Lots happens in the radio industry each week so here’s a summary of the week we just enjoyed.
Here’s what happened
Red FM announced their new breakfast show this week. Rob Heffernan will join Laura O’Mahony and Ciara Revins on the new show starting from the 28th of February. I haven’t heard Rob on air much before, so it will be very interesting to see how the new team sound when the new show launches.
I think the biggest thing for Red FM is to make the show sound fresh. If they just keep the format the same, it will sound like a host has changed, but if they update the format, it will sound like a new breakfast show. I think Red FM needs a whole new show really because as competitive as the Cork market is, the main shows from Red FM and 96FM sound very similar.
There’s huge potential in this show but they do really need to change things if it’s going to compete with KC and Ross long term. Regardless, I’m excited to see how the new show sounds when it launches. Very best of luck to the new team from us here at Radio Land.
Watch the quick Instagram announcement video here
IRadio has had a bit of a rebrand. The station now has a slightly updated Logo, and a new TV ad featuring a snail.
Firstly, I like the logo. The yellow and blue have a nice summer vibe and I think the purple helps the branding work year round. It’s fun, aesthetically pleasing to look at, and I generally feel like it’s a good improvement from the stations previous look.
I also really like the TV ad. It features a happy little snail on a mission not to get crushed. The ad is fun and has a good message, to look out for those around you.
I wonder where this ad will be shown, it would be really cool to see the ad on national tv stations like RTÉ and Virgin Media but considering IRadio isn’t national, that might not be the smartest move ever. Perhaps you can target ads using Virgin’s Ad Smart? and I’m almost sure you can target ads on RTÉ Player by region, so local stations having TV ads really isn’t actually that insane these days.
Radio Today also mention the station having a new sound, but I didn’t find a demo of the new package from any of the main imaging providers. The current sound on air sounds a bit like 2FM, a style which has grown on me over the past while.
Read the story from Radio Today
Finally this week, a 17 year old boy received a 6 month deferred sentence following harassment of a BBC journalist and threat’s against an RTÉ journalist. This is a really complex situation, so I’d recommend that you read the story linked below as it does an okay job of covering this story.
It’s tough to know what to say with stories like this, but I think it’s important to be aware of these cases as they do unfortunately exist. All we can really say is that hopefully everyone involved here gets the support they need. It’s a sad story really and hopefully everyone involved can find their way through it.
Quick Bits
The IBI gave us a love letter to radio for World Radio Day and Valentine’s Day
Mairead Ronan has said she feels lucky she never received di*k pics on air
The Bai Announced nearly €500,000 for sponsorship of media related events and learning programmes
And that’s the summary for this week. Come back to radio land next week for more radio news📻 and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for extra stories.