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NEWSTALK CHIEF EXECUTIVE Tim Collins will leave his role at the Communicorp radio station just over a year after taking on the position.
The announcement was made to staff at an all-company meeting this morning, when a number of major changes to management at the station were revealed.
Fora understands that Collins is set to depart as Newstalk’s chief, but it is not known if he will take up another role within Communicorp. A spokesman for the station declined to comment when contacted.
Collins’ departure has come as part of a raft of changes at Communicorp’s other radio brands which will see the company move to a more ‘centralised’ management structure.
Fora understands that both 98FM CEO John Burns and Spin CEO Jamie Crawford will leave their current roles.
Staff were told both Burns and Crawford’s positions were being made redundant. Burns has only been in the role since August, while Crawford has been working at Spin since 2005 – and as chief executive since 2008.
TodayFM chief executive Keith McCormack has retained his job in the reshuffle and will now lead all music stations owned by Communicorp.
Collins joined Newstalk last year from Ocean FM after more than 11 years at the Sligo-based regional radio station.
The latest change has come only a few months after Garrett Harte, the long standing editor-in-chief at the station, resigned from his role. Since his departure, Harte’s role has not been filled.
Staff were told this morning: “We hope to have an editor-in-chief as soon as possible.”
Collins succeeded outgoing Newstalk chief executive Gerard Whelan nearly a full year after Whelan resigned from the position.
During his time at Ocean FM, Collins also acted in a consulting role to the Northern Ireland-based local radio group the Northern Media Group and was director of the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland.
Collins also played a role in the establishment of River Media newspapers, which publishes regional titles such as the Donegal Post, the Kildare Post and Inish Times.
New schedule
During his time at the station, Collins oversaw a major reshuffle to the Newstalk schedule.
The station has struggled to make significant inroads against RTÉ’s dominant Radio 1, which had a 23.6% share of the national weekday audience last year – compared to Newstalk’s 5.9%.
Following the departure of Ivan Yates from the Breakfast Show last year, Newstalk hired a number of new presenters to fill out a new weekday line up.
Irish Independent crime correspondent Paul Williams and TV3 news presenter Collette Fitzpatrick joined the station to form a new morning line up with Shane Coleman.
However, less than a year later Fitzpatrick left her new role with Newstalk to take up the role of senior news anchor with TV3.
Since the new schedule was introduced, Newstalk has seen mixed results in the quarterly JNLR ratings.
The latest JNLR figures released in February showed the Breakfast show was up 7,000 listeners to 122,000, while Pat Kenny’s show saw a small increased of 1,000 listeners up to 147,000.
However, Newstalk Drive dropped from 138,000 to 130,000 listeners, while George Hook’s lunchtime show dropped from 98,000 to 95,000. Moncrief also fell slightly by 1,000 listeners to 64,000.
In the red
Meanwhile, the Denis O’Brien-owned Communicorp posted a net loss of €3.46 million in 2015, according to the firm’s latest accounts, down from €4.15 million the previous year.
The continued plunge into the red came despite turnover increasing 28% to more than €85 million for the year.
Newstalk has also been the subject of controversy after an abandoned takeover bid from Independent News and Media (INM), which counts O’Brien as its largest shareholder, led to a boardroom falling-out at the newspaper publisher.
The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has asked INM to produce records relating to the proposed deal. It has since been revealed that the publisher’s CEO, Robert Pitt, made a protected disclosure under whistleblower rules about the bid.
Written by Killian Woods and posted on Fora.ie
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Please, please fire the odious, narky, unpleasant Williams.
@Leo Massey: Note to listeners; the new brand of management sees the listeners about as low priority as you can get, these clowns either know or care what makes for good radio.
I used to listen to newstalk practically all of the time. Now I listen to off the ball and nothing else. Both breakfast and drivetime are a disaster now. I know he is not everyone’s cup of tea but I think George Hook makes great radio. Off the ball is fantastic stuff, great radio from the lads consistently
@Len Brennan: Off the ball is the greatest radio show in the history of Irish Radio. Breakfast is woeful, they need Ivan the terrible back on it.
