RAudio - 2nd Edition
Thoughts on RTE, Public Service Broadcasting and Alcohol
Welcome to the 2nd official edition of the RAudio Newsletter
Just to recap, each week I’ll be taking a look at big stories in radio, podcasting and audio.
Any feedback, questions or potential topics are welcome – you can get me on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamthompsonconsulting/ or on Twitter @Maxliam
Normally, I’ll be looking at stories from around the world, but the last few weeks have seen an extraordinary story developing in Ireland as the State Broadcaster, RTE is having a public meltdown.
There are definitely lessons and learnings for all media organisations in what’s happened, but they are mostly of the “Oh My God, DO NOT DO THAT” type of lesson.
Full disclosure, I worked for RTE as Programme Manager of 2FM between 1999 and 2002, so I have a good understanding of the organisation and how it operated.
RTE Hearings
In the last edition, I wrote about RTE and the culture of dealing with agents, when in Ireland, there really aren’t many agents and one in particular has a lock on most of the talent that RTE uses.
If you’ve seen any of the coverage, or the live Oireachtas hearings, you’ll know which agent that is.
Those hearings which saw the RTE Management Team grilled at length by two different Committees were truly painful to watch.
It was striking how poorly prepared the participants seemed to be.
In my experience if you were asked to appear before a state body of any kind, there would be a comprehensive rehearsal process and brainstorming on questions and answers, so you’d be fully prepared.
Paddy Halpenny, the former CEO of Communicorp Ireland (now Bauer Media Ireland) was a master at that kind of preparation, I’ll never forget sitting in a room with him and the rest of the presentation team as we worked on a licence bid for Spin. Paddy just kept asking the same question “What is Youth Radio?”, and then he’d demolish each answer until we got to the essential point. We were always well prepared for any eventuality.
That sadly was not the case with the RTE team last week, the most shocking aspect was probably that they didn’t seem to have done any prep between the two hearings and looked amazed when some of the TD’s questioning them returned to the same topic.
The starting point of the whole story was about undisclosed payments to RTE’s main presenter Ryan Tubridy, but the issue quickly became the way those payments were made.
There was what’s called a “barter account”, probably not a phrase that existed in the Irish Nations repertoire until recently, but now everyone knows what they are and how RTE at least used it.
That account saw funds channeled to Tubridy, but it was when the Oireachtas Committees began digging into what else that account was used for that the pressure started to crank up.
Tickets for sporting events, flights and hospitality had all been run through that account and it started a potentially very serious conversation for RTE about how the broadcaster is funded and what the future might look like.
RTE is dual funded, taking both licence fee and commercial income, but that becomes problematic for a public service broadcaster when the lines between commercial concerns and public interest become blurred.
RTE 2FM
Newspaper rumours across the weekend suggested that 2FM would be sold off and RTE split in two, but that seems somewhat unlikely. Firstly, it would be near impossible to extricate 2FM as a stand alone entity from the wreckage of RTE, secondly, no one is likely to buy a brand that is damaged and has serious costs and headcount that come with it.
The conversation around 2FM made me curious though so I put it on for a listen on Saturday afternoon.
I heard Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam” twice in an hour, and heard parts of two shows, one with two female hosts and the next show with a sole female host. It sounded bright and contemporary and better than I expected.
However, I was quite surprised by a link I heard at 14:55, it involved the three presenters chatting about a bad experience one of them had with her car. Suddenly, out of the blue, one of the other presenters suggests “I hope you had a Rockshore when you got home to calm your nerves”, the second presenter says “A lovely little Rockshore, absolutely”
So, what’s the issue?
Rockshore is an alcohol brand, they make lager and it turns out they were sponsoring the weekend on RTE 2FM. The weekend of one of the biggest music events for teenagers, called Longitude.
There’s no rule that permits product placement on radio, at least as far as I’m aware. And voluntary alcohol codes require presenters to be careful in any mention of alcohol, usually requiring a disclaimer “always drink responsibly, find out more at drinkaware.ie”
So apart from anything else, this seems to be a clear breach of advertising codes and potentially broadcast codes, but maybe it was just an innocent mistake…
Have a listen and see what you think –
I think though it raises a much bigger question about whether or not a State Broadcasters youth station should be taking alcohol advertising at all, what the editorial controls over commercial content are, who was responsible for this sponsorship and were live mentions included as part of the package?
Public Service broadcasting is important, finding a way to draw younger audiences to radio and supporting new talent and new music are critical parts of that mission. Cranking money out of commercial sponsors for alcohol sponsorships, I don’t think so.
Other Things
I was going to talk a bit about Spotify and their push into video, but I think I’ve probably written too much on RTE.
Next week, I’ll discuss podcast vs video…
I also have some thoughts on Awards and the way radio and podcasting behave around awards and I might tell you the story of the man who refused to be fired…