Blurred Keys

A round-up of news, comment and other info from news sites blogs, and message boards etc…

Cardinal challenges the media’s ‘dominant’ secular view
Sunday World top of the pops as it avoids musical marketing
Ireland’s papers defy downward trends
JNLR July 07-June 08 Survey results issued (PDF)
ABC IofI report (PDF, link replaced when new report released)
Tom Dunne to Newstalk
Today FM to preserve Pet Sounds
Ray of sunshine
Muzu makes music pa
Media world: Too Late Late for Pat Kenny?
RTE promises ’spectacular’ first Late Late Show despite Kenny’s delay in signing up
Lung cancer under reported in Irish media - report
Sunday Times to launch monthly Irish edition of Style magazine
South Ossetian man angered by Irish media coverage
MediaBite Email Re: The €11m ‘gas bill’
Media ought to beware groups bearing surveys
Belfast Telegraph relaunched website sees huge traffic spike
Myers and Nigerians
RTE Television unveils new season
Sponsors fail to check in to Failte Towers
The Big Switch over
BCI National Conference Asks ‘Does the Medium Matter?’
O’Brien group told January DTT launch is a ‘fantasy’
Digital terrestrial TV available from autumn next year
Adverts rate alert for Channel 6
TV3 to buy Channel 6 for €10m
Is RTE Radio 1 being dumbed down?
Mandy and the Irish Media

Bit late with this one… Entry to Newstalk’s Emerging Voices Student Documentary Competition closes this Thursday. And this is what it’s all about:

"The judges will be looking for work that is original, relevant and
produced to a high standard. The winning entry will be broadcast on the
station, the winner will receive a placement at Newstalk and a cash
prize of €500".

For more see newstalk.ie.

The Cleraun media forum continues next Monday, February 25, at 8pm to 9.30pm with Damien Kiberd chairing a session which will ask if financial journalists are too close to business.

Kiberd, who presents Down to Business on Newstalk, was a founder and former editor of the Sunday Business Post. He also currently writes a business column for the Irish edition of the Sunday Times.

The forums are free to attend and informal affairs. They are held near UCD at the Cleraun University Centre, 90 Foster Avenue, Mount Merrion. Cleraun is run by Opus Dei. For more see: www.cleraun.com.

CORRECTION: For a short time this post first said the above event was on ‘tonight’ rather then correctly saying ‘next Monday, February 25′. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Communicorp, owned by Irish businessman Denis O’Brien, is to buy Today FM, FM104 and Highland Radio.

An RTE.ie news report states that it is understood €200m was paid for the stations formally held by the UK media group Emap.

Communicorp already own Dublin stations Spin and 98 FM, and the national talk station Newstalk. Today FM is also national, while Highland is based in the North West. 

As Adam Maguire points out, the combined Dublin market share of combined stations may now cause problems for the company with the Broadcasting Commission of
Ireland and the Competition Authority.

The Irish Times is also reporting (subs reqd) that the Competition Authority will now investigate if the company can hold both  Newstalk and Today
FM.

The company also owns Spin South West which is currently on a test signal and is due to launch to serve Clare, Limerick, Kerry, and parts of counties Tipperary, and Laois.

Communicorp now owns over 40 radio stations on Europe.

Meanwhile, while in the move Emap disposes of its Irish stations, it will still have a strong presence on newsagents’ shelves. The firm’s magazine portfolio include Arena, closer Empire, FHM, Grazia, heat, Mojo, Q, Top Sante, Yours, and Zoo.

National talk radio station Newstalk is running a documentary competition for students.

Media students or those who have recently graduated are being invited to work created between August last and this month. The deadline is August 17 at 4.30pm.

The station says it is looking for innovative, original and relevant work which is produced to a high standard. Audio which has been submitted for course work may be reworked.

Newstalk will broadcast the winning documentary, while runners up of a high standard may also be aired. According the radio station’s website, the winner will also receive an undefined cash prise and a month-long placement at the station.

For entry details and further information see newstalk.ie.

- Browne to write a biography of
Charles Haughey

Vincent Browne has confirmed he is in talks with national talk radio station Newstalk, the move follows the cancellation of the ‘Tonight with Vincent Browne‘ show by RTE Radio One.

The journalist and broadcaster had presented the the RTE show for ten years.

Browne — who has also weekly columns in the Irish Times and the Sunday Business Post — says he will continue writing for his Village magazine and at at its website, village.ie.

He is also to write a biography of Charles Haughey, in a statement on village.ie Browne says "I also, today,
have a signed a contract with Random House to write a biography of
Charles Haughey. Any assistance I can get from members of the public
will be very welcome".

