was the first credible news and current affairs programme produced in the commercial sector. We had no resources we just got good guests and that was down to Stuart and Eimear. We really had to work very hard to cultivate people, to do a new kind of broadcasting.
The significance of Today FM and The Last Word in particular was that it proved you could produce credible news and current affairs on resources much more limited than RTÉ had and that somebody other than a state monopoly could do it.
Dunphy added that while radio was very demanding work wise, it was very rewarding. ”I love radio, I miss it hugely but it was really hard work.
I think it was the happiest years I ever spent. Radio is a fantastic medium because it’s about the ideas and the substance of things. It’s not about how you look, there’s no tricks, you can detect from someone’s voice when they’re being genuine so I loved it, really loved it and regretted when we had to stop.
Fitzpatrick said, ”We just loved it, even though it was tough … it was a year of madness but I look back at it with great fondness.”
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Seriously! If some psychologists cannot spot it how do the expect teachers to spot it. Where do they get the time? Maybe it’ll be like the voice training they get in the dip, 1 lesson is highly effective.
How about restoring guidance and counselling hours???
A counsellor only gets to see you for a few minutes during an occasional appointment . The teacher who has six hours a day with the child will be able to document behavioural changes and how they interact with others, and can be of assistance to counsellors other professionals in determining the child’s needs.
It’ll be easy to spot in a 35 min class.
Such a training program should be available to all free of charge. It seems that the teachers will again be burdened with it. Ah! Sure the teachers can solve all society’s ills!!! Very important though for the opinionated to kick their asses when the teachers raise valid concerns at their Easter Conferences.
There seems to be a hypocritical attitude when it comes to laying the burdens of society on our teachers while at the same time denying them a decent wage and leaving our young teachers with years of uncertainty by having them hop from one little contract to another. An effective teacher is of value to a community if the job is permanent. That way accumulated knowledge will enable the teacher to be effective beyond the narrow confines of curriculum. The backhanded compliment that the teacher should solve all ills simply illustrates the critical importance of the teacher’s commitment to society because the school environment gives certainty in a very uncertain phase of a child’s life. Very often the whole area benefits because of the teachers’ value to the society beyond the narrow confines of the classroom. Parents will invariably place more trust long term in the teacher where their children are concerned because they will be treated honestly. The teacher unions advocate yes for better pay but also yes for better benefits for their pupils. They give a service to the state which goes beyond that of the ordinary worker who only seeks personal benefit. Value our teachers.
Why can’t parents do a course surely they have a better chance of spotting these signs than teachers in a class of many student . It’s a terrible responsibility to put on teachers after a few hours training
Very welcome idea,one suicide is one to many
If one is one too many, the true figure 550 per annum is a grim figure indeed.
It’s so important that every teacher is trained that it’s only going to cost you
50 Euro to do a half day course .
If Console were really serious about this idea for teachers why not train them all nationwide for FREE.
Why doesn’t the govt pay
This is wrong on so many levels. It seems like just another “schools should…” initiative but the topic here is far more serious than most such calls.
It misunderstands the role of teachers in society and in the lives of children. It’s not actually like “Waterloo Road” or “Home and Away” where Sir or Miss is always available and spends as much time worrying about their charges’ emotions and home-lives as they do teaching them.
To say that a half-day course enables anyone “to respond effectively” to mental distress serious enough to lead to suicide is ludicrous. It is not callous to say this is not teachers’ jobs; we would be doing children a disservice with amateur intervention instead of referral to fully-trained professionals.
The analogy to CPR is unwarranted. CPR takes place in response to a catastrophic event, in a situation where even a few minutes delay can mean the difference between life and death.
There is also a danger of a pattern emerging where enthusiastic graduates of this course intervene with students on the basis that doing makes the teacher a life-saving hero. The question will soon be “Do I have to say I’m suicidal to get help around here?” Students need teachers to be a calm, approachable presence in their lives and part of being a professional is knowing where your job ends and some-one else’s begins.
Great idea. We need a real focus on suicide prevention in this country.
So a half day course will make teachers experts in spotting a potential suicide? Either do it right or not at all.
No doubt this training will happen while the teachers should be actually teaching rather than doing it during their 3 months holidays.
From your own extensive knowledge on the matter, what other training occurs when teachers should actually be teaching? Enlighten us please
Do you do your training in your own time? It will be part of teacher training and part of CPD as part of Haddington Rd. Hours. 43 hours extra I do a year UNPAID!!! Do you work 43 hours unpaid? Fair play to you.