Drivetime is OK, depends who they are talking to whether I listen or not.
@John S: Scrap Saturday John
Not surprised that Drive has lost listeners. I’m afraid Ms McInerney is very hard to listen to !
Coleman is an insufferable bore who’s afraid of his life of saying anything even mildly controversial. He’s utter vanilla. Bring back Ivan and Chris!
How many listen to off the ball? It the only thing I listen to on newstalk.
@Sean Bradley: Only thing worth listening to on the station anymore, williams is vomit inducing in the mornings, moncrief disappeared up his own hole a long time ago and sarah and chris on drive time miss the mark by a mile for what that show should be.
Bring back Hooky for the evenings, i didnt agree with everything he said and sometimes turned off the radio entirely but he was good listening. Chris was tolerable when paired with Ivan in the mornings cus Ivan could keep him grounded, if they could match them up again id definitely tune in.
@Ian McNally: Agree with all except Hook, he was a bore.
@CatManDo:
Chris Donoghue the mangina?
The constant drumbeat of propaganda from Newstalk finally turned my off. Bias is one thing but actual disinformation too much to take. We need a debate about media ownership in Ireland.
The station is far too right wing to ever achieve mass appeal.
@Rochelle: Funnily enough it was their move to fill shows with liberal, PC apologists like Coleman, Mcinerney and ODonoghue, that has caused the station to loose many listeners like myself. Their fear of having an opinion other than that of the left and also of upsetting anyone is pathetic to say the least!
@Lord Clanricarde: Not really, it’s a special kind of Irish PC, a centrist to right wing liberal agenda.. very FG. The presenters are so obviously briefed to be hostile to SF and other left parties. Be sneery to FF and love bomb FG/Labour. They even have FG members on as stand -in presenters.I suppose their other double jobbers like Ciara Kelly would like that.
I find Sarah McInerney very boring. I think Newstalk Drive has become a little patronising in that Chris & Sarah report on events, comment on them or make judgement calls and agree with each other. It’s as though they are teaching us how to think or opine about current affairs rather than provoking a response from listeners. Not a big fan of Chris but I did think he and Ivan Yates complemented each other very well. That might a good combo for NT Drive.
Someone was bound to go, newstalk new line up is horrendous, Paul Williams being let loose on a Mike and in the AM, enough to assist in vomiting my breakfast, the horrendous George cook at lunch time, need I say what that does to my lunch. I’m just not getting what there at but at least they have not hired the hideous PRENDERVILE, now gainfully employed at RTE
We still listen to a lot of radio in Ireland unlike our newspaper readership. Pity so much of our radio is so dumbed down now though.
Working for a DOB controlled enterprise means that you are completely expendable.
DOB makes that clear when he meets employees. The insecurity about holding on to your job makes employees desperate to perform in DOB’s view .
Severance sums are always very mean. DOB likes to fight.
@Tony Daly: So Tim and his ilk say they are reshuffling when they actually meaning cutting spending to the bone and there are a few rich borings at the top but nothing of substance.
Don’t support the advertisers the only way to hit dob in the pocket
Mangina. So anyone who expresses a different opinion should be denigrated. Personally, other than OTB, and Moncrieff it’s full of its own importance but play the ball, not the manners. Manners are free
Hope Dennis O Brien gets rid of the Today FM chief executive next.Station has gone to sh**e.
@John Killeen: I totally agree John, they’ve turned the station into pure muck with those 2 muppets in the mid morning and it’s just who can shout the loudest radio, then followed by someone who thinks he’s funny. It used to be the only station I listened to now it’s just Ian and Matt that I bother with. Apart from that it’s Internet radio or Spotify for me
Vindictive litigious tax exiled person!
Second captains best show in town
Williams & Coleman not good listening two old men flirting with each other ! Kenny to politically correct ! Hook usually gets it wrong like supporting trump , united airlines disaster & and being anti cyclists ! Donoughue to political correct ! Off the ball brilliant ! Get Yates back on breakfast show !
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