I’m not disconnected
I’m not unaware
I’m in one place at one time
I’m neither here nor there
I’m hooked to the mainstream,
Tuned into the world
‘Like Clockwork’ by the Boomtown Rats was the first song, played by a young Larry Gogan on 31 May 1979 – 45 years ago this Friday – to unleash Radio 2 onto the Irish airwaves.
Reading those lyrics now, they could be direct quotes from the current Head of 2fm Dan Healy’s interview on RTÉ Radio 1 on Friday with Claire Byrne to discuss the current turmoil on 2fm in the wake of four high profile departures in recent weeks.
2fm’s birthday will now also be remembered as the date when Doireann Garrihy and the 2 Johnnies all depart. Jennifer Zamparelli is also ‘hanging up the mic’, meaning 1 June sees a major scheduling change for 2fm.
So, four and a half decades in, how is RTÉ’s pop music station faring?
With the catchphrase “It is all coming at you now”, (soon shortened to “comin’atcha”) the station’s mission was to entertain “women in the home, motorists, workers of industry as well as many young people”.
The late 70s were the days of pirate radio stations like Nova and Big D radio, and Radio 2 was in part set up to take on those pirates.
It aimed to do so with DJs like Jimmy Greely, Gerry Ryan, (Fab) Vincent Hanley, Dave Fanning, Larry Gogan, and Marty Whelan on board. Many of those original presenters went on to become household names in the decades that followed.
In 1988, RTÉ Radio 2 was renamed 2fm and their night time star, Gerry Ryan, took over at 9am, a slot he kept until his untimely death in 2010. While the majority of 2fm’s output was music, ‘The Gerry Ryan Show’ proved that the station had created a new important home for younger listeners and its influence grew.
In 2002, a fresh faced Ryan Tubridy joined the line up with ‘The Full Irish’ breakfast show and by 2004, the JNLR figures (the audience research metric used in the Irish radio industry) figures showed 2fm was at the peak of its powers with a market share of 17%. At the same time, Today FM was at 9% and RTÉ Radio One’s market share was 24%.
In 2005, Ryan Tubridy left the station to cross over to the 9am slot on RTÉ Radio 1 which had just been vacated by Marian Finucane.
By 2008, 20 years in, Gerry Ryan still had more than 300,000 daily listeners according to that year’s JNLRs. However, in 2010 the station was left reeling when Gerry Ryan suddenly died, and the figures took a hit.
Tubridy returned to the station to replace Gerry Ryan, where he stayed for five years and managed to claw back some gains for the slot, before returning to RTÉ Radio 1 – where he stayed until last summer.
Despite the return of Tubrudy, by 2013 the overall picture for 2fm made for grim reading.
The station share now stood at 11%, Today FM was ahead at 13% and regional music stations were also making their mark. For example, in Dublin Q102 stood at 9%, FM104 had 18% and the youth-focused Spin stood at 13% share.
Enter Dan Healy, who brought in new talent to 2fm, including the ‘Breakfast Republic’ gang – Bernard O’Shea, Jennifer Zamparelli and Keith Walsh – as well as promoting Westlife’s Nicky Byrne and Jenny Green to the afternoon slot.
Today FM, which Dan Healy insists he is not in competition with, remained in the lead and by 2019, four months after Jennifer Zamparelli took over the 9am slot, the once premium mid-morning slot was attracting just 156,000 listeners.
2fm added Tracy Clifford to its roster and launched Eoghan McDermott and Doireann Garrihy in the breakfast slot in June 2019. In 2021, McDermott left the station, with Carl Mullan and Donnacha O’Callaghan joining Garrihy.
The addition of the 2 Johnnies in February 2022 was something of a coup for 2fm, and despite a hiccup in their first week, the Tipperary duo thrived on the station.
Then last summer, controversy erupted in RTÉ as a series of revelations around payments at the broadcaster emerged.
Following that, RTÉ has introduced a new series of rules for staff, including a new Register of Interests and a Register of External Activities.
Almost 12 months later, with the shock departure of four of its main daytime voices, is it fair to say that 2fm, more than any other area of RTÉ, is being impacted by the new regime for presenters?
With RTÉ now insisting that presenters publish their commercial relationships with outside collaborators and give details of the income involved, is this a bridge too far for presenters with social media profiles to contend with?
The dilemma is this – for Dan Healy to give you a daytime slot, you have to be bringing an edge and a voice that will attract the station’s stated target age group of 15-34 year olds.
However, if you fit that profile, then you are most likely a busy busy bee on social media, and possibly also presenting independent podcasts and certainly drawing the lucrative attention of marketers and brands. With new salary caps also now in place at RTÉ, are these rules now off putting for those who could earn significant amounts elsewhere?
While commentators may say that the new rules are the reason the presenters are leaving, Dan Healy said in an interview on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne that “while they had a part to play” there were different situations involved and that “it was all nuanced’.
For her part Jennifer Zamparelli says that family reasons were a key part of her decision, and the 2 Johnnies told Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ Radio 1 that with all their outside projects they “haven’t time to do the show”, adding that “something had to give”.
Doireann Garrihy, who has a high-profile social media career, stated that “it’s time for ventures new’.
While none of them railed publicly against the new rules, is it unthinkable that this played a role in their decisions and future plans?
What now?
In terms of the challenge ahead, 2fm currently has 12.2% of the highly prized 15-34 year old audience, 6% of the national adult share, and 9% who “listened yesterday”. (JNLR figures are notoriously hard to compare. With so many sub-demographics and numbers to quote, virtually every station can claim victory in some sub category every three months!)
Dan Healy spoke about reaching 14% of the key youth demographic and namechecked people such as Carl Mullan, Emma Power and Laura Fox, who has just been confirmed as Jennifer Zamparelli’s successor, as the next key hosts.
Across other stations, other names that have cut through and might be on his list are Crossy, from the FM104 Breakfast show, Emma, Dave and Aisling on Spin 1038 and, Kirsten Mate Maher from Beat FM.
Podcasters Charleen Murphy and Ellie Kelly, as well as the popular Graham and Nathan duo on FM104 could also be on Healy’s list as well as the unidentified mystery talent he has been “keeping a close eye on”.
For 2fm there is definitely room to grow. The latest JNLRs show that 2fm Breakfast stands at 143,000 listeners and Jennifer Zamparelli leaves her programme at 135,000, with the 2 Johnnies drawing the station’s highest figures at 151,000.
The main competition for 2fm are stations owned now by Bauer Media including Today FM with a market share of 9.5%, and regional outfits including 98FM, Spin 1038, and Spin SouhWest.
The main problem may be one that Dan Healy knows better than most – the relationship between a radio presenter and their listener is a delicate thing.
Who you switch on and invite in to your kitchen is a deeply personal choice and all the enthusiasm in the world can’t compel the listeners to stay tuned, regardless of who is comin’atcha.
