{"id":328995,"date":"2026-03-08T23:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T23:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/328995\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T23:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T23:35:12","slug":"were-in-a-radio-war-with-rte-declares-newstalk-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/328995\/","title":{"rendered":"We’re in a radio war with RT\u00c9, declares Newstalk boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newstalk is gunning for supremacy in the ‘radio war’ prompted by RT\u00c9’s salary cap, the man behind the independent station’s recent shake-up has said.<\/p>\n

It comes as Pat Kenny begins his new Saturday and Sunday slot on Newstalk this weekend, pitching him in direct competition with Brendan O’Connor on RT\u00c9 Radio 1.<\/p>\n

Kenny’s new show comes weeks after Claire Byrne took over his weekday morning slot – part of the most significant shake-up in Newstalk’s 24-year history, which also saw Kieran Cuddihy move the other way to RT\u00c9.<\/p>\n

\"AuthorAuthor Dearbhla Mescal and Claire Byrne. Pic: Newstalk<\/p>\n

Newstalk managing editor Eric Moylan told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘We’re in a radio war currently, and that’s incredibly exciting. It’s energising – it’s something we want to win. It’s good for us, and it’s arguably good for our competitors as well, because people are interested.’<\/p>\n

Claire was recruited<\/a> last year as her contract with RT\u00c9 ran out. Rules introduced in the wake of the secret payments scandal – stating no presenter can make more than the \u20ac250,000 that RT\u00c9’s director general Kevin Bakhurst is paid – meant Byrne would have had to take a pay cut of around \u20ac30,000 if she stayed on.<\/p>\n

Eric said he was ‘not going to go too much into’ the salary cap but acknowledged it ‘obviously changes the landscape for RT\u00c9’.<\/p>\n

\"Pic:Pic: Leah Farrell\/RollingNews.ie<\/p>\n

‘Of course, we’re cognisant of that. We’re aware of that, and the fact that there is a pay cap there. But we’re a commercial organisation. We don’t receive State funding. We need to ensure that what we’re doing delivers, because there’s a commercial reality that doesn’t exist [for RT\u00c9],’ he said.<\/p>\n

Pat Kenny’s new 10 am to midday slot goes head-to-head with O’Connor’s 11 am to 1 pm show for one hour, which Moylan said ‘creates great competition’.<\/p>\n

‘That’s no bad thing. It’s good for the listener, fundamentally. But I certainly think [listeners] can expect that Pat’s ability to get the big name guests and to deliver when he gets them will [make for] really compelling radio.’<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Eric described the former Late Late Show host as ‘one of the greatest – if not the greatest – broadcasters this country has ever produced’.<\/p>\n

‘His inquisitive nature and his ability to forensically analyse things and get answers from politicians, experts or people in high office is unparalleled. But he also has a connection with the listener and with the guest that just gets so much out of them.’<\/p>\n

Despite Eric’s ambition, RT\u00c9 Radio 1 remains by far the most popular station in the country according to the latest JNLR figures, released last month.<\/p>\n

The numbers showed a strong start for David McCullagh<\/a>, effectively Claire’s replacement in RT\u00c9’s mid-morning slot, but now at the earlier time of 9 am to 11 am. He brought an average listenership of 440,000 according to the figures, compared to the 349,000 listeners tuning in for Byrne in the comparable survey a year ago.<\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT\u00c9 Radio 1’s flagship\u202fToday\u202fprogramme. Pic: RTE<\/p>\n

And now the two are in direct competition, with Byrne’s Newstalk show running from 9 am to midday. It is too early to say how her show is performing, but Pat left the slot with an average listenership of 206,000.<\/p>\n

Asked about the main difference between the two stations, Eric said Newstalk was founded and operates on the principle of ‘speaking to the listener and understanding where they’re at’.<\/p>\n

‘It’s something you hear more frequently now on, let’s say, Radio 1, but the idea of text messages – in no way innovative at this juncture – but text messages, voice notes, bringing listeners to the centre of the conversation across all shows has always been central to Newstalk. That continues to be the case, and I think that’s a key point of difference,’ he said.<\/p>\n

The station has also been ‘very keen’ to have ‘real accents on, and that’s not just working class, but that’s a regional spread of accents as well’, he added.<\/p>\n

\"KieranKieran Cuddihy. Pic: Newstalk<\/p>\n

Eric said he has gleaned from conversations with European peers that Ireland’s love of radio is ‘unmatched or unrivalled’. He puts this down to the fact that we ‘love to chat, and we know how to do it’.<\/p>\n

And he insisted radio is ‘going from strength to strength’ despite increased competition from newer media, including podcasts.<\/p>\n

‘It’s also about bringing a bit of analysis,’ he said. ‘We’re being overloaded with information now. Everyone’s getting dozens of notifications on their phone per day, and increasingly, you can’t be sure what you’re seeing online is true or accurate. Whereas obviously we have teams upon teams of producers, journalists, researchers, who are all trained, who are all educated, who are all experienced in this field, and you can trust what’s coming out.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newstalk is gunning for supremacy in the ‘radio war’ prompted by RT\u00c9’s salary cap, the man behind the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-328995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}