RTÉ bosses are hoping that Ryan Tubridy's return to 2fm can kick-start a reversal of the station's declining fortunes
RYAN TUBRIDY is going home. After five years on RTÉ Radio One and a successful first season as host of Friday night telly mainstay The Late Late Showunder his belt, Tubridy is going back to the station where he first cut his broadcasting teeth. From late August, Tubridy will take over the mid-morning slot on 2fm previously occupied by the late Gerry Ryan. The move is the latest step in a career which began when a 12-year-old Tubridy reviewed children's books for a show called Poparamaon the station back when it was called Radio Two.
It's a measure of Tubridy's stature that he really was the only serious candidate in contention. Few of the others rumoured to be in the running (such as Dave Fanning, Ray D'Arcy and Tom Dunne) possess the same level of acumen which Tubridy displays behind the mic. As he showed with the Late Late, he is also capable of filling big broadcasting shoes.
Nor can any of his rivals match his pulling power. In the last Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) survey, Tubridy had 352,000 listeners to his weekday show on RTÉ Radio One, compared to the late Ryan's 296,000 daily audience on 2fm.
Admittedly, Tubridy does have the advantage of following Morning Ireland, the most popular radio show in the country, while Ryan was actually doubling the number tuning in to Colm Hayes and Jim Nugent on 2fm's breakfast show.
It was while presenting 2fm's breakfast show, The Full Irish, from 2002 to 2005 that Tubridy first came into his own as a broadcaster. The Full Irishremains 2fm's best breakfast show since Ian Dempsey was in situ, a freewheeling mix of humour, comment, chat and music. After Tubridy left for Radio One, 2fm struggled to replace him, going through three different breakfast line-ups in the following two years.
Though seen as a huge cult success, The Full Irishstill attracted nearly a quarter-of-a-million listeners every day. Tubridy was backed by a strong production team, which included such rising stars as Michael Kealy (who now oversees The Late Late Show) and John McMahon (who was appointed head of 2fm last September).
McMahon will obviously welcome Tubridy to 2fm with open arms and not just because of the previous relationship between the pair. The Gerry Ryan Show, 2fm's biggest commercial draw, was worth between €4 million and €5 million euro annually in advertising revenue. The hope is that Tubridy will maintain this revenue for the cash-strapped broadcaster by holding onto Ryan's listeners or bringing a chunk of his Radio One audience with him.
Tubridy's arrival at 2fm will also impact on the rest of the station's schedule. 2fm has been on a downward listenership spiral for years, losing nearly 10 per cent in market share between 2001 and 2009. McMahon was brought in to arrest this decline and reposition the station from a 15- to 34-year-old target audience to the 20- to 44-year-old sector.
Tubridy will certainly appeal to this new demographic, and it will be interesting to see what other changes McMahon will embark on. Will Tubridy remain the only "chat" broadcaster on the weekday schedule or will we see more shows of a similar ilk, presented by other well-known names? That said, The Full Irishworked in part because it was the odd man out on the music station at the time.
Then, there's the whole issue of listener loyalty. As the JNLR figures showed over the years, a huge portion of Gerry Ryan's audience listened to 2fm for Ryan alone and would turn off the station when he finished his show.
There are fingers crossed in Montrose that any new listeners Tubridy draws will stick around for the station's other offerings. There's a lot resting on Tubridy's shoulders as he takes his summer holidays and prepares for his latest move.