On the cancellation of the Tonight show he said "I am disappointed with the decision to drop
the “Tonight” programme on RTE Radio One but I am grateful for the
opportunity I have had to present it for 10 years. I thank RTE for that
opportunity and also all those who worked with me on the programme, the
participants and the listeners".

RTE.ie says "Since the programme began in September 1996 it has developed a strong,
loyal listenership amongst those who appreciate the unique style and
variation of the programmes".

‘Tonight with VB’, which started at 10pm from Monday to Thursday, is to be partly replaced by a new politics show at 11pm according to the Irish Independent, the newspaper says it is understood that the show will be presented by broadcaster Tom McGurk.

Our digital camera has been filling up with images in the last few months, many of them sights relating to the media in Dublin - so why not share them…

We didn’t go out intending to compile the images into a post, so the reason there’s not a TV3 crew but there is a picture of an RTE News presenter and camera man is because the random opportunity of snapping the latter just happened.

Of course there’s obvious shots we don’t have like the many newspaper sellers on O’Connell Street, sellers of the Evening Herald at on busy roads, fresh stacks of freesheets just thrown on the luggage holders of double-deckers, the Today FM offices Blurred Keys has past countless time and so on. Maybe next time?…

Please post comments, suggestions, abuse, and even complements below (you don’t even have to enter a name or email address)…

The former offices of Independent News & Media on Abbey St.

Read the rest of this entry »

After her notice is served, Claire Byrne is now free to take up her co-presenting job of ‘the Breakfast Show’ at the newly national radio station Newstalk.

What would normally be a low-profile civil contract case was covered by the Irish media with much fanfare, many column inches, radio snippets, and TV clips (even from RTE). The reported conspiracy to undermine RTE’s ‘we make all the personalities’ claim went into overdrive. MORE: Blogorrah.com

- Presenter in TV3 to Newstalk debacle hits the headlines, shocker

- Another ex-TV3 presenter to host RTE afternoon show, shocker

- Shocking recent events may have unraveled an RTE pronouncement as utter rubbish (not that it wasn’t before).

“It’s about getting people who are well-known” said RTE’s Peter Feeney, in June. That’s why the state broadcaster has recruited ex-TV3 presenter turned Sky News Ireland presenter, Gráinne Seoige, to host a new show. She started at Teilifís na Gaeilge so maybe RTE will try to claim something from that.

Feeney said at the time that it’s not a conspiracy – RTE just has all the "personalities", end of story. But there must now be a conspiracy to undermine RTE. The story about Claire Byrne, the TV3 presenter who wanted to leave for radio station Newstalk, has hit the headlines in at least Metro, Herald AM, the Irish Times, and on the airwaves on Today FM news bulletins over the past 24 hours. She may not be a leading national figure, it would however be a breath of ignorance to claim she is an unknown.

Our tone could be better, but what is far worse is RTE’s runaround in dismissing INN. “I can get on CNN quicker than I can get on RTE” Ken Murray told the Sunday Tribune (again, back in June) adding they had “two million listeners every day”,  meanwhile RTE tries to complain they are the only outlet with media "personalities".

In a report on Today FM, Blurred Keys also noted such trivial matters as the RTE "personalities" mantra interfering with balanced and independent news coverage. An article appearing on RTE Online under the tag of ‘news’ stated that “Hosts Tom Dunne and RTÉ 2fm DJ Jenny Huston will present” a show on RTE television.

What department in RTE wrote this PR rubbish? If someone in PR wrote it, what was it doing in news? If someone in the news section wrote, it why isn’t there a proper record of facts? RTE should have a commitment to recording a proper record. If you’re thinking ‘it’s entertainment, so what?’ we’d suggest that’s the start of falling down a ‘slippery slope’. 

In an RTE document named ‘RTÉ’s Guiding Principles - Implementing the Public Service Broadcasting Charter’ we found a number of interesting values, including…

reflect the diverse values of the people of Ireland, specifically cultural, including language, religion and regional needs across all age groups…

be accurate and impartial in all News coverage…

inform the Irish public by delivering, nation-wide, the best comprehensive independent News service possible…

operate in the public interest, providing News and Current Affairs that is fair and impartial, accurate and challenging

As we’ve said before, according to the Sunday Tribune, no INN staffer has ever appeared as a guest on an RTE current affairs programme, this fact, along with their entertainment fluff ‘news’, trots around rules RTE has sent out for it’s self.

RTE is fond of calling the taxes held by government “the taxpayer’s money”, meanwhile it acts as a private company trouncing on it’s own “Guiding Principles”.