Terry Prone: 2FM must rebuild its creativity rather than rush to hire more content creators

Originally published in the Irish Examiner.

The thing about 2FM is that its output has precious little to do with the public service mandate of the station.

Ergo, in theory, Kevin Bakhurst and Co could close it and concentrate their efforts elsewhere.

The only problem with that option is that it would precipitate the national broadcaster offering nothing much to anybody under 60.

It would be rebranded as Raidío Teilifís Elderly.

So, instead, the search begins for replacement presenters to fill the vacant slots, while The 2 Johnnies focus on their bottom line, knowing they can earn a lot more from public events and online snippets than they were able to while working every morning for 2FM.

Plus they get to tour Australia. 

Compare being paid to perform in Bondi Beach with daily radio which eats material like a ravening lion.

Compare being their own bosses with working for a reforming national broadcaster which demands accounting from them of everything they do outside of RTÉ in order to ensure they’re not misusing their time on the airwaves to directly or indirectly plug stuff they’re peddling or to ensure stuff they’re peddling doesn’t in any way reflect badly on RTÉ.

Same with Doireann Garrihy who clearly decided that getting up at dawn to do a daily radio show for a station that gets iffy about her plugging porridge from one of their studios was less attractive, as a career option, than it had looked at the beginning.

Again, she did the maths.

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