2FM have panicked in the face of slipping listener figures and replaced their new Breakfast show presenters. Rick O'Shea and Ruth Scott have been on air for the last 5 months, and while the show was taking time to find its feet it had potential. Perhaps they needed more regular contributors in regular slots to back up the two main presenters or something. Ryan Tubridy, the current favorite within RTE, took at least as long to stabalise the show when he presented it for a couple of years. Moving him off breakfast and onto a mid-morning slot on Radio 1 may have been a mistake as both his new show and the current Breakfast show have so far failed to grab the interest of former listeners. In contrast Today FM and other stations have stood by their presenters for years and allowed them time to build up loyal listeners.
Instead of trying to improve the format of the show they have shunted Ruth and Rick to different time slots and apparently replaced them with Marty Whelan. Whelan had stood in for Gerry Ryan over the last few months and to be honest he really belongs on Radio 1 or Lyric FM. He hasn't got a personality for breakfast radio. In fact during his 5 weeks in Gerrys seat he managed to piss me off no end. For example every morning while reviewing the newspapers he was constantly talking about this great photo or that great picture in the papers. Its bloody RADIO! The listeners cant see the paper. Review the text not the visuals.
Now he's been moved to the Breakfast slot as a reward. He first started on radio in 1979 and that's where he should have been left. An old reliable hand isn't always the best to save a radio station. I suspect this is another example of panic in the ranks of 2FM, their recent rebranding of the station as RTE 2FM would just have served to make the station seem old fashioned in the eyes of young people, RTE is what their parents listen to.
Unfortunately I suspect I'll be listening to another station in the mornings.
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