For more than half a century, the Radio Centre on RTÉ’s Montrose campus was, as the name suggested, the beating heart of Irish broadcasting. Ronnie Tallon’s 1971 smoked-glass sunken cube thrummed throughout the day with comings and goings, as taxis and State cars ferried celebrities and politicians to their encounters with the country’s most famous presenters.
These days it is a melancholy sight. The paving stones outside are cracked and discoloured, the shrubbery forlorn. Inside, the corridors are hushed, the carpets shabby, the studios largely silent. Most of RTÉ Radio 1’s flagship programmes have relocated elsewhere on the campus, but the building itself – protected from redevelopment or sale by its listed status – feels like a physical expression of the broadcaster’s diminished stature.
So when Claire Byrne, the country’s foremost current affairs broadcaster, announced last week that she was leaving RTÉ to replace Pat Kenny in Newstalk’s weekday morning slot, the temptation was to file it under decline and fall.
Yet, in the small world of Irish media, where such high-profile defections are rare, her move could be something more interesting: the adrenalin shot Irish radio needs.
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The reasons for Byrne’s switch have been presented with a certain coyness. Her contract at RTÉ paid €280,000. RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst’s edict that nobody should earn more than his own salary of €250,000 meant a cut was looming in the next round of negotiations.
In the industry, the general view is that Newstalk offered her roughly what it had been paying Kenny: about €400,000. Even if RTÉ had stretched to its limit, Byrne stood to gain 60 per cent more by moving. Add in the freedom to take lucrative outside engagements – now heavily restricted at Montrose – and the decision looks less like a gamble than an inevitability.
On Monday David McCullagh, Byrne’s successor on RTÉ Radio 1, revealed he will be paid a salary of €209,000 as part of a total package (including pension) of €240,000.
What we are witnessing, then, is the ripple effect of Bakhurst’s pay cap. One consequence is the death of the old RTÉ star systems – call it the Gaybo methods – whereby a small cadre of big names dominated both radio and television and were rewarded with eye-watering salaries.
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To be first-rank at Montrose required elasticity: from showbiz glitz to straight-up politics to heartwarming domestic tales, in the mould perfected by the patron saint of RTÉ, Gay Byrne. The system didn’t always serve audiences well; there were plenty of square pegs shoved into round holes. But it ensured commercial dominance across both TV and radio.
That era is now over. With Ryan Tubridy and Joe Duffy gone, Byrne (who stopped doing TV two years ago) out the door and Ray D’Arcy confined to radio duties, Miriam O’Callaghan is the last remaining star with a foothold in both mediums.
Willie O’Reilly, who has run both Today FM and RTÉ’s commercial arm, calls Byrne’s move a “superb win” for Newstalk and “great for radio”. He also believes Bakhurst erred in imposing the cap. “He probably did it because he was under pressure from the Public Accounts Committee and felt it was a good thing to say on the day,” O’Reilly told me. “But it’s now come back to haunt him.”
O’Reilly may be right. The cap will inevitably shape future editorial decisions at RTÉ. Yet that might not be a bad thing for audiences if it results in a greater diversity of voices on air, rather than the same few names dominating every slot. The real question is whether Bakhurst and his management team can turn that necessity into a strategy of renewal, or whether it will look like little more than managed decline.
The other lesson from last week is that Newstalk has secured its future. It may sound odd to question the survival of a station that has been on air for 24 years, but talk radio is far more expensive to produce than music.
Against the backdrop of falling advertising revenues, Newstalk has always struggled to turn a profit. Under Denis O’Brien’s ownership, it was widely seen as a vanity project. Bauer, its current owner, is a very different proposition: a multinational heavyweight that doesn’t do vanity projects.
Even if Byrne’s pay packet is in line with Kenny’s, her arrival alongside his new weekend slot still represents a significant outlay. Bauer is not splashing cash for sentimental reasons; it sees a return. That in itself changes the dynamics of Irish radio.
The intriguing part is how Byrne’s move will reshape Newstalk’s identity. For years, the station leant heavily on a particular breed of male blowhard, embodied by George Hook and Ivan Yates.
It was distinctive, and to some extent effective, but hardly attractive to advertisers chasing the disposable incomes of thirty- and forty-something women. In recent years Newstalk has moderated its tone, and Byrne’s presence should accelerate that shift.
Meanwhile, Kenny’s repositioning in to weekends sets up a genuine ratings battle with Brendan O’Connor, in the only part of the schedule that is still growing.
None of this disguises the fact that RTÉ feels becalmed. The Radio Centre is more than a decaying architectural relic; it’s a metaphor for an organisation still struggling to articulate a future beyond budget cuts and bruised reputations.
Byrne’s departure is another blow, but it is also a reminder that audiences remain hungry for intelligent, entertaining broadcasting – and that broadcasters who deliver it will find a platform, whether in Donnybrook or Marconi House.
Irish radio, like Irish politics, has a habit of appearing stagnant until, suddenly, it isn’t. The old star system may be finished. The new landscape is still coming into focus. But if Claire Byrne’s move sparks a genuine contest for talent, ideas and listeners, then the real story may not be decline at all, but renewal