I take it then that you would happily give up your holidays to do a similar training course. Or maybe you would have the children get four weeks holiday in the year which would mean you cannot bring your child on holiday because of the need for your child to be in school. Which might have the side effect of decimating the tourist industry and any other industry which depends on creating for children out of school!!!! The fact is teachers do not decide how much holidays the children receive. That is done by the Dept. of Education and Science following consultation and agreement between it, the Unions and the parents. During the “great snow closures” parents clamoured for the restoration of the lost days. The “solution” was that three days be in some way held back in case of snow. This meant that parents could not book a holiday for the midterm week in February because if it snowed in January they would lose the three days in February. If they had taken the chance to book a holiday would they then cancel in the interest of not losing three days of their child’s education? Also many teachers give up the first week of their summer vacation to attend a plethora of courses for which they can take some personal leave days at the discretion of their Board of Management. Would you do likewise with your holiday? Maybe if you really envy and begrudge the conditions of service of a teacher you should have become one any tried to change the system from within instead of sniping.
We all experience periods of stress, sadness, and self-doubt. ‘These don’t make us mentally ill, they define us as human.’ ~ Dr Howard Forman
We all have a biochemistry but it requires daily work to keep our physical / mental health in good shape. Starting with a good nights sleep and good nutrition. Lots of other things that can help and that can be worked on in schools ~ Yoga, meditation, mindfulness, exercise, emotional resilience, how to deal with bullying, building self-esteem etc Talk therapy can help. Also being with nature. And getting enough daylight and sunshine (when possible).
I went to a lecture by 86 yr old Prof Ivor Browne last week. The lecture theatre was packed. Such an interesting presentation. If only the mental ‘health’ system could see our emotional well being on a more holistic level. The mind and body are very much interconnected. Instead of the predominant biomedical / drugging approach.
The “Refer” part. Is what I would worry about in QPR. I hope that doesn’t mean where the GP puts a teenager on mind altering psychoactive drugs ie “anti-depressants” instead helps in developing their long term needs. Emotional well being is something that needs a life long approach and not some “quick fix” drug that can have severe adverse effects. Something I learned from experience.
Young people in particular should not be on these mind altering drugs, due to the suicide risk. Hence these psychoactive drugs carry a black box warning in the US ~
http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/InformationbyDrugClass/UCM096273
{ Do not stop or change prescribed psychoactive drugs without talking to a good doctor, due to the dangers of withdrawal }
PS Any change that TheJournal could change the stereotypical picture ? Looks like someone who got too much drugs and is hiding in the corner of a mental institution ! That is not really how emotional distress looks like or feels like for most and there are some people who are trying to change the whole “head clutching” culture. Or in this case “shin clutching”.
TED Talk ~ The role of nutrition in mental health by Julia Rucklidge ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dqXHHCc5lA
WRAP App demo ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BK_jLMToeM (Wellness Recovery Action Plan)
About time, this country is MILES behind in relation to spotting mental health issues
Michael ,what is this “holiday” thing of which u speak ,must only b available to the few. Have had such bad experience with “teachers” through my own school years and my children’s school years ,that I think it would b wiser to send teachers on courses to prevent people from becoming suicidal ,by learning to communicate in an agreeable manner , Its so easy for a teacher to wreck a child’s self confidence ,and it’s this lack of self confidence that starts the decline in a child’s mental well being .
Eilish, if a child is a brat then there will be problems with the teacher. There’s your issue I’m sure. A little bit of parenting goes a long way.
Speaking as someone who tried to end my life, the period when I was planning my death I became very calm and content because I knew that the end was coming for the intolerable emotional pain I was experiencing. Nobody could have forseen that I had a plan to end my life. Suicidal people are not always going around with a sad face. this training will not help teachers.
Why don’t parents just give their children to schools after birth so they don’t have to do any child care at all.Schools are for educating your children.Teachers get enough flak for not teaching properly now they must become counsellors aswell – in one day !
For anyone suffering from depression, I recommend the http://destroydepression.com/info.php system. Written by a former depression & PTSD sufferer, it teaches 7 natural steps which help to eliminate depression from your life and the success rate is very high.
This thread appears to have gone viral among teachers… They are red thumbing all over the place…
Shur their on there 2 week Easter hols… With another mid term coming up before their 12 week summer hols I guess it’s only right that they do this course during term time… Bless their over worked souls.
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